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Her er du: NRK > Undervisning > Språk og reiser > Engelsk | Oppdatert 31.10.2001 19:01 |
| NATIVE AMERICANS, part 2 Powwow on the Reservation Publisert 31.10.2001 17:51 A Conversation with Scott Momadayby Claes NordenskiöldThe American Indians finally lost their battle against the white man when Sitting Bull and his Sioux warriors were massacred at Wounded Knee in 1890. From then on the Indians were confined to a life on reservations set up by the US Government based on treaties between the authorities and individual tribes. This very often meant a life in misery and hopelessness. Unemployment, alcolholism and high suicide rates, to give a few examples, were parts of this grim picture of reservation life. However, when natural resources later were found on a number of these reservations which were from the outset were considered more or less worthless, Native Americans benefitted very little from these enormous riches. Instead relocation programmes were started. The government wanted the Indians to give up their legal rights to the land they lived on, the government wanted them off the reservations so that the natural resources could be commercially exploited. In the Southwest, around New Mexico, Indians have managed to hold on to their land and thereby keep their old traditions alive. Today, powwows are important as a means to keep the links with their past and their heritage. It is a way to strengthen their self-esteem and their identity as Indians. In the words of Scott Momaday, an Indian writer who has his roots in the Southwest, "fewer Indians have lost their sense of heritage than we generally suppose. The Indian people that I know and have lived with for most of my life, hold on to their traditions pretty carefully." MUSIC: "Intertribal Dance Song" Honor the Earth Powwow "You will forgive me if I tell you that my people were Americans for thousands of years before your people were. The question is not how you can Americanize us but how we can Americanize you. We have been working at that for a long time. Sometimes we are discouraged at the results. But we will keep trying. And the first thing we want to teach you is that, in the American way of life, each man has respect for his brother’s vision." MUSIC: "Intertribal Dance Song" Honor the Earth Powwow Speaker: The first thing that is heard from the powwow just north of Taos, New Mexico, is the sound of drums. And then the singing. High-pitched voices and a steady drum-beat. A powwow is an Indian festivity with singing, drumming and dancing – including important competitions such as best dancer, best dress, and best drum-group. Taos powwow is a traditional powwow, organized by and for Native Americans. Yet, all people are welcome, even if most people here are Indian. They come from different states, and it's a time of very important social contacts. MUSIC: "Intertribal Dance Song" Honor the Earth Powwow Speaker: The United States is a large country, and the Indian tribes across the vast continent are very different. Yet, they have one thing in common that unites them – they are Native Americans. Certain tribes such as the Hopi are very good at retaining their unique traditions, while others have a more difficult time. Therefore, the Pan-Indian – meaning all Indian – movement is very important today, maybe even essential to the survival of Native American ways of life. And it's at these powwows that a lot of Native Americans strengthen their link back to their heritage. In Taos, I met Scott Momaday, who tried to explain some of these things through the story of his own life. I asked him about the problems that Native Americans face all over the American continent, both on reservations and in urban areas. But first he introduced himself. Scott Momaday: I’m a Native American writer. Much of what I write has to do with the Native American world. I’m a teacher – I teach at the University of Arizona, and I’m a painter – so I wear several hats. Well, I think that the problems are very real and they are threatening. They threaten not only the health, the physical health of the people, but they also threaten the traditions. On some reservations, among some of the Indian peoples, these things that you mentioned – alcoholism, infant mortality, disease, depression of a terrible kind, they are much more prevalent in certain areas than in others. And where they are prevalent, the traditions, even the deep-seated traditions are in peril. But I think probably fewer Indians have lost their sense of heritage than we generally suppose. The Indian people that I know and have lived with most of my life, hold on to their traditions pretty carefully. I’m always gratified to see how much in possession of those traditions they remain. I was just in Oklahoma, over the 4th of July. I belong to a society in the tribe called the Gourd Dance Society, and we have our dance on that date at a place in Oklahoma. And it is inspiring for me to go there to see how strong the sense of identity is, remains. The number of people that were speaking Kiowa was astonishing to me. You know I had the sense that, well it is only in the possession of the old people, the language is passing quickly. But there it didn’t seem so, I heard it all around, and it seemed very much alive. MUSIC: "The Vanishing Breed" Robbie Robertson Speaker: Momaday's words rang very true when I met Eunice Kahn in Santa Fe, just south of Taos. She is a Navajo Indian working with historical aspects of Native American culture. She spoke about the deep-seated traditions that are very much alive in the Southwest among Pueblo, Apache, Hopi, and Navajo peoples. One example is the sandpainting, a form of healing ceremony among the Navajo. Eunice Kahn: A sandpainting is a healing ceremony for a person who is ill. And sandpainting is the healing process for the patient to get better. It is originally done in a hogan and it is usually done by a medicine man using sands from different parts of the country, well basically from the Southwest. The colors have a representation of the four directions for our culture, where the spirits live and the animals – they all work together within the sandpainting. It’s also done during the day, and then the ceremonies are done in the evening. And then the next day the whole sandpainting is destroyed and given back to Mother Earth. MUSIC: "Cherokee Morning Song" Rita Coolidge & Robbie Robertson Speaker: In the early 1900s, most Indians lived on reservations set up by the United States government