Hopi: The Hopi Way

Image Via Grand Canyon Association
The image above shows Hopi people dancing in an (annual) traditional ceremony along with handmade costumes and songs to incorporate. The word Hopi means “peaceful people”, which coincidentally portrays them perfectly. In order to live in peace and harmony, the Hopi people made a mutual decision to live the “Hopi way”. Involving ideals such as respectful behavior, humility, spirituality, caring for the Earth, family cohesion, generosity and work ethic, this lifestyle aided the Hopis to establish a rich religious culture that independently thrived prior to the arrival of the Europeans in 1540. From growing their own produce, to creating costumes from scratch for traditional ceremonies, the Hopi people were able to apply the Hopi way to daily activities, thus forming a mutual attitude towards nature and one another, allowing them to all live in harmony. The religion, customs and livelihood of the Hopis (demonstrated above) would not have remained stable if it weren’t for these consistent guidelines of life that helped the Hopis overcome obstacles and struggles together as one community. The Hopi way has not only monumentally affected the lives of each Hopi, but has unified their community and left a legacy that will be carried out for as long as the Hopi tribe may stand. As for my primary source, I used one that is first person point of view from an actual Hopi. He represents the Hopi community and the Hopi way well by explaining their morals and beliefs in his testimony before Bureau of Indian Affairs. I also used three books and one website, all of which incorporated the theme of the Hopi way, but individually centered around various aspects of their daily lives and livelihood.

Anasazi: The People of the Caves

Image via: photobucket

The picture above shows Chaco Canyon, located near Albuquerque New Mexico. I chose this photo because it really shows just how massive the Anasazi were able to get. With their often, very big houses, and their village located inside of a canyon, these people were not only able to adapt and survive, but were also able to thrive. The sources I chose were references from a database that contained culture, history, among many other things about the Anasazi. It showed me that these people were much ahead of their time, and with help from their location, were able to do things many other tribes weren’t able to do.

The primary source that I chose is an image of a ceramic duck, it was found around Chaco Canyon and was thought to have carried water for spiritual purposes, believing that this relic would help bring rain, the Anasazi carried this many places. The Anasazi also constructed primal trade routes, building very long roads that connected other groups of Anasazi, and also helped to create ties with other MesoAmerican groups.
The sources that I chose to use were references in a database called 'abc clio'. This database is very trusted, and can easily be used to find information on a variety of things.

Bibliography

Bureau of Land Management, ‘Duck Effigy Vessel’, 2014.

http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/ahc/artifact_gallery/duck_effigy_vessel.html

Lister, Robert Hill, and Florence Cline Lister. Chaco Canyon: Archaeology and Archaeologists.

Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1981. Accessed Sept. 7, 2015

Pike, Donald, Anasazi: Ancient People of the Rock. American West Publishing Company, 1974. Accessed

7 Sept. 2015.

Ubbelohde, Carl, et al. A Colorado History, Boulder, CO: Pruett Publishing Company, 2003.

Accessed Sept. 7, 2015

Watts, Timothy J. ‘Anasazi roads in Chaco Canyon.’, 2015.

http://ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1939042?

terms=chaco%20canyon&webSiteCode=SLN_HANC&returnToPage=%2fSearch%2fDisplay%2f193

9042%3fterms%3dchaco+canyon&token=011F8CC8EAF5E942C915374F47256332&casError=False

Accessed 7 Sept. 2015.

Navajo: Art and Women in Society

Photo via: Navajo Women and Culture

Navajo Tribe is an Indian tribe which are and were located in Southwest Unites States (mostly Utah area). During Pre-Historic times the Navajo Tribe was unique due to there inergration of women and the dipication of there sophisticated art. Navajo Women had many roles in society, but the three main roles which highly affected there society was industrializing, taking care of children, and art. Navajo women were not limited to staying at home and cooking, rather women would work in house jobs such as making fences and painting. Many women used to raise cattle such as sheep and goat, to use there wool and to make clothing, and other trade items. The goats would also be a great source of meat. Women had a say in there community and were highly respected. “Changing Women” is a oral tradition of the Navajo which is not only disscussed and shown in this ThingLink but is the root to why women in Navajo society were treated respectfully. Women were important to sustain Navajo religion and treat respect to there children. Oral tradition not only taught children but reminded women in the tribe there significance.The art produced by Navajo women such as pottery, baskets, and bead making truly affects the meaning and survival of Navajo people and there culture. Through art we discover that the Navajo people were not only cultured but civil people beliving in balance and livilyhood. This ThingLink will provide information on Prehistoric  Navajo art such as beadmaking, and pottery and also information on women in society and oral traditions.

