Welcome to Native American Heritage Month!
Each November, Native peoples are more prominent in the news. We can attribute this attention not only to Native American Heritage Month and school curriculum but also the anniversary of the first Thanksgiving and harvest’s end. With the broadcast of We Shall Remain on PBS stations this past April and May, students as well as library patrons may have even more questions about Native history and peoples today.
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Cultural conflict and the degradation of sovereignty sprang from the fact that Christian institutions are not focused on specific places and specific people. Religious leaders felt a need to spread the belief system to all peoples everywhere. They interpreted the absence of Christianity among Native Americans as an absence of all religion. However, Native peoples did have developed religious belief systems and rituals well before the time of contact with Europeans.
Although traditional Native American religions shared many attributes that set them apart from Christianity, there were also religious distinctions among the tribes. Native nations that relied on hunting and gathering for their sustenance used animal ceremonialism; agricultural nations featured rain and fertility rituals in their religions. Hunting groups focused on a male supreme being, while the agricultural societies worshipped both gods and goddesses. The agricultural nations saw creation coming out of the ground, and spirits returned to the earth after death and burial. For this reason burial places are of central importance. Hunting societies looked toward the sky as the source of both creation and heavenly afterlife.
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This Day in North American Indian History
November 7,
1788
Representatives of the Six Nations arrived at Fort Harmar in Ohio. One chief, Captain David, presented a message to Governor St. Claire requesting a resumption of peace negotiations.
November 7,
1794
After more than a year of raids by Americans and Chickamauga, the Chickamauga had been beaten down. In a meeting arranged last month, Tennessee Governor William Blount met with Cherokee and the offshoot Chickamauga chiefs at the Tellico Blockhouse near the Tennessee-North Carolina border. Forty chiefs were present, including John Watts (Young Tassel), Hanging Maw, and Bloody Fellow; they agreed to a peace. They also agreed to exchange prisoners on December 31, 1794.