Ethnic Identity Native Americans

ETHNIC IDENTITY AND ASSIMILATION:

NATIVE AMERICANS

(20th century)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1. HISTORY OF NATIVE AMERICANS

1.1. Native American groups/tribes in the 20th century (general background)

1.2 The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924

1.3 Native Americans and the WWII

1.4 The American Indian Movement

CHAPTER 2. NATIVE AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS

2.1 Indian Civil Rights Act

2.2. Other acts allowing civil liberties

2.3 Religious Rights

CHAPTER 3. PRESERVING THE CULTURE AND LANGUAGE

(e.g. Cherokee, Sioux, Navajo, Apache)

3.1 Cultural influences

3.2 Music and Art

3.3 Religion

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

Native Americans have faced and are still facing prejudice and racism in America. The Europeans initiated dominance and superiority from the first time they interacted with the Native Americans. After the Europeans had dominated the land which was occupied by the Native Americans, they continued to oppress them and suppress their cultures. After the revolutionary war, the new United States government sought to gain land through treaties of which payment offered for the land was from fair. When Native Americans resisted surrendering their homeland, the United States government simply used superior military power to evict them.

Today, a good definition of Native American is elusive. At least three general defining categories apply: biological, administrative, and mystical. Biological definitions are usually based on some percentage of “Indian blood,” commonly called “blood quantum” (e.g., one-quarter, one-eighth). Many tribes require a certain percentage of blood quantum to classify a person as a tribal member. Administrative definitions, often based on mystical and biological definitions, are also used to serve whatever agency formulated them, such as a government definition of natives for benefit and/or settlement purposes or a tribal definition of members for benefit and/or voting purposes. Mystical definitions may consist of romantic, spiritual, and even fictional views of a people descended from an ancient past. A person can claim to be an Indian if he or she somehow feels like one. All of these definitions are used, sometimes interchangeably. Today, more than 4.4 million Americans identify themselves as (at least part) Native American.(Debo, 5)

Throughout history, historians have had the ability to pass on the knowledge of the past because of written documents and other forms of evidence that acknowledge the existence of past civilizations and cultures. When there are no written documents, whether lost or never created, it can be more difficult for historians to explain past civilizations. The Native Americans were a group that kept no written records. The information that we know today was passed down from generation to generation through oral traditions. Despite the information we have, there is much more that researchers don't know about because a considerable amount of information has either been lost or has been impossible to obtain. But from what we already know, historians can conclude there are common characteristics that seem to be shared by all of the Native Americans.( Mauk, p. 15)

The predominant view of white explorers and settlers was that they were interacting with savages. This belief in superiority led many to feel that they had the right to take the land for themselves and to enslave Native Americans for their own prosperity. While many attempted to understand the native cultures upon arrival, others found them to be savage and foreign. Because of this lack of understanding, their customs were often misunderstood.

Native Americans are located geographically across the entire continent of North America. Their culture varies as much as their locations as they each have their own traditions.

This paper tries to examine the way in which the Native Americans have evolved as people across their tumultuous history, reaching their acknowledged identity during the 20th century. It also underlines and discusses the civil rights gained by these indigenous people and how their worldviews, culture and language are so different from those of present day civilization.

Lastly, the paper looks at the process of ethnic assimilation of Native Americans in the 20th century and the government's purpose in creating them benefits, thus achieving to understand what happened to Native Americans’ identity during the course of time.

This paper finally examines the phenomenon of ethnic identity change and the role of politics in prompting the reconstruction of individual ethnicity within American people. Specifically, I examine the history, culture and religion of the American Indian people in order to understand the conditions and factors that lead individuals proclame their racial identity.

Ethnicity can refer not only to somatic or physical differences, but also to differences in language, religion, or culture. The importance of race in historical and contemporary American ethnic relations is acknowledged.

My research draws on historical and cultural data, and discusses Native American ethnic identity that led to ethnic change in the 20th century. Thus we may observe an ethnic renewal of the American people which involves the reconstruction of an ethnic community by current or new community members who build or rebuild institutions, culture, history, and traditions.

Changes in American political culture brought about by the ethnic politics of the civil rights movement of the Native Americans created an atmosphere that increased ethnic consciousness, ethnic pride, and ethnic mobilization among all ethnic groups. The resulting "Red Power" Indian political activist movement of the 1960s and 1970s started a tidal wave of ethnic renewal that surged across reservation and urban Indian communities, stimulating ethnic pride and encouraging individuals to claim and assert their "Indianness." (Donaldson, 22)

It has also been argued that the Native American people has been exploited for commercial purposes and that elements of native culture have been appropriated and distorted to suit the needs of the dominant culture, irrespective of the harm done to native people and Indian tribes. This is a form of “cultural imperialism,” a problem confronted by indigenous people all over the world.(Ibidem)

Below I provide a historical, political and cultural framework for interpreting Native American ethnic identity generally, outline the role of organizational factors, such as political policies, ethnic politics, and ethnic political activism in prompting or strengthening Indian ethnic identification and explore the meaning and influence of Native American tribes in the 20th century social and cultural context.

CHAPTER 1. HISTORY OF NATIVE AMERICANS

Native American groups/tribes in the 20th century (general background)

Native Americans are more commonly known as Indians or American Indians, and have been known as Aboriginal Americans, Amerindians, Amerinds, Colored, First Americans, Native Indians, Indigenous, Original Americans, Red Indians, Redskins or Red Men.

The term Native American was introduced in the United States by academics in preference to the older term Indian to distinguish the indigenous peoples of the Americas from the people of India, and to avoid negative stereotypes associated with the term Indian. Some academics believe that the term Indian should be considered outdated or offensive. Many indigenous Americans, however, prefer the term American Indian. (Spencer, 19)

Others point out that anyone born in the United States is, technically, native to America. In this sense, "native" was substituted for "indigenous". Today, people from India (and their descendants) who are citizens of the United States are called Indian Americans or Asian Indians.

Criticism of the neologism Native American comes from diverse sources. Russell Means, an American Indian activist, opposes the term Native American because he believes it was imposed by the government without the consent of American Indians. He has also argued that the use of the word Indian derives not from a confusion with India but from a Spanish expression En Dio, meaning "in God".( Billard, 55)

Furthermore, some American Indians question the term Native American because, they argue, it serves to ease the conscience of "white America" with regard to past injustices done to American Indians by effectively eliminating "Indians" from the present. Still others (both Indians and non-Indians) argue that Native American is problematic because "native of" literally means "born in," so any person born in the Americas could be considered "native". The compound "Native American" is generally capitalized to differentiate the reference to the indigenous peoples.

Native Americans encompasses a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of them still enduring as political communities.

The terms "Amerindian" and "Indian", both of which are derivatives of "American Indian" (as is "Amerind", though this term is more popular in linguistic circles), are not necessarily completely synonymous with "Native American". Although all Amerindians are Native Americans, not all Native Americans are Amerindians. "Amerindian" relates to a mega-group of people spanning the Americas that are related in culture and genetics, and are quite distinct from the later arriving Eskimos (Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut peoples native to Alaska and arctic Canada). The latter share their cultural and genetic commonality with other arctic peoples not native to the American continent, such as those from arctic Russian Siberia. (La Farge, 72)

The term Native American may be construed to either include or exclude the Metis of Canada and the Mestizos and Zambos of Latin America.

Other indigenous peoples that are native to territorial possesions of American countries but are not specifically "Native American" (in the sense that they are not native to the actual lands that comprise the American continent) are a diversity of Pacific Islanders including: Native Hawaiians (also known as Kanaka Moli and Kanaka 'Oiwi) in the US state of Hawaii, natives of American Samoa (USA) and natives of Easter Island (Chile). (Adalberto Aguirre Jr., 80)

Based on anthropological and genetic evidence, scientists generally agree that most Native Americans descend from people who migrated from Siberia across the Bering Strait, 11,000 years ago. (http://pediaview.com)

While many Native American groups retained a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle through the time of European occupation of the New World, in some regions, specifically in the Mississippi River valley of the United States, in Mexico, Central America, the Andes of South America, they built advanced civilizations with monumental architecture and large-scale organization into cities and states.

