http://www.nativeamericans.com/Iroquois.htm
Iroquois is an easily recognized name, but like the names of many tribes, it was given them by their enemies. The Algonquin called them the Iroqu (Irinakhoiw) "rattlesnakes." After the French added the Gallic suffix "-ois" to this insult, the name became Iroquois. The Iroquois call themselves Haudenosaunee meaning "people of the long house." Other names: Canton Indians; Confederate Indians; Ehressaronon (Huron); Five Nations; Massawomeck (Powhatan); Matchenawtowaig (Ottawa "bad snakes"); Mengue (French); Mingo, Minqua, Mingwe (Delaware); Nadowa, Nadowaig, Nautowa (Ojibwe "adders"); and after 1722, the Six Nations.Typical. We'll see this time and time again.
As far as we can tell, the Iroquois Confederation dates back at least to the 1500s and possibly a thousand years; it still exists today, and the Peoples of the Longhouse, unlike other Indian nations, never submitted to tribal government by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. It was one of the inspirations for Benjamin Franklin's proposal that the British colonies in North America form a confederation during the Revolutionary War. Link to a story in the student paper at the University of Pennsylvania at http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0107/gaz09.html
Music and dance
We'll follow the "Earth Songs" link from http://www.ohwejagehka.com/songs.htm
and listen to a couple of songs by Art Johnson & Lyle Anderson, of the Six Nations of the Grand River in Canada. Among others, we'll listen to the chicken dance. Often traditional dancers will imitate the animals
In this YouTube clip, Haudenosaunee cultural leaders teach the American Indian Dance Theatre some of the social dances of the Iroquois Confederacy.
There's an important distinction between different types of Native American music and dance, and it has given rise to controversy. Some, like those we've been hearing and watching, are social dances. They can usually be freely shared with anybody, including non-Indians. Others are part of religious or healing rituals. Often they are considered sacred, private. Many Native American peoples, including the Haudenosaunee, restrict the rituals to people who share their heritage and beliefs. (One objection to "Chief Illiniwek" was the belief by some Lakota people that the "dances" performed at Illinois ballgames were irreverent parodies of Lakota religious rituals.) According to Orrin Lewis and Laura Redish of the Native Languages website, "... Indian spirituality is not evangelistic like Christianity, it is private and entirely cultural."
One controversy we should be aware of is over the "False Face" masks worn by traditional healers who belong to the False Face Society. The Snowgoose art gallery in Toronto, Canada, has an overview of the False Face healers' belief system ...
The significance of the masks to the Iroquois lies not in their artistic value, but in their power. The beings they represent instruct people to carve likenesses of themselves. They say that supernatural power to cure disease will be conferred on the human beings who make the masks when they feed the masks, invoke the beings' help while burning tobacco and sing a curing song.While some Iroquois believe replicas of the False Face masks can be made, others strongly object to the practice. Wikipedia, as usual, has both sides of the story. And Lewis and Redish put the False Face controversy in a broader context in their introduction to Native American masks on the Native Languages website. Highly recommended.
17 comments:
1. People might not want to have their culture just forgotten. They do not want to be absorbed into a culture that has very different values and have to adapt. The funeral process probably has something to do with religious or spiritual beliefs that the community still has.
2. My family doesn't really have any old traditions that we keep or have tried to bring back. The only tradition I can think of is our Thanksgiving dinner when we have people over.
1.) The dancers would want to revive and maintain their traditions because its a piece of who they are and where they came from. Its a part of their history.
2.) Some traditions that i maintain are ones like having people over at our house for christmas and always going to my grandmas for easter.
People like to revive there old traditions because its like a memorial of the culture that has evolved or was destroyed. A tradition is something that has been passed down from generation to generation. And if ones tradition is not upheld then i might be considered disrespectful.
I have no traditions unless you consider a family reuion a tradition.
i would think because it is more than just a dance or pattern to them they are proud it shows where they come from and who they are as a person a lot of people move on and for get about the important things in life because they dont practice the tradition and than they adapt to their surroundings in stead of culture
and as far as funerals they have a way they wish to carry out the last wish and as a indivisual they have that right its their beleif
a tradition that i maintatin is thanksgiving its a time when the family should be together and give thanks to god for the things he has given and the things he has done
They would want to keep the tradition because these traditions have been going on for years and years. It is called a tradition for a reason, so it stays in the family or in this case a tribal group. If you do not keep these traditions then eventually they will soon be forgotten and nobody will know how much meaning these traditions had to their ancestors.
