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South West Indian Culture Biography
South West Indian Culture Biography
There are many American Indian tribes native to the Southwest of the United States. These tribes are located in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado (the southern section). There are five tribes from the Southwest: Apache, Hopi, Navajo, Pueblo, and Zuni. Most of these Southwest Indians lived in villages and farming was their main occupation.Southwest Indians create many beautiful pieces of art. They make pottery, clothing and baskets that are still sold in stores and arts Because they are very spiritual tribes, most of their art contains symbols and signs of their beliefs, dreams, and visions. The pottery is for both every day use and display. The clothing they make can be anything from an outfit, such as a dress with gorgeous flowers on it, to a elaborately decorated headdress, full of feathers. The Zuni and Hopi Southwest Indians carved dolls, called Kachina dolls, out of wood. The dolls were decorated with masks and costumes to represent the Kachina spirits. These dolls help children of the tribe learn tribal ceremonies.Turquoise is a stone used in quite a bit of Southwest Indian jewelry. The Indians look at it as a stone that promotes health, happiness, and good fortune. The Navajo Indians are also well known for their silver belts and jewelry. They learned to work with silver from the Mexicans. Perhaps the greatest skill of the Southwest Indians is in their basket making. After hand weaving the baskets, the Southwest Indians decorate them with colors and patterns. The methods the Hopi use to make baskets have not changed in hundreds of years.The naming of a newborn baby is such an important part of the Southwest Indian culture that it is not done by the parents, but relatives and tribe leaders. Hopi babies are not named until 20 days after they are born. Most Indian babies spent the early years of their life strapped to their mothers in what is sometimes referred to as a papoose. Young girls learn to help around the camp, doing chores such as making food, weaving baskets, and sewing. Young boys of the Southwest Indian tribes learn to make weapons and hunt.
The third group included the Navajo, Apache and Hopi, among others. They probably migrated from the northwest about a millennium ago, well after other Southwestern natives had settled. When these nomadic tribes arrived, they lived by hunting. Then the Navajo settled near the Pueblo and learned to raise maize and weave cotton. After the Spaniards brought horses and sheep, the Navajo lived by raising sheep, weaving colorfully attractive blankets and crafting fine silver jewelry. They lived in a hogan, or earth lodge. The warlike Apache did not settle down. They preferred hunting and raiding; few of them raised crops. Some lived in brush huts and others lived in tipis like the Plains natives. Most of them dressed in animal skins.
There were several language groups prior to European contact. They included Kerasan and Tanoan, languages of the Pueblo; Navajo, from the Athapascan linguistic family traceable to Northern Canada and Alaska; Yuman, spoken by the Havasupai and Mojave; Zuni Pueblo; and sign language, shared among the several tribes to overcome language barriers. Following European contact, the indigenous peoples acquired Spanish, English and a trader language (with whites) whose purpose was similar to sign language. In all, more than 600 native dialects were spoken among a dozen major tribes and their sub-groups.
The people of the Southwest supported full-time religious leaders with shrines or temples. Most Southwestern Native Americans believed that in the universe there exists an Almighty, a formless spiritual force that is the source of all life. The sun was venerated as the power of the Almighty. They did not worship the sun, but prayed to the Almighty; the sun was its symbol. Some Southwest Native Americans believed the first people were created in a cavern below the surface of the earth. They climbed through two more caves, occupied by other living things, until they reached the surface. They emerged through a hole called sipapu, from which humans were born. They believed that this fourth world was sacred. Children listened to their parents tell legends, which recounted how people and nature work together. Catholicism was introduced by the Spanish.
White contact from the 1600s onward was greedy, ruthless and marginalizing. In addition, the legacy of the Southwest Native Americans following 1845 is marred by promises made and undone by the federal government. Title rights to this region's water and mineral resources lay at the root of the confrontation between native and white cultures. In the long run, native societies were restricted to increasingly smaller reservations—most lacking access to traditional natural resources.
Modern descendants of these tribes are noted for their symbol-rich spirituality, reverence for the earth, tightly knit clans, rousing dance and exquisitely rendered crafts. Water and mineral rights are an abiding concern and source of contention with the far more numerous non-natives of the Southwest.
The third group included the Navajo, Apache and Hopi, among others. They probably migrated from the northwest about a millennium ago, well after other Southwestern natives had settled. When these nomadic tribes arrived, they lived by hunting. Then the Navajo settled near the Pueblo and learned to raise maize and weave cotton. After the Spaniards brought horses and sheep, the Navajo lived by raising sheep, weaving colorfully attractive blankets and crafting fine silver jewelry. They lived in a hogan, or earth lodge. The warlike Apache did not settle down. They preferred hunting and raiding; few of them raised crops. Some lived in brush huts and others lived in tipis like the Plains natives. Most of them dressed in animal skins.
There were several language groups prior to European contact. They included Kerasan and Tanoan, languages of the Pueblo; Navajo, from the Athapascan linguistic family traceable to Northern Canada and Alaska; Yuman, spoken by the Havasupai and Mojave; Zuni Pueblo; and sign language, shared among the several tribes to overcome language barriers. Following European contact, the indigenous peoples acquired Spanish, English and a trader language (with whites) whose purpose was similar to sign language. In all, more than 600 native dialects were spoken among a dozen major tribes and their sub-groups.
The people of the Southwest supported full-time religious leaders with shrines or temples. Most Southwestern Native Americans believed that in the universe there exists an Almighty, a formless spiritual force that is the source of all life. The sun was venerated as the power of the Almighty. They did not worship the sun, but prayed to the Almighty; the sun was its symbol. Some Southwest Native Americans believed the first people were created in a cavern below the surface of the earth. They climbed through two more caves, occupied by other living things, until they reached the surface. They emerged through a hole called sipapu, from which humans were born. They believed that this fourth world was sacred. Children listened to their parents tell legends, which recounted how people and nature work together. Catholicism was introduced by the Spanish.
White contact from the 1600s onward was greedy, ruthless and marginalizing. In addition, the legacy of the Southwest Native Americans following 1845 is marred by promises made and undone by the federal government. Title rights to this region's water and mineral resources lay at the root of the confrontation between native and white cultures. In the long run, native societies were restricted to increasingly smaller reservations—most lacking access to traditional natural resources.
Modern descendants of these tribes are noted for their symbol-rich spirituality, reverence for the earth, tightly knit clans, rousing dance and exquisitely rendered crafts. Water and mineral rights are an abiding concern and source of contention with the far more numerous non-natives of the Southwest.
South West Indian Culture
South West Indian Culture
South West Indian Culture
South West Indian Culture
South West Indian Culture
South West Indian Culture
South West Indian Culture
South West Indian Culture
South West Indian Culture
South West Indian Culture
South West Indian Culture
South West Indian Culture
South West Indian Culture
