Category Archives: Native American customs

Native Americans had created a rich cultural history that was usually disregarded, disdained, and rejected by the larger Anglo-centered population. Native peoples had their own languages, medical methods, religions, rituals and ceremonies, and world outlooks. When the federal government changed its policy from overt warfare, it did not stop trying to destroy Native Americans. The government pursued a policy called “assimilation” which tried to erase all Native American heritage and culture. Fortunately, Native peoples proved themselves stronger than these policies and held on to many of the cultural aspects the government tried to erase.

Insanity is Rare

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Colonel Richard Dodge

Field researchers found that insanity among Native Americans was rare (see last post) and this finding was backed up by many individual observations over time. In An Account of the History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations written in 1819, the author (John Heckewelder) made several general observations about the way Native American society treated its various members. He found that native peoples treated the elderly with respect and kindness, and with a sense of gratitude for their past sacrifices. “Insanity is not common among the Indians,” Heckewelder went on to say, though he had observed a few instances of it. But, he added, “Men in this situation are always considered as objects of pity. Every one, young and old, feels compassion for their misfortune; to laugh or scoff at them would be considered as a crime, much more so to insult or molest them.”

In another book written after the Civil War, Colonel Richard Dodge noted that, “Mental and nervous diseases are rare [among Indians].” Dodge did note that several streams separated by great distances were named after  “crazy women” as evidence that Indians did recognize insanity. Generally, however, he found most of the people on the Plains in good health. The closest most came to insanity was when they fell victim to rabies from mad wolves, for which there was no cure.

Two Strikes, Lakota Sioux Chief

Crow Tipi, Plains Indians

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Insensitivity the Norm

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Europeans Meet Native Americans, courtesy missouristate.edu

Native Americans met with cultural insensitivity from almost everyone who arrived in the New World. Though many individual friendships developed over the years, actual government policy from colonial times and continuing after U.S. independence, was based on the premise that Indian culture was inferior to the incoming European ones.

Colonists saw much to fault with Native American culture, from their religious practices to the considerably different gender practices they saw. However, one difference which allowed European newcomers a rationale to exploit Native Americans was their different attitude toward property ownership. Native Americans had a relationship with land and animals that Europeans could not understand, since the latter believed in outright ownership of nearly any asset that could be owned.

Colonists saw this difference in ownership as proof that Native Americans were not as civilized as their own European cultures, in which ownership issues had been hammered out long ago. They also believed that Native Americans did not use their land to advantage, since they did not raise crops or domesticate large herds of animals. Since they had a “better” way of managing land, British colonists in particular felt little compunction in taking over desirable land through purchase, dispossession (squatting on land and refusing to move), removal (forcing Indians to leave their own land so the newcomers could use it), or outright war to seize it.

These colonial attitudes and their resulting government policy resulted in much cruelty toward Native Americans.

French and Indian Leaders Meeting

Colonists Building Their Own Structures

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Thanksgiving

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The First Thanksgiving, by Jennie A. Brownscombe, courtesy Pilgrim Hall Museum

The Thanksgiving holiday does not have the same significance for Native Americans as it does generally for others in this country. The fact that European pilgrims survived their first harsh winter boded ill for native peoples who suffered death, disease, and cultural disintegration at their hands. However, many Native American tribes incorporated gratitude into everyday life, often thanking plants and other living things for giving themselves to human use. Many tribes also had specific times and occasions for which they specifically took time out to express gratitude, such as mid-winter and harvest time.

Among others, the Creek, Cherokee, Seminole, Yuchi, and Iroquois tribes celebrated the Green Corn Festival, which marked the beginning of the first corn harvest. It was a time to thank Mother Earth and all living things for providing food  and other usable items that made life good. Most Native Americans had various harvest ceremonies with the same purpose in mind. The Iroquois particularly formalized times of thanksgiving, which would include a special Thanksgiving Address. A speaker was chosen to give thanks on behalf of all the people. The thanksgiving prayer then offered gratitude to the Creator for the earth and the living things upon it. The prayer could be quite long, encompassing specific things the speaker wanted to call special attention to, like birds, rivers, medicinal grasses and herbs, wind, rain, sunshine, the moon and stars, and so on.

For many Native Americans, gratitude intersected with the spirituality they brought to daily life. Ceremonies simply formalized the gratitude they typically expressed on a smaller scale every day.

