Indian Tribes in the USA: their life, culture, religion and language.

Indian Tribes in the USA: their life, culture, religion and language.

 

 

 

- Reporter: Zubova Marianna

(school №21, 10v form)

- Consultant of the project:

Solodkaya Svetlana Valentinovna  

1. Introduction

 

Long-long time ago, on prairies of North America lived strong and ancient nation – Indians. They occupied this territory for many centuries and they existed with the full harmony with the nature. Nothing portended troubles, but, nevertheless, we all know that sad story about cruel exploring of their land. In my work, I want to mention the results of the exploration and the consequences of the contacts between the Native population and Europeans.

You know, that the population of the USA is more than 236 million people: there are 26, 5 million Afro-Americans and about 1, 5 million American Indians, most of whom live in the western states - California, Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico. About 1/3 of the native Americans live in reservations, the land that was given them by the government in the 19th century.

The first people came to America from Asia. Very long ago, as scientists suppose, as early as

40 000 years ago, they crossed the Bering Strait from Siberia to Alaska when the sea level dropped. These were the people whom Columbus later called “Indians” because he was sure that he had come to the East Indies.

 

 

 

 

 

2. History

 

1) Five periods of Amerindians’ life

 

Ancient Indian civilizations in North America developed over roughly the last 20,000 years, according to archaeologists. According to the Indian tribes living today, most of them say they have always been here on the North American continent.
        Many archaeological periods, cultures, complexes, and peoples have been identified in North America. These are generally divided into five periods.
       The Paleo Indians were an ancient civilization that lived during the Lithic stage (18000 BC - 8000 BC) and this is when we first see stone tools. The Archaic period (8000 BC - 1000 BC), is divided into an early, middle, and late stages. In this period, we first see evidence of sedentary farming practices.
       During the Formative stage, ancient North American people developed the technologies of pottery, weaving, and developed food production. Social organization began to involve permanent towns and villages, as well as the first ceremonial centers in these ancient Indian civilizations.
        During the Classic stage, we begin to see complex social structures as ancient Indian civilizations developed craft specializations and the beginnings of metallurgy. During this period, we see the beginnings of urbanism and large ceremonial centers.
       During the Post-Classic stage (1000 BC till Present), we see advanced metallurgy and social organization involving complex urbanism and militarism.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2) Initial impacts

 

 

The European colonization of America nearly obliterated the populations and cultures of the Native Americans. During the 16th through 19th centuries, their populations were ravaged by conflicts with European explorers and colonists, disease, displacement, enslavement, internal warfare as well as high rate of intermarriage. Scientists now believe that among the various contributing factors, epidemic disease was the overwhelming cause of the population decline of the American natives.

 

The first Native American group encountered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 were the Island Arawaks (more properly called the Taino) of Boriquen (Puerto Rico), the Quisqueya of the Dominican Republic, the Cubanacan (Cuba). It is said that of  250,000 to 1 million Island Arawaks, only about 500 survived by the middle of the 16th century, and the group was considered extinct by the middle of the 17th century. Yet DNA studies show that the genetic contribution of the Taino to that region continues, and the mitochondrial DNA studies of the Taino are said to show relationships to the Northern Indigenous Nations, such as Inuit and others.

 

        In the sixteenth century, Spaniards and other Europeans brought horses to America. Some of these animals escaped and began to breed and increase their numbers in the wild. Ironically, the horse had originally evolved in America, but the early American horse became game for the earliest humans and became extinct about 7,000 BC, just after the end of the last ice age. The re-introduction of the horse had a profound impact on Native American culture in the Great Plains of North America. As a new mode of travel the horse made it possible for some tribes to greatly expand their territories, exchange goods with neighboring tribes, and more easily capture game.

 

European settlers brought infectious diseases against which the Native Americans had no natural immunity. Chicken pox and measles were fatal for Amerindians .Smallpox was also very dangerous for the Native American population. Epidemics destroyed entire villages. While precise figures are difficult to arrive at, some historians estimate that up to 80% of some Native populations died due to European diseases.

 

 

 

 

 

3) Cultural aspects

 

 

Though cultural features, language, clothing, and customs vary enormously from one tribe to another, there are certain elements which are encountered frequently and shared by many tribes.

