Claude W. Chavis, Jr.Tribal Historian

Mr. Claude W. Chavis, Jr.

Claude W. Chavis, Jr.,

•Turtle Clan of the Tuscarora Nation•“Turtle He Dreams” or “Turtle Dreaming”•Tribal Historian and Genealogist of the Pee Dee Indian Nation•Appalachian State University degree in History and Military Science•I recently completed an Academic Concentration in American Indian Studies and a Master of Arts Degree in Teaching (MAT) at UNC-P•Served as an Infantry and Combat Engineer officer in the Army•Worked as a carpenter, freight handler, inspector, lab assistant, magazine photographer, QA manager, QC inspector, technical trainer, and writer•My photographs and articles have been published regularly in magazines and newspapers over the past 30 years.•Smithsonian Institute Native American Scholar

SCOS Objectives

4.03 Demonstrate a general knowledge of American Indian art, music and spirituality, including the modern day powwow.

4.05 Compare the worldviews of American Indians and mainstream society, such as concept of time, relationship to the natural universe, and circularity versus linearity.

Religion

“To bind back” to values A way of valuing.

Approaches to religion

Sociology (Community or shared faith)

Anthropology (Man and his works) Philosophy (Love of wisdom)

Language Groups of North America

Recurring Points

Nature begrunden Nature persons Oral tradition Trickster

Begrunden = Justification

Primal Foundations

Religion is inseparable from daily life Words have special potency or force

(Power) Arts and handicrafts carry Power Time is cyclical and reciprocal Quality intense relationship with

nature

Chief Seattle

"Every part of this earth is sacred to my people… We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers… Nature and man, all belong to the same family."

Environment and Religion

A tribes ability to develop extensive religious belief systems was directly proportional to it's ability to provide for its survival.

A large supply of natural resources provided more time to develop religious ideas.

Similarities

There is little evidence of a separation between the natural and the supernatural

Deep religious sentiment permeated most aspects of Native American life

Kahlil Gibran once asked, "Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupation?”

Coyote and the Other One

Society

A society is a group of people who live in a particular territory and participate in a common culture. 

We are not born knowing our culture, therefore we have to learn it.

Culture

Culture is a combination of knowledge, values, language, and customs passed from generation to generation. Material Non-material

Passing on culture

Culture determines what people like and dislike, believe and don't believe, and what we value or don't value.

It is because of culture that boys feel they need to act manly and girls feel they need to wear makeup or perfume.

Cultural Universals

Cultural universals are traits that exist in all cultures. 

Example: sports, cooking, religion, funerals, language, etc.

How these cultural universals are practiced, however, are may times completely unique.  The difference is called cultural particulars. 

Example: child rearing is a cultural universal.  However, in the U.S. women are mostly given the responsibility of taking care of the child, but in New Guinea the man is completely in charge of child rearing.

Instincts

Instincts are unlearned patterns of behavior Reflexes Drives

Norms

Norms are rules defining appropriate and inappropriate behavior.

Norms help to explain why people in a society or group behave similarly in similar circumstances.

  Example: Whispering in church, farting in

public

Types of Norms

We don't notice norms very often until they are broken. 

Example: if someone breaks in line for the

restroom at the Cardinals game.

There are three types of norms:  folkways, mores, and laws

Folkways

Folkways are rules that are not of serious importance in a society.  Folkways lack moral value. Example: taking your hat off indoors, placing a

napkin on your lap at a nice restaurant, not wearing shorts with a shirt and tie.

Disapproval of those who break them is not very great.

Mores

Mores are norms of great moral significance.  They are vital to the well-being of a society that they be followed.

Some examples of mores being broken are cheating on your husband or wife, ignoring your children, letting your nine year old child play outside at 11 p.m.

Taboos

More serious mores are called taboos.  A taboo is a more so strong that a violation may require punishment from the group. 

Example: incest.

Laws

Mores and folkways are often unconsciously created where as laws are consciously created and enforced

Sanctions

Sanctions are rewards and punishments that encourage conformity to norms Formal Informal

Consequences

Values

Values are broad ideas about what most people in a society consider to be desirable. 

