NATIVE

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• NATIVE
• AMERICANS
• BELIEF and CULTURE

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• Just over 500 years
• ago three small boats
• set out from Spain
• heading west across
• the Atlantic ocean.
• The Europeans discovered a land they called
  it America, their leader was Christopher Columbus.

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• When
• the Europeans
• first arrived there was
• over twelve million people living there.
• In less than three hundred years there
• was only some three hundred
• thousand left
• alive.

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• This was caused by a
• planned slaughter, terror tactics,
• and even early forms of germ warfare.
• This was carried out in the name of freedom,
  freedom for the Europeans.
• Today we call this ethnic cleansing.

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• With the disappearance of so many people so
  much knowledge and understanding of the world was
  lost. The 19th century saw the last great battles
  for the survival of these people, thankfully
  enough survived to preserve their culture and
  traditions.
• During this
• 21st century we may
• well need some of their
• ideas and concepts
• for the survival of
• Mother Earth.

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• ApacheHuronCreeLakota
• ZuniHopiCommanche
• SenecaPawneeKlamath
• TlingitNavajo
• These are the names
• of some of the groups of Native Americans,
• they sometimes refer to themselves as the
• 500 Nations.

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• No one knows for certain how long people have
  lived in the land that we now call America.
• Archaeological artefacts such as arrow heads,
  pots, and other interesting things have been
  found and have been dated to 30,000 years ago.
• There is also evidence of human occupation in
  South America that has been dated as early as
  100,000 years ago.

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• These original people developed many different
  cultures, they lived in the Americas from the
  frozen lands of the Arctic down through Canada on
  into the Great American Plains through into the
  southern deserts of Arizona.
• What is now Mexico saw the development of very
  complex cities of over a hundred thousand
  people.
• Down on into the rainforests of South America and
  finally to the edge of the Antarctic can be found
  people who have become known as Indians.

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Faced with such diversity of culture it would be
impossible to study them all. This study will
focus on the people who became known as the
Plains Indians.

• The great Plains of North America stretch out
  almost forever. They can be very hot and dusty,
  during the violence of a tornado or a snowstorm
  vision can be limited to the length of an arm.
  The plains can be delightfully cool, abundantly
  watered or beautifully coloured in a dozen shades
  of green.
• The Plains can be a source of
• delight or endless misery.

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• Europeans were often terrified by the amount
  of empty land that appeared to go on for ever,
  remember that most Europeans had left cities
  behind in order to seek a new life. This land
  appeared to them to be a place that at first
  glance could not sustain human habitation.

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• In this land of extremes there were people who
  had mastered this harsh environment. The were
  divided into tribes, spoke different languages
  and had developed a sign language to enable
  trading between tribes. Some lived by hunting and
  gathering food, others mixed this with farming.
  Some lived in permanent villages others carried
  their homes with them.

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Some lived by hunting and gathering food, others
mixed this with farming.
Some lived in permanent villages others carried
their homes with them.
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To help you gain some understanding of these
people we will concentrate on one particular
group. They are sometimes referred to as the
Sioux, however they call themselves the LAKOTA

• Mitakuye oyasi?all my relativesWithin the
  Lakota there are many clans..
• Oglala
• SansArc
• Hunkpapa Brule
• Miniconjou Santee Wahpeton
• and Sihasapa are just some of them.

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Religion power and medicine.

• Over many thousands of years these people
  developed complex belief systems, it is these
  belief systems that we call religion.
• They saw the world as being full of power.
• This power would show itself in many ways,
  like lightening,
• and in other things that were strong like the
• buffalo which became very important to their
  way of life.

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The Lakota paid respect to the four powers.The
south, north, east and west.

• The south was the home of life.
• The north was a place to fear.
• The east was where life came from.
• The west was a place of spirits.

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Wakan Tanka

• The Lakota respected people who were very wise,
  particularly the elders.
• Some tribes said that all the powers came from
  one great power.
• The Lakota people called this power Wakan Tanka,
  which in our language means great mystery, or
  what we call God.
• The Lakota believe that all things began with
  this power and everything is connected to it.

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Contacting the Power

• There are many ways to contact these powers,
  one way was to seek a vision. To do this people
  would go to a lonely place, sometimes they would
  go high up into the mountains. The vision seeker
  would try to stay awake during their quest. Most
  people who done this would see or experience
  strange happenings. What they saw would be their
  vision. Often these visions contained images and
  had instructions for the one who had saw them.

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Crazy Horses Vision

• A young Lakota boy called Curly set out at
  the age of 14 to seek his first vision, his uncle
  had been killed by the U.S. Army for supposedly
  stealing a cow.
• Curly was sad and upset, seeking a vision was
  his way of trying to come to terms with what had
  happened to his uncle.
• Curly fasted for a few days high up in the
  mountains.