Early hunter-gatherer tribes made stone weapons from around 10,000 years ago; as the age of metallurgy dawned, newer technologies were used and more efficient weapons produced. Prior to contact with Europeans, most tribes used similar weaponry. The most common of them were the bow and arrow, the war club, and the spear. Quality, material, and design varied widely.

 

Large mammals like mammoths and mastodons were largely extinct by around 8,000 BC, and the Native Americans switched to hunting other large game, such as bison. The Great Plains tribes were still hunting the bison when they first encountered the Europeans. The acquisition of the horse and horsemanship from the Spanish in the 17th century greatly altered the natives' culture, changing the way in which these large creatures were hunted and making them a central feature of their lives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4) Society and art

 

The Iroquois, living around the Great Lakes and extending east and north, used strings or belts called wampum that served a dual function: the knots and beaded designs mnemonically chronicled tribal stories and legends, and further served as a medium of exchange and a unit of measure. The keepers of the articles were seen as tribal dignitaries.

 

 

The Pueblo people crafted impressive items associated with their religious ceremonies. Kachina dancers wore elaborately painted and decorated masks as they ritually impersonated various ancestral spirits. Sculpture was not highly developed, but carved stone and wood fetishes were made for religious use. Superior weaving, embroidered decorations, and rich dyes characterized the textile arts. Both turquoise and shell jewelry were created, as were high-quality pottery and formalized pictorial arts.

 

Navajo spirituality focused on the maintenance of a harmonious relationship with the spirit world, often achieved by ceremonial acts, usually incorporating sand painting. The colors - made from sand, charcoal, cornmeal, and pollen - depicted specific spirits. These vivid, intricate, and colorful sand creations were erased at the end of the ceremony.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5) Religion

 

 

 

 

The most widespread religion at the present time is known as the Native American Church. It is a syncretistic church incorporating elements of native spiritual practice from a number of different tribes as well as symbolic elements from Christianity. Its main rite is the peyote ceremony. Prior to 1890, traditional religious beliefs included Wakan Tanka. In the American Southwest, especially New Mexico, a syncretism between the Catholicism brought by Spanish missionaries and the native religion is common; the religious drums, chants, and dances of the Pueblo people are regularly part of Masses at Santa Fe's Saint Francis Cathedral. Native American-Catholic syncretism is also found elsewhere in the United States. (e.g., the National Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine in Fonda, New York and the National Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, New York).

 

 

Native Americans are the only known ethnic group in the United States requiring a federal permit to practice their religion. The eagle feather law, (Title 50 Part 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations), says that only individuals of Native American ancestry enrolled in a federally recognized tribe are legally authorized to obtain eagle feathers for religious or spiritual use. Native Americans and non-Native Americans frequently contest the value and validity of the eagle feather law, charging that the law is laden with discriminatory racial preferences and infringes on tribal sovereignty. The law does not allow Native Americans to give eagle feathers to non-Native Americans, a common modern and traditional practice. Many non-Native Americans have been adopted into Native American families, made tribal members and given eagle feathers.

 

Many Native Americans would describe their religious practices as a form of spirituality, rather than religion, although in practice the terms may sometimes be used interchangeably.

 

6) Some Amerindian tribes

 

Pueblo

 

The Pueblo Indians reside in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and Colorado. They have been living in this area for over 500 years. They remained sedentary because they grew crops and used cotton to make clothing.

The Pueblo maintained a peaceful relationship with the settlers who eventually arrived in their homeland. These new settlers still inhabit the Pueblo territory today.

The Pueblo are a diverse people and speak many different languages. There are three main languages spoken; each containing several subgroups. The main languages include: Uto-Aztecan, Keresan, and Tanoan. The Pueblo ate seeds, made clothing out of yucca (a desert plant), and grew beans, corn, and squash. They used spears for hunting instead of bows and arrows. The Pueblo lifestyle kept everyone busy. Small children would scare crows away from the crops or would gather firewood. The old men made arrow points and prayed in preparation for ceremonies. Travel was not a necessity for the Pueblo, but they would sometimes go to neighboring villages to trade their goods.

