... these spirits through the use of magic. Other traits characteristic of most traditional Indian cultures was a richness of myths, legends, ceremonies and sacred objects. Other common traits was the quest for visions and the use of psychotropic plants to facilitate those visions. Music and dance was ... Indian peoples had variegated mythologies and lore concerning the creation and structure of the universe. They had an array of rites, ceremonies, sacred objects and differing systems of religious organizations. In order to obtain more clarity on the Native American religion, it is necessa...

• Word Count: 1163
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... clans so that are not too closely related. They also had to change their system of beliefs. This was because they believed that certain geographical features were sacred, like mountains and rivers. So they found new sacred things like the 4 sacred mountains and the Canyon De Chelle. The number four also was important for them referring to the 4 seasons, the 4 directions and the ... 4 sacred mountains. The Navajo's also took ideas and learned from others in the region. They were very adaptable. If they saw something they liked they would incorporate it into their culture. ... ...

• Word Count: 857
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... began. Inside " The Turtle On The World's Back" there are certain objects that have meaning and symbolize importance to the native Americans .Specifically the sacred tree was a symbol. The sacred tree symbolized the pureness of humans. The sacred tree had delicious ripe fruits andm flowers and was never to be touched or mutilated. While the tree in the creation myth was important ,there ... ...

• Word Count: 669
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... for pottery production is "done with an understanding of the life in the soil". Before cutting a tree one makes an offering to it, and nothing is wasted because trees are sacred. Similarly, the Native Africans also believe that "the universe is populated by spirits as well as humans and animals". They believe that the earth, the sky, and the waters have ... , streams, storms, thunder, lightning, tides, many plants and animals, and other forces of nature. The earth is usually depicted as a goddess and linked to fertility. Water is frequently seen as a sacred element. Worship varies from c...

• Word Count: 1098
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... put in the water, or it's the giving back to nature when you collect cedar or roots of any kind. Any of these things that the natives do is very sacred to them. When you take these ceremonies from them you aren't just taking a routine from them, you are taking a part of their very being. When a Native American does one of ... have long been fighting to protect their religious freedom from repeated acts of governmental suppression--including the denial of access to religious sites, prohibitions on the use or possession of sacred objects, and restrictions on their ability to worship throu...

• Word Count: 864
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... to nobody. It is shared among the village. This corn will be harvested to create cornmeal and baskets alike. But this corn serves much more than a utilitarian purpose: it is sacred. To the Hopi, farming is an art, an act of faith. First, the seeds are planted. To do this, they must use a planting stick. This is more than a mere utensil ... were integrated into their agriculture. Corn is what saved the Hopi from the third world, which is why it is treated with such respect and care. Because corn is so sacred, machines cannot show the love and care needed to grow the corn. The hands on ca...

• Word Count: 628
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... ; they knew very much about life east of the Mississippi. Once peaceful plain Indians but later turned rebellious due to the white man's destruction of what these Indians believed was sacred. First some of the major problems Indians had with the settlers were land and the buffalo. Land, settlers claimed whatever land they wanted whenever and no matter whose livelihood it ... forfeited their rights to the land because they hadn't settled down to improve it." Buffalo, the main source the plain Indian depended on. The plain Indian treated this animal as sacred performing rituals before and ...

• Word Count: 558
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... dealing with several things, including lying and cheating. He supplied them with a comprehensive value system, with such concepts as love, respect, and cooperation. Another central belief is in the four sacred persons, who are the representatives of both the four directions of the wind and the different stages of life, and they protect the people from famine and hardship. Sweet Medicine ... these persons to the Cheyenne, and they were to be protected by the Cheyenne, or the people would not prosper. The creation story of the Cheyenne is very guarded and sacred. It is told only at night,...

• Word Count: 822
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... of people. He is disgusted that someone like the hippie and the man with a Haida design can be so ignorant to not even know that they are using and wearing sacred things. "Today was a day I wanted to beat up the smirking man wearing/ a pack with a Haida design from Moe's bookstore/ Listen Moe's How many Indians do you have working there?/ How ... much money are you sending the Haida people/ to use their sacred design?"(Chrystos, 16-20) Chrystos is pissed off and feels as though he is being discriminated against. He is right. People are being blind to the fact that Indians are ... ...

• Word Count: 849
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... battles were described in such detail. The Indians fought so valiantly to try to protect their ancestral homes, but in the end it was useless. The Americans later desecrated their sacred holy land such as the Black Hills and Paha Sapa. The most popular "desecrated" site would be one most Americans look at as a national monument. Mt. Rushmore was carved into ... the very mountains held sacred by some Native Americans. The most riveting part of the book was probably the last paragraph. It reads "It was the fourth day after Christmas in the Year of Our ... ...

• Word Count: 970
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... created a large sculpture of the character "Thunderbird". Most of their art was useful as well, like the Kiowa cradleboard, they used it to hold the babies but it was also a sacred piece of art. Many pieces of art at the museum were characters from myths and handcrafted by Native American artists who had a real feel for the story. Unlike the British ... killed what they needed for their families and used every reusable part of the animal before disposing of it. A Pow Wow was a spiritual healer that was also the called the "sacred practitioner", they were called in for sickness and death...