Cultural diversity exists in all societies.  Some of this diversity results from social categories.

These are characteristics like age, gender, race, religion, etc.  These social categories are expected to behave in a certain way. 

Example: 50 cent rapping compared to George Bush rapping.

Subculture

Subcultures exist in large, complex societies.  They are smaller cultures inside of larger cultures. 

Example: musicians, professional athletes, the Catholic community, etc.

Counterculture

Counterculture is a subculture that is against or opposed to the main beliefs and attitudes of a larger culture.  Example: Gothic

scene, white supremacist groups, hippies.

Ethnocentrism

When people judge other cultures based on their own cultural standards this is called ethnocentrism. 

We are all probably guilty of doing this at some point.  Example: putting in lip plates for beauty and

status

Symbols

Symbols are things that stand for or represent something else.

  Example: A confederate

flag is a symbol of oppression for African-Americans and a proud cultural heritage for many white southerners.

When something is important in a society it will have many different words to describe it. 

Pictographs

Nez Perce′ Orpheus Myth

Coyote’s wife dies and he is unable to function without her.

A death spirit tells Coyote that if he will do exactly as he is told, he can get his wife back.

Coyote agrees “Yes, yes, friend. I have been pining so deeply and why should I not heed you?”

Nez Perce′ Orpheus Myth

Coyote ignores the rules, rushing over to embrace his dead wife

She warns him by crying out, “Stop! Stop! Coyote! Do not touch me. Stop!”

But Coyote persists in his folly and is punished when his wife disappears and returns to the shadow-land.

Nez Perce′ Orpheus Myth

Here Coyote is more human and less self-centered but ultimately still the fool

 The reversal of the day and night in the place of the dead is acommon Native American tradition.  

This myth emphasizes the number 5 rather than 4 as having a mystic power.

Trickster

Glooscap/Napi - Old Man (Northeast & Blackfeet)

Coyote (Southwest & Plains) Navajo - Mai

Raven (Northwest) and related

Blue Jay (Northwest) Spider (Northern Plains

& Siouian) Iktomai Bobtail rabbit (East &

Meso-America)

Trickster as Creator

Ironic (accidental) Fool or anti-hero

Always lets his appetites rule him Transformation

Intellectual ju jitsu Sudden reversal of energy Different properties Metamorphosis, i.e. Cocoon to Butterfly

Cultural hero (succeeds despite himself)

* Lesson is that you must respect all human and animal beings because you don’t know who you may insult.

Power is accessed by:

Fasting and visions Song and dance Fetishes or charms

N. Scott Momaday

“Nothing more powerful than words, but he has come to know that much of the power and magic and beauty of words consists not in meaning but in sound.”

Teaching

All beings have intrinsic “will”

Children learn from experience

Morals are taught for the intrinsic good

Teach why morals are important rather than depending on faith.

Soul

The breathe Black Elk – “With visible

breathe I’m walking” The shadow

Object absorbs sun energy and casts shadows

If it has a shadow it is living

The free soul Sicun – used to telescope

(astral projection) Variation – The Great Man

- Consciousness Influence

Wochangi Totem (Ojibwa Chippewa) Guardian Spirit Helper

Sacred Pipe (peace pipe)

 Red willow bark Inner bark of

dogwood Kinickinic Rose petals Tobacco

The Sacred Weed

Four Brothers Nawak’osis Bulls-by-Himself Smoking in a sacred manner

Centering & meaning of place

Power is derived from ecological place

Know where you are to be in balance To call power you need a physical

habitat

Directions

Sacred geography

Everything/every place is sacred

Power can be concentrated or amplified

Ecological diversity is important (Ecotones)

Ecotones

A transitional zone between two communities containing the characteristic species of each.

Nature Persons

All nature holds power

If it casts a shadow, it is living

Must respect all living beings

Sitting Bull

Every seed is awakened and so is all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we therefore yield to our animal neighbors the same right as ourselves, to inhabit this land.

