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1. |
National Museum of the American Indian |
Housed at and hosted by
the wonder-filled Smithsonian Institution, the National
Museum of the American Indian is a stunning and
sophisticated site. Vibrant colors and artifacts warmed
by the real use of long-dead people mark its exhibits.
The catalogues are not the usual dry recitation of data,
but instead enlivened by personal remembrances and
interpretations by a select council of Native American
advisors and artisans. Aside from the exhibits, take a
look at the Cultural Resource Center of the National
Museum of the American Indian, now being completed in
stages.
http://www.si.edu/organiza/museums/amerind/start.htm |
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2. |
Native American Silverwork |
The Native Hands site features a
catalogue of fine silver bracelets, earrings, buckles,
rings, necklaces, pins, and other jewelry. While we
wouldn't normally cover such a commercial site, the
unique art and artists here make it a worthwhile visit.
You can read biographies of the Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni
artists and explanations of the techniques of
clusterwork, inlay, overlay, and stampwork.
http://www.nativehands.com/
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3. |
Native American Navigator |
Columbia University's Institute for
Learning Technologies (ILT) offers the Native American
Navigator, as comprehensive a resource as we've seen on
North America's native peoples. The ILT focuses on the
tools and process of learning, whatever the subject, so
its own content leans toward providing resources for
teachers and their students. But, oh, those links! For
the rest of the surfing public, the content is measured
by its considerable array of specialized links, grouped
by native nation. A map shows linguistic relationships
and geographic ranges within the lower 48 states. We'd
have preferred a timeline that started, oh, say 20,000
years before 1830, but we can't have everything we want,
now, can we?
http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/k12/naha/nanav.html
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4. |
Inuit Education |
Inuuqatigiit is a school curriculum
developed with the help of community leaders for Inuit
students in some of Canada's most northern communities.
Clearly written, it paints a sharp picture of the Inuit
world view on issues of morality, the family, and the
environment, without resorting to the reverential
mysticism that sometimes mars cross-cultural texts. This
skillfully written document emphasizes similarities
across cultures so smoothly that it's unclear in the
text just when it slips into issues that are singularly
Inuit. How many Grade 12 teachers hope that students
learn to hunt seals safely in different seasons and know
the proper way to show respect for a seal after it has
been killed? This wonderful site teaches all of us about
contemporary concerns and cultural strategies among
people who rely on tradition to define themselves.
http://www.learnnet.nt.ca/Inuuqatigiit/TitleoPage.html
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5. |
The Scandalous US Bureau of Indian Affairs |
When is stealing not stealing? When
it's called an "unreconciled transaction" and it is
committed by the government. The US Bureau of Indian
Affairs is accused on this Web site of stealing billions
of dollars from the Native American population. Dollars
that should be building houses or funding health
initiatives are said to find their way into the
capacious pockets of bureaucrats and politicians. Oil
companies pay millions to the Bureau for the right to
drill oil on Native land, but according to Jennifer
Hicks, the article's author, the Indians do not see a
dime of it. Allegedly, appallingly bad management and
sloppy accounting mean vast sums owed to the Bureau go
uncollected, and when a Bureau accountant tried to take
action, he was fired. The site provides the fired
accountant's words on the matter.
http://www.minorities-jb.com/native/fraud.html
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6. |
Endangered Native American Languages |
Most Native American languages will not
survive beyond the next 20 years, joining hundreds that
are now dead and gone forever, as a few alpha male
languages strut uncontested about the globe. What is to
be done, and why? As a teacher of ours used to say,
interesting questions, interesting questions!
Fortunately, James Crawford has interesting answers too
in his 6000-word essay, although perhaps not as good as
he would like. Why should we care? Language loss is an
irrevocable blow to science, but more critically it "can
destroy a sense of self-worth, limiting human potential
and complicating efforts to solve other problems". The
author admits that language homogenization can be
arrested only if those to whom these languages are
natural wish to preserve them. Read up, think about
carrier pigeons, and get anxious.
http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/miscpubs/crawford/ |
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7. |
A Highly Aboriginal Idea |
Indigenous tribes of the Americas may
never fully reclaim their languages, religions, and
cultures, but some in Canada are using the Net to
rekindle their vitality. Aboriginal Digital Collections,
a Canadian government program, is funding hundreds of
Web sites produced mostly by Aboriginal youth groups and
businesses. The home page tells how groups can get
involved, and links take you to the interesting stuff:
sites displaying art, music, history, native languages,
and information about the more than 20,000
Aboriginal-owned businesses nationwide. The sites stand
on their own merit, but they've also served as
instructive, creative rites of passage for kids who
might otherwise remain severed from their cultural roots.
http://aboriginalcollections.ic.gc.ca/ |
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8. |
Dakota Culture and Religion |
This introduction to Dakota culture and
history by Kevin L. Callahan, University of Minnesota,
is a thoughtful and attractive presentation on the
subject. The author intends the site as a teaching aid,
but there's no thread as such, no structure to the place.
Instead you are invited to scroll down the page and read
stuff there, quotations from various folk - mostly
historical, a few quite recent - and the site makes no
apparent attempt to shape the conclusions or ideas
you'll come away with. In an understanding way, Callahan
briefly describes topics such as the Dakota view of
nature and "wildness", contrasts Dakota creation stories
with evolution, and provides links to other sites on
related topics, including pictures and descriptions of
the Thunderbird petroglyphs of the upper midwest, James
Walker's outline of Oglala Dakota mythology, Dakota
spirituality, and Dakota terms and concepts. It's a fine
site requiring some effort on the part of visitors.
Dakota religion and sacred boulders is another of
Callahan's set of archeological Web sites, and continues
the respectful but objective treatment of information
about the Dakota people.
