American Indian Studies
Native American Storytelling
The group of people known as the Native Americans or American Indians are the native residents of the Northern and Southern American continents who are thought to have traveled across the Bering land bridge from Asia. hen the new society and the already established, came together, years of imposed philosophy, domination and rebel warfare were begun. The great impediments of religion, ethics and world-views were the three main issues which lead to the culture conflict between the Puritans and the Native Americans. Religion played a very significant role in both Puritan and Native American society, though their beliefs varied significantly. According to Puritan beliefs, God had chosen a select quantity of people to join him in heaven. On the other hand, the Native Americans believed that everyone was the same and that no one was better than anyone else. The Puritans relied on their Bible which…...
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Works Cited
"About Indian Mythology." 2012. Web. 20 May 2012.
"American Indian and Alaska Native: A Guide to Build Cultural Awareness." 2010. Web. 20
Native American's With Alcoholism And Diabetes
The health situation with regard to Native Americans is shown in numerous studies to be seriously below the standard and average of other groups in the country. This fact is underscored and emphasized in research studies such as Richardson's, The Need to Empower Indian Tribes, in which he states that,
As the nation reviews its health needs, it can look to American Indians as the ethnic group in the poorest health, with the highest rates of diabetes and tuberculosis. Recently, the Indian Health Service reported that tuberculosis rates among Native Americans exceeded all other ethnic classifications by 400%. Indians die younger than other groups, from a variety of illnesses. A 1992 report from the University of Minnesota noted that the suicide rate of Indian teens is four times greater than any other ethnic group. The accidental death rate of American Indians is 295% greater than that…...
Bren, L. (2004, July/August). Diabetes Prevention, Treatment. FDA Consumer, 38, 18+. Retrieved August 31, 2005, from Questia database, http://www.questia.com .
Diabetes Statistics for Native Americans. Retrieved August 31, 2005 from American Diabetes Association. Web site:
Native American and European Cultures
Native American European Cultures
It is generally thought that humans first entered the New World during the last ice age and quickly spread over what is today North and South America. When the ice age ended some 15 thousand years ago, the human population of the America's was isolated from the rest of the world. It would not be until the 15th century, when the Spanish sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, that the peoples of the Old World and New World would again be permanently connected. However, in the thousands of years that had passed since the Americas had become isolated, the Native Americans independently developed their own cultures. When the Europeans arrived in the New World at the end of the 15th century, the two cultures that met were very different from each other. While there were a few similarities, the cultures of the Americas and…...
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References
Brodd, Jeffery. (2003). World Religions: A Voyage of Discovery. Winona, MN: Saint
Mary's. Print.
Lovern, Lavonna. (2008). "Native American Worldview and the Discourse on Disability." Essays in Philosophy: Vol. 9, (1,14)
McClellan, James Edward. (2006). Science and Technology in World History: An
Native American Culture
The Native American people occupied the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans in the 15th century and have long been known as Indians because when Columbus reached the shores he believed he had landed in the Indies (Natives Pp).
It is generally agreed by most scholars that the Native Americans came to the estern Hemisphere from Asia via the Bering Strait or along the North Pacific coast in series of migrations spreading east and south (Natives Pp).
It is believed that these waves of migration account for the numerous native linguistic families while the common origin explains the physical characteristics that Native Americans share, such as Mongoloid features, coarse straight black hair, dark eyes, sparse body hair, and skin color ranging from yellow-brown to reddish brown (Natives Pp).
The majority of scholars believe that they arrived approximately 12,000 years ago, while other accept evidence that they have exited in the…...
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Work Cited
Natives, North American
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition; 4/22/2004; Pp.
Write a new legend concerning the further adventures of the Frog
Bruchac, James, Joseph Bruchac and Stefano Vitale (ill.). The Girl Who helped Thunder and Other Native American Folktales. New York: Sterling, 2008.
ISBN: 9781402732638 1402732635. 96 pages, color illustrations. Juvenile literature.
Retellings of twenty-four different Native American folktales and myths. Covers a wide array of different tribal beliefs/cultures. Accompanying illustrations also hint at different native American styles of visual design and aesthetic appreciation. Generally light-hearted folktales; few heavy myths.
