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The Bonding Of Native American Culture And Language In Today’s Society
By Robert II Smith
Introduction
The great Victorian anthropologist Sir Edward Tylor described culture as “a complex whole that includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and the habits acquired by members of a society.” Human cultures are made up of many different elements, such as language, technology, religious beliefs. These fundamentals interact with one another to form complex and ever-changing cultural systems that adjust to long- and short-term environmental change.
Native North Americans culture and their language belong to the Great Plains. At the time of the first contact with European settlers, the Indians had no permanent village sites, but they used to move about in search of food from place to place. Religious traditions of aboriginal peoples around the world are heavily influenced by their methods of acquiring food, by hunting wild animals and agriculture. Native American spirituality is no exception; their rituals and belief show a blending of interest in promoting and preserving their hunting, language and culture.
The arrival of Europeans marked a major change in native society, millions died due to sickness, slavery and extermination. The Europeans missionaries looked upon Native Spirituality as worthless superstition inspired by the devil, while many survivors were forcibly converted to Christianity on the pretext of white man’s burden. The US government instituted policies to force Natives onto reservations and encouraged them to assimilate into the majority culture. As a result during the 20th century, generations of children were kidnapped and forcibly confined in residential schools to assimilate them into civilized society. This experiment proved incorrect as these children grew up to be neither Native American nor did the White American accept them. These policies hastened the downfall of indigenous languages, and till the middle of the 20th century two third of the indigenous American languages had died out.
Over the centuries there were errors upon errors committed and argued by strange theories, some labeled them as wandering Israelites, and other considered them inferior in intellect that had sunk into "stupid repose". There were others who idealized them, such as , the French essayist Michel de Montaigne called them the Noble Savage, Alexander Pope rhapsodized about Indians who saw "God in clouds," while America's James Fenimore Cooper drew an enduring portrait of an imaginary Mohican, "an unblemished specimen of the noblest proportions of man”, all of which were far from truth.
The Native American Spiritual Beliefs
Ironically the Native Americans do not regard their spiritual beliefs and practices as a "religion" the way Christians do, but their beliefs and practices form a vital and seamless part of their very existence. It is rather holding a different perspective of the world, looking at the world with an angle of liaison with nature. As Justice Thomas Berger mentions, that the culture, values and traditions of native people are more than crafts and carvings. Their respect for the wisdom of their elders, concept of family responsibilities, respect for the environment and willingness to share - all of these values endure their culture, even they have been surviving in unremitting pressure to abandon them.
Europeans were often baffled by these indigenous traditions and norms, but Native people also felt the same way about Christianity. Noah Augustine describes the view of a Native “Rather than going to church, I attend a sweat lodge; rather than accepting bread and toast [sic] from the Holy Priest, I smoke a ceremonial pipe to come into Communion with the Great Spirit; and rather than kneeling with my hands placed together in prayer, I let sweet grass be feathered over my entire being for spiritual cleansing and allow the smoke to carry my prayers into the heavens”.
Language empowers us to comprehend our families and communities, and above all ourselves. Today, Native American languages are endangered and dying. There is a silent crisis in Indian communities as elder speakers depart and with them the language and traditions also pass away. More than half of the 300 indigenous languages that existed when the Europeans first landed in North America disappeared, and more than 75 of those were lost in the last century alone. These languages were transmitted orally without any written record, it was but natural that the new generation of the Native Americans who were raised in cities could neither speak their language nor had the any knowledge about their culture.
Facts and Figure
According to the federal law and policy, Indian nations are sovereign through treaties, statues and have a legal relationship with the U.S. government .In exchange for land the government agreed to provide tribes with education, health care and public safety, thus establishing legal obligations. It sounds ideal in theory, but in reality Indian people have not benefited from this policy. Native American students have experienced fewer educational success in American schools compared to non-Indian students, especially when measured in terms achievement test scores.
The Indian Nations At Risk Task Force (1991) has noticed that the schools serving Indian students “have failed to nurture the intellectual development and academic performance of Native children.” The Native Americans have higher rate of unemployment, and lower educational achievement. According to the US Census (1990), the national rate of high school graduates for the general population is 65 percent, and 16 percent for graduates, with the Native Americans standing at 55.8 percent for high school graduates and 7.7 percent for graduates.