 

Cherokee

 

Cherokee Indians can trace their history back more than one thousand years. Their society was based on hunting, trading, and agriculture, living in towns until they encountered the first Europeans in 1540, when Spanish explorer Hernando de Sota led an exploration through Cherokee Indian territory. By the time European explorers and traders arrived, Cherokee Indian lands covered a large part of what is now the southeastern United States.

Cherokee Indians live in small communities, usually located in fertile river bottoms. Homes are wooden frames covered with woven vines and saplings plastered with mud. Each village consists of up to 50 log and mud huts grouped around the town square, called the Council House, where ceremonial and public meetings are held.

 

Iroquois

 

The Iroquois Confederacy (also known as the "League of Peace and Power", the "Five Nations"; the "Six Nations"; or the "People of the Longhouse") is a group  of Native Americans that originally consisted of five nations: the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, and the Seneca.

At the time Europeans first arrived in North America, the Confederacy was based in what is now the northeastern United States and southern Canada, including New England, upstate New York, Pennsylvania, Ontario, and Quebec.

 

 

Apache

 

Apache is a number of tribes forming the most southerly group of the Athapascan family. The name has been applied also to some unrelated Yuman tribes, as the Apache Mohave (Yavapai) and Apache Yuma.

     Being a nomadic people, the Apache practiced agriculture only to a limited extent before their permanent establishment on reservations. They subsisted chiefly on the products of the chase and on roots (especially that of the maguey) and berries. Although fish and bear were found in abundance in their country they were not eaten, being tabued as food. They had few arts, but the women attained high skill in making baskets. Their dwellings were shelters of brush, which were easily erected by the women and were well adapted to their arid environment and constant shifting. In physical appearance the Apache vary greatly, but are rather above the medium height. They are good talkers, are not readily deceived, and are honest in protecting property placed in their care, although they formerly obtained their chief support from plunder seized in their forays.

 

3. Borrowings

 

The relationship between Indians and the English language has been a difficult one, as English has been used to enforce conformity to Euro-American society and to obliterate ancestrallanguages. Nevertheless, Indians have contributed to English, and they have made it their own by adapting it as a means of their own cultural expression.

There are about one thousand English words (not including toponyms) that have North American origin. The practice of borrowing these words and incorporating them, often in a highly modified form, began in the sixteenth century and continued into the twentieth, although the major periods of transfer occurred in times of earliest contact. There are two major areas in which such words were borrowed.

 

1) The first: they are used for the native fauna and flora of North America:  

·        raccoon (a small N American animal with grayish-brown fur,      black marks on its face and a thick tail-енот)

·        opossum (everybody knows this word)

·        geoduck (A very large, edible clam of the Pacific coast of northwest North America.)

·        hickory (the hard wood of N American hickory tree)

·        squash  (a vegetable which grows on the ground and have green or yellow skin and white flash-кабачок)

·        caribou(North American reindeer-олень)

·        chipmunk(a small N American animal of the squirrel family with light and dark marks on its back-)

·        moose(a large deer that lives in N America)

·        muskrat(a small N American water animal that has a strong smell and is hunted for its fur)

·        porgy(Any of various deep-bodied marine food fishes of the family Sparidae.).

·        woodchuck(a small N American animal of the squirrel)  

·        skunk(a small black and white animal that can produce very unpleasant smell to protect itself-скунс)

 

2) The second: they are used for items of Indian culture:

                  Things:

 

·        tipi

·        wigwam (a type of tent, shaped like a dome or cone)

·  wampum (shells on strings that some Native Americans used as money in the past)

·  moccasin (a flat shoe that is made from soft leather and has large switches around the front)

·  toboggan(a long light narrow sledge sometimes curved up in front, used for sliding down slopes)

·  tomahawk(a light axe)

·  hogan()

·  kayak(a light canoe in which the part where you sit is covered over)

·  totem (everybody knows this word)

 

Suppose you had been one of the early explorers or immigrants to North America. You would have found many things in this new land which were previously unknown to you.

 

The handiest way of filling voids in your vocabulary would have been to ask local Native Americans what words they used.

 

The early colonists began borrowing words from friendly Native Americans almost from the moment of their first contact, and many of those names remain in our everyday English language today.

