November is Native American Heritage Month. First sponsored
by the American Indian Heritage Foundation through the efforts of its founder
Pale Moon Rose, the aims of the heritage month is to provide a platform for
Native people to share their culture, traditions, music, crafts, dance, and
ways and concepts of life. It also gives Native Americans the opportunity to
express to their community, at the city, country and state levels, their
concerns and solutions for building bridges of understand and friendship. I’ve
been interested and have great respect for Native Americans and their history
and culture since the seventh grade. I will touch briefly on the topics of
culture and traditions, music, crafts and dance, and ways and concepts of life
in this post. There are approximately
566 federally recognized Native American tribes in the US each with their own
culture, language and history, and each with their own unique traditions,
housing, dress and food.
I want to address the common misconceptions about Native
Americans and there are many; however, I will address a few. First, the Natives
weren’t that advanced when the Europeans arrived. They were primitive and
similar to a third world country. The truth is they were advanced just
different than from what the Europeans were used to. They had a complex society
with medical advances that scientists today are using the plants they were as
medicines today. The French who traded furs with many different tribes, had a
great respect for the Natives and recognized the things they actually did
better. Second, Indian Royalty. We’ve all heard people claim that they are
descended from an Indian princess. My family was included in this as we were
told we were descended from a Canadian Indian princess. While I was excited to
be descended from First Nations (as they are called in Canada), I was skeptical
of the princess part. Why? Because the Natives had no concept of royalty. Chiefs
were not ordained from birth to lead the tribes. They were often chosen for
their bravery and leadership and their family may have been well treated and
respected but they were not royalty. I think the idea of royalty is how the
Europeans tried to explain the Natives’ societal hierarchy and it stuck. Lastly,
Native Americans worship nature. While they do have a profound respect for
nature and are greatly in tuned with it, they do not worship it. There is
usually a god they worship who represent an aspect of their daily lives. For
instance, they would pray to the god who would help them with the crops or the
hunt or. They also have a concept of a God, usually called the Great Spirit and
an evil spirit similar to Satan.
With so many different tribes in the United States and each
unique, it is hard to speak in general terms about the Natives’ culture and way
of life. The Plains Natives were different from the Natives who lived in the
Desert and those who lived in the Northern Mountains. No matter what area of
the country, the Natives contributed a great deal to our country both past and
present. Many foods were introduced to the world’s diets and became staples
were first cultivated by the Natives of the New World. Foods such as corn,
potatoes, peanuts, tomatoes, chocolate, pineapples and avocadoes just to name a
few (Scholastic). Natives were also the first to raise different types of
animals for food, for example, turkeys. They also were the first to cultivate
cotton, rubber and tobacco. Approximately 60% of the world’s food supply came
from the Natives agricultural system (Gibson). Native Americans contributed a
great deal to medicine as well. The Canadian Natives knew how to prevent scurvy
by eating foods rich in vitamin C and passed the information to European
sailors (Scholastic). The Shoshane tribes used crushed stone seed powder as an
oral contraceptive while the Potawatomi nation used the dogbane herb for
contraceptives centuries before modern medicine developed the birth control
pill. The rate in which Native Americans have participated in military service
is higher than any other ethnic groups. Most notably the Code Talkers in World
War II; however, Native Americans served in the Korean, Vietnam, Desert Storm
and the Iraq wars as well (Gibson). The concept behind American Sign Language
originated with the hand signals used by the Natives and traders. Lastly, many
of our English words are Native in origin such as barbecue, hammock and
hurricane as well as many American cities are Native words, for example, Miami,
Wichita, Spokane and Seattle (Gibson).
I also understand how many Native peoples would feel
conflicted or even insulted at the idea of a month dedicated to people who were
systematically abused and still suffer. Sunny Clifford wrote in an opinion
article, “As much as I appreciate the gesture of Native American Heritage Month
I feel torn about it. I’m torn because this nation needs a month to remember
how it came to be. No, if you want to honor Native Americans then teach the
real history in your schools.” I understand her conflict. While I think it’s
great that a culture gets to be highlighted for a month; however, it is
insulting that for the rest of the year, their part in history is largely
ignored. I also hate that while I was in school, most of our country’s history
is taught by dates and major events. I did not truly learn about Natives in our
country’s history until I took history and ethnic studies classes in college. Unfortunately,
history is expansive and detailed that it would very difficult to teach it as
the individuals who lived it deserved to have it retold and remembered. History
is only one subject that American children must take and unfortunately the
focus is not on history but on math and science. Another hurdle is the Winston
Churchill quote “History is written by the victors,” those who “win” are those
who can write about “how” events occurred and who was at fault. Often, the
victors or those writing about the victors will ignore or rewrite facts in
order to make the victors look better. Some information gets lost to the sands
of time and other information gets drowned out by the loud and more powerful.
It is will take an extra effort to make sure every voice in American history is
heard.
In conclusion, there is no denying that the Native Americans
were not a backward or primitive society that many European settlers would have
history believe. The Native peoples contributed not only to the United States
but the world as well. I still have a deep respect for the Native peoples and I
continue to discover new things about their culture, their way of life and
their contributions to my life in ways I never knew before. Unfortunately,
there are many myths about the Native tribes which are still believed by a vast
majority of people. Whether it is by design or it’s by ignorance, our
educational system has ignored the voices of those who lived through historical
events. Only through education can we dispel these myths and see the Native
Americans as great contributors to our country and our world. For the next
couple weeks I will feature a post about an aspect of Native Americans in our country
through books, films and sports.
References
