the importance of n. a. culture

“But for the E* and the A* this land is home, a place where over centuries their ancestors developed he techniques necessary for exploiting the surprising diversity of resources that exist in these harsh conditions” (Feest, 30, 2000).

“Meanwhile, environmental activists have attempted to protect the seemingly untouched, paradise wilderness by also attacking the traditional hunting and fishing rights of the original population” (Feest, 30, 2000).

“In the west, the Five Civilized Tries had to rebuild their communities under great difficulties, and were then forced after all their efforts, to dissolve their own governments when the state of Oklahoma was established in 1906. They were given permission to reorganize only in 1938, under the Oklahoma I* Welfare Act, which had been passed to alleviate the adverse effects brought about by the enforced dissolution of their polities” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 158).

“Until the 1960s, the descendants of the C* remaining in Mississippi found themselves in a very difficult situation” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 158).

“Since the 1960s, however, the Mississippi C*, headed by an efficient tribal government, have performed a veritable economic miracle. Programs providing employment training, and the establishment of a business park - a multimillion-dollar enterprise under tribal control - have brought work and wealth. They are proud of their tradition and have in many ways been able to exploit thee best of both worlds to their advantage” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 158).

“Today the Oklahoma C* elect their chiefs themselves, among whom Wilma Mankiller (b. 1945), the first woman in such a position, was particularly popular” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 159).

“All of them were forced into a minority status and into economic dependence on the white world that surrounds them. In spite of their widely differing fates and survival strategies, they share the miracle of having survived against all expectations and against all odds into a present marked by their rediscovered pride in their separate identity” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 159).

V* H* (C*), C* Removal, watercolor, 1966. Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Ok.

The C* were the first of the Five Civilized Tribes to be removed to Oklahoma, on the basis of a treaty signed by a small group of leaders against the will of the majority of their people. In October 1831, 4,000 people set off on foot, on horseback, orin wagons along the bitter way to the West, and further mass removals followed in the ensuring years. Hundreds died on the way of disease, starvation, cold, and exhaustion. 

“In the face of the white settlers insatiable appetite for land and the growing economic importance of cotton, there was increasing political pressure to resettle the local population in an “I* Territory” west of the Mississippi, a more that was allegedly also to protect them from the evils of ‘civilization’” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 158).

“While some tribal leaders viewed a removal to the West as the inevitable means of securing the cultural survival of their people, others signed these treaties purely out of personal greed” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 158).

“The C* and the C* followed in 1836, after their flaring resistance had been brutally suppressed” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 158).

“The deportees were allowed to take only about 30 lbs of personal belongings with them, and even that seemed ‘excessive’ to some congressmen” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 158).

“In the winter of 1838/39. some 7, 000 soldiers drove the remaining C* westward. Starvation, exhaustion, and shipping catastrophes cost innumerable lives. Today, this exodus is generally referred to as the ‘Trail of Tears’” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 158).

Larger groups of C* fled to their Seminole relatives in the Florida swamps, who put up fierce resistance to American expansion in three wars (1817-18, 1835-42, and 1849-58), until their deportation to the I* Territory in 1856” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 158).

S* O* C*, an American Prince, copperplate engraving from J. Kanold and J. Kundman, Sammlung natur- und medecin- wie auch hierzu gehörigen Kunst and Literatur-Geschichten, Leipzig-Bautzen 1722. Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Austria.

In 1722, the citizens of various German towns had the opportunity of paying a small fee to gape at ‘two famous savage I* Princes,’ who were ‘greatly admired everywhere for the decorations found all over their bodies.’ The viewers were told that the tattoos marked their kinship affiliations and the ‘triumphant victories achieved in war by their ancestors.’  The two C* had been brought to Europe by Captain John Pight, who had taken part in the Y* War and knew how to exploit the exotic attraction these two young men presented in Europe.

“Despite all it omits, Cabeza de Vaca’s report still has more to tell us than any record made by the French and the Spanish in the borderlands between New Spain and Louisiana in the course of the next 300 years” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 156).

“Only the founding of a French Huguenot colony in Florida in 1564 renewed the interest of the Spanish, who a year later expelled the French and from their base in St. Augustine began to colonize and set up missions in Florida” (Kasprycki, 2000, pp. 156-157).

“Over the next 50 years, the Spanish, British, and French fought for supremacy over the indigenous peoples of the Southeast, and for control of the booming trade with the native populations” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 157).