• Word Count: 841
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• Grade Level: High School

... personal opinion to end this dispute. First off, what is NAGPRA? "NAGPRA provides a process for museums and Federal agencies to return certain Native American cultural items -- human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony -- to lineal descendants, and culturally affiliated Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations. NAGPRA includes provisions for unclaimed and culturally unidentifiable Native American cultural items ... that both are right. When it comes to Native Americans, in the cases of the wars and massacres, early colonials digging up grav...

• Word Count: 923
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... use of English. Through a variety of channels, Native Americans still affirm their cultural heritage. Native Americans have accepted the task to stay tied to their culture, to practice sacred ceremonies, to protect sacred and tribal lands, and to speak in a unified voice while preserving tribal identities. The silence the United States Government and others once hoped to achieve has been broken by ... ...

• Word Count: 822
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... as well, such as the Sioux and the Ojibway. Rituals varied very much and it would involve sacrifice and supplication. The eagle plays a large part of the Sundance. It is a sacred animal and it is the closest creature to the sun. The eagle represents many good human traits; it is courageous, swift and strong. It has great foresight and knows everything ... reborn, mentally and spiritually as well as physically. After the all dancers were torn free the Sundance was over. The Indians have to leave the area, the land is now sacred. The Sundance shows continuity between life and death - a re...

• Word Count: 350
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... western reaches of the United States. She believed that both the people invading the new lands with their sense of entitlement and the people who were trying to keep their sacred grounds from being overrun by strange new invaders from the east were both somewhat justified in their actions, and at the same time could not be excused for some of ... as mindless savages intent on destruction and killing. They did not understand that they were invading these peoples" homes, and as a result tramped obliviously over the graves of the Indians sacred dead. The Native Americans did not understand...

• Word Count: 1213
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... that is still associated to the traditional Indian way of life. The drum is more than just a musical instrument; it has a life of its own. Because the drum is so sacred, some drum groups even hold ceremonies to have their drums blessed and named. Gifts are made to it and some have their own ... sacred medicine pipes. The drum is made from a wooden shell and covered in animal hide; the wood represents honesty and the animal hide illustrates sharing. The average size drum is about ... ...

• Word Count: 1109
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... ; they knew very much about life east of the Mississippi. Once peaceful plain Indians but later turned rebellious due to the white man's destruction of what these Indians believed was sacred. First some of the major problems Indians had with the settlers were land and the buffalo. Land, settlers claimed whatever land they wanted whenever and no matter whose livelihood it ... forfeited their rights to the land because they hadn"t settled down to improve it." Buffalo, the main source the plain Indian depended on. The plain Indian treated this animal as sacred performing rituals before and ...

• Word Count: 547
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... who were "a quarter of a million Native Americans scattered between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains" (307). Taking advantage of their manifest destiny, Americans invaded and seized the sacred lands of the original Native settlers, as well as massacred the buffalo population to trade or just for fun, which was the main food source for the Native Americans in ... ...

• Word Count: 993
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... feminine spirit simultaneously. Two Spirit people usually work and wear clothing associated with both men and women. The Navajo culture traditionally values the balance of masculine and feminine to maintain sacred order, so someone who is gifted with an understanding of both is seen as valuable, and is treated with respect. This is unlike Western culture where gender variant people have ... ...

• Word Count: 543
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... dismissed as mere embellishment. It answers a human need. As Plato saw, the search for the beautiful is only another aspect of the search for the true and the good." The Sacred Garden, Spiritual artwork 1997-2003, http://www.sacredgarden.org/art.html Native American Art is purely a projection of their spirituality and is reflected in all that they create, even in ... ...

• Word Count: 979
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... respect for nature and animals. Before the Spaniards and Europeans introduced Jesus into their lives I think that they make have kind of worshipped animals. The white buffalo is still held sacred by many Western tribes. I was told that along time ago my ancestors would walk outside after a child was born and the first animal that they saw was the baby's name ... ...

• Word Count: 839
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• Grade Level: High School

... a very smart and spiritual people. Anything viewed by the natives to live in two worlds, for example a bird because it fly's and also walks on the ground, was viewed as sacred. They had games and customs as we do today, there's were just a little stranger. With the drinking of a black liquid the men would vomit to see who could project it ... ...

• Word Count: 832
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• Grade Level: High School

... of these characteristics are that they all seem to believe in the existence of a high god or vital force along with lesser gods and spirits and that certain individuals possess sacred power and therefore can act as intermediaries between the tribe and the deities. In the ceremonies associated with ritual and initiation, they engaged in certain traditional rites that were designed ... ...

• Word Count: 1020
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• Grade Level: High School

... were anxious to destroy all the sighs of the old religion, and all old customs. The Pueblo people were forbidding of native dancing, and so were Kachina-dolls and other sacred thing. The Pueblo people were forced to adapt the moral codes of the Franciscans, while the Franciscans didn't always follow those themselves. All this hard for the Pueblos people, especially ... ...

• Word Count: 1128
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... is safe to say that the Native Americans did indeed hold the land they lived on in very high regard. According to one Sioux, "Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished." (Harrison, aol.com ... ...

• Word Count: 670
• Approx Pages: 3