Native American Family Life: Culture, Parenting, and Traditions

Introduction: Family and Culture in Native American Life

The concept of family is important in almost every culture in the world. How one raises, treats, and supports children is instrumental in any culture. Native Americans have struggled for many years to maintain their individual cultures and traditions in a world that has spent over 200 years trying to strip those traditions away. One of the more difficult elements of maintaining that culture has been in the area of family. Family traditions and Native American culture have clashed with modern America, and the result for many has been confusion, depression, and anger as children and teenagers rebel against their parents' wishes. While this tension is common in almost all family cultures, the Native American culture also wrestles with prejudice and bias against its ways. Today, many Native Americans are striving to raise their children with respect for modern life while still maintaining the traditions of their heritage.

The Native American culture has ideas that lend themselves to a nurturing view of parenting, to using Mother Nature to teach children the basics of human nature, and to drawing out the unique strengths in every child. Native Americans do not believe in spanking the young. The young are considered innocent gifts from a higher power and as such are treated with warmth, love, and respect.

Infants in a Native American family are rarely left alone in a crib or playpen. They are often held by an adult even while work is taking place. In the days of tribal living, papooses allowed the infant to remain close to the adult while cooking, cleaning, washing, or performing other daily duties. This tradition has continued, though the papoose is rarely seen today. In its place are adults willing to coddle and swaddle the infant so that he or she has almost constant human contact with the world around them.

Child Rearing, Infant Care, and Parenting Practices

With the emphasis on family, respect, and children, it is not surprising that Native American tradition values and supports breastfeeding and other bonding steps between mother and child. Native American play behavior is often founded in the mimicking of adults. Children learn by watching and then copying what they see. This can be problematic given the high rate of alcoholism within some communities; however, it can also have a positive impact when children are emulating the spiritual strength and moral beliefs of those around them.

Children are raised to respect their bodies and to eat healthy foods as they are provided by the earth. Native American children are also taught from a young age not to seek outside help for problems. For instance, if there is a domestic violence situation in the home, the family is expected to handle the issue internally. If women or children go outside the family to seek assistance, they are looked down upon not only by the family but also by other tribal members. This is not because domestic violence is ignored — the Native American tradition respects women as equal to men — but because the culture believes that the family should handle and resolve its own problems.

The Native American family has something in common with the African American family in that the extended family raises the child. The adage "It takes a village" has never been more applicable than it is in Native American culture and tradition. Children are raised not only by their parents but also by aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, and adopted adults who have no blood ties to the child but have become part of the family through the family's love for them.

It is Native American family tradition for members to be extremely close. Cousins grow up together as brothers and sisters, and the entire family celebrates together when there is cause for celebration. Families are expected to handle their problems within the family unit. If a teenager is caught breaking the law, the family seeks the ability to choose a proper punishment — one that in many cases is actually a learning experience. It is not unusual for a teenager who has broken the law or the rules of the tribe to be sent into the wilderness to learn to survive and to grow stronger as a human being. It is this attitude of teaching and guided moral development that distinguishes Native American culture from the dominant Caucasian culture, which typically sends unruly juveniles to the court system for handling.

Extended Family Structure and Community Roles

Most Native American families are extended and often include mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. It is not uncommon to have adopted relatives in the household, with all members living in very close proximity to one another. Family members work to live near each other and spend their time off together in gatherings, dinners, or other forms of quality time. Children are raised to value community interaction and giving. The sharing of success as well as failure as a family unit is deeply ingrained within Native American culture.

The U.S. Census Bureau (2000) states that approximately 4.1 million residents of the United States identify themselves as American Indian or Alaska Natives — 2.5 million report only American Indian or Alaska Native heritage, while another 1.6 million report mixed heritage that includes American Indian or Alaska Native ancestry. Although there are many tribes in the United States, approximately 116 tribes with more than 1,000 members are federally recognized by the United States government. This means that the Native American family holds onto tradition as it continues to identify itself as separate and distinct from the rest of the nation.

While family structure and dynamics vary somewhat from tribe to tribe, the basics remain the same. The respect of children is interwoven throughout the culture and has been since the beginning. As young children, they are allowed to explore, giggle, and laugh. Their only position in the world is to wonder at life and explore its possibilities. They are guided in their moral development by example — by making the right choices and enjoying the natural successes that come from those choices. By the same token, they are also allowed to experience the natural consequences of making the wrong moral choices.

Conclusion

The Native American population has steadily held onto its traditions and cultures through two centuries of opposition. The children of Native Americans are raised in a dual world from which they draw their moral and spiritual values. Native American families are extended and close. They believe the family is responsible for the moral and spiritual upbringing of the child. Infants and children are respected and treated with warmth and love. The Native American tradition is to raise children without corporal punishment — instead providing a moral baseline by which children will want to make the right choices because it is simply the right thing to do.