Post by THE GREAT OZ on Oct 24, 2011 17:56:24 GMT
The American Native Indian left quite a legacy of interesting and unusual artifacts. Some of these artifacts are still used today in some rituals of the Indians. The following photo is from the Museum of the American Indian.
Piikuni (Blackfeet) coup stick, late 19th century
In the buffalo days of the mid-1800s, one way a Plains warrior demonstrated his bravery was by "counting coup," that is, galloping up to an enemy and touching him, sometimes with a special stick made for that very purpose, instead of killing him. Coup sticks were also carried in ceremonial dances, during which warriors related stories of their courage and daring.
The rawhide horses attached to this coup stick represent the horses its owner rode in battle, and the hair locks are scalp replicas, made by attaching hair from a horse's tail to a piece of cloth or rawhide and painting it red. Similarly, the hair on many warrior shirts is frequently taken from cherished horses because to carry a lock of hair was to hold some of the power from its source.
Below is the Shamanic drums and flute which is part of the musical culture of the Indians.
Next is a Cherokee Morning Song.
One outstanding Chief was Luther Standing Bear. He wrote THE LIVING SPIRIT OF THE INDIAN and it tells of some of their beliefs which ae embraced today by some people outside the Indian culture.
The feathered and blanketed figure of the American Indian has come to symbolize the American continent. He is the man who through centuries has been moulded and sculpted by the same hand that shaped the mountains, forest, and plains, and marked the course of it rivers.
The American Indian is the soil, whether it be the region of forest, plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers; he belongs just as the buffalo belonged.
With a physique that fitted, the man developed fitting skills -- crafts which today are called American. And the body had a soul, also formed and moulded by the same master hand of harmony. Out of the Indian approach to existence there came a great freedom -- an intense and absorbing love for nature; a respect for life; enriching faith in a Supreme Power; and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood....
Becoming possessed of a fitting philosophy and art, it was by them that native man perpetuated his identity; stamped it into the history and soul of this country -- made land and man one.
By living -- struggling, losing, meditating, i'm-bibing, aspiring, achieving -- he wrote himself into the ineraseable evidence -- an evidence that can be and often has been ignored, but never totally destroyed....
The white man does not understand the Indian for the reason that he does not understand America. He is too far removed from its formative processes. The roots of the tree of his life have not yet grasped the rock and soil. The white man is still troubled with primitive fears; he still has in his consciousness the perils of this frontier continent, some of its fastnesses not yet having yielded to his questing footsteps and inquiring eyes. The man from Europe is still a foreigner and an alien.
But the Indian the spirit of the land is still vested; it will be until other men are able to divine and meet its rhythms....
When the Indian has forgotten the music of his forefathers, when the sound of the tom-tom is no more, when the memory of his heroes is no longer told in story ... he will be dead. When from him has been taken all that is his, all that he has visioned in nature, all that has come to him from infinite sources, he then, truly, will be a dead Indian."
It is so unfortunate that here in the states that the American native Indian has not been treated with more respect. People in the states are against illegal immigration but the Indian was here first and since the white man stepped foot on these shores the Indian has been put last. Time for a change.
Bless...OZ
SOURCE
SOURCE
Piikuni (Blackfeet) coup stick, late 19th century
In the buffalo days of the mid-1800s, one way a Plains warrior demonstrated his bravery was by "counting coup," that is, galloping up to an enemy and touching him, sometimes with a special stick made for that very purpose, instead of killing him. Coup sticks were also carried in ceremonial dances, during which warriors related stories of their courage and daring.
The rawhide horses attached to this coup stick represent the horses its owner rode in battle, and the hair locks are scalp replicas, made by attaching hair from a horse's tail to a piece of cloth or rawhide and painting it red. Similarly, the hair on many warrior shirts is frequently taken from cherished horses because to carry a lock of hair was to hold some of the power from its source.
Below is the Shamanic drums and flute which is part of the musical culture of the Indians.
Next is a Cherokee Morning Song.
One outstanding Chief was Luther Standing Bear. He wrote THE LIVING SPIRIT OF THE INDIAN and it tells of some of their beliefs which ae embraced today by some people outside the Indian culture.
The feathered and blanketed figure of the American Indian has come to symbolize the American continent. He is the man who through centuries has been moulded and sculpted by the same hand that shaped the mountains, forest, and plains, and marked the course of it rivers.
The American Indian is the soil, whether it be the region of forest, plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers; he belongs just as the buffalo belonged.
With a physique that fitted, the man developed fitting skills -- crafts which today are called American. And the body had a soul, also formed and moulded by the same master hand of harmony. Out of the Indian approach to existence there came a great freedom -- an intense and absorbing love for nature; a respect for life; enriching faith in a Supreme Power; and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood....
Becoming possessed of a fitting philosophy and art, it was by them that native man perpetuated his identity; stamped it into the history and soul of this country -- made land and man one.
By living -- struggling, losing, meditating, i'm-bibing, aspiring, achieving -- he wrote himself into the ineraseable evidence -- an evidence that can be and often has been ignored, but never totally destroyed....
The white man does not understand the Indian for the reason that he does not understand America. He is too far removed from its formative processes. The roots of the tree of his life have not yet grasped the rock and soil. The white man is still troubled with primitive fears; he still has in his consciousness the perils of this frontier continent, some of its fastnesses not yet having yielded to his questing footsteps and inquiring eyes. The man from Europe is still a foreigner and an alien.
But the Indian the spirit of the land is still vested; it will be until other men are able to divine and meet its rhythms....
When the Indian has forgotten the music of his forefathers, when the sound of the tom-tom is no more, when the memory of his heroes is no longer told in story ... he will be dead. When from him has been taken all that is his, all that he has visioned in nature, all that has come to him from infinite sources, he then, truly, will be a dead Indian."
It is so unfortunate that here in the states that the American native Indian has not been treated with more respect. People in the states are against illegal immigration but the Indian was here first and since the white man stepped foot on these shores the Indian has been put last. Time for a change.
Bless...OZ
SOURCE
SOURCE
