NATIVE AMERICANS

Native American Values and Beliefs

American Indians saw no difference between man and his animal brothers and sisters long before Darwin came along to teach a similar truth. To the Indian, everything was connected in the web of life, and to hurt a part of it was to hurt all. This corresponds to a modern understanding regarding the delicate balance of nature. He did not believe man was the final pinnacle of creation with any right of dominion over his non-human relatives. He understood that without the healing benefit of nature man would descend into madness and self-destruction.

Native American Values and Beliefs

Native Americans' Close Relationship to Nature and Animals

Most tribes never ritually sacrificed wild or domestic animals (as many primitive cultures did), but instead greatly honored other species by emulating their natural traits, such as strength or courage.

America’s Natives did not worship idols, people, or animals, but considered all life sacred (as a manifestation of the creator) including plants and trees.

Native American Values and Beliefs

A Free-Spirited Spirituality in Amerindian Culture

Temples were virtually unknown (except to Aztec Indians and certain tribes in South American, such as the Mayans), nor were there religious patriarchs who enforced beliefs in Satan or God. Having a monotheistic belief in one intelligence originating within all of nature, the “Great Spirit” was not a personal god having human or tribal qualities.

For Native Americans, the creator was nature itself. And nature was also the cathedral.

Native American Values and Beliefs

Native Americans Were Early Ecologists An avid ecologist way before his time, the so-called

“Savage” declined contaminating the natural world as did the invading Europeans and others who took over lands he respectfully considered an earthly paradise.

America’s indigenous man was so vigilant to the heart of nature, that he thanked whatever hunted animal gave up its life to feed the people; he knew, in due time, the human would also share the equal fate of death. Nature was always the great equalizer.

Native American Values and Beliefs

Native Indians' Cultural Influence Many American Indians are attempting a return to their

original culture (which appears to have achieved a degree of success in influencing the western world today), although now, America's First Nation People compromise only 1 percent of the total U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Nevertheless, Native thinking has strongly influenced certain non-scientific groups (such as the New Age movement, Alternative Spirituality, and Alternative Medicine, among others). Most importantly, Native Indian culture can be found within the backbone of contemporary ecology, a field extremely vital today. Perhaps America's Indian influence in the modern world is not really given enough credit.

Native American Values and Beliefs

A Deep Love of the Natural World Native American Indians (as a whole) took such loving

care of the environment, that it’s worth pondering what America would look like today had this wise race not been colonized.

American Indians were fine stewards to the land and benefactors of wildlife, a clear reminder to work with, never against, nature’s power – to harness, not enslave its mighty force. Wind turbines, or harnessing the energy of Niagara Falls (as done by Nikola Tesla in 1895 to generate electrical power) are examples of ways to befriend nature for the advantage of all. Nature will generously serve the whole planet, but isn't here to exploit.

Native American Values and Beliefs

The World can Learn from American Indian Wisdom Many Native Indian beliefs, if emulated, would help to create a

healthier planet, which is especially important during an era of major climate change. According to NASA's website and the world’s best and most advanced scientists, no further debate exists regarding climate change and global warming; today both are considered scientific facts.

Settlers learned too slowly that the American Indian was not an uncivilized savage, but instead held a lofty spiritual philosophy in sync with contemporary ecological science. Like the Native Indian, modern society needs to closely observe and intimately know the natural world through a higher understanding of it. Survival – in fact, all scientific knowledge – depends upon this, and science, with its intense focus on the natural world, would probably agree with that significant point.

Native American Values and Beliefs

http://www.history.com/videos/the-buffalo-and-native-americans#the-buffalo-and-native-americans

Eastern Woodland Indians

http://portfolio.educ.kent.edu/mcclellandr/zackthezipper/easternwoodland.htm

http://www.kidzworld.com/article/1330-american-indians-woodland-tribes-and-california-indians

Great Plains Indians

http://portfolio.educ.kent.edu/mcclellandr/zackthezipper/greatplains.htm

http://www.kidzworld.com/article/1303-american-indians-plains-tribes-and-southeastern-tribes

Southwest Desert Indians

http://www.kidzworld.com/article/1389-american-indians-southwest-bands#

Pacific Northern Coast Indians http://www.kidzworld.com/article/1387-a

merican-indians-northwest-bands

Native American Literature: Oral Tradition

Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and tradition transmitted orally from one generation to another

folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants

Makes it possible for a society to transmit history, literature, law or other knowledge without writing anything down

Can cause there to be several versions of the same story since nothing is written

Native American Literature: Creation Myths

A creation myth is a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it

They develop in oral traditions and therefore typically have multiple versions

they are the most common form of myth, found throughout human culture.

In the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths, metaphorically, symbolically and sometimes even in a historical or literal sense

They are commonly, although not always, considered cosmogonical myths—that is they describe the ordering of the cosmos from a state of chaos

Native American Literature: Creation Myths

Creation myths often share a number of features. They often are considered sacred accounts and can be

found in nearly all known religious traditions They are all stories with a plot and characters who are

either deities, human-like figures, or animals, who often speak and transform easily.

They are often set in a dim and nonspecific past, in illo tempore ("at that time").

Also, all creation myths speak to deeply meaningful questions held by the society that shares them, revealing of their central worldview and the framework for the self-identity of the culture and individual in a universal context.

Works Cited

Native American Indian Spirituality: Science, Culture and Amerindian Beliefs About Life | Suite101.com http://suite101.com/article/native-american-indians-a139144#ixzz1xtELLcTo

http://www.history.com/videos/the-buffalo-and-native-americans#the-buffalo-and-native-americans

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_myth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_tradition