The recent growth of wealth due to the gambling casinos built on reservations, per capita income for Native Americans on reservations in 1999 was not more than US$7,846, compared with White American average income US$27,880. The question is, why does this bridge of
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poverty exist in a sea of wealth? Some think, that the Native Americans lack high-quality natural resources, but the truth is many reservations encompass valuable natural resources. Government may be willing for quick fixes to bring in wealth, but the crux of the matter is, any thing opposed to the Indian culture will not create the harmony.
Being a Native American
The Native Americans are in love with their land and cannot think of selling or misusing it, as Supposedly Chief Seattle said in the 1850s “How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land. Every part of the Earth is sacred to my people.” Selling of land was an unthinkable idea for indigenous people. Once the land was confiscated, the culture and language also start to diminish. The reason is that, snatching land means taking away their way of life, for majority it was the end of being a Native. These people for centuries lived in harmony with nature, as they believe in living spirit of the nature. The government policies were opposed to such ideas, there skill was not required in the new setup; and they were reduced to abject poverty. Assimilating in new culture is never easy due to existence of cultural bias. The new culture proved to be a death trap, they could not practice their way of life in modern slums and soon started to loose their culture, language and identity, breaking this bond of language and tradition which they carried close to their heart for centuries.
Native Language Death and Revitalization
A language with no native speakers is called "dead" language and a language, which has no native speakers in the youngest generation, is called "moribund." A language, which has very few native speakers, is called "endangered" or "imperiled”. Native American languages are in peril, and more than ever they are in need of revitalization. In the natural course of things, languages sometimes die for variety of reasons. People for many social reasons do not wish to teach their children the mother tongue.
In the case of American Indian languages, the drop-off has been artificially created. In the earlier days of European contact, Indians were resettled hundreds of miles away with individuals from other tribes who couldn't understand each other, which proved to be the most effective way of eliminating minority languages. And later on the children from non-English-speaking households were sent to boarding schools to be "socialized”, which in reality was speeding up the death of minority culture and language.
Once majority of the young people in a community stop to communicate in their mother tongue, its usage rapidly declines. Language revitalization is the saving of a "dying" language. Hebrew is the only successful attempt of a complete language revival creating a new generation of native speakers. The easy to revitalize a dying language is by inspiring the younger generations to take interest and pride in their ancestral languages.
US Govt Efforts for the Protection of Native American Languages
The US government after decades of mistakes finally realized, that saving indigenous language and culture is in the interest of its citizens. The government has taken serious steps since 1974 to preserve the Native American languages, which are described below.
•In 1974, a major decision by the U.S. Supreme Court holding that public schools have an obligation to provide appropriate instruction for children who are limited in English, so as to overcome language barriers and ensure equal access to the curriculum. This measure provided an opportunity for the Native Americans to not only be proud of their language, but take pride in learning it.
•The Native American Languages Act of 1990: A federal law declaring that Native Americans have a right to use their own languages, and that it is US government policy to preserve, protect, and promote the development of Native American languages.
•Native American Languages Act of 1992: A federal law establishing a program of grants to tribes and other Native American organizations to support a wide range of activities aimed to ensure the survival and vitality of Native American languages.
•The Bilingual Education Act of 1994 provisions recognize the special situation of endangered Native American languages and give wide latitude to schools and tribal organizations in planning and carrying out bilingual education programs funded under the Act. It authorizes the priority consideration for development and production of high-quality instructional materials for Native American students.
Conclusion
For the survival of the Native American languages, more the government persuasion, it’s the people who can keep it alive. Language is not only a way of communication, but it also reflects the personality and cultural traits of the speakers; death of a language is the death of a way of life.
For many, the history of the Native American people is a tale of loss, but it is the story of strength and continuity. Despite tremendous barriers and obstacles; Native Americans have survived and are excelling in all walks of life. Their population was on decline, but now they are recovering. Today approximately 2,500,000 Native Americans live in the United States; the world they live in is changing, and they are also willing to adapt to the shifts of time, but with a renewed pride of their traditions. Today, many Native American regard themselves as nations within a nation, governed by their own tribal governments and keeping their language and culture alive. Robert Smith has spent more than 15 years working as a professor at New York University. Now he spends most of his time with his family and shares his Univesity experience with the customers of Custom Writing Service. He is a right person you can ask about custom writing.
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