While there were striking similarities that speak to a common ancestry, each tribe considered itself separate and different from other tribes. These diverse tribes interacted with one another violently in times of war and peacefully through trade.( Dennis, 58)

By the 19th century, most of the eastern tribes had been pushed steadily westward. There were periods of resistance to being placed on reservations; however, the voice of acculturation was growing from those who were a part of both the white and native cultures. Tribes who embraced the ways of America were not immune to tragedy as they too were pushed westward by the Jacksonian Era. Ironically, the land in the west that had been set aside as Indian Territory also caught the attention of settlers. By the dawn of the Civil War, settlers were encroaching on ancient hunting grounds of the nomadic tribes of the Great Plains and on reservation lands hrough trade.( Dennis, 58)

By the 19th century, most of the eastern tribes had been pushed steadily westward. There were periods of resistance to being placed on reservations; however, the voice of acculturation was growing from those who were a part of both the white and native cultures. Tribes who embraced the ways of America were not immune to tragedy as they too were pushed westward by the Jacksonian Era. Ironically, the land in the west that had been set aside as Indian Territory also caught the attention of settlers. By the dawn of the Civil War, settlers were encroaching on ancient hunting grounds of the nomadic tribes of the Great Plains and on reservation lands of those Eastern Tribes who had been pushed west.( Spencer, 28)

By 1861, the most able commanders had been called east to handle the ensuing crisis in the nation. This left small numbers of troops commanding posts and forts across the Great Plains. Their job was to ensure that settlers in their vicinity had protection if necessary and that the technology that connected the nation was kept intact and safe. Also, the troops defended the area from the Confederate western forces. Their mission was compounded by the fact that overland trails were virtually closed by Native American “dog soldiers” who were railing against the growing numbers of settlers. (Billard, 74)

Native Americans are a diverse group, encompassing 556 federally recognized tribes in the United States—including close to 200 village groups in Alaska—and more than 250 languages and dialects. Thus, in 2000, the estimated median age of Native Americans is 27.8 years, about 8 years younger than the median for the population as a whole .

While the proportion of Native Americans has risen in the 20th century, they comprise only a fraction of the total U.S. population (less than 1%), and as such represent even a smaller proportion of the population.

Following a period of major reductions in numbers in the 19th century, American Indians/Alaskan Natives grew rapidly from about 237,000 people in 1900 to slightly less than 2 million in 1990, to an estimated 2.4 million by August 1, 2000, according to data from the Census Bureau. (http://www.history.army.mil)

The American Indian and Alaska Native resident population has grown more rapidly than the nation’s population as a whole during the last decade— 17.9% versus 10.7% between April 1, 1990 and August 1, 2000. 5 Located throughout the United States, as of July 1, 1999, over a third were concentrated in just three states— California, Oklahoma, and Arizona .(Ibidem)

The people who first lived in North America can be called "American Indians," "Native Americans," and "First Nations People". It is not correct to use the terms such as "Red Indian" or "Redskin," because this name originally referred to a specific tribe, the Beothuks, who painted their bodies and faces with red ochre. There were hundreds of Native American cultures, from coast to coast and from the Yukon to the Gulf of Mexico. (Peck, 49-57)

The Native American tribes began to diminish when white settlers began to move onto their lands. Native Americans were eventually moved onto lands called reservations. Many died from disease during these forced moves. These were terrible times for Native American people.

By the end of the nineteenth century, it was commonly believed by scholars, politicians, and the general public that Indians were destined to disappear.

In the 20th century, many scholars continue to write as those Indians did, in fact, disappear by the twentieth century. Since there were not supposed to be any Indians in the twentieth century, there were not supposed to be any Indian wars in the 20th century. Yet there are many incidents involving military action against Indians as well as the actions of volunteer groups and law enforcement agencies against Indians that can be considered to be Indian "war" similar to those of the nineteenth century.

In spite of the story told by most history books in which the Indian wars end with the nineteenth century, it is evident that armed conflict between Indians and agents of the American government has continued. In fact, these conflicts have continued into the twenty-first century.

According to 2003 United States Census Bureau estimates, a little over one third of the 2,786,652 Native Americans in the United States live in three states: California at 413,382, Arizona at 294,137 and Oklahoma at 279,559.

As of 2000, the largest tribes in the U.S. by population were Cherokee, Navajo, Choctaw, Sioux, Chippewa, Apache, Blackfeet, Iroquois, and Pueblo. In 2000 eight of ten Americans with Native American ancestry were of mixed blood. It is estimated that by 2100 that figure will rise to nine of ten. (Haley, 60-65)

Native Americans in Canada

In Canada, the most commonly preferred term for Native Americans is The First Nations. First Nations peoples make up approximately 3% of the Canadian population. The official term – that is, the term used by the Act regulating benefits received by members of First Nations, and the register defining who is a member of a First Nation – is Indian.

The term First Nations excludes the Inuit and Metis, who are instead collectively recognized with the First Nations as Aboriginal peoples. (Donaldson, 34)

Native Americans in Mexico

The territory of modern-day Mexico was home to numerous Native American civilizations prior to the arrival of the European conquistadors:

Olmecs, who flourished from between 1200 BC to about 800 BC in the coastal regions of the Gulf of Mexico.

Zapotecs and the Mixtecs, who held sway in the mountains of Oaxaca and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec .

Maya ( into neighboring areas of contemporary Central America ).

Aztecs, who, from their central capital at Tenochtitlan, dominated much of the centre and south of the country (and the non-Aztec inhabitants of those areas) when Hernan Cortes first landed at Veracruz.

In contrast to what was the general rule in the rest of North America, the history of the colony of New Spain was one of racial intermingling (mestizaje). Mestizos quickly came to account for a majority of the colony's population; however, significant pockets of pure-blood indigenas (as the native peoples are now known) have survived to the present day.

With mestizos numbering some 60% of the modern population, estimates for the numbers of unmixed Native Americans vary from a very modest 10% to a more liberal (and probably more accurate) 30% of the population. The reason for this discrepancy the Mexican government's policy of using linguistic, rather than racial, criteria as the basis of classification.

While Mexicans are universally proud of their indigenous heritage, modern-day indigenous Mexicans are still the target of discrimination and outright racism. In particular, in areas such as Chiapas – most famously, but also in Oaxaca, Puebla, Guerrero, and other remote mountainous parts – indigenous communities have been left on the margins of national development for the past 500 years. Indigenous customs and uses enjoy no official status. The Huichols of the states of Jalisco, Nayarit, Zacatecas, and Durango are impeded by police forces in their ritual pilgrimages, and their religious observances are interfered with. (Donaldson, 65-66)

Native Americans in Belize

Mestizos (European with Native American) number about 45% of the population; unmixed Mayans make up another 10%.(Ibidem)

Native Americans in Guatemala

The Native Americans of Guatemala are of Maya origin. Pure Mayans account for some 45% of the population; although around 40% of the population speaks an indigenous language, those tongues (of which there are more than 20) enjoy no official status. (Donaldson, 67)

Native Americans in Other Parts of America

Native Americans make up the majority of the

population in Bolivia and Peru, and are a significant element in most other former Spanish colonies. Exceptions to this include Costa Rica, Cuba, Argentina, Dominican Republic, and Uruguay. At least three of the Amerindian languages (Quechua in Peru and Bolivia, Aymara also in Bolivia, and Guarani in Paraguay) are recognized along with Spanish as national languages.

Different tribes kept different records about their existence—some more than others—and most did not even begin keeping records until the early 20th century. In fact, early than the 20th century, many Native Americans did not have any records created about them at all—not by the Federal Government or by their tribe. They governed themselves separately and still do, today. Those Native Americans who left their tribe's reservations in the 19th and 20th centuries would work hard to integrate with the mainstream society.

Sometimes they would go so far as to refuse to declare their Native American race on official records (birth, marriage, and death) due to the prejudiced views and laws that were practiced at the time. And sometimes Native American children were wrested from their birth families and tribe to be placed with "white" families and lost touch with their Native American roots.( Donaldson, 68)

1.2 The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924

The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, also known as the Snyder Act, was proposed by Representative Homer P. Snyder of New York and granted full U.S. citizenship to America's indigenous peoples, called "Indians" in this Act. (The Fourteenth Amendment already defined as citizens any person born in the U.S., but only if "subject to the jurisdiction thereof"; this latter clause was thought to exclude certain indigenous peoples.) The act was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge on June 2, 1924.( http://www.nebraskastudies.org)

The Act granted citizenship to about 125,000 of 300,000 indigenous people in the United States. Those indigenous people that were not included in citizenship numbers had already become citizens by other means, entering the armed forces, giving up tribal affiliations, and assimilating into mainstream American life were ways this was done.

Even Native Americans who were granted citizenship rights under the 1924 Act, may not have had full citizenship and suffrage rights until 1948. According to a survey by the Department of Interior, seven states still refused to grant Indians voting rights in 1938. Discrepancies between federal and state control provided loopholes in the Act’s enforcement. States justified discrimination based on state statutes and constitutions.

Three main arguments for Indian voting exclusion were Indian exemption from real estate taxes, maintenance of tribal affiliation and the notion that Indians were under guardianship, or lived on lands controlled by federal trusteeship.

By 1947 all states with large Indian populations, except Arizona and New Mexico, had extended voting rights to Native Americans who qualified under the 1924 Act. Finally, in 1948 these states withdrew their prohibition on Indian voting because of a judicial decision.( Mauk, 42)

Under the 1924 Act indigenous people did not have to apply for citizenship, nor did they have to give up their tribal citizenship to become a U.S. citizen. Most tribes had communal property and in order to have a right to the land, Indians must belong to the tribe. Thus, dual citizenship was allowed. Earlier views on the way Indian citizenship should be granted, suggested allocating land to individuals. Of these land treaties, the Dawes Act, was the most prominent.

