Jacob Smalley, Brad Pierce, Paul Studer

NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE: PAST AND PRESENT

 CHAPTER 1

WHAT IS CULTURE?
Culture is defined by Merriam-Websters dictionary as: The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization. This definition does not do the term, culture, justice. It does not account for the plasticity of a cultures attitudes, values, goals, and practices. The fascinating thing about culture, is that it is different between various groups and that one person can coexist in many different cultures at one time. Do you act the same at a basketball game with your friends as you do in class or when eating dinner with your family?

 CHAPTER 2

NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE

Below is a map of Native American tribe distribution across the modern US, prior to the settlement of Europeans. Part of each tribes culture was its language and ways of communication. Many of the tribes shown below, did not share a common language, making it difficult for inter-tribe communication.

 Early Native American Culture

Native American culture was much different prior to European settlement. Native American communities appointed a sachem, or leader. Native American tribes were self-sufficient and found sustenance through hunting, fishing, farming and raising livestock. Men were in charge of hunting where women were responsible for farming and the home. Native American men

hunted in groups. In order to hunt, men used weapons such as spears and bow and arrows. Women were responsible for farming crops including: corn (maize), beans, squash, pumpkins, sunflowers, chocolate, and more. However, most of the Native Americans diets, relied heavily on the meat brought by the men.

 Native American Arts

Native American Headdress

Each Native American tribe had its own warriors headdress. The most widely-known headdress is the full eagle-feather warbonnet, pictured above. However, other forms of headdresses were much more common. The straight-up warbonnet is pictured in the top left, and the trailer warbonnet is picture to the left. These warbonnets were typically not worn 4 into battle, rather, they were worn by warriors and dancers when in the tribe. Each feather is dyed a particular color commemorating a particular good deed or courageous act. These headdresses are what many people commonly associate with indian nations; however, only a few tribes actually wore these headdresses outside of tribal ceremonies.

 CHAPTER 3

NATIVE AMERICANS TODAY

 Native Americans Today

Relocation and Reservations

! Many Native Americans were forced west from their homelands as European Americans continued westward expansion. The most well-known of these relocations were when members of the Cherokee, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations were forced to modern-day Oklahoma from their southeastern homes. This particular relocation has become known as the Trail of Tears due to the high death rates during the movement caused by starvation and disease.

! Many Native Americans live on what are known as reservations. These reservations are allotted plots of land granted by the United States government to particular tribes. However, not all tribes have a reservation, so some reservations are shared. On these reservations, there are schools and neighborhoods as we know them, however, the Native American culture of ceremonies and art are still alive. Many reservations continue the same tribal ceremonies in the same trappings as the ceremonies would have been hundreds of years prior.