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NATIVE AMERICANS

Native Americans
Danielle Young
University of Kentucky
Oct 13, 2014

NATIVE AMERICANS

Abstract
Native Americans have been perceived many different ways. People are associated with them
through different organizations. People have stereotyped Natives greatly. This essay discusses
typical stereotypes, family life, language groups, where they originated from, termination,
historical events, and typical every day Indian culture. It portrays how they have a very complex
society that most people are unaware of. In addition, Native Americans are poverty stricken on
reservations. Interviews that were conducted are perceptions of real life people stating their
opinions. This essay also give an in depth description on why Native Americans culture is so
important in our society today.

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Native American people should be honored and respected in our society. Their culture is
so complex and very unique from ours. Certainly, Native Americans culture is unique but things
that make it different are how and where they originated from, their religion and beliefs, their
reservations, and their many different types of languages. Furthermore, how they live their lives
on these reservations now and back then. Knowing someone that is native is very unique, they
have many different views and beliefs so I asked What does being a Native American mean to
you? He answered that Its a way to identify myself, I feel as if I have the opportunity to be in
an organization. We are all family. It makes me proud that my family comes from such an
amazing back ground, they were hunters and gatherers, and they were the first people to live in
America, before it was even America. Thats something to be proud of.
Native Americans languages are very widely spread out. A Native American language
group consist of members that are genetically related. They are very useful because they show us
clues to movement. The language is so broken up and different now anthropologist have to use a
common ancestor of the languages that forms to a language to trace it back, these are called
proto-languages. There is also Isolate languages that consist of no known relatives. The ways
anthropologist decipher these words are through cognates. It is words that have the same origin
and almost spelled the exact same way. The distributions of language groups across North
America contribute to our understanding of the history of Indian populations, such as the
migration. There were originally 500 languages spoken in North America by the Native
Americans but now there are only about 120 languages still active throughout America. There
are 9 major language groups still alive, these included Algic (Algonquin), Iroquoian,
Muskogean, Siouan, Athabaskan, Uto-Aztecan, Salishan and Eskimo-Aleut. In addition, there
are numerous proto languages around. Although some of the tribes live on the same reservation,

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it is not uncommon for them to speak a different language. Being part of a tribe is a very
complex process, they judge you entirely on your blood quantum level. Not your values or how
active you are. The interview that was conducted resulted in him saying that Yes I am
Cherokee. It was indicated by my blood quantum level. I know many other tribes have to have a
certain level or you will not be accepted in (I, 2). Blood quantum is how much Indian blood that
you have. Most tribes only accept members that are around 1/16- 1/8 Native American, on
average.
Many anthropologist have been trying to study and figure out exactly how and where the
Native Americans came from and originated. There are 10 culture areas, which are areas that
have relatively the same people living together. At first they thought they originated from India
because Christopher Columbus thought he was in India when he first arrived in the Americas.
But now, as Native Americans are studied, it is hypothesized that the Native Americans could
have originated in Asia and ventured to the Americas via of the land bridge. But no one is really
for sure. The Native Americans lived two types of life styles, Sedentary and Nomadic. Sedentary
life style included farming and agriculture life. They were stationary for agricultural purposes,
they used the land to farm. A Farming technique for example is the maize/beans/squash
formation. You plant the maize, the beans grow up the maize, and you plant the squash and it
grows on the ground. It saves space that they might not have had. Also, those vegetables
complement each other. They revitalize the soil and balance each other with the amino acids.
The people who were sedentary usually lived in the plains for areas that had a growing season.
People who were nomadic would have to move frequently because they would usually follow the
animals as they find new grazing land. They would live in teepees which were easily moveable
to adapt to their surroundings. They usually lived in subarctic cultures that is not sustainable for

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farming, so they have to adapt to their surroundings. Although they are different culture areas,
they all share similarities but, they also have very big differences.
While the first group of Europeans came over from across the Atlantic, they came to the
conclusion that Native Americans and Europeans are unable to live together do to the arrogance
of the Europeans. So as a result, they formed reservations out West for the Natives, they moved
them from the land that was rightfully theirs. They made them pack up everything they owned
and moved them out West where they was not use to the soil or climate. Many of them died
while making the journey across America. They created the termination/relocation act. It broke
tribes apart, relocated them to the cities and then the end result was cutting them off from the
federal government. This creates poor urban city areas. The Trail of Tears was a type of
relocation act, very extreme, but still considered. In one of my interviews I asked How do you
feel about the trail of tears? she responded that she felt as if it was a very bad decision among
white people. They took the land away from the Indians like it didnt matter. They forced them
out and so many people died. The Indians ended up in a place where they barely knew how to
adapt to their surroundings (I, 1).
The Native Americans also have a strict and complex family outlook. They do not have
the typical nuclear family. It is known as a Unilineal. Which is that one side of the family is
favored more than the other. Most of the time the mother side rules the tribe and makes the
decisions, they are known as the matrilineal. The fathers side is known as the patrilineal and
they are for moral and spiritual support. A clan is known as one big unilineal. The tribes of the
fathers side believe in Exogamy, which is marrying outside of the clan. They marry their
daughters off. Their cousins are not like the typical American family, they have parallel cousins,
which are children of the same sex siblings. They also have cross cousins which are children of