The Act would allocate land to individual Native Americans, and because they were landowners and eventually would pay taxes on the land and become “proficient members of society”(Apud ibidem), they would be granted citizenship. This idea was presented by a group of white American citizens, called “Friends of the Indian”, who lobbied for the assimilation of indigenous people into American society. They specifically hoped to do that by elevating indigenous people to the status of US citizens. Though the Dawes Act did allocate land, the notion that this should be directly tied to citizenship was abandoned in the early 20th century in favor of a more direct path to American citizenship.

Although some white citizen groups were supportive of Indian citizenship, Indians themselves were mixed in the debate. Those that supported it considered the Act a way to secure a long-standing political identity. Those that rejected it were worried about tribal sovereignty and citizenship. Many leaders in the Native American community at the time, like Charles Santee, a Santee Sioux, was interested in Native American integration into the larger society, but was adamant about preserving the Native American identity. Many were also reluctant to trust the government that had taken their land and discriminated so violently against them.( Shirer, 37-41)

This significant step in the battle for civil rights for American Indians is highlighted in this photograph of President Calvin Coolidge flanked by four Osage Indians, outside of the White House in 1925. The photograph was taken in a commemoration of the passage and signing of the Snyder Act. The Osage formerly inhabited the area between the Missouri and Arkansas Rivers, and were a part of the Sioux Nation.

President Calvin Coolidge with four Osage Indians after Coolidge signed the bill granting Indians full citizenship.

Source: http://www.nebraskastudies.org

The text of The Indian Citizenship Act read:

BE IT ENACTED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all noncitizen Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States be, and they are hereby, declared to be citizens of the United States: Provided, That the granting of such citizenship shall not in any manner impair or otherwise affect the right of any Indian to tribal or other property.(Apud Billard, 64)

The Constitution of the United States had not recognized American Indians as citizens, and the guarantees of rights to African Americans contained in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments did not extend to American Indians. The federal government and some of the states allowed individual Indians to enjoy the rights of citizenship following service in the armed forces, marriage to white citizens, or abandonment of tribal affiliations in order to own private property and pay taxes.

The Snyder Act was far more inclusive than other policies that dealt with citizenship, but it was not until the Nationality Act of 1940 that all people who were born on United States soil were automatically considered citizens. The Snyder Act created national citizenship for indigenous people in the United States, but the qualifications for state citizenship were determined by each individual state. The final state to grant full citizenship to American Indians was New Mexico in 1962.

One active assimilation proponent of the early 20th century, Dr. Joseph K. Dixon, wrote (referring to soldiers who served in World War I):

"The Indian, though a man without a country, the Indian who has suffered a thousand wrongs considered the white man's burden and from mountains, plains and divides, the Indian threw himself into the struggle to help throttle the unthinkable tyranny of the Hun. The Indian helped to free Belgium, helped to free all the small nations, helped to give victory to the Stars and Stripes. The Indian went to France to help avenge the ravages of autocracy. Now, shall we not redeem ourselves by redeeming all the tribes?"( Debo, 55)

Until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, Indians occupied an unusual status under federal law. Some had acquired citizenship by marrying white men. Others received citizenship through military service, by receipt of allotments, or through special treaties or special statutes. But many were still not citizens, and they were barred from the ordinary processes of naturalization open to foreigners. Congress took what some saw as the final step on June 2, 1924 and granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States.

The granting of citizenship was not a response to some universal petition by American Indian groups. Rather, it was a move by the federal government to absorb Indians into the mainstream of American life. No doubt Indian participation in World War I accelerated the granting of citizenship to all Indians, but it seems more likely to have been the logical extension and culmination of the assimilation policy. After all, Native Americans had demonstrated their ability to assimilate into the general military society. There were no segregated Indian units as there were for African Americans. Some members of the white society declared that the Indians had successfully passed the assimilation test during wartime, and thus they deserved the rewards of citizenship.

Dr. Joseph K. Dixon, an active proponent of assimilating the "vanishing race" into white society, wrote:

"The Indian, though a man without a country, the Indian who has suffered a thousand wrongs considered the white man's burden and from mountains, plains and divides, the Indian threw himself into the struggle to help throttle the unthinkable tyranny of the Hun. The Indian helped to free Belgium, helped to free all the small nations, helped to give victory to the Stars and Stripes. The Indian went to France to help avenge the ravages of autocracy. Now, shall we not redeem ourselves by redeeming all the tribes?" (Spencer, 61)

1.3 Native Americans and the WWII

In the 19th century, the Westward expansion of the United States incrementally expelled large numbers of Native Americans from vast areas of their territory, either by forcing them into marginal lands farther and farther west, or by outright massacres. Under President Andrew Jackson, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced the Five Civilized Tribes from the east onto western reservations, primarily to take their land for settlement. The forced migration was marked by great hardship and many deaths. Its route is known as the Trail of Tears. (Bernstein, 16)

Conflicts generally known at the time as "Indian Wars" broke out between U.S. forces and many different tribes. Authorities entered numerous treaties during this period, but later abrogated many for various reasons. Well-known military engagements include the atypical Native American victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, and the massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee in 1890. (Ibidem)

On January 31, 1876 the United States government ordered all remaining Native Americans to move into reservations or reserves. This, together with the near-extinction of the American Bison which many tribes had lived on, set about the downturn of Prairie Culture that had developed around the use of the horse for hunting, travel and trading.

Native Americans played a critical role in several world wars, supporting the United States as code takers.  Most well known were the 400 or so Native American Marines whose job it was to transmit secret tactical messages.  The actual code was transmitted via their native language over military telephone and/or radio communications nets.

Especially notable was the role Navajo speakers played during World War II in the Pacific Theatre  While code talking was originally pioneered by Choctaw Indians during World War I, the impact in the pacific often overshadows it.  Navajo has complex grammar and at the time was an unwritten language making it an indecipherable code.  There was no chance that anyone without extensive training and exposure to the language would ever be able to decipher it.  What was truly amazing about the Navajo code was the speed with which it would be encoded, transmitted and decoded.  While machines at the time took 30 minutes, the Navajos took just 20 seconds to complete the same task.(Bixler, 52)

It was 1942 when the Navajos first attended boot camp and the code was formally developed.  Several Navajo terms still live on in marine culture, such as the terms “ink sticks” to refer to pens (not to be confused with printer ink cartridges which clearly didn’t exist at the time).

Perhaps the most glaring evidence into the impact Navajos had on the war was when Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division signal officer declared, “were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would have never taken Iwo Jima.” ( Apud Jones, 28). The use of Navajo code actually continued right through the Korean War, and even into the early stages of the Vietnam War.

Sadly, code talkers received little in the way of formal recognition and thanks from the government. It wasn’t until the 1980s that the government officially recognized code talkers for the critical role they played.   In 1982 code talkers were given a Certificate of Recognition by President Regan. And then in 2000 US Congress and President Clinton awarded Congressional Gold Medals to 29 World War II Navajo code talkers.( http://www.virginiamemory.com)

Source: http://www.history.army.mil

The Navajo Code Talkers were essential to America's success in World War II. They were Navajo Marines who created a secret code that made it possible for the United States to defeat the Japanese in World War II and end the war.

Before World War II, every code that the United States had created for warfare had been broken. The success of this code was largely due to the complexity of the Navajo language.

The Navajo Code Talkers handled all of the major battlefield communications while the Americans were fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. None of their messages were ever deciphered. Those who returned from the war participated in the Enemy Way, a native ritual performed to get rid of evil spirits. It is almost certain that America would not have been able to win the war without the Navajo Code Talkers. It is thus hard to estimate the number of American lives that they saved.

1.4 The American Indian Movement

In the 30 years of its formal history, the American Indian Movement (AIM) has given witness to a great many changes. The leaders and members of today's AIM never fail to remember all of those who have traveled on before, having given their talent and their lives for the survival of the people. At the core of the movement is Indian leadership under the direction of NeeGawNwayWeeDun, Clyde H. Bellecourt, and others. (Dennis, 17)

Making steady progress, the movement has transformed policy making into programs and organizations that have served Indian people in many communities. These policies have consistently been made in consultation with spiritual leaders and elders. The success of these efforts is indisputable, but perhaps even greater than the accomplishments is the vision defining what AIM stands for.

