Aboriginal Literature Float the Oral

Aboriginal Literature Float

The Oral Literature of the Native Indians: Poetry and Song by the Teton Sioux, Pawnee, and Papago

Native Indians were considered the earliest inhabitants of the large territory that is now called North America, comprised of Canada and the United States. Known to have descended from the Asian race, Native Indians have a distinct culture commonly associated with a collective society, an altogether different culture from what developed in the U.S. And Canada at present. Because Native Indians have thrived during the period wherein human societies were characterized by hunting and gathering, most of the Indian peoples were divided into specific groups or tribes. Each tribe had a distinct name and identity, which are often determined based on the tribe's allegiance or conflict with another tribe.

The life of the Indian was centered on three important cycles of life: birth, marriage, and death, while daily activities involved foraging for food and waging war against other, neighboring tribes. Indians have emphasized the importance of these activities through their own means of communication -- songs and oral literature. Through poetry communicated as songs, Indians were able to relate to their family and community important passages in life that their tribe went through and will continue to undergo for the next generations, a narration of the heritage of Native Indians throughout history.

This paper looks into the oral literature, particularly the song poetry of three Native Indian tribes: Teton Sioux, Pawnee, and Papago. These tribes inhabited the Great Plains area of the United States and had distinctly acquired the characteristics common to most Native Indian tribes: collective, highly traditional, and values family and community rituals and beliefs. This study posits that the song poetry of these Native Indians reflects the kind of culture that each tribe had been known for: Teton Sioux for their fame as a warring tribe, Pawnee for their subsistence to religious ceremonial rituals, and the Papago for its family-centeredness.

The Teton Sioux, known for its active participation in the American civil rights movement in the 20th century, had inhabited the Plains as it underwent a transition from being a hunting-gathering to a sedentary, agricultural society. Known mainly as a warring tribe, the legends of the Sioux are laden with legends and stories about the battles the tribe involved itself with during threats of colonization and genocide from the English colonists and settlers between 15th and 17th centuries.

Sioux song poetry was divided into various kinds: the war song, song on applying war paint, and song after battle. The proliferation of song poems centering on the theme of war and bravery was not uncommon among the Sioux: the favorable conditions of their territory necessitated the tribe's brave and aggressive character, as the Indians fought for the preservation of their lands and habitat.

Analysis of the song poems showed one common theme, which was the Indians' association of their selves with nature and its elements. Whenever war was about to be declared or war was ongoing, Indians, through their song poems, would seek the guidance of nature, considering themselves as one with it, sharing nature's power and characteristics. This was evident in the song poem "War Song," wherein the warrior states repeatedly his transition from being human to animal, a pre-conditioning necessary to build up his courage and strength in fighting: "A wolf I considered myself...I am tired out...I fear the night." This passage brought into fore an example of pre-conditioning among the Sioux, wherein there was dissociation between the human self of the warrior from his body in order to assume his new "animal identity" ("A wolf I considered myself").

Interestingly, "A Song After Battle" contained passages that symbolically considered battling as a rite of passage of the male from being a young man or boy to being a true man and warrior. The song's first four lines stated, "As the young men went by I was looking for him. It surprises me anew That he has gone." This passage from the song poem reflected the change within the male, wherein victory or defeat after each battle was considered a phase wherein his youth gives way to learning and wisdom, which aided the male as he developed into a more mature and courageous man and warrior.

Pawnee song poetry, meanwhile, was identified as more religious and ceremonial in nature, incorporating dances while narrating to its family and community the tribe's song poems. For every occasion in the Pawnee Indian's life, a dance and belief in the mystical were associated in it, as was apparent in the "Buffalo dance song," "spring song," "dream song," and "ghost dance song."

Like the Sioux, Pawnee Indians associate themselves as part of nature -- that is, as one of nature's elements. In the "buffalo dance song" and "spring song," animal and plant elements were incorporated as the Indians' way of marking a new phase in their lives, such as the passing of a new season or overcoming an essential yet mundane activity, such as catching a buffalo for food. Mystical elements were present in the "dream song" and "ghost dance song," wherein atmospheric elements such as the thunder and 'yellow star' (which may be construed as the sun or simply a star) were integrated into the religious ritual of expressing gratitude for nature. The Pawnee song poetry differed radically from the Sioux in that nature for the former was considered as the provider of the Indians' basic survival needs; the Sioux, meanwhile, considered nature and its elements as possessing the power to make them more courageous -- that is, the ability to inhabit the human spirit for noble causes such as waging war against enemy tribes.