Native American Literature

Native American Literature

Indian Awareness Inventory • Since many Indian people live close to nature, they tend to be healthier than non-Indians. FALSE. Indians, for example, have the highest rate of Tuberculosis of any ethnic group in the US. 2. Most Indians are proud of being Indian. TRUE. 3. Because of past treaties, Indian people do not have to register for the Armed Forces. FALSE. They are American citizens. 4. Indian people have the highest suicide rate of any group in the country. TRUE.

Indian Awareness Inventory 5. Twenty percent of Indian home on reservations lack basic indoor plumbing. TRUE. 6. Indian tribes are culturally deprived in some parts of the country. FALSE. Indians are not deprived of a culture. But, the question is, deprived of whose culture? • The majority of Indian youth drop out of school by the tenth grade. TRUE. 8. Most Indian families have no houses of their own. TRUE.

Indian Awareness Inventory 9. President Nixon stated publicly that Native Americans are the most deprived and isolates group in the US. TRUE. Nixon made this statement in a speech to the nation in 1970. 10. The Indian population is less than 1% of the total population. TRUE. 11. Over 50% of American Indians are living below the poverty line. TRUE.

Geographical Regions • Natural environment provides guidelines for the development of North American native cultures. Some research workers have identified approximately ten geographic regions in which unique patterns of culture have developed.

Arctic Subarctic Northeast Southeast Plains Southwest Great Basin California Plateau Northwest Coast

Definitions • Racial group • Ethnic group • This term is reserved for minorities and the corresponding majorities that are socially set apart because of obvious physical differences. • This term is used to set apart from others because of national origin or distinctive cultural patterns, such as language, parenting, marriage, etc.

Indians Native Americans American Indians Indigenous Peoples An academic term which is perhaps the most accurate reference to Indian peoples. Not often used by Indian people. A common term, acceptable to most, but not all Native people. Can be confused with people native to India. Acceptable to most, actually is becoming the preferred term for many Indian peoples. Acceptable to most, but not all native people. This term, which refers to all of the indigenous people of the world, is now frequently used. Terms

Worldview • What do you understand by worldview? • “That outlook upon the universe that is characteristic of a people… a worldview differs from culture,ethos, mode of thought, and national character. It is the picture the members of a society have of the properties and characters upon their stage of action. Worldview attends especially to the way a man in a particular society sees himself in relation to all else. It is the properties of existence as distinguished from and related to the self. It is in short, a man’s idea of the universe.” Robert Redfield

Indicators of worldviews • What is the nature of time? • Is it oriented toward the past, present, or future? • What is the nature of humankind’s relationship to the physical world? • Does it emphasize mastery over harmony with, or subjugation to the environment? • What is the nature of activity? • Is it becoming (spiritual), or doing (achievement)? • What is the nature of human relationships? • Are they hierarchical, collective, or individualistic? • What is human nature? • Is it good, bad, or neutral? (Levin and Bates 1985)

Native American Worldviews • They believe in the interdependence of all creations. They believe that all things (living and inanimate) are created for a purpose in the natural cycle of the world. Interdependence was an integral part of traditional life and helped maintain the natural balance of the environment. • They believe in an ultimate Creator. Some people refer to this Creator as the Giver of Breath, Grandfather, Great Spirit, All Spirit, or Great Mystery.

Native American Worldviews • Religion for Native Americans is not separated from daily existence. It is intertwined into the act of life. Art is also integrated into the whole of life. • Language of Native Americans developed through need and function. The words have power and are sacred. Words are not spoken for the sake of talking, buy to impart a message. Speech initiates from the center of the body where the heart and breath also abide. Speaking involves an audible bond between humans and all creations.

Worldviews • Judeo-Christian heritage • It has focused on historical events and personages as the crux of reality. The human condition is understood as more a function of one’s standing in the sight of God. Human life is in relation to commandments and duties. • Christians • Christians believe that the original human condition is one of being out of favor with God by virtue of sin. • Native American • They tend to view reality as primarily spatial rather than as historical and life as good unless one’s balance is disrupted.

Native American Worldviews • There is no a Native American worldview. • Native American peoples envision life as a journey along a path. The path is considered to be the way of wisdom, health, and beauty, and its ultimate goal is a life that culminates in the maturity and fulfillment of character embodied in old age.

Remember Remember the sky that you were born under, know each of the star’s stories. Remember the moon, know who she is. Remember the sun’s birth at dawn is the strongest point of time. Remember sundown and the giving away to night. Remember your birth, how your mother struggled to give you form and breath. You are evidence of her life, and her mother’s, and hers. Remember your father. He is your life, also. Remember the earth whose skin you are: red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth brown earth, we are earth.

Remember Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them, Listen to them. They are alive poems. Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the Origin of this universe. Remember you are all people and all people are you. Remember you are the universe and this universe is you. Remember that all is in motion, is rowing, is you. Remember that language comes from this. Remember the dance language is, that life is. Remember. Joy Harjo (Creek)

Remember • How is the world depicted in Remember? • How do you picture its author?

Joy Harjo • Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and an enrolled member of the Muskogee Tribe. • She is an internationally known poet, performer, writer and musician. She has published seven books of acclaimed poetry.

Joy Harjo "Sacred space--I call it a place of grace, or the place in which we're most human--the place in which there's a unity of human-ness with wolf-ness, with hummingbird-ness, with Sandia Mountain-ness with rain cloud-ness? . . .It's that place in which we understand there is no separation between worlds. It has everything to do with the way we live. The land is responsible for the clothes you have on, for my saxophone, for the paper that I write these things on, for our bodies. It's responsible for everything."

Importance of a Circle You have noticed that everything that an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation and so long as the hoop was unbroken, the people flourished. The flowering three was the living center of the hoop, and the circle of the four quarters nourished it. The east gave peace and light, the south gave warmth, the west gave rain, and the north with its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance. This knowledge came to us from outer world with our religion. Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle.

The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. Our teepees were round like the nests of birds,, and there were always set in a circle, the nation’s hoop, a nest of may nests, where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children. Black Elk (Neihardt 1973)

Bibliography • Harvey, Karen D. et.al., Teaching About Native Americans • www4.nau.edu/itep/programs/ tribal_data/index.asp • http://www.indianwars.org/Native%20Americans/Native_American_map.jpg • http://www.the-wild-west.co.uk/images/native-americans.jpg

Native American Literature