Inuit: Living with nature

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

The Hopi Tribe: Never disappears

The famous August Snake Dance. Photo via: Legends of America

Before the Europeans, there used to be communities living near each other, creating their own way of life. The Hopi is one of them. I am very interested in the Hopi's life before contact with the Europeans. To really know about a society, you must dig deep into the way they work and live together. That is why my project emphasizes on the Hopi everyday life and things that have big impacts on them. With the picture, I tried to find the one that can reflect a lot about the Hopi. The picture I chose not only shows the traditional dance of the Hopi but also the costumes and houses. With the topics, I chose to delve into the following: who they were, how they organized their community, how they got over or suffered from diseases, their gender roles and their language. After some research, I realized how sophisticated the Hopi used to be. They were a large interdependent community with their own culture and religion. In fact, they still exist today with a smaller population. – it was the first thing that captured me when I started researching. It is extraordinary that their beautiful culture is still kept today. In summary, I believe that the Hopi tribe had never disappeared: they still exist in the legacies they passed down to their successors.

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Potawatomi / Bode'wadmi: Artisans of the Midwest

The Potawatomi Tribe

It is a challenge to find information pertaining to the Potawatomi tribe for the exact reason that sets them apart in history; they were not involved in a major historical event such as battles or conflict, and therefore many historians simply don't see the 'reason' to write about them. Unlike the stereotype of Native people being primitive or warlike, the Potawatomi were very advanced in the arts of healing and craftsmanship and valued peace, finding glory in art and culture rather than war. The picture featured above is of Conapaka, a Medicine Man (circa 1900), which I chose to represent the values of peace and community, and the emphasis on advancement of health, botanical, and agricultural sciences. Although all of the resources I selected for this paper are secondary sources, as very few primary sources exist, I have evaluated al of them thoroughly and all five of them are created for the purpose of education, with no further bias or agenda beyond informing the reader. Three of them are, in fact, created by tribe members themselves, and all are reputable. 

The ‘Potawatomi’ or Bode’wadmi are a midwestern Native American tribe who's name means ‘those who tend to the hearth-fire’.  They were historically spread through most of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois, but after contact were forced to either settle in smaller patches of their homelands or even south west to Kansas and the great plains, in an effort to make room in the upper midwest for French and English settlers. There was an estimated population of up to 15,000 tribe members at the time of contact, but after thirty years of they had decreased to 4,000 or less.

They spoke a polysynthetic Algonquian language (by the same name of the tribe itself) which has now mostly died out and is only spoken by less than a hundred people. They’d long had a written pictographical alphabet before contact with settlers, but in the mid-1800s, sometime between 1830 and 1860 Fr. Christian Hoecken and Fr. Maurice Gailland, two Jesuit missionaries, developed a romanized syllabic alphabet, and much later in the 1970s, the Wisconsin Native American Languages Program created a revised pedagogical alphabet was created for the purpose of teaching modern-day Bode’wadmi their own language.

The Bode’wadmi were relatives and allies to the Ojibwe and Ottawa tribes in an alliance commonly known as The Council of Three Fires. The role of the Bode'wadmi was as keepers of the fires, tending to the well being of both the people and the culture. The three tribes have many similarities in region, dress, arts, and language, and often cooperated and intermixed. The Bode'wadmi were mostly distinguished by a more sedentary lifestyle, and their focus on agriculture, farming, and medicine as opposed to hunting deer or fish like their neighbours.

The mythology of the Bode'wadmi is very similar to that of other Anishinaabe tribes such as the Ottawa, Ojibwe and Algonquin. The main characters of most Bode'wadmi stories are Nanaboozhoo, the hero, Nokmes, his grandmother, and Chibiabos, Nanaboozhoo's brother and the ruler of the dead. The spirits and monsters often mentioned in these myths are Deer Woman, Underwater Panther, Thunderbird, Mermen, Pa'is (little forest people, comparable to gnomes), and windigo, created from the spirits of evil Bode'wadmi turned into monsters as punishment.

Bibliography

Ager, Simon. "Potawatomi (Bode'wadmi)." Omniglot. Last modified 2015. Accessed October 8, 2015. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/potawatomi.htm.

Edwards, Rose. "Native Genealogy: People of 3 Fires." US Gen Web Project. Last modified 2004. Accessed October 8, 2015. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~minatam/.

"Native Languages of the Americas: Nanaboozhoo Stories and Other Potawatomi Legends." Native Languages of the Americas. Last modified 2015. Accessed October 8, 2015. http://www.native-languages.org/potawatomi-legends.htm.

"Native Languages of the Americas: Potawatomi (Nishnabek, Pottawatomie, Pottawatomi)." Native Languages of the Americas. Last modified 2015. Accessed October 8, 2015. http://www.native-languages.org/potawatomi.htm.

Sultzman, Lee. "Potawatomi History." Tolatsga. Last modified December 18, 1998. Accessed October 8, 2015. http://www.tolatsga.org/pota.html.

Image:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/342977327844497585.