Almost every community within the Minnesota reservations sponsors a powwow. A powwow is a ceremony that is filled with feasting, dancing, and singing. These powwow’s are proudly attended by most families within the Ojibwe communities along with many other visitors. The care and pride of a community are very evident and powerful at Ojibwe powwow’s. They bring to life the Ojibwe’s culture in the past and present with traditional dress, food, song/dance and special
“Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock,” Sherman Alexie, the author, depicts a very rare, but normal image of a Native American family. Victor, the narrator, father beat a National Guard solider during an anti-Vietnam war rally. The incident was documented, seeing that his father a Native American. In result of this incident, Victor’s father was imprisoned for two years. After being released from being imprisoned, the first thing his father did was go back to Woodstock, where he says he was he was the only Indian to see Jimi Hendrix’s famous performance of the “Star-Spangled Banner”.
Northwest Coast Indians, one of the richest Indians, were famous in trading sea otter fur with European in less than two hundreds years ago. They lived nearby the coast and the forest, “the rich land”, where the nature environment provided foods and resources. Even during the winter, they were able to enjoy music, dancing, and drama without worrying about survival. With the abundance material goods, native Indian satisfied with the material possessions, and passionately seek for a higher social status. This derived a special traditional event, potlatch.
When the twenty-seven Indian chiefs were paraded into New York City, “a military band trumpeted their arrival. Citizens lined the streets to applaud them as exotic and fully feathered versions of Roman senators, marching with conspicuous dignity to a meeting with President Washington,”(Ellis 52). White settlers saw these chiefs as a sign of hope for the future--a future a peace. The chiefs “traveled nearly a thousand miles for this conference, and all along the way had been celebrated, feted, honored, and ‘speechified’ by local officials eager to acknowledge their passing presence,”(Ellis 52). Over the three weeks that these Native American chiefs spent in New York City negotiating the peace treaty, “there were nightly banquets that gathered together congressmen, senators, dignitaries from the city government and commercial exchanges alongside the lustrously feathered chiefs… Pipes were ceremoniously smoked, wampum belts were enthusiastically exchanged, arms were locked hand-to-elbow, Indian style,”(Ellis 57).
The video Haudenosaunee’s Legendary Founding is interesting because it demonstrates one way that Native Americans use oral tales to preserve their history and culture. This tale is an origin story about the creation of the Wampum belt. The oral nature of this tale is significant because it captures the moments of emphasis and feeling better than it could if it was simply written in standard prose. Being able to hear it, rather than simply read it, also makes it feel more vibrant and personal. The addition of the animations and the music to the story also makes it feel more alive.
When George Catlin painted “War Dance, Sioux”, he painted what appears to be the entire village, including women and children, which could allude to the close nit communities that Native American villages relied upon. The setting of the painting appears to be at sun down, which is a time usually associated with the war dance. It seems that the Sioux tribe were performing this war dance to ensure success in their battle, and jumping through the fire instilled bravery into the warriors and filled them with brawn and purpose. Many of the Native Americans in Catlin’s painting are wearing traditional headdresses for wartime, but all of them are not participating, possibly because some of the tribesman are either too young to too old to fight.
Powwows.com The Powwows.com is a platform to serve both the native American folks and the general public who are interested in this tradition. That is because as I negative through the website, I noticed some unique sections, like the news and forums, that attempt to keep native American tribes in touch as well as bringing them together. On the other hand, there are general sections, like the “Native American information” section and the multimedia sections, that serve as an education tool for the non-native audience. I personally believe that every section provides valuable information and insight to the two groups I mentioned before.
In Wisconsin schools, Act 31 is praised as one of the most important social studies bills passed. Act 31 is the “biennial budget bill that addressed several education needs, such as requiring the study of American Indian history, culture, and tribal sovereignty of the eleven federally-recognized tribes in Wisconsin” (O’Connor, 2018). All teachers need to be aware of this Act, and should know how to approach a solid teaching style. There are many ways to go about this, but studying the actions, history and culture of some or all of the tribes in Wisconsin is usually the way to go. There are eleven recognized tribes in the state of Wisconsin, and I am going to be discussing the impacts that the Forest County Potawatomi Tribe and the Ho-Chunk tribe.
In this weeks case study on the Osoyoos Indian Band and Application of Okanagan Leadership Principles, I have chosen to speak about the four topics of leadership, role models, the ways meetings have evolved, and engagement within the indigenous community. As a Navajo Nation and Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota member, I grew up mostly in or around the reservation. I have experienced the troubles that many citizens have such as poverty, substance abuse, and unemployment. Therefore, making connections to points made by Ethan Baptiste in this case study was not challenging. The first connection I would like to make is that leadership represented in this case study is presented in the chief, it says that they put they the people before themselves, even before themselves.
“There was no tolerance for Indian talk. On the second day I was there, a boy named Curtis White Fox had his mouth washed out with lye soap for speaking Ojibway. He choked and died right there in the classroom. He was ten.” (Wagamese 48) “If you repay me not on such a day, in such a place, such sum or sums as are expressed in the condition, let the forfeit be nominated for an equal pound of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken in what part of your body pleaseth me.”
Hilary Weaver argues in her piece of writing; that identifying indigenous identity is complex, complicated, and hard to grasp when internalized oppression and colonization has turned Native Americans to criticize one another. Throughout the text, Weaver focuses on three main points which she calls, the three facets. Self-identification, community identification, and external identification are all important factors that make up Native American identity. The author uses a story she calls, “The Big game” to support her ideologies and arguments about the issue of identity. After reading the article, it’s important to realize that Native American’s must decide their own history and not leave that open for non-natives to write about.
A grandmother abducted a Chief Sky Spirit’s daughter, and upon her deathbed wants forgiveness for doing so. He does away with the grandmother and curses the grizzlies by saying: “Get down on your hands and knees. You have wronged me, and from this moment all of you will walk on four feet and never talk again” This story taught children the consequences of deceiting, and further added to the strong moral value that Native Americans believed
The Indigenous Peoples Day Symposium was a panel presentation by four main speakers who identify as Indigenous Peoples. The presentation began with singing and honoring them. After this concluded, the first speaker, Chebon Kernell, gave his speech about Indigenous Peoples. Kernell’s was the most engaging in my opinion because he talked about how “a long time ago they were here” and their footprints were made right here on the TCU campus. He shared his own personal experience, beginning with when he witnessed that he was being taught, “this is how it was supposed to be, God’s will.”
It can also be said that the discourse of honor resulted in misunderstood or misidentified Native Americans speaking out on behalf of the mascots. Many of those who spoke out in favor of the mascots were found to be “self-proclaimed” Native Americans. These people were maybe one-sixteenth Native American or confusedly said to be related to a Native American chief or princess. The article by Pauline Strong supports this idea stating “given this pattern of socialization, many non-Indians come to feel deeply invested in Indian mascots... Such an emotional investment is a form of White privilege akin to that analyzed more generally by George Lipsitz (1998).
Our culture is our beliefs,traditions,and values that bring families together,but for some people culture is more of a nuisance than a custom. In the realistic fiction story “Navajo Lessons”,Celine and her brother Josh go to a Navajo reservation to visit their grandma for the summer. Instead of learning the Navajo language or exploring the reservation like her brother,Celine would much rather spend her time hanging out at the teen center or training for track with her friend Dora. When her grandma falls ill,Celine soon learns that your culture is more important than a few hours with her friends. The story “Navajo Lessons” shows us how special our culture really is.