“When France lost its American territories in 1763, the Spanish took over as rulers of the area west of the Mississippi, while the British gained eastern Florida from Spain and western Florida from France” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 157).

“After the American Revolution, Florida was ceded to Spain, until the region finally became part of the United States in 1819” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 157).

“In addition, Spanish and British slave hunters kidnapped many N. A. for the C* slave markets” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 157).

Quotes from “Resistance and assimilation”

“While the T* fled north to seek protection of their I* relatives, the Y* were completely wiped out and many of them ended their days in slavery” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 157).

“The introduction of African slaves by the European colonists had its repercussions for the indigenous peoples” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 157).

“Close contacts with Afro-Americans as well as whites soon led to the emergence of a mixed population, which often preferred to be identified as ‘I*.’ The L* developed in this way, and today are one of the largest population groups with a[n] N. A. identity in the United States” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 157).

Pottery vessel in the shape of a human head, Mississippian tradition, c. AD 1200-1700, St. Louis Science Center, St Louis, MO.

The occurrence of the motif of the severed human head in the artifacts of the Mississippian tradition points to the prehistoric custom of head-hunting, which was widespread throughout the Southeast. The ritual taking and preserving of heads (like the later practice of scalping) was connected to ideas about fertility. This effigy vessel shows the closed eyes and sewn-up mouth of a trophy head, in addition to face paint and ears pierced in several places for the attachment of ornaments.

“These highly developed societies, doomed as a result of their contact with the whites and their insidious diseases such as smallpox and measles, were the descendants of a cultural tradition that had emerged in the middle Mississippi Valley in about AD 1000 and which had many local variations spread along the rivers over the whole of the Southeast” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 154).

“Often surrounded by fortifications and moats, theses towns of differing sizes were ceremonial centers with a square for religious rituals, ball games, or council meetings, surrounded by temple mounds, public buildings, and often also conical burial mound” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 154).

“The bones of the members of this elite were placed next to those of their ancestors in the temples, where their official insignia, weapons, and other symbols of authority were also kept” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 155).

“A far-reaching long-distance trade network supplied the raw materials needed to produced these luxury items or these objects themselves, and centers of local craft specialization developed in the cities” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 155).

“E* artisans produced embossed copper objects of choice quality, whereas engraved shells were the hallmark of S*” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 155).

Spanish moss on trees, Louisiana.

Spanish moss, a species of Tillandsia growing on trees, is found throughout the coastal plain, and like the magnolia is characteristic of the Southeastern landscape. Indigenous peoples used the plant for tinder and as raw material for making cordage or clothing.

“The culture area of the Gulf Coast represents a separate border zone of the Southeast, covering the southern coastal regions of present-day Texas and the areas on the lower Rio Grande” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 151).

“The rot-resistant wood of the cypress proved to be a useful material for house posts and dugouts, while came was used for making mats, baskets, sieves, weirs, and many other items” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 151).

“By burning the underbrush, indigenous peoples, already in pre-European times created grassy clearings in the originally wooded area of the Appalachians and the piedmont, which facilitated the hunt for deer and the occasional forest bison” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 152).

“Turkeys were present everywhere and provided meat and feathers. Huge shell middens testify today to the importance of this source of food to the original inhabitants of the land” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 152).

“Today they are a protected species, and men of the Seminole - the only tribe now living in Florida - wrestle with them on alligator farms to provide entertainment for tourists” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 153).

“Temperatures in the higher altitudes of the Appalachians are cooler, but summer rains are frequent there too” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 153).

In fact, it was condescendingly described as a ‘cultural sink’” (Kasprycki, 2000, p. 153).

Gustav Hesselius, T*, oil on canvas 1735. Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

T* ( or T*) was one of the D* leaders who fell victim for the Walking Purchase Treaty of 1737. Two years, before, the Penn family had commissioned the Swedish artist Gustav Hesselius to portray him and follow Chief L*. For the sitting T* was draped in a blue woolen blanket and wore around his neck a tobacco pouch made of squirrel skin, in which he also kept a clay pipe that he had obtained through trade with the English.

“In the popular  imagination, the sale of M* for ‘a handful of glass beads’ is regarded as one of the most profitable real estate deals in history - and for many it is also an example of how the original inhabitants were cheated” (Feest, 2000, p. 146).

“The U*-speakers called themselves L* (‘real people’), still the preferred self-designation of the Delaware today” (Feest, 2000, p. 146).

“Still in the 18th century, several U* and M* groups retreated to the Canadian province of O*, some under the leadership of the M* B*, some as followers of the I*” (Feest, 2000, p. 147).