Harvest Dance, Santo Domingo Pueblo, 1910, courtesy Library of Congress

Sugar-Making Among the Indians in the North, 19th century illustration

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Dancing Controversy

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Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Charles Burke

Native American dancing caused controversy for several reasons (see last post). Missionaries saw paganism or sexual immorality in dancing, and also considered it a hindrance to their efforts to convert Indians to Christianity; the Indian Office felt that traditional dancing impeded Indians’ assimilation into white culture. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Charles Burke, had threatened action if dancing wasn’t sharply curtailed, and this was no idle threat. The Religious Crimes Code of 1883 gave agency superintendents authority to use force or imprisonment to stop practices they felt were immoral, subversive, or counter to government assimilation policies. Though all Native American dancing was denounced, government attention and a great deal of controversy eventually centered on the Pueblos and their dances.

By the time Burke issued his directives against dancing (Circular No. 1665 and its supplement) in 1921 and 1923, the changing times brought a bit of opposition he hadn’t anticipated. By the 1920s, a group of reformers, intellectuals, artists, and other non-traditionalists had begun to support Native American culture. They pushed back against Burke and others with an assimilation agenda, and eventually drummed up enough publicity and legal opposition to defeat some of the more outrageous demands of whites in power. They particularly used the guarantees of religious freedom as a weapon to defend native culture; both Pueblos and their white supporters emphasized that dancing was part of Native American religious ceremonies.

Squaw Dance at Pine Ridge Reservation, July 4, 1891, courtesy Library of Congress

Squaws Ready for Dance at Valentine, Nebraska between 1890 and 1910, courtesy Library of Congress

As time went on and more liberal views of Native American culture emerged in Congress, Burke and others of like mind began to lose power. Former Commissioner of Indian Affairs, John Collier, writing in his memoir, From Every Zenith, described a visit to a Navajo reservation in the late 1920s. During that visit, two senators, a government attorney, and the assistant commissioner of Indian Affairs, J. Henry Scattergood, danced the squaw dance with the unmarried Navajo girls.

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Dancing and Morals

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Dance at Zia Pueblo, New Mexico, between 1890 and 1910, courtesy Library of Congress

Missionaries trying to convert Native Americans to Christianity took particular exception to the traditional dances of native peoples. Some Christian denominations considered dancing immoral for anyone–whites included–but even denominations that might have tolerated a lively square dance typically found Native American dancing somewhat shocking. Whether it was the sometimes scanty apparel of participants, the exuberance of certain dances, or simple unfamiliarity on their part, missionaries often lumped all their objections into a universal condemnation. Native American dances were “degrading” in their eyes.

The Indian Office frequently backed missionaries in their assessments of Indian culture, and certainly did in this case. In the 1920s, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Charles Burke, issued two directives against dancing: Circular No. 1665, Indian Dancing (1921), and a supplement to it two years later. Eventually, the dancing controversy centered upon the Pueblos. They, as well as white supporters, contended that their dances were part of their religion and should be protected, while missionaries and supporters of assimilation argued that the dances were merely pagan rituals. The resulting clash over religious rights eventually sent a powerful message to the Indian Office.

My next post will further discuss the dancing controversy.

Corn Dance at San Felipe Pueblo, New Mexico, 1915, courtesy Library of Congress

Southern Plains Indian Social Dance, circa 1895

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Onward, Civilization

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Presbyterian Missionary Kate McBeth and Nez Perce Students, late 19th Century, courtesy Idaho Historical Society

Besides encouraging native peoples to take up farming, white settlers believed that introducing Christianity would help “civilize” Indians (see last post). Federal policy encouraged missionaries to enter Indian territories to spread both the gospel and white culture. By the 1820s, missionaries were active as far west as Oklahoma, and by the 1850s, had established churches, schools, and mission stations among the Cherokee, Comanche, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and many other native peoples. The government  did not always observe a strict separation of church and state, since they considered Christian missionaries effective ambassadors of white culture, and actively encouraged their involvement in reservation life. In 1869, federal officials instituted the Peace Policy, a church-led assimilation program based out of reservations. These and similar efforts fell in line with the prevailing notion that America held a unique position in the world because of its Christian, democratic roots, and needed to spread its ideals across the continent.

For the most part, missionaries were undoubtedly convinced that their work would better both the physical and spiritual lives of Indians, and Native Americans did not always reject Christianity out of hand. Various Native American belief systems held commonalities with Christianity, and Native Americans tended to be spiritually inclusive. As a result, they could accept appealing parts of Christianity without rejecting their own traditional belief systems. In unfortunate contrast, Christian missionaries wanted Native Americans to abandon their heritage and culture completely. This adversarial stance guaranteed that Native Americans would suffer almost continually for practicing their own religion.

Reverend Arthur on Horseback With His Three Children, courtesy Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

Chief Black Horse Shaking Hands With Missionary, Promising Friendship, between 1880 and 1910, courtesy Library of Congress

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Civilizing Indians

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Thomas Jefferson, 1803

From the time of their own arrival, most white settlers to America considered Native Americans savages, or at best, uncivilized. Thomas Jefferson wrote about “civilizing” Indians within a peculiar context–that of helping Americans extend their territory. Jefferson saw that Americans would need more land as the new country’s population grew. The best solution for this coming difficulty, he felt, would be for  native peoples to give up their traditional practice of hunting across vast tracts of land in order to free up these spaces for whites.