Blackfeet and Bears

Black Bear (sticky mouth)

Grizzly Bear (real bear)

Badger (striped face)

Wolverine

Iniskim

The sacred buffalo stone

Major medicine object of the Blackfeet

Usually a fossilized shell

Amorphous Categories

Clowns of Pueblo acted as “contraries”

Berdaches – men who behaved like women and vice-versa

Sacred Clowns

Hopi Natacki Man Tumas – Mother of Floggers

Sacred Clowns

Requires a deep spiritual experience Intense dream Vision experience (more often)

Thunder beings or their manifestation Great honor Great obligation

Sacred Clowns

Constantly break the tribal norms Upside down or backwards Builds teepee inside out facing west Crawls in under the back Sits upside down

Shatter perception of routines

Sacred Clowns

Clown is the first to break solemnity Element of shock increases alertness Communicates on a deeper level

Sacred Clowns

Laughter reveals deeper truths with the ritual

Shatters the structure of the ritual to get to the essence

Lessons Learned

Gain distance from your handiwork Don’t become too attached to things Remember things are never

permanent

Berdaches

A masculine spirit and a feminine spirit living in the same body.

Two-Spirit is a term for third gender people

Example, woman-living-man

Vision Quests

 Purification of body, soul, and spirit Black drink Smudge Sweat lodge

Herb and/or drug (peyote) experience Realization of totality Realization of your personal virtues

Identity with Great Mysterious

Iroquois Beliefs

Monotheistic belief in an all-powerful creator, “Great Mysterious” or the "Great Spirit", or "Ha-wen-ne-yu.“

His power was administered through "Invisible Agents" or "Ho-no-che-no-keh."

He-no, who appeared as a warrior, carried thunderbolts and controlled the weather

Evil

The Great Spirit brother, "Ha-ne-go-ate-geh", or "the Evil-minded“

Exists independently and controls it's own inferior spiritual beings.

The red race is left to choose either obedience to the Great Spirit or submission to the Evil-minded.

Soul

The Iroquois independently developed the idea of an immortal soul

This soul was judged by the Great Spirit upon the death of the body

The threat of punishment in the afterlife increased morality concerns

This was the closest a Native American civilization came to Christian theology

Dakota Beliefs

The world is characterized by oneness, unity

“Animating force" known as "Wakan Tanka“

“Wakan people” similar to "Invisible Agents"

“Wicasa Wakan”

Holy men served as guides for people

Required to serve the “Wakan people”

Most importantly, the White Buffalo Woman

Sioux Indian Traditions, Customs, Spirituality

1. Life is centered in the four seasons and the natural world.

2. Traditional spirituality is an integral seamless part of the very being of society.

3. Traditional spirituality and beliefs are sacred. To use them in any way other than the way they were intended would be sacrilegious.

4. Living in the traditional ways is not easy.

Everything he’s [The Great Spirit has] given you, you have to walk through, you have to experience it. You can’t always walk in the grass, sometimes you have to walk through the sagebrush.

Anonymous

Common Beliefs

• There is a Supreme Being, a Creator, a Great Spirit, God.

• Everything the Great Spirit has created is good.• Many lesser spirits wander the earth, some control

weather, some interact with humans, some inhabit the underworld.

• Plants and animals, as well as humans, are part of a spirit world.

• This spirit world exists side-by-side with the physical world and often intermingles with this physical world.

• Before you were conceived, before you were born, you had a spirit.

• When your body dies, your spirit will live on.• Take care of Mother Earth, and Mother Earth will take

care of you.

Values

Courage LeadershipDuty Love Fortitude RespectGenerosity ResponsibilityHonesty ReverenceHonor WisdomIndustry

Rituals

• Naming Ceremony• Storytelling / Listening – Method of teaching• Vision Quest – Passage from boyhood to manhood• Pow-Wow• Renewal Celebrations

• Sun Dance – a replay of creation• Sweat Lodge – for spiritual renewal and healing

• Grand Medicine Lodge• Hunting Ceremonies – to appease spirits of animals

killed

Daily Rituals

• Dwellings – oriented with the doorway on the east so a person awakened to the rising sun. • The understanding was the Creator was sending

daylight, warmth, growth and enlightenment to each person to begin a new day.