The movement was founded to turn the attention of Indian people toward a renewal of spirituality which would impart the strength of resolve needed to reverse the ruinous policies of the United States, Canada, and other colonialist governments of Central and South America. At the heart of AIM is deep spirituality and a belief in the connectedness of all Indian people.
During the past thirty years, The American Indian Movement has organized communities and created opportunities for people across the Americas and Canada. AIM is headquartered in Minneapolis with chapters in many other cities, rural areas and Indian Nations. (http://www.nativeculturelinks.com)

AIM has repeatedly brought successful suit against the federal government for the protection of the rights of Native Nations guaranteed in treaties, sovereignty, the United States Constitution, and laws. The philosophy of self-determination upon which the movement is built is deeply rooted in traditional spirituality, culture, language and history. AIM develops partnerships to address the common needs of the people. Its first mandate is to ensure the fulfillment of treaties made with the United States. This is the clear and unwavering vision of The American Indian Movement.

Indian people live on Mother Earth with the clear understanding that no one will assure the coming generations except ourselves. No one from the outside will do this for us. And no person among us can do it all for us, either. Self-determination must be the goal of all work. Solidarity must be the first and only defense of the members. (Apud Adalberto Aguirre Jr, 77)

In November, 1972 AIM brought a caravan of Native Nation representatives to Washington, DC, to the place where dealings with Indians have taken place since 1849: the US Department of Interior. AIM put the following claims directly before the President of the United States (Billard, 68-70):

These twenty points, twenty-six years later, state clearly what has to happen if there is to be protection of Native rights, and a future free from the dictates of the country that surrounds the Native Nations. These claims clearly reaffirm that Indian people are sovereign people.

But despite the history and the accomplishments, AIM is difficult to identify for some people. It seems to stand for many things at once – the protection of treaty rights and the preservation of spirituality and culture.

Unlike the American civil rights movement, with which it has been compared, AIM has seen self-determination and racism differently. Desegregation was not a goal. Individual rights were not placed ahead of the preservation of Native Nation sovereignty.

Over the years, as the organizations have grown, they have continued to serve the community from a base of Indian culture. Before AIM in 1968, culture had been weakened in most Indian communities due to U.S. policy, the American boarding schools and all the other efforts to extinguish Indian secular and spiritual life.

Now, many groups cannot remember a time without culture. This great revival has also helped to restore spiritual leaders and elders to their former positions of esteem for the wisdom and the history they hold. All of these actions are in concert with the principles of AIM and came into being at this time in history because Indian people have refused to relinquish their sovereign right to exist as free and uncolonized people.

CHAPTER 2. NATIVE AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS

"We are tired of being the first Americans, with secondclass citizenship."

(Apud McCool, 10)

2.1 Indian Civil Rights Act

The Indian Bill of Rights (sometimes called the Indian Civil Rights Act) was passed by Congress in 1968 to correct what was felt to be a double standard of justice. It guarantees to reservation residents many of the same civil rights and liberties in relation to tribal authorities that the Federal Constitution guarantees to all persons in relation to Federal and State authorities. The Bill of Rights, (the first ten amendments to the Constitution) originally bound only the federal government, but after ratification of the fourteenth amendment portions of the Bill of Rights have also come to apply to state government. But for the over 550 American Indian nations currently recognized by the U.S. government, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights represent a social contract which was created without their representation long after their own social contracts. This is why, for example, federal courts had no power to try an Indian for a crime against another Indian on Indian land before the enactment of the Major Crimes Act.

Although all of the Bill of Rights applies to the federal government and most of it now applies to state government, it does not and never has applied to tribal governments. As a result, the Constitution would allow tribal governments to shut down newspapers, search tribal members without cause, and lock up tribal members without a fair trial.

The Indian Bill of Rights stated (ap. Prucha, 46-48):

No Indian tribe in exercising powers of self-government shall:

(1) make or enforce any law prohibiting the free exercise of religion, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition for a redress of grievances;

(2) violate the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable search and seizures, nor issue warrants but upon probable cause, supported

by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the person or thing to be seized;

(3) subject any person for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy;

(4) compel any person in any criminal case to be a witness against himself;

(5) take any private property for a public use without just compensation;

(6) deny to any person in a criminal proceeding the right to a speedy and public trial, to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and at his own expense to have the assistance of counsel for his defense;

(7) require excessive bail, impose excessive fines, inflict cruel and unusual punishments, and in no event impose for conviction of any one offense any penalty or punishment greater than imprisonment for a term of 6 months or a fine of $500, or both;

(8) deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of its laws or deprive any person of liberty or property without due process of law;

(9) pass any bill of attainder or ex post facto law; or

(10) deny to any person accused of an offense punishable by imprisonment the right, upon request, to a trial by jury of not less than six persons.The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall be available to any person, in a court of the United States, to test the legality of his detention by order of an Indian tribe.

The Indian Bill of Rights covers all federally recognized Indian, Eskimo, and Aleut tribes, bands, Pueblos, communities, villages, and rancherias which carry on any self-government functions. These include all native groups that have been organized under Federal statute, as well as those formally recognized by the Federal Government through treaty or Executive order. Although its language is unclear, the act probably does not protect Indians on State reservations which have no formal trust relationship with the Federal Government.(Wilkins, 17)

The act places responsibilities on tribal officials in much the same way that the Federal Constitution places responsibilities on Federal and State officials. It covers all tribal officials, including tribal chairmen and governors, tribal council members, tribal judges, prosecutors, and police, officials of special tribal agencies such as housing authorities and development corporations. All Indian courts are covered by the act, whether they are traditional or nontraditional, tribal courts or Courts of Indian Offenses. All persons, Indian and non-Indian who come under the authority of the tribe, are protected by the act. ( Schusky, 44)

One crucial question in the interpretation of the Indian Bill of Rights is whether it requires that the leaders of all Indian governments be chosen by popular elections. Such an interpretation of the act would be disastrous to those traditional tribal governments which choose their leaders through nondemocratic means. (http://www.tribal-institute.org/lists/icra.htm)

Native American communities have prevailed in legal battles to assure recognition of rights to self-determination and to use of natural resources. Some of those rights, known as treaty rights are enumerated in early treaties signed with the young United States government.

Tribal sovereignty has become a cornerstone of American jurisprudence, and at least on the surface, in national legislative policies.

Many of the smaller eastern tribes have been trying to gain official recognition of their tribal status. The recognition confers some benefits, including the right to label arts and crafts as Native American and they can apply for grants that are specifically reserved for Native Americans. But gaining recognition as a tribe is extremely difficult because of a Catch-22 in the process. To be established as a tribal groups, members have to submit extensive genealogical proof of tribal descent, yet in past years many Native Americans denied their Native American heritage, because it would have deprived them of many rights, such as the right of probate. (McCool, 63)

Chronology of Indian Civil Right

What the Indian Civil Rights Act is best known for is extending part of the Bill of Rights to individual Indians against tribal governments. The parts of the Bill of Rights not included in this extension are those that would make no sense in the Indian government context. For example, the free exercise of religion is protected to account for the conflict between Christians and traditional religions where such conflict exists, but there is no ban on establishment of religion, since some tribes had traditional theocracies (government by religious leaders). The right to a lawyer in a criminal case is absent because lawyers are absent from many reservations.(Nagel, 58)

The Second Amendment (right to keep and bear arms) is absent because whether to have gun control is left to tribal government except for weapons that are completely illegal to own off the reservation.

The Third Amendment (quartering troops in private homes) does not apply because Indian tribes do not have professional armies, and the Tenth Amendment (reserving unenumerated powers to the states) does not apply because states have no power over Indian nations unless a particular power explicitly is conferred on states by Congress.(Washburn, 73)

However, the Indian Civil Rights Acts goes farther than the language of the Bill of Rights in that it guarantees "equal protection of the law," something absent from the U.S. Constitution before the Fourteenth Amendment. It also denies tribal governments the power to pass ex post facto laws and bills of attainder, provisions that are contained in the main body of the U.S. Constitution rather than the Bill of Rights, and the power to imprison tribal members for a term greater than six months. Traditional tribal governments did not practice imprisonment at all.

The passage of the Act engendered controversy from two points of view. Some believed the ICRA worked as a limitation on the inherent sovereignty of tribes while others thought it would protect the individual against the arbitrary action of the tribe. There was little public discussion or Indian involvement in the creation and passage of the Act, but disagreement with the purpose and provisions of the Act arose later.(Idem, p. 75)

2.2. Other acts allowing civil liberties

Three different kinds of rights for the Native Americans are also discussed:

(1) The freedoms of religion, speech, press, and assembly are the fundamental rights of a free people to believe what they choose and say and write what they think.

(2) The right to due process of law, which exists primarily to protect the freedoms of criminal defendants, receives the greatest attention under the Indian Bill of Rights. Essential to the fair administration of justice, due process sets limits on the methods which officials may use in enforcing the law and bringing accused persons to trial.