-Illustrations somewhat simplistic, and not entirely (or even mostly) Native in style
-Stories retold in an entertaining and fast-paced fashion
-Very little additional cultural material; could be expanded
Write your own myth concerning one of the phenomena addressed in these tales
Act out a script based one a legend from the book
Create a single poster that incorporates elements form many tales
Research the relationships between different Native American tribes
Write a poem reflecting the desires of one of the characters…...
The earth,' they say, 'is a great island floating in a sea, and suspended at each of the four cardinal points by a cord hanging down from the sky vault, which is of solid rock. hen the world grows old and worn out, the people will die and the cords will break and let the earth sink down into the ocean, and all will be water again.' Originally the animals were crowded into the sky world; everything was flood below. The ater-Beetle was sent on an exploration, and after darting about on the surface of the waters and finding no rest, it dived to the depths, where it brought up a bit of mud, from which the Earth developed by accretion."
Carmody, and Carmody 23)
The simple idea that the water-beetle created the earth was certainly not in line with the Christian creation story and has to some degree been completely lost,…...
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Works Cited
Carmody, John Tully, and Denise Lardner Carmody. Native American Religions an Introduction. New York: Paulist Press, 1993.
Native American Gaming
In February, 2004, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty stated that he wanted Minnesota's Indian tribes to share their casino profits with the state (Sweeney Pp). However, according to a legislative analyst speaking before the Minnesota House committee, Governor Pawlenty may have to "give the tribes as much as he gets from them" (Sweeney Pp).
John illiams of the nonpartisan House Research staff presented members of the House Governmental Operations and Veterans Affairs Committee as "detailed look at the negotiations fifteen years ago that set ground rules for the tribes' gambling operations" (Sweeney Pp). illiams was doubtful that officials in the federal Interior Department, which approves Indian gaming compact, would accept any effort by Governor Pawlent or Minnesota lawmakers to force the tribes to make gaming payments against their will (Sweeney Pp).
The federal Indian Gaming Act forbids state taxes on Native Americans' casino profits" (Sweeney Pp).
Although a number of states, including…...
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Works Cited
Melmer, David. "Minnesota, Native Tribes at Odds over Gambling Agreements."
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News; 4/7/2004; Pp.
Sweeney, Patrick. "Minnesota Analyst Says Deals Necessary to Boost State Cut of Casino Profits." Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News; 2/11/2004; Pp.
Lopez, Patricia. "GAMBLING IN MINNESOTA: A NEW DEAL?"
Such a confrontational strategy represents a subversion of the Modernist paradigm that supposedly views the work of art as being separate from the viewing experience. When dealing with a live human being presented as an "object," however, one is forced to question that stance of critical distance, as it dissolves in front of our very eyes.
Of course, a history of Native Americans' engagement with Modernism would require a much longer essay - probably even an entire volume. Instead, what we hope to have managed in this short piece is to provide some insights into the ways in which the Modernist paradigm has constantly been challenged by the work of Native American artists throughout the post-war period. The ironic thing is that a lot of this work would fit quite comfortably into the Western canon, as it has been traditionally constructed by Euro-American discourse. At the same time, these artists…...
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Bibliography
Rushing, W. Jackson III, ed. Native American Art in the Twentieth Century. New York:
Routledge, 1999.
Wyckoff, Lydia L., ed. Visions and Voices. Tulsa, OK: Philbrook Museum of Art, 1996.
Native Americans: Separate and Unequal
Native American Isolation
Native Americans have continued to represent a marginalized ethnic minority in the United States, despite repeated efforts at assimilation. No one argues publicly anymore that Native Americans are inferior to Whites, but the taint of racism seems to remain embedded in public policy decisions concerning this demographic. Accordingly, Native Americans have attempted to insulate themselves from the influence of what can only be described as the dominant colonial culture. I will argue that the colonial attitudes that first invaded North America over 400 years ago continue to influence how mainstream American society views Native Americans, and vice versa.
A Case Study of Early Cultural Conflict
Spanish immigration into California would have benefitted greatly through the development of an overland route that crossed what was then a major river, the Colorado, because supplying settlements by sea was untenable at the time (Santiago, 1998, p. 1-5). Until Padre…...
