The Great Spirit: The North American Indian

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In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue “We should understand well that all things are the works of the Great Spirit. We should know that He is within all things: the trees, the grasses, the rivers, the mountains, and all four-legged animals, and the winged peoples; and even more important, we should understand all this deeply in our hearts, then we will fear, and love, and know the Great Spirit, and then we will be and act and live as He intends.” (Black Elk, Oglala Sioux. The North American Indian). Close your eyes and imagine an Indian, what are your first thoughts that pop into your mind immediately? Perhaps one would think of brightly colored feathers, Pocahontas, Sacagawea or even Thanksgiving. However, Pocahontas…show more content…
From the Big Bang to the Garden of Eden to the circumstances of our own births, we yearn to travel back to that distant time when everything was new and full of promise. Perhaps then, we tell ourselves, we can start to make sense of the convoluted mess we are in today. But beginnings are rarely as clear-cut as we would like them to be. Take, for example, the event that most Americans associate with the start of the United States: the voyage of the Mayflower.” (Nathaniel Philbrick). Every year late in November, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving; a holiday which one is thankful for the house they live in, clothes on their back, food on their plate and family who love them dearly. However, this famous holiday which only happens once a year started over four-thousand years ago with the Indians and Pilgrims. Most of us remember learning about Thanksgiving in grade school; the Pilgrims and Indians sitting down together enjoying a big feast and giving thanks for everything they had. However, in August 1620 before America was a colony, the Pilgrims set sail to find land for the New World landing in Plymouth, near Cape Cod. The Pilgrims had made it to the Massachusetts Bay! Through their first harsh winter, outbreak of deadly diseases and lack of food, the Pilgrims had no other choice but to move elsewhere with hopes of fertile soil and away from those infested with disease. On their journey, they met the Indians who helped them learn…show more content…
However, to make music Indians constructed instruments out of gourdes to make rattles, along with materials like turtle shells, deer hooves and skin covered drums that they would beat on with their hands or another object to make music. Masks and face paint were also popular in ceremonies, along with brightly colored dress and large feathers which symbolized prayers to the creator along with the connection to animal and people. Along with the elaborate music and dance, Indians were also very crafted and were often seen making pottery, elaborate tiles, toy dolls, totem poles, blankets, as well as basket weaving in their down time. Native American Indians were very skill-full and expressive in their crafts, often one will see many drawings telling stories, or to record a specific time in history. “Hopi” or otherwise known as a symbolic tile painted with stories and legends about the Native American Indians, as well as animals and plants. “Kachina” is a toy doll made to express the supernatural beings of the spirit world and contains specific attributes of the deities of a specific person. “When the Kachians come into Hopi and Zuni villages, they bring with them the promises and protections of the world of the spirit. As the supernatural connectors between the world of the living and the world of the spirit – the upper and lower world, the gods and man – the Kachinas

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