(3) The guarantee of equal protection of the laws, or freedom from improper discrimination.( Skrentny, 106)

Freedom of Expression in the Tribal Setting

The inclusion of free speech, press, and assembly in the Indian Bill of Rights has caused many tribal spokesmen to complain that these principles are not part of traditional Indian culture and should not be applied to Indian society. They have argued that tribes are not ordinary governments, but are close-knit, family-like groups, and that the exercise of free speech in this atmosphere would lead to the disruption of discipline and the breakdown of tribal life. Congress concluded, however, that tribal Indians should be entitled to the same freedoms of expression as other American citizens. Although the courts will, hopefully, demonstrate respect for Indian heritage while applying these freedoms, they will not tolerate acts by tribal governments which completely ban freedoms of expression. A tribal council, for instance, cannot prohibit members from distributing a newspaper on the reservation merely because it is critical of the tribal government. Nor can it prevent members from assembling peacefully in order to express their ideas and listen to the opinions of others.

( http://www.civilrights.org/issues/indigenous/details.cfm?id=36584)

The Indian Bill of Rights provides that no Indian tribe shall deny a defendant the "right to a speedy and public trial, to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, and to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor." (apud Wunder, 83) These rights are considered essential to due process of law, and also apply under the Constitution to both Federal and State courts.

In order to ensure a fair and impartial trial, a defendant must be told the nature of the charges against him and given advance notice of the time and place of his trial. (In juvenile court proceedings notice must be given to the youth's parents or guardian as well as to the defendant.) He has the right to be present at his trial; he may be excluded from the courtroom only under exceptional circumstances (for example, if he is entirely unruly or disruptive) . The trial must be open and public. The defendant's relatives and friends, as well as other persons, are entitled to attend the proceedings.(Ibidem)

Equal opportunity in employment, regardless of race, is guaranteed by Federal law, many State laws, court decisions interpreting the Constitution, and Presidential Executive orders. These guarantees ban discrimination in all Federal, State, and local government employment, as well as most private employment. Almost all acts of employment discrimination violate some aspect of Federal or State law.(Haley, 80)

Fishing and hunting rights

Although Native Americans consented to or were forced to give up their land, the government allotted them hunting and fishing rights both within their reservations and on their old land that had been sold to and settled by whites. The reserved rights doctrine allowed for tribes to hunt and fish, along with any other rights, as long as they were not specifically denied in a treaty. (Skrentny, 119)

Traveling rights

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the U.S. government attempted to control the travel of Native Americans off Indian reservations. Since Native Americans did not obtain U.S. citizenship until 1924, they were considered wards of the state and were denied various basic rights, including the right to travel. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) discouraged off-reservation activities, including the right to hunt, fish, or visit other tribes. As a result, the BIA instituted a “pass system” designed to control movement of the Indians. This system required Indians living on reservations to obtain a pass from an Indian agent before they could leave the reservation. In addition, agents were often ordered to limit the number of passes they issued for off-reservation travel. The reasons cited for this limitation were that Indians with passes often overstayed the time limits imposed, and many times Indians left without requesting passes. When this occurred, the military was frequently called to help return the Indians to their reservations. (Nagel, 64)

The loss of the right to free movement across the country was difficult for Native Americans, especially since many tribes traditionally traveled to hunt, fish, and visit other tribes. The passage of the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924 granted citizenship to all Indians born in America. As a result, American Indians were finally granted free travel in the United States. At the present time, Native Americans who live on reservations are free to travel as they wish. (Adalberto, 77)

Voting

In the 18th century, starting when the Constitution was created, there was a struggle to define what the Indian tribes’ relationship was with the United States. Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution states that Indians are not under the control of the United States, and therefore cannot be taxed. The Constitution also stated that Congress has the power to “regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among several states, and with Indian tribes”(apud McCool, 90) as stated in Article I, Section 8. This means that the leaders of the United States at that time viewed Indians as somewhere in between foreign nations and American citizens.

The Marshall trilogy in 1831 helped define sovereignty by stating that the Cherokee nation was a distinct political society but a domestic dependent nation and one that "resembles that of a ward to a guardian".(Idem, 92) Therefore Native Americans' relationship to the U.S. government was similar to that of people in an occupied land under the control of a foreign power.

Thus, in 1817 the Cherokee became the first Native Americans recognized as U.S. citizens. Under Article 8 of the 1817 Cherokee treaty, "Upwards of 300 Cherokees (Heads of Families) in the honest simplicity of their souls, made and election to become American citizens." (Idem, p.93) When the Fourteenth Amendment and the first civil rights act were passed in 1866 regarding the role of African-Americans in the United States, citizenship of Indians was defined as well. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 stated, “That all persons born in the United States, and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States". (Idem, 55)

In time, more acts were created that added Indians to the citizenship rights. When the Indian Territory (what is now Oklahoma) was abolished in 1907, all Indians who lived in that territory were made citizens through the Oklahoma Enabling Act.

Furthermore, after World War I, any Indian who had fought with honorable discharge was also considered a citizen through the Act of November 6, 1919. As Native Vote states, “The underlying assumption of this act was that these particular Indians had demonstrated that they had become part of the larger Anglo culture and were no longer wholly Indian”. (Idem, 64)

By the early 1920s, Congress was considering a bill to make the remainder of Native Americans citizens in their aim to have them “adopt Anglo culture”. This finally was stated with the Indian Citizenship Act which was created on June 24, 1924. This act showed progress in that Indians would not have to give up being an Indian to be a citizen of the United States. This included being an enrolled member of a tribe, living on a federally recognized reservation, or practicing his or her culture. However, this did not create the right to vote automatically.

With World War II and the need for more soldiers through the draft, Congress reaffirmed Native people’s citizenship with the Nationality Act of 1940. However, when some 25,000 veterans returned home after the war, they realized that even though they had put their lives on the line for their country, they were still not allowed to vote.

In 1965 the Voting Rights Act (VRA) put an end to individual states claims on whether or not Indians were allowed to vote through a federal law. ( Wunder, 105-109)

The Native Americans or “Indians” as they were called for many decades, faced countless obstacles regarding their life, heritage, religion, education, home, land, and the right to be seen as   human beings in their native land.  Native Americans were given the option to give up their cultural for the chance to vote.  Native Americans were told that they had to fight in World War II, but when they returned to the United States, they still faced obstacles, including the right to vote. 

But due to the United States Congress, the 19th Amendment, the Indian Citizenship Act, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, made it possible for Native Americans to vote and have other important civil rights.  However, many states opposed Native Americans to vote and came up with many obstacles to stop them.  (http://www.narf.org/)

Nowadays, with many Native Americans in the legislature and on many high-level positions in their own towns and cities, there is still discrimination in many states.  Now with the political climate, there has not only been discrimination against Native Americans, but for others such as African Americans, Latinos, students, and the poor, by those who are challenging their vote. 

2.3 Religious Rights

The American Indian Religious Freedom Act was passed in 1978. It allowed them freedom of religion except for the use of such important ceremonial items, as the eagle feathers or bones (a protected species) or peyote (considered a restricted drug by the federal government); however, other laws provide for ceremonial use of these by Native American religious practitioners.(Wunder, 40)

An example of Christianity's influence on Native American religion is the prominence of the figure of Jesus Christ in peyote ceremonies of the Native American Church, which is a syncretic religion.

Many religious Native Americans today voluntarily practice Christianity, both Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, or a combination of Christianity and Native religion.

Many indigenous religions arose in response to colonization. These include the Longhouse Religion, which arose at the end of the 18th century, and the Ghost Dance, Four Mothers Society, Indian Shaker Church, Kuksu religion, and others in the 19th century.( Mauk, Oakland, 15-26)

In spite of its title, the law explicitly states that it includes "the traditional religions of the American Indian, Eskimo, Aleut, and Native Hawaiians."(Prucha, 80) The special nature of Native American religions has frequently resulted in conflicts between federal laws and policies and religious freedom. Some federal laws, such as those protecting wilderness areas or endangered species, have inadvertently given rise to problems such as denial of access to sacred sites or prohibitions on possession of animal-derived sacred objects by Native Americans.

AIRFA acknowledged prior infringement on the right of freedom of religion for Native Americans. Furthermore, it stated in a clear, comprehensive, and consistent fashion the federal policy that laws passed for other purposes were not meant to restrict the rights of Native Americans. The act established a policy of protecting and preserving the inherent right of individual Native Americans to believe, express, and exercise their traditional religions.(Ibidem)

AIRFA is primarily a policy statement. Approximately half of the brief statute is devoted to congressional findings. Following those findings, the act makes a general policy statement regarding Native American religious freedom:

…henceforth it shall be the policy of the United States to protect and preserve for American Indians their inherent right to freedom to believe, express, and exercise the traditional religions of the American Indian, Eskimo, Aleut, and Native Hawaiians, including but not limited to access to sites, use and possession of sacred objects, and the freedom to worship through ceremonial and traditional rites [42 United States Code (U.S.C.) 1996].(apud ibidem)

The final section of the act requires the President to order agencies to review their policies and procedures in consultation with traditional native religious leaders.

