Cultural Anthropology and Native Americans

1. Cultural Anthropology and Native Americans Your Guest: Chip Perkins, M.A.

2. Anthropology is the Study of Humans. What Variety Exists Among Us? What Do Humans Do? Why?

3. 3 Ideas Are Central to Anthropology • Culture—How People Live Their Lives, How they Understand Themselves and the World. • Power—The Ability to Choose and Change A Situation. All Human Relations Involve Power. • History—How did Humans Get To Where They Are? How does the Past Impact Us?

4. The Links between Culture, Power and History can Help Us Understand Native Americans’ Past and Present better. Makah - Whaling daphne.palomar.edu Inuit - Blanket Toss www.virginia.edu/~anthro/ inuit/highjump.html

6. History of Native Americans is about Power • European Immigrants had Superior Material Resources • Europeans displaced or destroyed Native American Groups in the New World Trail of Tears Painting http://www.nativeamericans.com/TrailofT.gif

7. Territorial Growth up to 1810

8. U.S. Territory expands greatly quickly. Growth at 1850.

9. Removals to Oklahoma Began ~ 1830s www.trailsoftears.org/map.htm

10. http://www.worldstatesmen.org/IndianTerr.gif

11. Ancestral lands of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota

12. Contemporary Reservations of Lakota, Nakota and Dakota

13. Contemporary Land (in Black) mapped upon Ancestral Land for Comparison

14. If Contemporary Reservations were Conglomerated (mapped upon ancestral land).

16. Native American Reservations in Contiguous U.S.--1999

17. Displacing People can drastically affect their Lives –Or Culture! Pine Ridge Reservation (Lakota) 1890 Today

18. Many Native Americans Reservations have always been economically depressed; making it difficult to earn a worthwhile living. Vs. Carbondale, IL (SIU) Standing Rock Reservation - Lakota

19. In the 1990s, the Makah Tribe of Neah Bay, Washington worked to get rights to hunt Gray whales again for these reasons.

20. Whaling is a Cultural-Historical Tradition for the Makah. • Culture + History = Tradition • And The Makah Had Hunted Gray Whales for Most of Their Existence.

21. Culture is about Identity—Who you ARE and What’s important to you. • Who You Are is What you DO!

22. Culture is about Identity—Who you ARE and What’s important to you. • Who You Are is What you DO! • You Are What You EAT!

23. Whaling Has Important Religious-Community Aspects • Whales are important Religious Creatures (like these totems) • And Whaling Has important Ritualistic Elements • Whaling Is Linked to the Spirit of the People – Fosters Community

24. The Makah can Gain Economic Benefits from Whaling Food, Subsistence, Other Products Jobs and Economic Independence

25. Arguments Against Whaling • Due to Over-Whaling in the Past many Populations are in Danger of Extinction • The U.S. signed an International Treaty with the International Whaling Commission in 1946 not to engage in Whaling. Norwegian Whalers-Poachers

26. Arguments Against Whaling • Some People believe it is Immoral or Unethical to Kill Conscious Mammals—which Cetaceans (Whales and Dolphins) seem to be.

27. Do Makah have a Legal Right to Hunt Whales? • Makah signed a 1855 U.S. Treaty that Gives them Sovereign (or Constitutional) Rights to Whaling for Subsistence • However, the 1946 U.S. Treaty with the International Whaling Commission banned Whaling—this agreement also has Constitutional Authority.

28. Ultimately the U.S. government allowed the Makah to hunt whales In 1999, U.S. government allowed them rights to 3 years of hunting with no more than 5 whales taken each year. http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/Makah%20Hunt-789742.jpg

29. Culture, Power and History Go Lucky 7! • History of Displacement helps explain the poverty of many Native American reservations. • History of legal agreements between Tribes and U.S. Government helps explain their legal access to goods-services illegal or restricted to the rest of U.S. citizens. That is, they have power ‘we’ don’t. Like Gambling (But also Hunting, Fishing, and Less Taxes)