In a letter to Congress in 1803, Jefferson suggested that Indians take up farming. He wanted to encourage native peoples to “apply to the raising of stock, to agriculture and domestic manufacture, and thereby prove to themselves that less land & labor will maintain them in this, better than in their former mode of living. The extensive forests necessary in the hunting life will then become useless.”

Jefferson hoped that Indians would then see an advantage in exchanging all this useless land for supplies and whatever else would help them to improve their farms and increase their “domestic comforts.” Ultimately, he hoped that his scenario would prepare Indians “to participate in the benefits of our government,” adding that “I trust and believe we are acting for their greatest good.”

Westward Expansion, 1803-1807, courtesy University of Texas Libraries

Native Americans Raising Corn

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Early Observations on the West

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Drawing of Beaver, Native Americans and Wildlife From 1700s

Though mountain men like Jedediah Smith (see last post) brought their prejudices and world-views with them, they also rejected much of civilized society’s mores and were comfortable interacting with whatever or whomever they found on their journeys. Mountain men were disposed to go along in peace with native peoples if they could, so often they had a chance to make observations that later whites could not. Smith wrote about the “Pa-utch and Sam-pach” tribes and their preparation of a strange root about the size of a parsnip. “They prepare them by laying them on heated Stones and covering them first with grass and then with earth where they remain until they are sufficiently steamed,” Smith wrote. The roots were then mashed and made into cakes.

Smith was impressed by a method of communication he observed among an Indian group he did not name. “Each family or set of families has a quantity of dry Sedge Bark and Brush piled up near the habitation and immediately on the approach of a Stranger they set fire to the pile and this being seen by their neighbor he does the same . . . so that the alarm flies over the hills in every direction with the greatest rapidity.”

When travelers like Smith merely wrote down what they observed, they provided good records of early Native American customs. When they slipped into judgment and comparisons with white culture, however, their observations become more suspect and may not tell the whole story.

One Type of Smoke Signal

Iroquois Fur Trappers

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Women’s Food Knowledge

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Hopi Indians Removing Pits from Peaches Before Drying, courtesy Library of Congress

Some Native American women held special positions in tribes (see last two posts), but almost any female possessed food-gathering and culinary skills of great value. When settlers first began pushing West, they found survival on the unforgiving Plains and desert areas very difficult. Scurvy (a vitamin C deficiency) was a special problem until whites could settle long enough to grow vegetables. Yet, Native American women knew to eat raw (wild) greens, berries, and vegetables to prevent scurvy and other nutritional diseases. They also knew how to make calorie-dense pemmican and jerky which kept well and could be used during lean times. Native Americans also ate parts of buffalo and other game that most whites disdained, but liver, brains, heart, and intestines are nutritious parts of the animal.

Whites did not want to eat things like grass, clover, cactus, wild artichokes, or cattails. They tended to cook all their food and frequently bypassed raw edibles that could have eased their hunger or provided better nutrition in the raw state; additionally, they were often suspicious of new foods. Though whites could have learned a lot by observing the peoples who had obviously lived successfully on the land for thousands of years, they held so many cultural prejudices that it was difficult for them to emulate the wisdom of Native American eating patterns.

Native American Woman Adding Berries to Make Pemmican

Indian (Pueblos) Food Preparation, 1899 or 1900, courtesy Library of Congress

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Medicine Women

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Blood Medicine Woman, Calgary, circa 1900

Native American women gathered herbs and created various healing preparations from them in probably every tribe. Some women had a special ability to heal, and became medicine women. Their knowledge went beyond the ordinary, and they devoted a considerable amount of time to perfecting their skills in recognizing and using herbs for curing illness and treating injuries. Women who were successful healers would be rewarded for their efforts with presents, food, and the like, and could become wealthy and respected within their tribes. Europeans were often astonished at how effective Native American medicines were in healing the ills of the day.

Some women went beyond healing with herbs and developed a deeper alliance with the spirit world. These women were differentiated as shamans; they studied under a practicing shaman and eventually took over her position. Shamans used the information passed on to them from their mentors, but also developed their own rituals, songs, or formulas for healing and for practicing other spiritual skills like interpreting dreams, finding buffalo herds, or calling out the wind. Their powers were mystical and magical, and though they could heal, they had a different role than medicine women.

Medicine Woman Seeking Solitude, 1915, courtesy Library of Congress

Menominee Medicine Woman

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