Furthermore, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), enacted on November 16, 1990, established a means for Native Americans, including members of Indian Tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, and Native Alaskan villages and corporations, to request the return or "repatriation" of human remains and other sensitive cultural items held by federal agencies or federally assisted museums or institutions. NAGPRA also contains provisions regarding the intentional excavation and removal of, inadvertent discovery of, and illegal trafficking in Native American human remains and sensitive cultural items.(Spencer, 61)

All federal agencies that manage land and/or are responsible for archaeological collections from their lands or generated by their activities must comply with NAGPRA. U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) managers of ground-disturbing activities on federal and tribal lands should be aware of the statutory and regulatory provisions treating inadvertent discoveries of Native American remains and sensitive cultural objects.( http://www.nps.gov/nagpra/)

Religious Freedom Restoration Act

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act was a congressional reaction to Supreme Court cases that limited the religious freedom of individuals by placing an unnecessary burden on their exercise of religion. The law provided for relief from government burdens on religion with two exceptions. A burden can be placed on the exercise of religion if a compelling government interest is pursued in the least restrictive way possible.(Wunder, 79)

CHAPTER 3. PRESERVING THE CULTURE AND LANGUAGE

Cherokee , Sioux , Navajo, Apache, tribes

3.1 Cultural influences

All of the Native American tribes had cultural significance upon the American society today as they all shared some things in common. First of all, their way of living was simple, they lived off the land by gathering food in the earliest times and then planting crops later in history.

Once they began planting crops, they were able to begin creating villages that were permanent.

They all hunted and eventually domesticated animals. Most of the tribes used as much of the animal as they could. Meat was used for food. Furs and skins were used for clothing and shelters. The animals’stomach was used to carry and hold water. Bones were used for needles and weapons.( Haley, 18)

The most important Native American food crop was corn, or what they called maize.
Other important American Indian crops included squash, potatoes, wild rice, tomatoes,
sweet potatoes, beans, pumpkins, sunflowers, peanuts, peppers, chocolate, and
avacados.

Native American tribes also had diets that included a lot of meat. These meats were:
elk, buffalo, caribou, rabbit, deer, salmon, fish, ducks, turkeys, geese, pheasant, shellfish and
other marine animals like whales and seal. Porcupines and snakes were also hunted as food.
Native Americans ate honey, eggs, maple syrup, nuts, salt, pine nuts, cranberry, blueberries, raspberries, acorns, root vegetables and greens. Native American cooking tended to be simple. Most Native Americans preferred to eat their food very fresh, without many spices.

Native Americans did not know about the wheel, so they used travois to transport their goods while following the bison herds. A travois was made from two large branches joined to one end and diverging to the other. The travois was attached through harnesses to the back of a horse. It was dragged on the ground and cargo was place on the skins that was stretched across it. Before wild horses were domesticated, smaller travois were dragged by dogs.( Wade, 28)

The roles men and women in most Native American tribes were the same. The men hunted and provided protection for their people. The women prepared the food, made clothing and shelters and cared for the children.

The men used bows and arrows, spears and knives to hunt. They would also work together to move herds of animals into enclosures or off cliffs to kill them.

Native Americans had many different kinds of shelters depending upon where they lived. Some used portable structures that could be moved to follow the bison herds. These structures were called the tipi. Some built homes out of logs. Others built homes from mud bricks they baked in the sun. Others even made their homes from blocks of ice. (http://www.indians.org/welker/creation.html).

From the outset European colonists had, at best, lived in an uneasy truce with the Native Americans. While the groups sometimes cooperated, the Natives were inexorably displaced from the most favorable land, and frequently resisted this process with violence.

Although in recent years it has become popular to assert that Native Americans learned the famous scalping from Europeans, historical evidence suggests that scalping by Native Americans had been practiced long before contact with Europeans. (Spencer, 40)

We will further briefly discuss the existence of some Native American tribes and their eagerness to preserve their culture, customs and language of expression.

The Cherokee have lived in Western North Carolina but no one knows exactly how long. Artifacts that have been found indicate people lived here more than 11,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age, and ancient Cherokee tales describe hunts of the mastodon that once foraged here.

At the time the first Europeans came in the 1500s, the Cherokee were a settled, agricultural people living in villages consisting of 30 to 60 houses and a large council house. Homes were usually made interweaving river cane in a circular framework and plastered with mud. In later periods, log cabins became the general rule. The large council houses were frequently located on mounds and were also the site of the sacred fire, which the Cherokee had kept burning from time immemorial.

By the beginning of the 18th century, the Cherokee territory had expanded to include part of southwestern Virginia, western North Carolina, northwestern South Carolina, eastern Tennessee and northern Georgia and Alabama. Abundant in natural resources, this area provided hundreds of species of plants used for food, medicines, and crafts. A wide variety of trees provided fuel, weaving fibers, twine, medicinal barks and the framework and covering of dwellings, while plentiful animals provided food, clothing, shelter, and medicine.(http://www.native-languages.org/cherokee_culture.htm)

Cherokee women did most of the farm work, harvesting crops of corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers. Cherokee men did most of the hunting, using bows and arrows and blowguns to shoot deer, wild turkeys, and small game; and using fishing poles and spears to fish. Cherokee dishes included cornbread, soups, and stews cooked on stone hearths. They made their own pots, utensils and baskets.

During the early 1800s, the Cherokee adopted their government to a written constitution and established their own courts and schools. Particularly noteworthy was the invention of written language by the Cherokee scholar Sequoyah in 1821. Utilizing an ingenious alphabet of 86 characters, almost the entire Cherokee Nation became literate within a few years. A Cherokee newspaper, the Phoenix, began publication in the native language in 1828.

The Cherokees today are the descendants from those Cherokees who were able to hold on to land they owned, or hid out in the hills, or were able to return. Today, the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians is a sovereign nation of 100 square miles, with more than 13,000 enrolled members — a place where modern people respect and preserve the history of their people.(Adalberto, 51)

In Sioux culture, a distinctive practice was that usually the fathers negotiated the marriage of their daughters, looking for like minded political alliances, or a social tie that would strengthen the stature of the bride's family in the community, or an acomplished hunter or warrior who would be an asset in providing for and protecting the whole extended family.( http://www.native-languages.org/dakota_culture.htm)

While Sioux fathers took the lead and had the final say in such matters, mothers did the steering, and heavily influenced the stance taken by the fathers. Often the father would consider the wishes of a favored daughter, but this wasn't always the case.

If gifts were accepted and the father approved, the girl would have no say in the matter, even if she was opposed to the marriage.

Sioux girls were taught that chastity before marriage was such a virtue, that even an implied loss of it would prevent them from being worthy of praying to the Great Spirit. This was so ingrained into their culture and belief system that they would not even look directly at a member of the opposite sex that was not a family member, and they were given few opportunities to be alone with potential suitors. A good Sioux daughter would never let herself get into such a predicament.( http://www.philtar.ac.uk/encyclopedia/nam/sioux.html)

Sioux girls usually married shortly after having their pueberty rites, which were held when they reached mensus, but males were expected to participate in at least one or more successful war parties or horse raids to prove their valor and courage before they were considered worthy of a wife, so the average Sioux groom was usually quite a bit older, sometimes by as much as 20 years or more.

Older women might also be aquired as wives when a spouse was killed. The brother of the deceased was expected to marry his brother's widow. Occasionally, a divorced person would remarry, but this was rare because it wasn't socially acceptable. Divorce was accepted, but divorced people were expected to remain single for the rest of their lives. Those who did remarry were often ostracized from their band.

Because there were more women than men due to casualties of war and hunting accidents, most Sioux men had two or more wives. Often a man married sisters. This family tie helped to keep bickering and jealousy among the wives to a minimum. A man could have as many wives as he could afford to care for, and more wives meant less work for the women.( http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/jkh8x/soc257/nrms?naspirit.htm)

Federally recognized contemporary Sioux tribal governments are located in Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana. According to the 1990 census, South Dakota ranked eleventh among all states for the number of Indians represented in its population (50,575, which was 7.3 percent of the South Dakota population, up from 6.5 percent in 1980). Minnesota ranked twelfth with a reported total of 49,909 Indians, or 1.1 percent of its population (up from 0.9 percent in 1980). Montana ranked thirteenth with a reported total of 47,679 Indians, or 6.0 percent of its population (up from 4.7 percent in 1980). North Dakota ranked eighteenth with a reported total of 25,917 Indians, or 4.1 percent of its population (up from 3.1 percent in 1980). Nebraska ranked thirty-fifth with a reported total of 12,410 Indians, or 0.8 percent of its population (up from 0.6 percent in 1980).( Peck, 49)

Many Native Americans from these areas have migrated to urban industrial centers throughout the continent. Contemporary estimates are that at least 50 percent of the Indian population in the United States now resides in urban areas, frequently within the region of the tribal homeland but often at great distances from it. Other populations of Sioux are to be found in the prairie provinces of Canada.( Billard, 61)

Another prominent Native American presence was the Navajo tribe. The Navajo language has not only helped to preserve the Navajo culture but was also utilized as a U.S. Army code to disguise transmissions from the Japanese during World War II. Navajo arts continue to be passed on, as daughters and granddaughters learn weaving, basketmaking, pottery making, and jewelry making.

