Native American Culture Social Structure Kinship family relationship

Native American Culture

Social Structure Kinship (family relationship) is key to social structure Used for social needs (i. e. ) Medical care, child care, settlement of disputes, and education) Native American kinship groups are based on clans Clans: groups of families who are all descended from a common ancestor Lenape people included 3 clans

Religion The most powerful forces in the world are spiritual Performed ceremonies that recognized the power of these forces Rituals were followed in many aspects of life (i. e. planting crops, choosing a mate, or burying the dead) Failure was believed to cause disaster such as invasion, disease, or bad harvest

Preserving Culture Oral History—kept beliefs and customs alive Traditions passed from generation to generation by word of mouth Stories, songs, and instrumentation for ceremonies passed from Elders

Trade Huge in Native American culture Traded foods or goods within and outside of native American groups Items needed or wanted Hospitality and friendliness Sharing sign of respect Used natural trade routes like Mississippi river and great lakes but also created trade routes

Trade Inuit: traded copper from the Copper River in southern Alaska for sharks teeth from people living near Columbia River in Washington Mohave from Great Basin bartered with people on the California coast then traded those goods to the Pueblo people Rocky mountain groups took obsidian into Ohio Iroquois bartered with groups from Minnesota to get stone for tobacco pipes In southeast, Native Americans traded salt and copper from the Appalachian mountains

Land was never traded because they believed it could not be owned They had the right to use land grant use of it but to buy or sell was unthinkable Nature and land deserved respect according to Native American religious and spiritual beliefs “The country was made without lines of demarcation [boundary lines], and it is no man’s business to divide it…I never said the land was mine to do with it as I choose. The one who has the right to dispose of it is the one who has created it. ” -Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé, late 1800 s