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References
Bell, James and Lim, Nicole. (2005). Young once, Indian forever: Youth gangs in Indian Country. American Indian Quarterly, 29, 626-650.
Cumfer, Cynthia. (2007). Separate peoples, one land: The minds of Cherokees, Blacks, and Whites on the Tennessee frontier. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
Guerrero, Vladimir. (Winter 2010-2011). Lost in the translation: Chief Palma of the Quechan. Southern California Quarterly, 92, 327-350.
Oliver, Christopher. (1996). The internal colonialism model: What the model has to done to the education of Native Americans. ERIC, ED396883, 1-27.
He uses her head for the sun and other body parts for the moon and other heavenly bodies (Cusick, n.p.). Tapahonso's poem connects the newborn female infant with an August sunset, steam, and hot rocks. That Tapahonso chooses to describe the birth of a female infant is significant. Through this choice, in addition to her references to both mother and daughter in terms of natural occurrences, Tapahonoso establishes that the earth is not only born of a female, but is a female. Thus, in her poem, the earth is both the mother and the daughter, but is always feminine, just as in Cusick's creation myth the earth is made from the remains of a dead mother who died birthing its creator.
Though both Cusick and Tapahonso's works identify an important trait in Native American folklore, the existence of a female and motherly earth, the works do this in very different…...
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Works Cited
American Passages: A Literary Survey. 2003. DVD. Norton, 2003.
Cusick, David. "The Iroquois Creation Myth." Norton Anthology of American Literature:
Shorter Edition. Ed. Nina Baym. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois, 2003. n.p.
Kalter, Susan. "Finding a Place for David Cusick in Native American Literary History."
Most Native Americans would demonstrate exceptional tolerance to other religions but their own religious beliefs are based on nature.
Even though years of assimilation had initially damaged the cultural roots of Native Americans, there is now a new kind of cultural and social change that we notice in this group. People are working hard to reclaim their cultural identity, which has triggered a gradual process of cultural renewal. This cultural renewal is grounded in the belief that white culture is no longer better or dominant. In other words as new generation of Native Americans have gained the language skills they required to become part of the mainstream culture, they have also found the ability to express their dissatisfaction with the way dominant culture tries to suppress minor ethnic societies. Heaps of literature by Native Americans has opened their eyes to the injustices committed by the white culture and this has…...
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References
Basso, Keith H. 1979. Portraits of "the Whiteman": Linguistic Play and Cultural Symbols among the Western Apache. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Freud, Sigmund. 1960. Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious. Trans. James Strachey. New York W.W. Norton & Company.
Jaimes, M. Annette. ANative American Identity and Survival: Indigenism and Environmental Ethics in Issues in Native American Cultural Identity, ed. Michael K. Green. New York: Peter Lang, 1995: 273-296.
Nelson, Robert M. APlace, Vision, and Identity in Native American Literatures, in American Indian Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Contemporary Issues. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1997: 265-284.
Native American Comparison
Native American literature is interesting in and of itself but also when the reader understands the cultural perspective of that population. Part of this interest comes from the fact that the Native Americans were the indigenous people of what would become the United States. hen European colonists arrived, the Native Americans were put in the position of having to either assimilate to the new culture or to resist assimilation. Many of the texts that come from Native American literature discuss this question, but also make it understood that there is no clear answer. Part of the individual person will want to associate themselves with the majority in order to prevent themselves from being labeled as something other or outside of the norm. Yet, the other part of that same person will feel at least partially pulled towards taking up the cause of their heritage. By keeping the customs…...
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Works Cited:
Welburn, Ron. Coming through Smoke and the Dreaming: Selected Poems. Greenfield Center,
Native American DNA
Social and cultural definitions of relatedness are more consistent with the traditional notions of tribal membership; however, the U.S. government has long imposed its needs on tribal traditions (p. 55-61). The Dawes Act of 1887 effectively dispossessed Native Americans of communal land holdings by conferring land allotments to Native American male heads of households. Persons believed to be full-blood Native Americans were given an allotment, but it was held in trust for 25 years, with the hope that the Native Americans would eventually assimilate into the capitalist economic system. By contrast, persons deemed to be half-blood or less were immediately given their land allotment under the assumption that they were culturally-advanced enough to successfully manage their holdings. This 'blood quantum' strategy for managing tribal lands has remained in place since the Dawes Act became law, but this paternalistic approach moderated somewhat during the 20th century.