Different types of religion are practiced among the Navajo, a truly spiritual people.

There are the traditional Navajos who rely on medicine men, herbalists, ceremonies and other traditions to facilitate their practice.

Also, the Native American Church is chosen by some Navajos and is especially known for the ceremonial use of peyote for visions and cleansing.

Sweathouses are utilized by Navajos and other American Indian tribes, and Christianity is practiced by some Navajos who incorporate the Western religion with their native teachings.

Many Navajo children raised on the reservation continue to herd sheep and livestock. Schools are accessible to most families, but sometimes it is necessary that a family living many difficult miles away send the children to boarding school.

The Navajo today are not a pueblo people, rather they dwell a good distance apart from each other in separate houses, though often in close proximity to family. The Navajo appreciate and respect their culture as an equal way of life to suburban America, and are proud of the simplistic ways they identify to. (http://www.indians.org/welker/creation.html)

Furthermore, he Athapaskan-speaking people of the Southwest, whom the Spanish and the Pueblos would call Apaches, originally came from regions well north of the Canadian border.

They entered the plains sometime preceding the Columbian voyage, no doubt chasing the growing herds of buffalo that emerged after 1200, and they built a new economy and social structure fine-tuned to the needs of the sometimes-difficult environment.( http://americanindianoriginals.com/apache-culture.html)

The Apaches survived and prospered outside the Spanish colonial system primarily because they adapted to the changing ecosystems of the Southwest; they altered their economy by creating new methods of production and expanding or contracting sociopolitical structures to meet economic demands. Frequently such changes included the adoption of certain aspects of European culture, for example, modified forms of pastoralism. Apaches also turned to expanding commercial contacts, using newly arriving European goods, along with the elements of their past economy, to help restructure the political economy of the Southwest.

Apaches survived and prospered also because they replaced, incorporated, or partially acculturated other native peoples who had lived in the region. They accomplished this by force on occasion. But incorporation also occurred through the development of beneficial exchange systems based on both fictive and affine kinship affiliations. Apaches maintained a dominant role in these new relationships to such an extent that weaker societies often adopted aspects of Apache culture and economy and learned the Athapaskan language.

This resulting ethnogenesis, or "Apacheanization" of the region, helped to change weaker Indian groups into stronger ones, which changed the direction taken in the Southwest.

The most enduring Apache custom is the puberty ceremony for girls, held each summer. Clan relatives still play important roles in these ceremonies, when girls become Changing Woman for the four days of their nai'es. These are spectacular public events, proudly and vigorously advertised by the tribe.( Haley, 37)

The process of integrating marriage partners from other tribes changed Apache culture and social structure. Though gender roles and social patterns of inter-relating had been fixed, the Apaches began to allow a social mobility which impacted the assimilation process, and even included more flexibility in marriage rules.

3.2 Music and Art

In all of the Native American cultures, the roles of art, music and dance are connected with ceremonial rituals. "Music is viewed as having god-given magical properties". (Wade, 70)

The performance of music were accompanied with costumes or ceremonial regalia. Other songs performed within rituals were exclusively for specific individuals. In ceremonial rituals of this type, the songs were performed by medicine men.

The music of Native Americans is primarily a vocal art, usually choral, although some nations favor solo singing. Native American music is entirely melodic; there is no harmony or polyphony, although there is occasional antiphonal singing between soloist and chorus. The melody is, in general, characterized by a descending melodic figure; its rhythm is irregular. Singing is nearly always accompanied, at least by drums. Wind instruments are mainly flutes and whistles.( http://visitcherokeenc.com/cherokee-music/)

For the Native American, song is traditionally the chief means of communicating with the supernatural powers, and music is seldom performed for its own sake; definite results, such as the bringing of rain, success in battle, or the curing of the sick, are expected from music. There are three classes of songs—traditional songs, handed down from generation to generation; ceremonial and medicine songs, supposed to be received in dreams; and modern songs, showing the influence of European culture. Songs of heroes are often old, adapted to the occasion by the insertion of the new hero's name. Love songs often are influenced by the music of whites and are regarded as degenerate by many Native Americans.

To understand the mystery of Native American Art, one has to begin by seeing it as a tapestry, with each tribe as a tread in that tapestry and one must try unraveling that mystery, one thread at a time.( http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/jkh8x/soc257/nrms?naspirit.htm)

The Sioux are skilled artisans at beadwork, quill-work, carving, pipe making, drum making, flute making, and leatherwork of all kinds—from competition powwow regalia to saddles and tack. These are crafts that have been handed down from generation to generation. Intertribal powwow competitions, festivals, and tribal fairs nowadays bring forth impressive displays of Sioux traditional crafts.

Native American jewelry for centuries has represented more than simply an aesthetic ideal. It has carried meaning and reflected tribal culture. Pins in the form of clan animals. Bracelets shaped to reflect family totems. It is a tradition that today's Native American artists continue. Art is integrated into indian culture. There is not a separation of art from life. Jewelry from the Southwest – which includes Navajo, Hopi, Zuni and Pueblo – uses more color, and the lines tend toward the angular.

For Northwest tribes, such as the Haida, Tlingit and Salish, jewelry is more like sculpture: Pieces feature images carved or hammered into metals with little or no additional color and use more fluid and curved lines.

Native American artisans used jewelry to reflect their view of the world around them. The animals in the designs reflected their clan or family totems, or creatures from their mythologies. (http://www.philtar.ac.uk/encyclopedia/nam/sioux.html)

Navajo music was performed during ceremonies and rituals. There was also a "popular" music. The sacred music is performed in ceremonies given by the Holy Ones and they teach lessons, history, origins, and the personal responsibilities for human beings in the world. They can last for a few hours or up to nine days and are somewhat like plays.

The ceremonies and the sacred Navajo music are not to be made public, or recorded, filmed, or written down. Navajo music is also used for the Peyote Songs that are part of the rituals of the Native American Church which came to the northern part of the Navajo Nation around 1936. These songs are vocals accompanied by rattle and water drum.

Song and dance ceremonies are called "ways", for example, "the Healing Way." Navajo music is always vocal and may be accompanied be drums, drumsticks, rattles, rasp, flute, whistle, and bullroar. The bullroar or bullroar-er is a slit board attached to a cord and swung around in the air to create a deep, vibrating, whrrrr like sound. The intention of all ceremonies and shorter prayers is to create or restore harmony, balance, good health, and serenity. (Spencer, 55)

The lyrics and vocals of Cherokee music often include tribal stories and chanting. The voice is used along with instruments to create a strong rhythmic beat perfect for ritual dancing. Until the 1800’s, when the Cherokee syllabary was invented, Cherokee legends were passed down orally through music, song, and dance. When Cherokee Indians sing traditional tribal songs it is to invoke the power of nature and spirits, to ask for healing or a plentiful harvest, and to show gratitude to the Earth. Songs can be shared as a solo or as a group.(Ibidem)

The Apache Indians are well-known today for their unique culture, but more specifically, their talent in art.  Their art mainly encompassed silversmithing, beadwork, sculpting, pottery, and intricate basket weaving. 

Basket-weaving is one of the oldest known forms of art of the Apache Indians.  Apache clothes and jewelry was also considered an art of the primitive Apache Indians.  The Apache women used the skins of deer, antelope, elk, and buffalo to make most of their clothes. The Apache art included several other forms, including the making of deerskin storage bags, gourds made into cups, wood and bones made into plates and spoons, and the handcrafting of pots.  Many of the objects used by the Apache Indians, such as clothes and weapons, were a form of art because they were hand-crafted for various purposes with care and decoration.( Haley, 86)   

Finally, Cherokee traded for exotic beads, like abalone shells, and also used their own beads. Cherokee artisans today create bandolier bags, moccasins and purses. One of the most important Cherokee bead symbols is the red-and-black sun circle, which conveys the power of the sun and the ceremonial fire.

The Cherokee tear dress for women dates from the Trail of Tears era in the early 1800s, when women owned no scissors, and thus "tore" the dress material from larger calico fabric bolts. The men's ribbon shirt is also calico and features ribbon designs on the front and back.(Feder, 79)

3.3 Religion

All Native American people were very spiritual and they had many religious customs and rituals. They also had many gods. They believed in a special relationship with nature. For most, the Sun was the supreme god. They worshiped the sun because they needed it to grow their crops. They also needed rain, so many had a Rain god. Other elements in nature were also worshipped. Most tribes believed in the power of their dreams. They were considered to be revelations made by the gods. Most had an important religious leader which some called Shaman, or medicine man.( Adalberto, 99)

Like most of the ancient, indigenous peoples of the World, the belief system of the Native American peoples is “pagan” in practice.

