History and ContributionsTo American Literature and Culture

Humanities II: Survey of American Literature

Beginnings…

Nomadic tribes came to North America from Siberia over a land/ice bridge which once connected it to what is now Alaska.

AlaskaBering

Strait

Siberia -

Nomadic = Roaming from place to placeStrait = A narrow space or passage

Research indicates that some people may have used boats to migrate south.

Different tribes from different regions spoke many different languages but still had similar customs and practices.

What indigenous people wore depended largely on the weather in their region, but most clothing was fashioned from animal hide and/or fur.

Indigenous = native to a certain land or region

Regalia = excessively fine ordecorative clothing

Mukluks (or boots) were used by the Inuits and others in cold climates such as Canada.

Moccasins were oftentimes decorated extensively with beads, weaving, and leather strapping.

Inuit = similar indigenous people in- habiting northern Canada (Eskimo)

Generally, the larger and grander an Indian headdress was, the more important the person wearing it was in his tribe.

In some tribes, chiefs wore very long headdresses with sacred eagle feathers in them for formal occasions but never wore them into battle because they would get in the way of fighting.

See pg. 21 in textbook

Depending on where they lived, what tribe they belonged to, whether they were young/old or male/female, what theirrole was in the tribe,and what the occasion was helped determine what a Native American might wear.

Blackfoot male

http://www.nativetech.org/clothing/regions/regions.html

Three hundred years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, the cliff dwellings of the Anasazi (ancestral pueblo people) in the four corners’ region of the southwest were mysteriously abandoned. (Pg. 1 text)

IglooPueblo tipi

Long house wikiup

Notice the fine details and craftsmanship in these examples.Interesting fact: Indian baskets were known to be so tightly woven that, smeared with bear grease on the outside, they could hold water. They were lighter for hauling than pottery water jugs.

Totem poles are usually connected with tribes from the Pacific Northwest. Depending on the tribe, totems were used for a variety of purposes, some merely artistic.

They can also be used to illustrate stories, commemorate historical persons or to represent shamanic or spiritual powers. What’s important to remember is that they were never made as objects of worship.

Healers would create sand paintings on the floor of tipis or hogans. The were said to summon healing spirits which could cure various afflictions. They were never meant to be permanent and were destroyed after the healing ceremonies took place.

Today, you can buy sand paintings, but most authentic examples contain a “mistake” or error in order not to trap the healing spirits. (See page 22.)

Depending on their region, Native Americans ate game meats, corn, squash, berries, root vegetables, beans, fish, nuts, etc.

As you will read in the upcoming “Narrative of Captivity,” food was often scarce where harsh winters occurred. Many were happy to boil a maggot-ridden leg from a dead horse to stay alive.

Interesting fact: Although Native Americans traditionally used clubs, bows and arrows, lances, tomahawks and knives to ward off enemies, the practice of scalping was first introduced by Europeans, specifically, the English and the Dutch.

Indians returned the favor in kind and picked up the practice as a result of being introduced to it and to rifles.

In your text are two Native American fables.

The first “The Sky Tree” is a creation myth which serves to explain how the continents came about. Indian stories and fables were highly

metaphorical. Indians commonly used animals as characters in

their stories. The fables are very similar to Greek myths.Fable = a short moral storyMetaphor(ical) = symbolic (a comparison

designed to further explain something).

The second fable in your textbook is related to a famous Indian hero, coyote (“Coyote Finishes His Work on page 24 ).

Many tales about coyote exist in some Indian traditions, and the one in your book is a good example of the adventures of this tricky and intelligent creature. He is personified as both clever and sometimes arrogant but comes across as an important figure who is also a help and savior to earth.

Indians used the “oral tradition” similar to the early Greeks such as Homer who composed the “Odyssey.”

Many hundreds of Indian languages existed, so writing down and translating stories was difficult.

Many people did not even recognize that a wealth of Indian literature existed prior to the late 1800’s

It is important to note this quotation from your textbook:

“Columbus did not discover a new world; he established contact between two worlds, both already old.”

-J.H Parry, The Spanish Seaborne Empire

Surrender Speech by Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce

…what he told me before , I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting.  Our chiefs are killed.  Looking Glass is dead.  Toohulhusote is dead.  The old men are all dead.  It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led the young men is dead.      It is cold and we have no blankets.  The little children are freezing to death.  My people, some of them, have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food.  No one knows where they are--perhaps freezing to death.  I want to have time to look for my children and see how many I can find.  Maybe I shall find them among the dead.      Hear me, my chiefs.  I am tired.  My heart is sick and sad.  From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.”

October 15, 1877