Dakota culture:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5579/dakota.html
Dakota religion:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/1059/dakotareligion.html |
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9. |
Real American History |
In the 13th century, Cahokia, with its
huge ceremonial mound, probably had as many residents as
London. Members of the Pueblo nation have inhabited the
stone apartments of Acoma, New Mexico continuously since
the 12th century. The list goes on, but the point is
that North American history didn't start de novo when
Columbus - or even the earlier European mariners -
landed on the eastern shores. That's the message in
America Before Columbus, an article that makes a moving
case for understanding the deep roots of North American
history. Here was a continent rich in people, highly
diverse in language and custom, and with cities as
populous as any in Europe. Europeans achieved dominance
quickly but remained ignorant about what they
encountered in North America. The article is sprinkled
with amazing anecdotes and fascinating facts that will
interest anyone who hasn't yet understood the real
history of the continent. And it will make you wonder
what might have happened if the oceans had been a real
barrier to exploration and movement of people rather
than just a challenging obstacle.
http://www.millersv.edu/~columbus/data/art/LORD-01.ART |
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10. |
History of Native American Health Care |
The US National Institutes of Health has
posted an online version of an exhibition on Native
American health care, dating from the early 19th century.
Documents include letters and excerpts from journal
articles, mostly by EuroAmerican doctors with little
understanding of or empathy for Native American
medicine. Descriptions of small pox and other epidemics,
which wiped out entire communities, are heartbreaking.
But, some misguided efforts to 'save the savage' are
almost as tragic. One interesting journal excerpt comes
from Charles Eastman, one of the first Native American
MDs, who compared the medicine man's world view to that
of Christian Science, where mind and spirit prevail over
body. The exhibition features some beautiful photos, but
not enough of them.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/if_you_knew/if_you_knew_01.html |
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11. |
Turtle Tracks - Native American Newsletter for Kids |
The purpose of this site is best summed
up by its 'quote of the week', attributed to one Dale
Old Horn: "The culture of a people only survives if
people practice it". Produced by Cherokee elder
Momfeather Erikson and a team of teachers and others
interested in education, furthering Native culture is
Turtle Tracks' number one priority. You don't have to be
Native American, however, to enjoy this site. There are
articles about Native American history, a spotlight on
praiseworthy Native Americans called 'Hero of the Week',
and plenty of artwork. There are many interesting
articles about battles and wars, essays about native
wildlife, stories, legends, and even recipes. This site
makes for fascinating reading and exploration. For a
culture to survive, its youth must be educated. This
site is a great aid toward furthering that goal with
regard to the cultures of the First Nations, and it also
serves as an introduction to those rich and ancient
traditions.
http://www.turtle-tracks-for-kids.org/page1.html |
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12. |
Native Americans in World War I |
"What struck me the most when I heard
that 17,000 Native Americans had served in the Great War
was that, not even thirty years after the end of the
Indian wars, American Indians were willing to fight
alongside their former enemy." So writes Diane Camurat
in the preface of The American Indian in the Great War:
Real and Imagined. This site is Camurat's master's
thesis, submitted in 1993 to the Institut Charles V of
the University of Paris. Like most text documents
transferred to the Web, this one offers no sizzle or
flash. But what it does provide is an examination into
both the process a scholar goes through in examining and
interpreting historical documents, and the role of
Native Americans in World War I. One of the more
dramatic contributions of Native Americans during World
War I was the success of the Choctaw code talkers, which
Michael Wilson highlights on a subsection of his
Unofficial Choctaw Nation home page. In the closing days
of the war, eight Choctaws were serving in a battalion
of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) that was
surrounded by Germans; the Germans had broken the AEF's
codes and were intercepting their messages. An officer,
overhearing two Choctaws speaking in their native
language, distributed the eight among the Expeditionary
forces. Communicating orders over telephone lines in
their native language, which the Germans were unable to
decipher, the Choctaw soldiers helped the AEF regain
control. Wilson tells the story through the transcript
of a 1979 interview with the last living soldier of the
group and through scanned images of a January 1919
report from a commanding officer describing the
Choctaws' contribution to the AEF's success.
Camurat:
http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/comment/camurat1.html
WWI code talkers:
http://www.niti.net/~michael/choctaw/code.htm |
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13. |
Indigenous Peoples Time Line |
Phil Konstantin, a member of the Cherokee
nation of Oklahoma, California Highway Patrol officer,
and prolific writer has assembled an intriguing
chronicle featuring 3000 historical events involving the
indigenous peoples of North America. Reading randomly
gives a compelling, if grim, impression of mostly
European settlers using every dirty trick in the book to
displace North American Natives from their lands. At
first, there was always somewhere else for the Native
peoples to go, but later space would run out, with sad
consequences. Phil's labor of love is full and
fascinating. The event descriptions are the heart of the
site, but there's more here as well, including a link to
a moving commentary about the death of his wife, killed
in a car crash in 1999. This is a site that's worth
dipping into from time to time, rather than devouring in
one long marathon.
http://members.tripod.com/~PHILKON/index.html |
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14. |
An Argentinian Site:
Los Kallpas (in Spanish, of course) |
Ahora te voy a invitar a visitar una
página que hice yo. Se trata de indios, pero de un grupo
de niños que desean representar la cultura sudamericana
y en especial de nuestro país, para ello se agruparon en
un Comparsa que se llama "Los Kallpas". Kallpa es una
palabra que proviene del dialecto Quechua hablado por
los Incas, que dominaron todo el Perú extendiendo sus
dominios hasta el Noroeste Argentino. Recibe un gran
saludo desde la Provincia de Salta en Argentina.
http://habitantes.elsitio.com/siancas |
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Copyright(c) 1998-2004 Vito Minerva. All rights reserved. kubik@tin.it
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