2.) A tradition my family has is every christmas night we all go see a movie, each year we always argue about what movie we want to see because we all have different tastes so what we do is put all our choices in a hat and the youngest person in our family grabs one. We have been doing this for as long as I can remember and I def intend on doing this with my family when I get older!
People want to keep the spirit of the Native Americans alive. They lived very interesting lives and it teaches people today what kind of traditions they kept by renactment. My family traditions include getting together on holidays, which is a tradition i will most likely follow the rest of my life. So if you pass down traditions and teach them to others, such as the Native Americans do people keep them alive.
I think some people want to keep doing the stomp dance of the Iroquois because it is tradition. They might want to pass it down to their children and have the tradition carry on. It is important to them and their culture. All their traditions are important therfore they keep doing them.The Iroqois also kept the burrial tradition because it ment something to them and it was respectful to others.
My family also keeps traditions like Thanksgiving is always at our house. Another one is at Christmas time we always go to Florida.
1) They want to revive old traditional dances because they are extremely proud of their history. They want other people to know how proud they are of their tradition. Also they want the younger generations of Indians to grow up being proud of what they are, and who they are. If they do not keep up with these traditions then they might as well just be forgotten.
2) I would say that my famile has some traditions, but none quite like the dancing of the Indians. Every night before dinner my family says a prayer before we eat. Every christmas eve we have a priates gift exchange with my family members and cousins. I think these are important for our family because it brings something fun to do as well as brings us closer together.
1. People would want to revive or maintain old traditions because they do not want to lose the past and forget about different things that their ancestors did.
2. Traditions my family keep would be going to my grandparents ever christmas eve after mass and listening to my grandfather's story of how he came to America.
They see that as showing and teaching others there culture ethier as a brother or as a outsider,getting everyone together It has a lot of value to self, family, friends to live on each day.
I think that they did a combination cermony for the fallen solider to show that they ae still here and fighting together even after more than a lifetime of struggle and war.
As far as I know in my famliy their is no regular traditon getting all of us together in the same area is a mircle in itself.
1. most people want their culture to be remembered and not forgotten.
2. my family doesn't really have any traditions except for the usual ones like christmas and thanksgiving.
1) Many people want their culture to be remembered. When it comes to the burial services, it has to do with their culture and beliefs.
2)My families traditions are going to my aunts or grandmas house for Christmas and Easter but thats the only traditions we have.
1. The Iriquois wanted to show respect to this marine by giving him a proper indian ceremony. This is important to their after-life. They believe that this is a necessary step to the spirit world. They also do not want their culture to be lost to the rest of the world.
2. My family carries on very few traditions but the only ones I can think of is gathering family for Thanksgiving to spoend time together.
1. Some of the Native American culture is fading more and more. These people make sure that there community and culture stay together. Tradition is a key part of there culture. Native Americans do not want to let go of their hertiage, most of the time things are sacred to them. Like an eagle or buffalo. When the white man came most of the Native Americans were wiped out due to disease. So they make it important to keep there culture and traditions alive in all there people.
2. My family use to have a couple of traditions during Christmas. One would be that we all get our Christmas tree together at the same place. Now that my sister and I are older we do not keep that tradition any more. If there is any consulation, my parents, sister, and I all go to church on a regular bases. We are all Christains and we take religion very seriously. Religion itself is a tradition to due to all the customs and going to church on weekly bases(Sundays).
Why would people want to revive-- or maintain--old traditions like the Iroquois stomp dance? Or the Oglala people at the Stone funeral? What traditions do you, your family, & friends maintain in our culture?
-Many of the Indian tribes still hold strong to many, if not all, of the cultural values. These values originated years and years back, but still hold strong value and power within that specific tribe. The Iroquois tribe has one such tradition that is very common not within only their tribe, but also in other Native American tribes also. This stomp dance can be described in more than one way. Some of their dances are associated with Earth songs, while others might be described as social dances. These dances symbolize parts from their culture such as religion and/or beliefs, or maybe even social events that are simply left for enterainment.
In addition, these values that thE Indian cultures share are somewhat similar to the culutral values that me, my friends, and family all share. We may not associate our values in a way that represents dancing, but we definitely have something in common when it comes to the importance within our culture and each other.
1)They do these certain dances to keep their traditions and also their heritage. It is important to them because it is apart of their history.
-The burial sevices has to do with culture they don't want their culture to get lost. It's to continue on their heritage.
2)In my family we have many traditions, such as respect.
We are taught that respect is the center of everything that we do.
We are taught to respect even nature, and animals.
We also celebrate "Kwanzaa" in my family.
We do ceremonies of dance kind of like the Native Americans.
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