The relationship of the United States to Native American cultures is sort of peculiar. On the one hand, Native Americans are often viewed as savages. In most of the old westerns, they are little more than stock villains, there to be shot by brave heroes, falling by the dozen at the feet of the fearless cowboy. On the other hand, sometimes we do just the opposite. Often, Native Americans are idealized. Especially with the growing environmental consciousness in our world today, Native American cultures are seen as a paragon of virtue. People argue that Native Americans did not waste food, respected the land, and had a more holistic spirituality than we did.
The truth of the matter is that both of these views oversimplify Native American cultures. When you look at Native American history, you are not looking at the history of one people. There were dozens upon dozens perhaps hundreds of Native American tribes. They had different languages,different cultures and customs, and different ways of living. There may have been some broad commonalities between many of these Native American cultures, but they were dwarfed by their differences. Some of them were nomadic while others were settled. Some of them were primarily hunter-gatherer societies while others practiced agriculture. Some of them were very warlike while others were much more peaceful. Like European cultures, Native American cultures cannot all be characterized by one description.
What's interesting is that, since the Indian wars,the Native American cultural movement has really brought the different tribes together. What united the Native American cultures was not their commonality so much as a need to band together for survival. They were facing a war of total extermination waged by European invaders, and in light of that they formed into tribal councils to try to challenge the rule of the white settlers. Every Native American culture maintained some of its original identity, but they also for the first time recognized a common heritage and a common destiny.
As things have moved along since then, Native American culture identity has become even stronger. Many of the tribes have died and many more are facing cultural extinction. With that, traditional definitions of what it means to be Lakota, Iroquois, or Hopi have been replaced by a vast, continental identity that embraces thousands of years of shared history. Whether this is a positive development remains to be seen. What is clear is that it is one that is necessary for the tribes.
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