“Today the D* live widely scattered across different parts of Canada and the United states as D*, M*, or U*” (Feest, 2000, p. 146).

“Their fate strikingly illustrates the history of loss of land, relocation, and changing identity that similarly affected the destiny of many other peoples of the Northeast” (Feest, 2000, p. 146).

Unknown artist, M* I*, oil on canvas, c. 1820-1830. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON.

Although romanticized, this picture offers a glimpse into M* life of the 19th century. The men hunt wild geese, while the women steer the bark boats with paddles decorated with engravings. Hunting weapons, a toboggan, and snowshoes are laid  out ready in front of the conical bark-covered tent; inside a mother is looking  after her child, who is bound to a cradleboard, and the products of her craftwork lie within her reach.

“During this time believed in their conical bark tent and hunted, fished, and worked for the household as if he wee part of the family, although he was allowed no bridegroom served the guests with the yields of his hunting marked the formal end of this bridal service and the beginning of the marriage” (Feest, 2000, p. 144).

“Their alliance with the M*, P*, and A* was one of the strategies for maintaining indigenous autonomy in the face of a changing political and economic order” (Feest, 2000, p.144).

“The baptism of the great S* M*, who was greatly feared for his supernatural powers, was celebrated in 1610 as the first conversion, but the M* probably regarded it primarily as a means of Christian ideas soon replaced the old religious beliefs” (Feest, 2000, p. 145).

“The invention of the M* ‘hieroglyphs’ played an important part in the history of Christianization” (Feest, 2000, p. 145).

“To this day, Catholicism forms an important part of the group identity of the M* living on several reserves in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, and Southeastern Quebec” (Feest, 2000, p. 145).

C* P*, a S* I* woman, New York, 1849. Photograph after a lost d*. Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, CA.

What today is regarded as the traditional costume of I* women - dresses made of textiles and decorated with beadwork - did not develop until the 19th century. C* P* was the sister of General E* P* (1828-1895), the first indigenous head of the Bureau of I* Affairs in Washington. E* P* was also the main source of information for lawyer Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881), whose book on the Iroquois provided the springboard for his theory of the development of human society, which later greatly influenced Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engles (1820-1895). Marx and Engels claimed that the I* federation was an early forerunner in the formation of states, and that clan ownership of land was a step toward the development of private ownership of the means of production, and therefore of class society.

“The I* have thus been a symbol of alternative youth  culture for longer than just the last few decades, when the “M*” haircut became a trademark of the punk scene” (Feest, 2000, p. 142).

“The I* also continue to this day to be regarded as a perfect example of a matriarchal society, and their tribal confederation as a direct model for the American constitution” (Feest, 2000, p. 142).

“Also, these representatives of the people were not elected, but were chosen by the matrons (the eldest women of rank) of the clans in which their office including their name title, was passed down. Finally, the League’s council did not reach decisions by a majority vote, but had to negotiate until unanimity had been obtained. Furthermore, not even these decisions could be enforced, but were dependent on the tacit consent of the people” (Feest, 2000, p. 142).

“At the same time, the Great Law also required the matrons to award these titles to someone, as otherwise they would be declared dead and their family extinct” (Feest, 2000, p. 142).

“This, however, does not mean that I* women necessarily held as inferior position. They had their own councils and women’s associations, and as owners of the house and of the land that they farmed, they played an important part in both domestic and economic life. As one house would be inhabited by related women and their husbands, the men often remained outsiders in the household, and many marriages fell apart as a direct result of this” (Feest, 2000, p. 142).

“This does not make the I* a matriarchy, but rather a society with a relatively egalitarian gender status, which is rare enough in the world” (Feest, 2000, p. 142).

“Just as the idea of I* “matriarchy” inspired the founders of the American women’s movement as early as the 19th century, so the peace movement of the 20th century made frequent reference to the Great Law of Peace of the warlike I*” (Feest, 2000, p. 142).

Confederacy of chiefs in the council house, Six Nations Reserve, Ontario. c. 1910. Rochester Museum and Science Center, Rochester, NY.

Those I* who had emigrated to Canada after the American Revolution made their reservation by the Grand River the new center of the confederation, with its own league council, an institution also retained by those who had remained in New York. On both sides of the border, the Canadian and United States governments (in 1924 and 1934, respectively) attempted to replace the hereditary chiefs with democratically elected tribal representatives; however, alongside these new tribal councils, the traditional league councils, the traditional league council remains in operation to this day.