SUNY First Peoples 2017 Fall 2

For this blog I reviewed the resource of The Six Nations: Oldest Living Participatory Democracy on Earth which was authored by Bruce E. Johansen, Donald A. Grinde and John Kahionhes Fadden. On this resource page there were excerpts from a book called Exemplar of Liberty written by Grinde and Johansen. The Six Nations included the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondagas, Cayuga and Seneca tribes. Eventually the Tuscaroras moved in to the area and became the 6th nation. This is familiar information for most people who grew up in New York State. The new information that I learned had to do with the Six Nations participation and inspiration in the development of the US democracy. The Iroquois Chiefs were invited to the meeting hall of the Continental Congress. There was a speech given indicating that the new nation wanted to maintain its ties to the Iroquois and hoped that they could maintain their friendships. At the end the chiefs asked to give John Hancock an Indian name and they called him "Kar...

     Storytelling, more specifically history, has provided humanity with a plethora of attested records including photographs, sound clips, video footage, writings, and artistic impressions.   The crucial key for defining any documentary impulse therefore has to be within the root word “document”.   The word “document” itself can be either a noun or a verb depending upon its usage, yet both forms coincide with one investigative purpose in relation to storytelling. Defining the documentary impulse from a historian’s point of view requires a confrontation with reality through the immersion process. By examining oral traditions of Native Americans and early artistic impressions we, as historians, are able to gain valuable insight into a unique world view of which is often overlooked. To open, here is a painting by George Catlin entitled, " Ball-play of the Women, Prairie du Chien , 1835-1836.           Luce Center L...

The Lewis and Clark expedition is often mentioned when discussing westward expansion by early Americans into the western frontier.  What is not well discussed is the overwhelming number of tribes that Lewis and Clark encountered on their expedition and the various methods that Lewis and Clark used when encountering these different tribes.  They would explain to the tribes that President Thomas Jefferson was their new “great father.”  This was a title reserved for the patriarch of the tribe.  The members of the expedition would trade with the tribes and give a peace medal with the image of President Jefferson and two hands held together, which clearly shows peaceful unity between the United States and the tribes.  One of the tribes that the expedition encountered, the Blackfeet Indians, had a bad interaction with the Americans.  Rival tribes to the Blackfeet, the Shoshones and the New Perces, reached a peace agreement with the United States via the expediti...

    "Nabokov's Testimony and The Menominee Folktale" The resource that has interested me the most so far in this course is Peter Nabokov's book “Native American Testimony”. It is cool reading first hand accounts of Natives coming to understand seeing white settlers or a certain animal for the first time. The European accounts Ive heard in history classes growing up, and that seems to be the voice that is “loudest” in the history books. The testimonies of the Native Americans are very fascinating and I wish I read them earlier in my history classes. There is a sense of peacefulness in the way Natives talk about the earth and life in general that is very impressive to me. My Favorite account is the folktale “Thunder, Dizzying Liquid, Cups that do not grow” because it shows the Natives already had a sound way of living before the Europeans came, and shows that the White Man and the Native people had different ideas of what is important in life. Europeans had the...

250 word blog M1 In module one, we have read a variety of personal stories, cultural contributions, and accounts of Native American Culture. From these variety of sources, I have found that the most interesting is the storytelling which speaks of what is to be and has not been. The ability for the Indian to know what is going to happen years before it occurs makes them wise. The reference to Spirit as what the Christian culture refers to as similarly the Holy Spirit is not that different. The comparison of the two cultures in the assigned reading is reflective of the knowledge of the wise tribal elders that the white culture would be sharing beliefs with Native American culture as they descended upon the lands of Indians. This historical content is supportive of how these things were expected to occur and what happened. The innocence of the Indians based on their lack of technological or mechanical evolution shows that the advancements of the White man were perceived as harmful. The ...

Oren Lyons the Faithkeeper Because of my interest in learning as much about Haudenosaunee culture as I can, I watched this video twice, and plan to use the resources talked about in the film. Oren Lyons talks about the greater way forward, or the way that leads to most habitable, sustainable way of life forward to the 7 th generation. I agree and feel that developing this mind-set in the majority of America’s population can seem like a formidable task, and yet we have a groundswell of people who are beginning to look at this as the only option if we are to sustain life on the planet. Another way, I feel to bridge the gap so to speak, with white American culture and Indigenous cultures (like the Haudenosaunee) is to exchange knowledge and discussion, and events, and food, and any other single thing that can provide a benefit to each other. I’m not talking about assimilation or cultural mis -appropriation of cultural aspects – there’s certainly enough of that and we don’t n...

Chief Joseph was born Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, or Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain in 1840 in Northeastern Oregon, then known as Wallowa Valley. He was known as Joseph after his father, Joseph the Elder, was took the name when he was baptized in 1838. His father was one of the first Nez Perce to convert to Christianity, and was a supporter of the tribe’s longstanding peace with whites. This all changed in 1863 when the federal government took back almost six million acres of this land. Joseph the Elder felt betrayed and blamed the United States. He refused to move his band from the Wallowa Valley to a reservation in Idaho.   After his father passed away, Joseph the Younger was elected Chief. The tribe was in the middle of an unstable situation as white settlers continued to inhabit the Wallowa Valley. In 1873, the federal government ordered the white settlers to be removed from the area, and to allow Chief Joseph’s people to remain. In 1877 the federal government rescind...