Finding The Roots Of America In Indigenous Culture
Finding American Culture
For many countries, it is easy to point at one festival or ethnic dress and say that this is their traditional culture. Defining America, however, is far more difficult. As a nation that has reinvented itself nearly every decade of the 20th century and spread its culture to nearly every corner of the globe, finding something that is uniquely American is easier said than done.
Some people travel to America for the towering skyscrapers of New York or the theme parks of Florida. But besides the luxury shopping and novelty amusements, it is difficult to find a culture that stretches back to the roots of America. The beginning of American culture starts with the indigenous people that have called this land home long before the first Europeans stepped foot on what they considered the New World.
Most Americans even believe that the First Nations of this country have long been erased and can only be found in museums and history books. While the colonists and imperial powers tried their best to eradicate native culture, the people still live on. Although indigenous culture is not something your typical tourist will find while roaming the streets of New York or L.A. Those wanting to see something that is purely American should seek out the true owners of this country.
You can read more about the Indigenous Peoples Movement in the United States here!
Seeing America Through A Different Lens
When one travels abroad they typically want to live the way the locals do and see the world through their eyes. Travelers don’t want to see a mere performance but a culture which the people embody and carry out in their daily lives. Knowing what you would want to experience in a country like India or Japan and applying the same formula to America is sure to bring you to the gates of various Native American tribes in the US.
Native American reservations are one of the only places in America where you can see a living culture that has its roots well before the founding of the United States. Countries such as New Zealand have blended elements of the indigenous Maori people into their national identity. This is one area where America has flat out failed. Rather than bringing together indigenous and majority culture, the United States would rather remember natives only through Wild West movies and George Catlin paintings.
The unfortunate reality of experiencing American culture is that in order to witness indigenous traditions you will have to travel way off of the beaten track. Far off the tourist trail.
You can read about the Cherokee Nation in North Carolina here!
More Than One Culture
Due to false portrayals in film and generalized stereotypes, all Native Americans are wrongfully seen as being of the same culture. The truth of their story is that nearly every corner of this vast country has unique tribes with various traditions, languages, and religions. With wigwams in the American North East, tipis in the Great Pains, and pueblos in the South West, these examples barely scratch the surface of the diverse architecture and culture spread across the United States.
In order to appeal to the white population and their misconceptions about indigenous cultures, many tribes have adopted a typical “cowboys and Indians” visage for show. Fortunately, the youth today are much better informed than past generations and popularity in the Wild West has waned. Hopefully, the nations of today can continue to revive their own unique cultures without having to fit the mold which the white population has set for them.
What to read more about tribes from the Eastern Woodlands? Check out this article here!
Becoming One Tribe
The tribes which made up the Eastern Woodlands were the first people to make contact with the European settlers. This means that they were also the first Native Americans to adopt or forcefully assimilate to western culture. Over the centuries, most of these tribes were either integrated into larger nations such as the Cherokee or totally wiped off the map. The tribes of the Great Plains and the American West have a closer connection with their traditional culture, but the people of the east coast are still struggling to recover their identity.
As many tribes throughout the United States are still trying to pick up the pieces of a culture which has been stolen from them, Native Americans throughout the country have unified as one tribe. Inter-tribal pow-wows are an outlet for people of all indigenous backgrounds to get in touch with their roots and claim an identity as their own. Despite the fact that dances such as the jingle dance and grass dance may not have been a part of their ancestor’s culture, these pow-wows are a way for all nations who have been subjugated by colonial powers to come together as one tribe.
If you are looking for more information on Pow-wows be sure to read about the Great American Indian Exposition here!
The Heart Beats Towards The Future
One thing which can be heard from people of all tribes is that Native culture, much like American culture as a whole, is not stagnant. While the indigenous regalia of today has strong influences from their respective tribes, bright colors and more modern touches have made their way into contemporary native culture. As much as seeing what their forefathers may have looked like is important, native people are not a walking museum but the ancestors of a culture that has evolved over the years.
Events such as pow-wows and other traditional indigenous holidays are a time for their culture to come alive, but just because a person is not wearing regalia does not mean they stop being a Native American. Despite being targeted both inside their reservations and out, indigenous people have proved time and time again that their tribes will not simply bow out and have their names be a footnote in a history book.
Native Americans today are a mix of people from many backgrounds, you can read more on Native American identity here!
Supporting Indigenous People
Being a community that has been marginalized by most of the country, Native Americans are not a group of people that you see in everyday life. Their culture and traditions are typically isolated to reservations found deep in the countryside or far in the American West. Although indigenous culture has been persecuted and discriminated against for centuries, this does not mean that people of other ethnic backgrounds should be complicit with the crimes of the past.
It is the duty of all people to support native tribes which are striving to revive a culture that has been stolen from them. The mere act of attending a pow-wow should not be an underground affair but should be hand in hand with everything else considered American.
People of the United States are quick to claim baseball and apple pie as part of their culture but turn their noses up to the actual people who have lived on this land centuries before the first Europeans. As an American or a traveler in the United States, we should all remember that the very foundation of American culture starts with the Native Americans.
