Back in 1911, the last aboriginal Indian ever to be seen in his natural state, walked into modern civilization, and brought with him his stoneage technology.Ishi was lucky to be recognized as an anthropological find by the staff (Waterman & Kroeber) at the University of California at Berkley. Ishi came to live on campus, at the museum. He gave daily demonstrations on arrowhead and arrow manufacture along with other skills such as bow and spear making, firemaking, and lodge building. More....
"Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round.
In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished."
American Indian traditional ways of life are learned through experience. It wasn't anything they studied. It was how they were raised because those before them were stingy and clung to the culture. They had an intrinsic resistance against assimilation. The people hung onto the beliefs in the face of adversity. They didn't learn about the traditional ways, they were raised that way. Even those who were not raised in a traditional home relate that they returned to the traditions by learning about them as a way of life. Practicing the culture and the traditional ways is a way of life rather than something that you carry around as knowledge."
American Indian learning occurs through observation, listening and doing. American Indian culture is taught through practice. Parents teach by example. They taught that you always feed guests and practice hospitality, share and respect elders. They taught the importance of the family. American Indians learned not just from their parents, but from their entire family. There was no distinction between extended and nuclear family, everyone was family. These are relationships of the heart.
One of the traditional ways is to make a relative. A boy died when he was 12 and she asked a mother if he would be her son. So she was my mother too. I had three mothers. She came from the old way, and I got a lot of teachings from her. I used to listen to her for hours, to her teachings and her stories. Sometimes I would ask questions and sometimes I wouldn't have the answers.
Children learn to drum through observation and doing. "When I think of the drums", I think it is the purest form of teaching. The drum sits in a circle, in the sacred circle. The boys stand next to those who are drumming and watch while they practice. The younger ones learn by doing it and by paying attention."
Storytelling is another way of learning about traditional ways. For the Ojibwe and Dakota, stories were told only when there was snow on the ground. This was because certain stories and words are too powerful to be talked about at other times of the year. Once the harvest and hunting were over, and the wood was collected, people sat around, told stories and talked about their ways of life when they were growing up. The storytelling tradition is still integral to American Indians. Stories were for entertainment during the long winter months, and they also served to hand down values and beliefs. Grandparents are often looked to as storytellers. Grandmothers could tell a lot of stories after stories. More...