Native American Cultures

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[belligerentbagel]

Originally posted by @the-aila-test​ (here), edited to add descriptions of each website and update the links. 

Native-owned businesses to buy from. Taken from the North American Indian Association of Detroit.

For text searching, some of the major categories used are: Food, beverages, clothing, accessories, jewellery, home goods, hygiene, beauty, books, sporting goods — but there are also many items that didn’t fit neatly into those categories, so try ctrl+F / cmd+F for whatever product you have in mind! 

https://www.sweetgrasstradingco.com - Food, beverages (coffee & tea), skincare and grooming, beauty products from a wide variety of different Native-owned brands. The closest thing to a one-stop shop you will get. 

https://nativeharvest.com - Food (maple syrup, jellies, coffee, cereal, soups), jewellery, books and stationery.

https://byellowtail.com - Clothing (stylish af hoodies, swimsuits, cardigans and jackets, tops, scarves, dresses), jewellery, candles, beauty and hygiene (soap, lotions, lip balms) from a variety of Native designers.

https://trickstercompany.com - Clothing (tees, sweatshirts, crop tops, leggings, dresses), accessories (sunglasses, keychains, zipper pulls, headbands, beanies, ties, umbrellas, tote bags, pins), paper goods (stationery, books, prints, stickers, home goods and decor, sporting goods (basketballs, longboards)

https://www.salishstyle.com - Clothing (tees, hoodies), accessories (beanies, some really cool backpacks), stickers, pins, blankets, thermoses

https://hutxh.com - Clothing (tops), accessories (necklaces, hats, bags)

https://furandhide.com - VERY COOL leather and fur products! Drums, flutes, bells, rattles, shells. Also a selection of skulls, bones, claws, teeth, quills, feathers, and obsidian items. 

Continued below the break.

Keep reading

[squeeful]

Navajo woman creates cooking videos that highlight Navajo language and cuisine

Her videos have been shared across the platform tens of thousands of times.

“It’s not just about cooking a meal and having the meal for lunch or dinner, but it’s about connection with our ancestors and how they have been so resilient and strong,” said Jennifer Wheeler.

Jennifer Wheeler, a Navajo language teacher, posted a series of videos on her Facebook page showing her making traditional foods like blue corn much and kneel down bread. Her videos have been shared across the platform tens of thousands of times.

“I didn’t even imagine the response that I’m getting now,” she said.

Wheeler said she hopes the videos, which are recorded solely in Navajo, will help her people learn the complicated language.

“When you act and speak and do all at the same time, the listener will start recognizing that and understanding the action to the verb,” Wheeler said,

Wheeler said she has enough food videos planned to take her through the next couple of months. All of her videos are posted to her Facebook page, but she said she has plans to start a YouTube channel soon.

To view Wheeler’s videos, click here.

[bluestonearcher]

Former Miss Navajo spends curfew making recipe videos - Navajo Times

Dr. Jennifer Jackson-Wheeler is a former Miss Navajo, an associate professor, grandmother and a lover of cooking. She has combined all these

For those of us who don’t use facebook, looks like there’s some stuff on YouTube with her…

AHA! And I found her YouTube channel! And I must say, I’ve got some kitchen envy!

Bead Clan Kitchen

Yá’át’ééh! In our Diné way of introduction, I am Yoo'í Dine'é - Bead Clan. Kin Yaa’áanii dashizhé’é dóó dashicheii dóó Tódíc

Subscribe to her channel! There are already 20 videos up! So cool to see traditional food being made in ways I’ve only read about in books!

[the-aila-test]

This better pass.

[sirfrogsworth]

Here is a cute dancing baby to make us all smile during these trying times. 

[Original Post]

[leescoresbies]

so in case you’re about to watch a cw television show based in the southwest that’s featuring an episode based on some supposed reservation – or you’ve read anything about the situation on the navajo nation recently – i wanted to share some ways that we all can help the diné (navajo) community beyond kind-of depicting them on television. 

today the navajo nation surpassed new york state and new jersey for the highest per-capita coronavirus infection rate in the country. that’s 2,304 cases per 100,000 people. 173,600 people live on the navajo nation, roughly. below are a number of organizations & community groups raising money & resources. it would mean so much to me if you’d consider supporting these communities right now - & continue to think about how you can support the indigenous communities near you, & understand the indigenous land you might currently occupy. 

the navajo water project helps bring running water to navajo families without, and also helps families pay their water & electricity bills 

the adopt an elder project helps feed navajo elders during the pandemic

the navajo health command operations center is the navajo nation’s only official fundraising and donation effort

rez rising is a database of native american small businesses across the southwest

the kinlani mutual aid group is a flagstaff, az based volunteer group collecting supplies

the native american relief fund operated by the native american community foundation provides emergency grants to communities for supplies & more

and a number of community-run fundraising efforts:

northern diné covid relief effort

navajo & hopi families relief fund

native student emergency fund

bluff area mutual aid - supply delivery in utah

navajo nation relief project

if you’re aware of any other legitimate fundraising efforts to help these communities, or the indigenous communities near you, please add them. 