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the opposite sex siblings. And then there is also the teasing clan which is technically cousins but
they are not considered as close because they are part of another matrilineal. The family is a
very unique symbol to them, they see everyone as their family. Back when Indians were at war
with each other they would kidnap people to fill in spots in their tribes if someone got sick or
passed away.
In my interview, asking people what their point of view is on Native Americans since
they teach it was the easy part. Getting a true natives opinion on the subject was the hard part.
The points of view which was received from a professor just to see how unrelated or similar they
could be was interesting. Curious to know what she thought about if reservations was a kind
act? She said No, not at all. They gave them the worst land in America. It was in Montana and
Arizona in deserts. Then I was inquiring about what is the coolest thing about their culture? She
responded that They believe they are at one with nature, they are very spiritually connected to
the earth. They dont want to harm anything, they believe in spirits of all kinds. More questions
such as how is their family life set up? Is there a difference between a clan and a tribe?, Do
Native Americans and anthropologist get along?, and were white people racist towards Native
Americans in the beginning? With this interview conducted finding out that most of the tribes are
matrilineal, meaning that the women are actually in charge of the clan and tribes. The mothers
family is your providers, and your fathers side of the family is for spiritual guidance. Yes, a
tribe is made up of many clans. There could be multiple different families living together as one.
There are actually Native American anthropologist now. They did not use to though, there would
be events called grave diggings, and they would dig up Native American remains and study them
because white people thought Natives were so much different than us. And we were racist
against the Natives because we thought were not as intellectual as us. So we assumed it was

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impossible to live in peace with them. Thats also another reason why they wanted Native
Americans out of the New England region (I, 1).
Some things that people in our society do not recognize is the importance of poverty. In
2013, the official poverty rate was 14.5 percent, although it was down from 15.0 percent in 2012.
This was the first decrease in the poverty rate since 2006 (USCB, 2013). Poverty is when you
dont have enough sufficient fund to support your basic needs such as food, water, shelter,
clothing, etc. Not all Native Americans face those challenges, but they are real, particularly for the
nearly 3 million who live on reservations. By many measures of social well-being, Native Americans trail
the rest of the nation. According to the most recent data, the poverty rate among American Indians and
Alaskan Natives is 28 percent, compared to about 15 percent for the rest of the nation. Native Americans
graduate high school at a rate 14% lower than the general population, and Native American youths are
twice as likely to die before age 24 as any other race (Kennedy, K, 2014). These problems have not

received the appropriate national attention. They are not considered completely sovereign nation
due to Congress passing many acts against them. For example, the Alex White Plum hemp case.
He was busted because he was growing an acre of hemp by the federal government. But the
federal government infringed and disrespected the right of the Native Americans, uncovering the
situation of American Indian Religious Freedom Act. Also, there is another case called Cherokee
Nation v. Georgia. What happened was that Georgia approached Cherokee land and made them
subject to state law and made it illegal to have a government. They also deprived them of human
rights. The state court ended up siding with Georgia and a result is that the Native Americans lost
their political independence. In 1934 the Indian Reorganization Act stepped in on allotment,
tribes then could create their own self-government with certain restrictions. An example of one
of the restrictions is the Iroquois passport controversy. The Native American tribes were trying
to make it possible to make their own passports to travel outside of the government. The federal

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government had to step in and stop that action because it was technically not legit. If it would
have continued and the Natives wanted to do it, even the citizens of the United States would have
to have a passport to enter the reservations that are spread out through the United States. Since
that would almost be impossible to accomplish the federal government had to cease the process
of the tribes that made passports.
When the Native Americans lives were at a peak, they had the league of the Iroquois.
There were 5 nations. The two on the end was the guardians of the nations. The main one in the
middle had the most power, and was referred to similarly as the tree of life. It was there to keep
order and control since trade for beaver fur and wampum beads were in demands. It intensive
warfare, scared the origins from which they came from and it was a good opportunity for the
charter (important clan member) to gain correct human interactions. They roughly had 50 chiefs
to govern them. Although the 5 nations were mainly run by men. It was still known that women
are the head of the household. They are the foundation of social order, they tell whether or not
they need to repopulate the clan, keep track of the food supply, and appoint what men they want
to be the leaders. The women in this society are the head of the household, also known as the
backbone of longhouses. Also in the interview conducted he was a registered Native and so was
his parents and wondering if his family has any interesting customs is only normal. He responded
that his mothers family is the head of our household (I, 2).
Native Americans have a very complex belief system as well. They believe in animism,
which is that things especially animals and copper kettles have supernatural powers and you can
almost inherit them. Then I was inquiring about what is the coolest thing about their culture?
She responded that They believe they are at one with nature, they are very spiritually connected
to the earth. They dont want to harm anything, they believe in spirits of all kinds. Although

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Native Americans have a reputation for being nice, farming, nomadic, and many other things
conducting another interview to see about what a true Native American thought about the
culture/issues seemed like a reasonable decision. Asking him if he has ever been discriminated
for being Native American he said, Yes I have, there have been times people would do chants
and acted like I didnt believe in God and thought I was part of some different spiritual
connection. They also thought I can hunt and ride horses really well (I, 2). Proceeding with the
belief system there is this origin myth about Sky Woman. She is believed to reside in the
clouds, she over looked the clans and tribes and protects them. Women are known as the
foundation of social order up Sky Woman is who originated this thought. She is known as the
clan mother. Speeches are also a very powerful symbol in their society. It is looked at as power
yet creative, and could be dangerous if missed used. You have to earn the right to public speak
and thats typically only important/authoritative citizens within the tribes.
Native American people should be honored and respected in our society. They have been
through an incredibly long hardship with diseases and relocation. They have a very complex
belief system and family system. Native Americans are sometimes perceived differently because
of the stereotypes. Reservations are very multifaceted, especially their governing system. They
are truly very unique in different aspects in life, but in the end we are all humans and we all have
similar characteristics and different ones as well.

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NATIVE AMERICANS
REFERENCES
United States Census Bureau. (2013, January 1). Retrieved October 22, 2014.
Kennedy, K. (2014, September 6). Native Americans deserve respect - The Boston Globe.
Retrieved October 22, 2014.
Interviewee 1, October 9th 2014
Interviewee 2, October 8th 2014