Native Americans

Maps: Native Americans

~ beetleypete ~ 34 Comments

Continuing my interest in maps, I found these three, which compare the locations of native North American tribes before settlers arrived with where they are living today.
(The maps can be enlarged by clicking on them)

A map designed by Native North Americans themsleves, depicting their history.

A more modern map, showing a European view of tribal locations in America and Canada at the time of the arrival of foreign settlers.

This map shows the current dispersal of Native Americans in modern-day USA.

The Real Americans

~ beetleypete ~ 55 Comments

When I was a schoolboy, Native Americans were known as ‘Red Indians’. All I knew about them was that they wore feathered headdresses, attacked wagon trains, and rode around on horses making a strange whooping sound. They lived in tepees, and liked to fight the US cavalry, as well as killing white settlers in the ‘Wild West’. They were easily pleased with gifts of small items like mirrors, blankets, or beads, and the men got drunk very easily on whisky, which they apparently called ‘fire-water’. When they decided to make peace, they passed around a large ‘peace-pipe’, which had to be smoked by all concerned. Some of their leaders, like Geronimo, Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse were very well-known, even in Britain.

Of course, this was all very far from the truth. It failed to address the awful treatment of the indigenous peoples by white settlers, and the US government. The exploitation of the tribes, the theft of their ancestral lands and the destruction of the buffalo they depended on. False imprisonment, rape, abuse, kidnapping, forced relocation, and massacres.

In 1964, I went to see a film called ‘Cheyenne Autumn’. For the first time, the plight of Native Americans was treated with some sympathy. By the time I was 18 years old, in 1970, two films attempted to expose the atrocities carried out by the US governments of the time, with ‘Soldier Blue’, and ‘Little Big Man’. Finally, Hollywood was trying to give us some insight into the complex tribal society of Native American Tribes; their spirituality, culture, and long-standing traditions. But they still us gave us their version.

It is plain to see that things never recovered for most Native Americans. Despite some casino licences, and wider recognition of some of their rights, they remain very much an underclass in modern-day America.

These photos were taken between 1880, and 1912. Some have been ‘colourised’. They show beautiful women, proud handsome men, and well-loved children. The original Americans.

A handmade beautiful dress.

An unusual distinctive headdress.

A young warrior, displaying his cherished rifle.

A young woman in a lovely robe.

A young man wearing ‘western-style’ clothing.

A proud warrior with a tribal hairstyle.

Young women in traditional dresses.

And a well-dressed child.

So the next time you watch a US Cavalry film starring John Wayne, or one depicting Native Americans as heartless savages, think of the real people behind the myth.

Halloween- Scmalloween

~ beetleypete ~ 54 Comments

What is all this fuss about Halloween? Does anybody remember when it all started here? Shops full of pumpkins, devil-suits, and tridents; parties with fancy-dress themes, gangs of kids wandering about, begging for sweets. I certainly have no memory of it, in London at least, until about 1990. It is yet another unwanted American import, alongside baseball caps, (Who knows the rules? Come on, tell me.) rap music, and McDonald’s. Driven by the Marketing Men, Supermarkets, and Television, desperate to fill the gap between Summer holidays, and Christmas.

Why do we always fall for this rubbish so easily?  Is there no tradition that cannot be sold on, re-packaged for British taste, and successfully marketed, until nobody remembers a time before it existed? What’s next, Thanksgiving? That would fit nicely into the space before Yuletide, and would increase turkey sales even more. We could all wear stove-pipe hats, and big Puritan collars, trying to pretend it was OK to swindle the Red Indians out of their lands for a few beads and trinkets. It wouldn’t matter that there were no Red Indians here, we could just make that bit up. Or maybe we could call them ‘Native Americans’, to make us feel even less guilty.

Nothing has value anymore. There is no special time left. Hot Cross Buns are available all year, pancakes can be bought anytime, then microwaved, to save the effort in making them. Tangerines are no longer a Christmas treat, any Tesco will have them in, anytime you want. We have slowly removed everything that we ever had occasion to anticipate excitedly, and to look forward to, as the seasons changed. Once we had lost all that, we had to search elsewhere for something to plan for, and along came Halloween. We can now arrange parties, or the appalling ‘Trick or Treat’ parades (Ask them for a trick is my tip!), and have everything from themed burgers, to pumpkin socks. How did we ever cope before?

I would love to take you back in a Time Machine. You would relish the prospect of Buns at Easter, delight at trying to make pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, and be unable to sleep on the night before Christmas. You would never have heard of ‘Grand-Parents’ Day’, and Halloween would be something that was ‘done’ in America.  Brazil nuts and tangerines would appear in December, be enjoyed briefly, and would not be seen again, until that time the following year. Baseball caps would be worn by baseball players, and some other people in The Americas, but not in England. If you wanted a snack, you would be happy with fish and chips, or pie and mash.

There is nothing wrong with American cultural celebrations. They even keep some of ours, like Christmas. But the newer ones should stay on that side of the Atlantic, along with their terrible fast food. That way, those that seek it, can travel there to enjoy it, and celebrate the differences in our societies and customs. We might even tell them that we used to celebrate All Hallows’ Eve as part of the Harvest Festival, and that Halloween is a Scottish corruption of that phrase. That would make it ours then, not American at all. Like most things, including many we have since discarded, they were taken to America by settlers. America does not have a culture as such, just an amalgamation of many of the cultures of its numerous settlers, and more recent immigrant populations. However, it is doing a fantastic job of re-exporting those traditions, whether we need them back, or not.

Surely it is enough to celebrate the difference in the various traditions and cultures of the many countries and societies in The World, without having to assimilate everything? As the French say- ‘Vive la difference’.