EARLY NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE

1. EARLY NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE Dripping Springs H.S. English III n Mr. Jeff Olsen Fall 2013

2. WHAT’S ON TAP… • What is a “Savage”? • Franklin’s “Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America” • The Oral Tradition • The Anasazi people and their creation story • Osage and Navajo creation accounts • Trickster Tales • “Coyote and the Earth Monster”

3. WHAT IS A “SAVAGE”?

4. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ON ‘SAVAGES’ “SAVAGES we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility; they think the sameof theirs.”

5. The Oral Tradition Why would Native Americans emphasize the oral tradition for the preservation of their beliefs and history?

6. The Oral Tradition Stories and traditions provided the guidelines for the entire tribe. This was their heritage; their memory. So important were these stories that story tellers were selected at a very early age to remember each and every story and to eventually relate each story many times over to the children and adults. This is how the children learned their history and the pride that went along with knowing their traditions.

7. The Anasazi • An Ancient Pueblo peopleswhose culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the United States as far back as the 12th century BC.

8. The Anasazi • Their creation story is similar to those of other Native American cultures, believing their ancestors emerged from a lower world – the same one towhich they wouldsomeday return.

9. In a group of four… • Read the Osage and Navajo creation accounts that appear on Pages 11 and 12 of your textbook. • Identify and write down – in complete sentences – two similarities and two differences between the two. • When you finish, you may silently read the trickster tale (“Coyote and the Earth Monster”) on Page

10. Homework • Read the accounts of Cabeza de Vaca and John Smith. Think of what their reasons for writing are. Also, consider what they are writing and how that compares to our three themes of America.