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It seemed as he must have slept because he felt
as if had given up his body and let go of himself.

• It was not like the world that he knew but the
  real world behind this one..the grass was
  waving,
• the trees were
• bending, but not
• in the ways of
• this world but
• in a sacred way.

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• Then he saw a horse, a bay spotted horse, which
  became yellow spotted, and changed to many other
  colours, it seemed to float, so light, so light..

Then he saw a horse, a bay spotted horse, which
became yellow spotted, and changed to many other
colours, it seemed to float, so light, so
light..
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• Sitting on the horse a man,
• the man appeared
• lightfloating with the horse.
• The man wore a plain buckskin
• shirt, he had hair that fell loose below his
  waist. In his hair a single eagle feather.
• Behind his ear hung a small brown stone.

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• The man spoke no words but Curly heard him
  saying things that have no words.
• All the time shadows kept coming up before him
  but the man on the horse rode straight at them
  and passed through unhurt.
• There were streaks around him from flying
  arrows and bullets but they disappeared before
  they hit him.
• The man on the horse had

power
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• A storm rolled across the sky. Thunder was in
  the air and lightening flashed. The man had a
  zig-zag painted on his cheek, on his body were
  are few painted spots like hailstones.

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• As the
• storm faded
• the people around him
• made a great noise, while
• over him flew a red backed hawk,
• screeching, screeching, screeching,
  screeeeeeeching

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The Sun Dance

• The Sun Dance is performed at the time of the
  full moon during June or July.
• This is because it is the time of growing and
  dying of the moon and it should remind us of how
  our knowledge comes and goes.

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• A special structure is built with a cotton
  wood tree at the centre to represent Wakan Tanka.
  
• Twenty eight posts are added to create a
  circle around the central pole, this represents
  the twenty eight day cycle of the moon.

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• An eagle bone whistle is used during the
  ceremony to echo the voice of Wakan Tanka.
• This is accompanied
• by the beating of
• drums to represent
• the throb of the universe.

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• Near the end of the ceremony some people are
  attached to the central pole by strips of leather
  that are fixed to their bodies by wooden skewers
  piercing their chests.
• The dancers fix their gaze at the top of the
  pole and stare into the sun. The dance continues
  till they manage to rip themselves free from the
  skewers attached to their bodies.

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• Black Elk, a Lakota holy man explained the
  meaning behind the dance,
• It is as if we were being freed from the bonds
  of the flesh. The altered state of consciousness
  brought on by the pain and dancing is like a
  journey into the spirit world with Wakan Tanka at
  its centre

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• Often during this ceremony the dancers would
  experience a vision, these visions were then seen
  as holy and full of power. It was important that
  the rest of the people heard what the dancers had
  seen during the Sun Dance.
• One very famous example was when Sitting Bull
  danced before the battle of the Little Big Horn
  and he had a vision.

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• Sitting Bulls told how he had seen all the
  white soldiers ride into the camp and that they
  were all upside down this he told the people
  meant that they would all die in the coming
  battle.

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A few days later the American army led by
General Custer attacked. They were all killed.
The battle became known as Custers last stand.
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The legend of the Dreamcatcher

• Long ago when the word was young an old Lakota
  holy man was on a high mountain and had a vision.
  In his vision, Iktomi, the great trickster and
  teacher of wisdom, appeared in the form of a
  spider. The holy man was holding a willow hoop.

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• Iktomi spoke to him in a sacred language. As
  he spoke, Iktomi the spider picked up the holy
  mans willow hoop which had feathers, horsehair,
  and beads on it, and began to spin a web.

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• He spoke to the holy man about the cycles of
  life how we begin our lives as infants, move on
  through childhood and on to
• adulthood.
• Finally we go
• to old age where we must
• be taken care of just as if
• we were infants, completing
• the cycle.
• But, Iktomi said as he
• continued to spin his web,
• in each time of life there
  are many forces
• some good and some bad..

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• If you listen to the good forces, they will
  steer you in the right direction. But, if you
  listen to the bad forces, they'll steer you in
  the wrong direction and may hurt you. So these
  forces can help, or can interfere with the
  harmony of Nature.

• While the spider spoke, he continued to weave his
  web

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• When Iktomi finished speaking,
• he gave the holy man the web and said,
• The web is a perfect circle with a hole in the
  centre.
• Use the web to help your people reach their
  goals, making good use of their ideas, dreams and
  visions. If you believe in Wakan Tanka the web
  will catch your good ideas and dreams the bad
  ones will pass through the hole.

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• The holy man passed on his vision to the
  people and now many Indian people hang a dream
  catcher above their bed to sift their dreams and
  visions.

It's said that the dream catcher holds the
secrets for your future
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