 

Here are some examples:

Food:

·            pecan(the nut of an American pecan tree with a smooth pinkish    - brown shell)

·            hominy(dried maize boiled in water or milk, eaten especially in the southern states of the USA)

·            pemmican

·            succotash

 

People:

·              sachem

·              papoose(a bag used for carrying a baby on your back)

·             mugwump

 

Gatherings:

·              potlatch

·              caucus(a group of people with similar interests, often within a   larger organization or political party)

·              pow wow(a meeting for discussing something)

 

3) They are used in geographical names

 

If you look at a map of the United States, you will realize how freely settlers used words of Indian origin to name their states, cities, towns, mountains, lakes, rivers, ponds, and creeks.

 

Four of five Great Lakes and 28 (more than half) of states have names that were borrowed from Native American words. They are:

 

Alabama-Indian for tribal town, later a tribe (Alabamasor Alibamons) of the Creek confederacy.

 

Alaska-Russian version of Aleutian (Eskimo) word, alakshak, for "peninsula," "great lands," or "land that is not an island."

 

Arizona -Spanish version of Pima Indian word for "little spring place," or Aztec arizuma, meaning "silver-bearing."

 

Arkansas-French variant of Quapaw, a Siouan people meaning "downstream people."

 

Connecticut-From Mohican and other Algonquin words meaning "long river place."

 

Delaware-Named for Lord De La Warr, early governor of Virginia; first applied to river, then to Indian tribe (Lenni-Lenape), and the state.

 

Hawaii-Possibly derived from native word for homeland, Hawaikior Owhyhee.

 

Idaho-A coined name with an invented Indian meaning: "gem of the mountains;" originally suggested for the Pike's Peak mining territory (Colorado), then applied to the new mining territory of the Pacific Northwest. Another theory suggests Idaho may be a Kiowa Apache term for the Comanche.

 

Illinois-French for Illinior land of Illini, Algonquin word meaning men or warriors.

 

Indiana-Means "land of the Indians."

 

Iowa-Indian word variously translated as "one who puts to sleep" or "beautiful land."

 

Kansas-Sioux word for "south wind people."

 

Kentucky-Indian word variously translated as "dark and bloody ground," "meadow land" and "land of tomorrow."

 

Massachusetts-From Indian tribe named after "large hill place" identified by Capt. John Smith as being near Milton, Mass.

 

Michigan-From Chippewa words mici gamameaning "great water," after the lake of the same name.

 

Minnesota-From Dakota Sioux word meaning "cloudy water" or "sky-tinted water" of the Minnesota River.

 

Mississippi-Probably Chippewa; “mici zibi”, "great river" or "gathering-in of all the waters." Also: Algonquin word, "Messipi."

 

Missouri-An Algonquin Indian term meaning "river of the big canoes."

 

Nebraska-From Omahaor OtosIndian word meaning "broad water" or "flat river," describing the Platte River.

 

North & South Dakota-Dakota is Sioux for friend or ally.

 

Ohio-Iroquois word for "fine or good river."

 

Oklahoma-Choctaw coined word meaning red man, proposed by Rev. Allen Wright, Choctaw-speaking Indian, said: Okla hummais red people.

 

Tennessee-Tanasiwas the name of Cherokee villages on the Little Tennessee River. From 1784 to 1788 this was the State of Franklin, or Frankland.

 

Texas-Variant of word used by Caddo and other Indians meaning friends or allies, and applied to them by the Spanish in eastern Texas. Also written texias, tejas, teysas.

 

Utah-From a Navajo word meaning upper, or higher up, as applied to a Shoshone tribe called Ute.

 

Wisconsin-An Indian name, spelled Ouisconsinand Mesconsing by early chroniclers. Believed to mean "grassy place" in Chippewa. Congress made it Wisconsin.

      Wyoming-The word was taken from Wyoming Valley, Pa., which was the site of an Indian massacre and became widely known by Campbell's poem, "Gertrude of Wyoming”. In Algonquin it means "large prairie place".

The literary expression of the forms and direction of Indian English may be seen in the works of modern Indian Anglophone writers such asN. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich and James Welch. The anthropologist Anthony Mattina has advocated colloquial Indian English as the form of English into which to translate traditional oral narratives from their own indigenous languages.