according to treaties between the government and individual tribes. Originally Indians were given the worst land possible – land that really couldn’t be farmed, desert areas with very poor soil. And so Indians became very dependent on food provided by the authorities. Everything concerning the reservations was decided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, an agency within the Department of Interior. The treaties which were supposed to last "as long as the grass shall grow", were broken over and over again by the authorities. Either for the sake of new white settlers who wanted more land, or later on for economical reasons concerning natural resources. MUSIC: "Cherokee Morning Song" Rita Coolidge & Robbie Robertson By 1930, the BIA had fully realized that Indian land was often very valuable land. Oil, gas, coal and uranium had been found on a number of reservations, such as the Navajo reservation in Arizona where the world’s largest strip-mining of coal started to operate. But Native Americans benefitted very little from these enormous riches. These natural resources were one of the reasons why the relocation programs were started in the 1950s. The government wanted Indians off the reservations forcing them to move into cities at the same time as they gave up their legal rights to reservation lands. The Indians in and around New Mexico are some of the exceptions. They have been able for the most part to keep their traditions alive. Scott Momaday grew up in this area. Scott Momaday: I grew up in the Southwest – New Mexico and Arizona. I was born in Oklahoma, where my people the Kiowas live, but I moved away when I was fairly young and really grew up among other Indians. I lived on the Navajo reservation and on two of the Apache reservations, and one of the Pueblo reservations. Speaker: So your whole family moved then when you were young? Scott Momaday: I was born in the depression and it was a time when they were without work, and they were looking for work, and they found it in the Southwest. MUSIC: "Peyote Healing" Robbie Robertson Speaker: So why did Momaday become a writer? And what is his highly acclaimed novel "House Made of Dawn" about? Scott Momaday: My mother is a writer and she was a very strong influence on my decision to become a writer. Native Americans have a highly developed sense of language, highly developed story-telling tradition. "House Made of Dawn" is the story of a Pueblo man who grows up in the traditional world of the Pueblo, then is uprooted because of the Second World War, he’s drafted and is sent off to fight in Europe, and as a result becomes completely disoriented. And then he comes back and finds that he cannot find his way back into his traditional world. And that happened to a great many people of that generation. It was a real problem. So it was a logical thing for me to write about, because I lived at that time and I knew a good many people who were disoriented in that way and had a terrible time to find their place in this world. It was a real problem and a tragic situation. MUSIC: "Peyote Healing" Robbie Robertson Speaker: For more than 15 years, the American Indian Movement was in the center of the media’s interest. AIM demanded improved conditions for Indian people. Treaties from the 1800s should be followed. AIM spoke for many Indians, especially after the occupation of the little wooden church in the small village of Wounded Knee in 1973. Wounded Knee was the site of the massacre of Sioux Indians by the American government in 1890, marking the end of the Indian wars. AIM dug up the hatchet, and the U.S. Government answered by sending the world’s largest bomb planes to fight the poorly armed Indians hiding in the wooden church. MUSIC: "Stomp Dance" Robbie Robertson AIM was effectively undermined, but many good things such as Native American schools and an improved awareness of the severe problems came out of their struggle. Today some reservations carefully and successfully guard their traditional ways, others try to improve conditions by adopting more modern business ways. It was a milestone when Scott Momaday received the Pulitzer Prize, America's most prestigious literary award. It marked the breaking of barriers between a white and an Indian society, and it was an omen for the future. Scott Momaday: In the sense that...that was a kind of barrier that was broken. A Native American can win the Pulitzer Prize, and that meant a lot to younger people coming up aspiring to become writers. It was sort of a verification to them – yes, it can be done. MUSIC: "Stomp Dance" Robbie Robertson Vocabularypowwow – indiansk folkefest, kappleikreservation – reservat discourage – ta motet fra/ta motet frå high-pitched – kvass retain – holde på/halde på unique – enestående/eineståande heritage – kulturarv threatening – truende/trugande infant mortality – barnedødelighet/dødsprosent for barn prevalent – utbredd/utbreidd in peril – i fare healing – helbredende/lækjande hogan – hus brukt av Navajo-indianere/-indianarar treaty – traktat Department of Interior – Kommunaldepartementet strip-mining of coal – bryte kull i dagbrudd/bryte kol i dagbrot relocation – omplassering the depression – ie the 1930s acclaim – prise, rose be drafted – bli uttrekt til å gjøre militærtjeneste/bli trekt ut til å gjere militærteneste hatchet – stridsøks omen – tegn/teikn verification – bekreftelse/stadfesting After the programme1. Check what is said about- the importance of powwows , Pan-Indianism and sandpainting - how and why the American government tried to move many native Americans away from their reservations - the role played by the American Indian Movement in the 1970s and 1980s 2. Scott Momaday, who is interviewed in the programme, is one of the best known Native American writers. a) Where did he grow up? b) What made him take up writing and how does he make a living? c) What does he say about the strength of Native American traditions? d) How does he look upon today’s life on the reservations? e) What does he mean when he speaks about disorientation? |
31.10.2001 19:01 SO MUCH TO TELL YOU – part six 31.10.2001 19:00 SO MUCH TO TELL YOU – part five 31.10.2001 18:59 SO MUCH TO TELL YOU – part four 31.10.2001 18:58 SO MUCH TO TELL YOU – part three 31.10.2001 18:57 SO MUCH TO TELL YOU – part two 31.10.2001 18:56 SO MUCH TO TELL YOU – part one 31.10.2001 17:58 Urban Indians 31.10.2001 17:51 Powwow on the Reservation 31.10.2001 17:43 Ancestral Voices 28.08.2001 08:12 On the Information Highway |
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