[nereb-and-dungalef]

the Navajo Water Project also sells blankets and jewelry, and the Adopt an Elder Project sells rugs hand made by Navajo Elders if that appeals to any of you!

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

From mtmaven on Instagram.

Although if at the gofundme has reached its initial goal, all additional funds will go to helping the Blackfeet.

If you hear someone questioning or criticizing this decision, interject and make clear that indigenous lives are always and will always matter more than a vacation.

Support them and their decision to close and protect the people. Don’t go to the reservation, and send them some funds to help them during this closure.

[ultrafacts]

The Navajo have a unique tradition. When a baby is born, it is regarded as the ultimate, precious gift and must never be abused. From the moment of birth, the child is watched over continuously by family and friends, who patiently wait for the child’s first…laugh.

“Has your baby laughed?” is common question posed to parents who have infants around the age of three months. The first laugh of a Navajo child is a very significant event. It marks the child’s final passing from the spirit world to the physical world, meaning he or she is now fully human. This milestone warrants a party, and what a party it is!

Whichever brother, sister, parent, cousin, aunt, uncle, or passing acquaintance is present at the first laugh is deemed to have caused it.  The laughter instigator then receives the honored privilege of preparing a special ceremony to welcome the child into society.

Once a baby has laughed, training in generosity begins immediately—a value held in high regard among the Navajo people. At the party, where the baby is considered the host, the parents or person responsible for the first laugh help hold the baby’s hand as he or she ceremonially gives the rock salt, food, and gifts to each guest. There are also bags of candy, money, and other presents that the child “gives” along with the food. [x]

Fact Sources/more info: [1] [2] For more facts, follow Ultrafacts

[onkwehonweneha]

Is this true? lol

[morninggggstar]

Yes it is true. I have had of a few relatives invite me to a A’wee Chi’deedloh "The Baby Laughed Ceremony" however I have not had the privilege to actually attended one personally. The Dine’ peoples believe that babies are of “two worlds” (Earth people & Holy people) when they are born. The first laugh signifies the babies desire to become a part of the Earth People so it is a great cause for celebration.

[strangevibezz-deactivated201603]

This is beautiful.

[modernmarcy]

This is so pure and good I’m crying

[disgooseting]

https://www.navajowaterproject.org

Navajo Water Project

Help DigDeep bring clean, running water to hundreds of American families. 1 in 3 Navajo homes don't have a tap or toilet. We can fix that.

[haikuyus-deactivated20220606]

this fourth of july think of the indigenous people of america who had their country and land stolen from them with little to no reparations or apologies. land is still being taken. sacred grounds are still being ripped away. there is no “independence” for the people who were here first.

[amateurbitchcraft-deactivated20]

First Nations COVID-19 Relief Fund

White Earth Land Recovery Fund

ILTF Land Recovery Fund

IEN Mutual Aid Fund

[blackwoolncrown]

Tweet by Dallas Goldtooth:

“Lakota land defenders have blocked access to the Trump rally at Mt Rushmore in the Ȟe Sapa, aka Black Hills! Nat'l guard on scene. Tear gas used. Arrests happening. 

Plz donate to bail. 

venmo: @westriverbailfund (6892 if asked to confirm phone) 

 PayPal to: westriverbailfund@gmail “

SIGNAL BOOST! DONAATE & REBLOG TO SUPPORT LAND DEFENDERS

[nativeamericancultures]

Indigenous Heritage - Telling All Americans' Stories (U.S. National Park Service)

"It does not require many words to speak the truth." - Chief Joseph, Nez Perce

[supersonicart]

Thomas Blackshear II, Paintings.

Masterpieces from revered artist Thomas Blackshear II who lives and works in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

-

Be sure to follow Supersonic Art on Instagram!