• Morning Prayers – After awakening, the individual would pray, thanking the Creator for blessings and new opportunities. • A confession of responsibility was made to other

people. Sacrifices were given.• Sacred Path – Day began with man walking reverently

along a sacred path, among all living things on earth and under the supernatural powers dwelling in heaven.

Traditional Roles – Children

• Seek Knowledge from Elders• Learn to be Quiet and Listen• Learn by Example• Respect the Elders• Learn, through play, by practicing what they see

Traditional Roles – Men

• Protectors (Warriors) – Keep tribe safe• Hunters – Provided for tribe• Planners• Conducted Ceremonies• Made items for Rituals/Ceremonies• Teach older children

Traditional Roles – Women

• Process food• Cook• Make garments• Set up camp or take down camp• Take care of young children• Planners• Family ties handed down through women

Traditional Roles – Elders

• Mediators – Traditionally, an elder would hear both sides to a story and mediate to solve the conflict.

• Disciplinarians – Grown children often lived with parents in an extended family situation. The grandparents would discipline the children, not the parents.

• Teachers – Grandparents were admired for their knowledge and wisdom which they often conveyed through stories.

• Leaders – Because of their knowledge and wisdom, elders often make decisions effecting the tribe.

Traditional Roles – Elders

One Elder relates:One thing I liked about the old people is that they had Indian thinking. For example, my mother and I were driving down the highway and saw a stand of dying birch trees. She asked me if I knew why they were dying. I probably would have explained it as pollution or some other technical explanation. She said the birch trees are dying because no one is using them anymore. They are sad because they no longer have a use. Now that, I think about it, this is kind of like the elders – no one is using them anymore. That’s what I call Indian thinking. They would relate themselves with the connection in nature. (Becker, Poupart, & Martinez, 2002, The Way it Was, p. 2)

Anonymous

Health and the Disabled

• Traditionally being healthy and a whole person were essential to living a good life.

• Some tribes visualized health as a medicine wheel with four parts – spiritual, mental, physical, & emotional aspects.

• In order to be healthy, all aspects had to be in balance.• Another concept is that man is three-fold – mind, body,

& spirit.• Wellness is harmony in body, mind, & spirit.• Wellness (or unwellness) was (and is) often a choice.

Health and the Disabled (Continued)

• A physical disability is irrelevant to a person’s state of wellness.

• Wellness can be accomplished in a wheelchair or without a leg.

• If an individual follows their beliefs and choose to be in harmony with the environment, then a physical disability is irrelevant.

• Key is to enhance an individual’s ability to fulfill his or her role within the community.

Health and the Disabled (Continued)

We are all responsible for our state of wellness; with the way we promote harmony between ourselves and the people we meet.

It is not the events that happen to him [man] that create his harmony, but his response to those happenings. Every human chooses the responses he makes, and thus in this way, he chooses whether or not to be in harmony. Being able to stand firm in his harmony is a priceless accomplishment for the Indian, for it means the disruptions of the world cannot affect him. (Locust, 1985, p. 11)

Health and the Disabled (Continued)

•This state of harmony is like a protective shield keeping us from dangers inherent in negative or disharmonious situations.

It is each person’s responsibility to keep this protective shield strong and beautiful, not only for his own well-being, but for the well-being of the tribe. (Locust, 1985, p. 17)

Traditional Leaders

• They care about people, not just family, but the whole tribe.

• They respect the people around them.• They serve the people. • They are honest. They do not lie.• They are courageous. They dare to do what needs to

be done.• They are not afraid to face reality and define

problems.

Apache Beliefs

“Supernaturals” are cultural figures responsible for the Apache way of life

Seldom interfere in daily life unless called upon to help an individual

Apache Rituals

Man could manipulate supernatural powers for both good and evil reasons

Lacked an organized belief in an afterlife

Most common ritual was curing

Shaman

Link to the supernatural world

Power based on healing

Influential figure in tribe

Star Boy

Star Boy

More - No stealing (except to save life)

Ethic - Conservation of seed turnip More - Orphans must be cared for More – Need the help of nature

persons More – Relationship of sexes (the

woman has the choice)

Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump (Piskun)

A Cherokee Legend

AIS Newspaper Project