Native American History

2 Pages 419 Words

History is the study of life; it does not live within written facts of time and events. It lives within our experiences, our spirit, and it also comes from the perceptions of our peoples. It does not need to be written down to be valid.

The Native Americans experience history through a great oral tradition. Generation to generation stories of Native American culture and history is told by the older and wiser to the young. Laguna Pueblo Author Leslie Marmon Silko states, “Through the stories we hear who we are.” Is this not history? Collective memories through successive generations can maintain and transmit an entire culture.

The Native Americans have a spiritual history as well. It is similar to both the Christian history and the Islamic history. The Christian faith and Islamic faith is based on stories that were eventually written down in the form of the Bible and the Koran. The Native American faith is similar to both as it was created by stories also, yet not written down. Does this make it any less valid? The Christians believe in God. The Islamic believe in Allah. The Native Americans Believe in the “Breath Giver.” Since they are all stories similar in nature, to discount any one would make the others invalid as well.
So if we accept the Bible and the Koran to be histories of a sort, then we have to accept the stories of the Native American to be histories of their own.

Perception is also a key to understanding history. The Europeans perceive that written history is more reliable than the spoken word. However, the Native Americans perceive words to be highly valued when spoken from the heart, for written words can obscure meaning, which leads to misunderstanding and misinformation. Written documents are valuable, but are not always to be trusted. They do not convey the truth of things only what the author wants you to believe happened. In this way the Native Americans perceive the spoken word to ...