The ritual ceremonies practiced by the Native American tribes were usually a systematic worship service intended to help secure some necessity for survival. These ceremonies were practiced as a way to try to guarantee a successful hunt or an abundant harvest or in some way to protect them from the ravages of Nature. The divine protector or provider whose intercession was sought became the “hero” or “god” of the tribe’s legends and myths, passed down through the oral traditions of their tribal storytellers, as part of the tribal or cultural memory of the people.( http://www.indians.org/welker/creation.html)

The Navajo people of the Southwestern desert would develop legends and stories perhaps centered on those spiritual beings who helped provide them with water in the hot summers, while the Abenaki people of the Northeast would center their myths and legends on those spirits who brought them fire in the freezing winter.( Wade, 107)

The Cherokee would pray to the “bringer of the corn” and the Crow would pray to the “bringer of the buffalo”.( http://www.native-languages.org/cherokee_culture.htm)

The Cherokees had a strong belief that there were certain beings who came down from the skies formed the world, the moon and the stars. It was believed that the world was created at the time of the new moon of autumn, when the fruits of the earth were ripe. 

In the Cherokee religion the sun appears to have been the pricipal object of worship. The Cherokee's would pray to the sun to bring abundant crops and good health. The Cherokee Indians held a festival called the new Moon Festival in which they paid hnor to the moon.

The Cherokees believed in an after life and those who had behaved in a "good" manner went toa place that was light and pleasant. Those who had behaved poorly would be sent to a bad place and face torture. It was believed there were seven heavens, with the Supreme Being residing in the first heaven.

The circle is another symbol familiar to traditional Cherokee. The Stomp Dance and other ceremonies involve movements in a circular pattern. In ancient times, the fire in the council house was built by arranging the wood in a continuous "X" so that the fire would burn in a circular path.

Today, although many Cherokee still consult with medicine people regarding problems, both mental and physical, some will not see a medicine man for any reason and refuse to acknowledge their powers. Some believe in using both Cherokee medicine and licensed medical doctors and the health care systems.(Ibidem)

In Apache religion there is one main Creator, Ussen, and then lesser gods. Some of these lesser gods are called ga’ns, and they are protective mountain spirits. They are represented in religious rights like the puberty ceremony for girls. Like many other religions, the Apache religion has a creation story that includes a flood. There are also four sacred colors, black, blue, yellow, and white which have guided the Apaches in their prayer to the Creator. The four colors symbolize the colors of the threads Tarantula used to pull and stretch the earth. During creation, the Creator made the gods, heavens, earth, plants, and animals all from his sweat.

( http://www.curtiscollection.com/tribe%20data/apache.html)

Navajo gods and other supernatural powers are many and varied. Most important among them are a group of anthropomorphic deities, and especially Changing Woman or Spider Woman, the consort of the Sun God, and her twin sons, the Monster Slayers. Other supernatural powers include animal, bird, and reptile spirits, and natural phenomena or wind, weather, light and darkness, celestial bodies, and monsters. There is a special class of deities, the Yei, who can be summoned by masked dancers to be present when major ceremonies are in progress. Most of the Navajo deities can be either beneficial or harmful to the Earth Surface People, depending on their caprice or on how they are approached. (Haley, 82)

The Sioux people believed that human beings, animals, and trees were all created by the Mother Earth. They believed the Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, created the universe, and yet was the universe. The Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Earth, the very rocks, and the human soul were all creations of the Wakan Tanka.( http://www.philtar.ac.uk/encyclopedia/nam/sioux.html)

CONCLUSION

History demonstrated that Native Americans adopted some of the Europeans’ ways, and the Europeans adopted some of their ways. As a result, Native Americans have made many valuable contributions to American culture, particularly in the areas of language, art, food, and government.

First of all, Native Americans left a permanent imprint on the English language. The early settlers borrowed words from several different Native American languages to name the new places and new objects that they had found in their new land. All across the country, one can find cities, towns, rivers, and states with Native American names. For example, the states of Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, and Alabama are named after Native American tribes, as are the cities of Chicago, Miami, and Spokane. In addition to place names, English has adopted many everyday words from various Native American languages. The words chipmunk, moose, raccoon, skunk, moccasin, and potato are just a few examples.( Spencer, 73)

Although the vocabulary of English is the areas that shows the most Native American influence, it is not the only area of American culture that was changed by contact with Native Americans. Art is another area showing the mark of Native American contact. Wool rugs woven by women of the Navajo tribe in Arizona and New Mexico are highly valued works of art in the United States. Also, Native American jewelry made from silver and turquoise is very popular and very expensive. Especially in the western and southwestern regions of the United States, native crafts such pottery, handcrafted leather products, and beadwork can be found in many home. Indeed, native art and handicrafts have become a treasured part of American culture. (Feder, 53)

The complex cultures of Native Americans influenced native North America in many ways, although it is not at all clear how important some of these influences may have been. The first and foremost influence was the diffusion of corn agriculture.

In addition to language and art, agriculture is another area in which Native American had a great and lasting influence. Being skilled farmers, the Native Americans of North America taught the newcomers many things about farming techniques and crops.

Furthermore, they taught the settlers irrigation methods and crop rotation. In addition, many of the foods we eat today were introduced to the Europeans by Native Americans. For example, potatoes, corn, chocolate, and peanuts were unknown in Europe. Now they are staples in the American diet.(Ibidem)

In conclusion, we can easily see form these few examples the extent of native American influence on language, art forms, eating habits, and government order as well. Modern Americans are truly indebted to Native Americans for their contributions to their culture.

Even in today’s diverse society, many stereotypes about Native Americans persist. Many continue to believe that they are all alike, although there are actually more than 500 culturally distinct federally recognized tribes. Other stereotypes paint them as uncivilized people who wear feathers, ride horses, and live in tipis. Contrary to the common myths, Native Americans do value women and live in homes and cities outside of reservations. Unfortunately, Native Americans have the highest rates of unemployment and poverty in the U.S. Indians/Alaska Native youth have more serious problems with mental health disorders including depression, anxiety and substance abuse. The suicide rate for Native Americans is higher than the overall US suicide rate. When compared to other racial and ethnic groups, Native Americans tend to underutilize mental health services due to a lack of culturally appropriate services, lack of funding and a shortage of mental health professionals. (http://www.indians.org)

In the United States, much social theorizing has emphasized assimilation, the more or less orderly adaptation of a migrating group to the ways and institutions of an established host group.

Concluding upon the theme of our paper, ethnic identity and assimilation of Native American people into the 20th century USA, some historians distinguish seven dimensions of adaptation, which apply to the discussed ethnicity as well(Wade, pp.45-49):

1. Cultural Assimilation: change of cultural patterns to those of the core society;

2. Structural Assimilation: penetration of cliques and associations of the core society at the primary-group level;

3. Marital Assimilation: significant intermarriage;

4. Identification Assimilation: development of a sense of identity linked to the core society;

5. Attitude-Receptional Assimilation: absence of prejudice and stereotyping;

6. Behavior-Receptional Assimilation: absence of intentional discrimination;

7. Civic Assimilation: absence of value and power conflict.

These theories offer insights into the character and development of racial and ethnic American relations. Assimilation analysts have pointed out the different dimensions of intergroup adaptation,such as acculturation and marital assimilation and have accented the role of value consensus in holding a racial and ethnic system together. (Debo, 73)

In analyzing U.S. history, power-conflict analysts have also emphasized the forced character of much cultural and economic adaptation, and the role of coercion, segregation, colonization, and institutionalized discrimination in keeping groups such as Native Americans on the lower scale of the societal racial/ethnic ladder.

Indigenous identities have become multiple and more complex, and some more hostile, at the beginning of 20th century.

Whether by force or by consent indigenous nations are now multicultural and contain individuals who speak non-indigenous languages, have taken on non-indigenous religious orientations, some are well educated in Western traditions, while others have taken up the material life and daily job routines of national market economies.( Adalberto, 85)

The ways in which tribal peoples have adapted to the changing circumstances of the contemporary world are varied, both at the individual and community-national levels. Some new identities promote the continuity of indigenous cultures and ways of life, while others do not. The most explicitly pro-indigenous positions are nationalists or fundamentalists who emphasize recovery and use of traditional languages, culture, and government. Nationalist viewpoints want to make change selectively so that central tribal or indigenous national philosophies, cultural activities, language, and government are maintained.( Spencer, 63)

The assimilation many fear of, is only a negative issue if Native Americans are turned against preservation of indigenous community and nationality. Contemporary multicultural tribal communities favor preserving tribal community and government, although the intra-tribal groups may differ over the vision, goals, and values each wants to carry into the future.

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http://www.philtar.ac.uk/encyclopedia/nam/sioux.html.