[irregularcollapse]

Here’s a link to a Google Doc with a bunch of Indigenous organisations which you can donate to, including Black Rainbow (LGBTQIA+ Indigenous organisation) and groups that support incarcerated Aboriginal people and work towards ending Indigenous deaths in custody

[takingbackourculture]

Native Americans dancing around a dethroned Columbus statue was the content I didn’t know I needed today

[mysharona1987]

[funonmars]

If you want to help out the Navajo Nation, please consider donating to them at the following:

https://www.nndoh.org/donate.html - Navajo Nation COVID-19 fund. There’s also a link to their Go Fund Me, as well a list of medical and community needs and numbers and emails to message for the non monetary donations. 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/nhfc19relief - Navajo and Hopi families relief fund. 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-elderly-on-navajo-nation - Food baskets for the Elderly on Navajo Nation

 https://www.gofundme.com/f/northern-dine-covid19-relief-effort - Northern Diné Relief Fund

https://nmchildren.org/ - Bill Richardson COVID-19 Navajo families relief fund

5/22/2020

[hilarioushumorfromouterspace]

[seelcudoom]

imagine trying to apply this logic to any other scenario “no officer i dident steal this, because i murdered the owner first, wait why are you still arresting me”

[gogomrbrown]

I learned in a Latin Studies class (with a chill white dude professor) that when the Europeans first saw Aztec cities they were stunned by the grid. The Aztecs had city planning and that there was no rational lay out to European cities at the time. No organization.

[punkrockradio]

When the Spanish first arrived in Tenochtitlan (now downtown mexico city) they thought they were dreaming. They had arrived from incredibly unsanitary medieval Europe to a city five times the size of that century’s london with a working sewage system, artificial “floating gardens” (chinampas), a grid system, and aqueducts providing fresh water. Which wasn’t even for drinking! Water from the aqueducts was used for washing and bathing- they preferred using nearby mountain springs for drinking. Hygiene was a huge part if their culture, most people bathed twice a day while the king bathed at least four times a day. Located on an island in the middle of a lake, they used advanced causeways to allow access to the mainland that could be cut off to let canoes through or to defend the city. The Spanish saw their buildings and towers and thought they were rising out of the water. The city was one of the most advanced societies at the time.

Anyone who thinks that Native Americans were the savages instead of the filthy, disease ridden colonizers who appeared on their land is a damn fool.

[robotsandfrippary]

They’ve also recently discovered a lost Native American city in Kansas called Etzanoa It rivals the size of Cahokia, which was very large as well.

[fullmetalquest-deactivated20211]

Makes me happy to see people learn about the culture of my country :D

[fieldbears]

Also, please remember that the idea of a nomadic or semi-nomadic culture being “less intelligent”, “less civilized” (and please unpack that word) was invented by people who wanted to make a graph where they were on the top.

Societies that functioned without 1) staying exclusively in one location or 2) having to make complicated, difficult-to-construct tools to go about their daily lives… were not somehow less valid than others.

[tikkunolamorgtfo]

This is why I fucking hate it when Europeans make jokes about how they have “more history” than the Americas. “This church is older than your country hahaha.” Actually, it’s older than the country you put there, massacring millions in the process, but go off, I guess. 

[hope-fenrys]

Currently taking a college course which revolves a ton around these topics!! I love it.

[sindri42]

The early colonists in what is now the east coast of the US marveled at how the forests seemed to just be waiting for somebody to move in, looking more like carefully tended gardens than untamed wilderness. They interpreted this as evidence that this land was a gift to them from the heavens, giving them fertile fields already ready for their crops and their homesteads. The truth is that there were people living there just a few years earlier who had in fact been carefully tending that land, right up until they disappeared.

The native tribes and nations were for the most part ravaged by plague. There were definitely some deliberate attempts at genocide and relocation, but those were small scale, things which would never have been possible if the colonists were fighting against the full might of the great native american nations instead of dealing with a relatively tiny number of survivors. Fatality rates in some regions were upwards of 95% before they even saw a white man. The americas had virtually no resistance to plagues, because a plague does not evolve naturally. Think about it, a virus or bacterium is completely reliant on its hosts to move, the reproduce, to survive; any disease which kills its host is a failure and will die out soon afterward. So where do they come from? Almost always a cross-species jump. A slight mutation that turns a disease which made a cow or a pig moderately sick into a disease that kills humans by the millions. In Europe and many parts of Asia, it was customary for cities to have mixed populations of humans and livestock in close quarters, so these rare mutations happened relatively often, leading to a lot of dead people… but leaving the survivors with a certain degree of resistance to similar disasters. In the Americas, very few of the native animals were really suitable for domestication, so it was rare for humans and livestock to live in particularly close quarters with one another (until horses got imported; the surviving natives fucking loved those). So those cross-species disease jumps just didn’t happen, and in turn plagues just weren’t a thing in the americas. Until suddenly, they were and nobody was prepared.

It’s been noted that Americans have a cultural obsession with the apocalypse. So much of our media is centered on how people would survive some event which totally collapsed our society, how we would rebuild on the ashes of a dead world, what a new society would look like if it was made by a handful of scavengers picking at the bones of a vanished culture. I suggest that this is because we are the post-apocalypse. Our country is so “young” because it did not rise until the powerful nations who had ruled over this continent died, until an unprecedented cataclysm upended everything which had come before and left their ruins waiting for us to move in.

[accras]

Native Americans came to support BLM in Seattle.[x]