It was suggested in Coladarci's piece that teachers try hard to "demonstrate more caring" and that more research needs to be done into whether the perceived lack of caring involves "insensitivity to Native American culture..." The second implication for practice also asks as to whether or not there are "adequate support systems" for students who are at risk, and who don't have an easy time with their homework.
The third implication for practice that the Coladarci article addresses is that "over a third of the dropouts" interviewed "reported that the desire to be with other dropouts was a salient factor in their decision to drop out." So, since that dynamic involves peer pressure, Coladarci reports that perhaps students who did indeed drop out could help those considering dropping out to stay in school. Some of the recommendations from the dropouts included the possibility that the school administration "arrange" discussion groups between…...
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Works Cited
Coladarci, Theodore. "High-School Dropout Among Native Americans." Journal of American
Indian Education 23.1 (1983): 1-5.
Reyhner, Jon. "Dropout Nation." Indian Education Today. June 2006, 28-30.
If items from both areas continue to be found throughout the archeological record over an extended time, then it would indicate trade. However, if the archeological record indicates one massive wave of articles from the Roanoke area and then stops, it would be more indicative of a migration.
This approach was not considered in the literature found. However, it would be an excellent tool for supporting or disproving the theories proposed by Torbert. The language of the Lumbee is important in understanding how language exchange flowed in each direction. It tells us much about the early contact between culture and how these cultures began to communicate. Torbert was the only major researcher to have explored the Lumbee language for its ancestral connection. However, this work presents many more questions than it answers. For instance, why did the Lumbee transition to English. Torbert provides pervasive evidence that this transition occurred many…...
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Works Cited
American Heritage Dictionary (AHD) (2000). Regional Patterns of American Speech The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. 2000. Houghton Mifflin Company.
Schilling-Estes, N. (2000) Investigating intra-ethnic differentiation: / ay / in Lumbee Native American English. Language Variation and Change 12: 141-174.
Torbert, B. Tracing Native American Language History through Consonant Cluster Reduction: The Case of Lumbee English. American Speech 76 (4): 361-387.
Wolfram, W. (1996). Delineation and description in dialectology: The case of Perfective I'm in Lumbee English. American Speech. 71: 5-26.
This could be a challenging assignment because if there is a defining principal to describe Native American beliefs, it would probably be that there is no defining principal to describe Native American beliefs. Native American tribes practiced a range of different religions and they included, but were not limited to, polytheistic, pantheistic, monotheistic, henotheistic, animistic, and shamanistic religions. There were some shared elements among Native American belief systems, but many differences, as well. In addition, it can be very difficult to understand Native American beliefs at the time of contact with Europeans because of the tremendous losses....
Congratulations on your entry into grad school. Because of its astounding geography, the Grand Canyon would make a fascinating topic for your master’s thesis. Hopefully, you will have plenty of opportunities to visit it while you are in Arizona, though it looks like access is currently limited because of a combination of COVID-19 restrictions and normal winter access restrictions.
Geography is a fairly broad area of study and focusing on the Grand Canyon as an example of arid-land erosion is probably not the kind of through-provoking material that you want for a master’s thesis. Fortunately, its immense size....
In the book Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, the author describes a Native American child and his family who retreat into the woods in order to avoid the child being taken from them and raised away from the family, which was happening not just to members of their Ojibway nation, but to Native Americans across the country. The book is a fictional novel, but is based in the historical fact that not only were Native Americans forcibly removed from their ancestral lands throughout North America, but were also subjected to having their children stolen from....
In turn-of-the-century America, there were some major civil rights advances for some groups, while other groups saw no advances in their civil rights and even saw advances that had been made begin to erode. The time period was well after the end of the Reconstruction era and the beginning of Jim Crow laws, the rise of the suffragette movement, and a continued assault on rights for Native Americans. There was also a significant increase in anti-Asian discrimination. Here are some suggested titles and thesis statements for an essay about civil rights in this era.
Essay Title....
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