Five Films of Native American Culture

The five films viewed for this report have one theme in common: they all address the struggle of Native Americans to retain their cultural heritage. Although some of the films present points of view that are now somewhat outdated due to some marginal success in governmental reforms, all of them speak of the importance of encouraging the self-determination of the peoples who inhabited the Americas prior to European occupation. Separate nations with separate cultural identities, they bear the common problems of forced assimilation into a dominating culture very foreign to themselves in attitude.

Peyote Road describes the origins of the Native American Church, its roots in Huichol history, and its importance in the culture of modern Native Americans as well as their struggles to practice this religion free from non-Indian interference. It presents a dramatization of an actual peyote ceremony and explains the significance of the use of peyote in Native American culture, how the peyote cactus was given to them as a sacrificial offering of the Creator's own heart. Most importantly, this film presents a clear distinction of the plant's religious use as part of a revered ritual rather than a recreational use of its hallucinogenic properties. Its classification as a controlled substance is as derogatory to the Native American people as the term "booze" to describe sacrificial wine is insulting to those of Catholic/Christian faiths, yet the double standard still exists to some extent even today. Ironically, the misunderstandings of definitions and language between Native and Western cultures inhibit the progress of religious diversity in America, a land where our white ancestors fled to in order to achieve their own religious autonomy. "Sovereignty rings hollow without an intact culture," and the Western attempt to assimilate native people into the dominating American culture has only served to alienate them, especially in regards to the practice of religious freedom.

A Navajo medicine man is the narrator of By This Song I Walk, a film that stresses the importance of passing cultural stories and songs onto the next generations. As he walks with a group of children from the village to the canyon, he sings in his native language a repetitive song conducive to walking mindfully upon Mother Earth. It is a song that reaffirms the cultural importance of corn pollen and the natural rhythm of the Navajo world and celebrates the beauty all around as well as within the individual who sings it.

Upon reaching the canyon, the medicine man teaches the children that "the Holy People know you by the songs and created them for us...when one has even one song, he will live a long time, he will live by it, he will guide his children by it, he will guide his people by it." He tells them that all the legends, all the planning that the people do extend from the White House ruins and from the canyon, "the Big God sits out there in this canyon, His songs extend to us from there: Blessingway songs, Nightway songs, and Enemyway songs. Prayers are placed there, too." He goes on to say that young people today mock the stories and ignore them, but they need to listen to them and learn their lessons so that they and their culture will live to old age. In this way, he impresses upon the children the importance of remembering the songs and prayers of the Navajo people. "We will go on our way by this song," he tells them. "We will continue to live by this song."

Hopi Songs of the Fourth World is an in-depth documentary of the Hopi way of life, focusing on how every-day life is interwoven with the Hopi religion. It illustrates the Hopi observation that life is a pattern - a web of life, a world spun into existence by Grandmother Spider - and that there are cycles within cycles that keep the world in balance.

The relationship between the Hopi emergence story and the advent of our modern technical advances is an example of one such cycle-within-a-cycle. The Hopi maintain that "mankind's corruption and greed brought the world to a great mess." Wise men meditated, sensed that there was a better world, and sent Eagle to seek it out. Eagle flew into the sky and reported back to the wise men that indeed there was a better world above, and that's how the Hopi came to live upon this earth. When the first manned spacecraft set foot on the moon (another "world" above this one), the Hopi saw it as a "grand show" - the proclamation of "the Eagle has landed" signified to them that a new age was upon us. In the grand scheme of things, the cyclical nature of the world promises a new life for mankind, a periodic opportunity to redefine and improve ourselves.

The Hopi emergence story is also the basis for the importance of corn in their culture. No fences divide the land they live on because it was given to them to care for by the Great Spirit - no one can "own" it, just as no one can "own" their children. Likewise, the corn was given to them, brought by the Great Spirit as a choice of destiny for the people. The corn emerges from the soil the same way the people emerged into this world; just as the leaves of the corn plants begin to lean onto the ground, the Hopi lean on Mother Earth. The tassels of the corn plants are as young maidens ready to bear children; the girls' corn-grinding duties are an integral part of the Hopi courting process, just as the corn is symbolized in the wedding garments. When a child is born, he is presented with a perfect ear of corn and a pinch of cornmeal on his lips to guide him into this world, just as his parents were presented with Mother Corn on their wedding day to guide them from one phase of life to the next.

This film also spoke of the forced schooling of Hopi children and the effects this has had on their lives. The traditional way of educating children was to lead by example - children learned their place in the Hopi culture by seeing, doing and cooperating with their elders. In the Indian school at Keam's Canyon, children were punished for speaking the Hopi language. Nevertheless, traditional ways have prevailed - the Hopi move slowly to "study things good" because they know that what goes by quickly will go by again, giving them the opportunity to fine-tune what they've learned. Recognition of the cycles of the world afford them the luxury of moving at their own pace and staying in tune with their own world, their own culture.

In Running on the Edge of the Rainbow, Laguna storyteller Leslie Marmon Silko presents her perspective on the importance of oral tradition in her Native American culture. She states that Laguna storytelling requires no creative genius; it's simply a matter of keeping up with local stories and gossip. Telling and re-telling these stories keeps the culture alive, "holds the community together in a way that goes beyond clan and blood relations." Stories told of an incident in a particular place spark the re-telling of other incidents related to the place, or similar incidents of another place. Place, family, and activity stories that are re-told are not idle gossip, but the intense recall that enables individuals to see things as beyond themselves - "one's experiences, fate, tragedy, etc. are seen in terms related to the whole" rather than as isolated incidents. This brings individuals in touch with things that happened and people who existed 100 years ago, promotes a continuity of the culture and creates an identity. Whoever you are, wherever you are as a Laguna, you are never alone. Although the traditional Laguna language is lost, this oral tradition keeps the culture alive.

Ms. Silko also points out the significance of traditional stories in modern life and demonstrates a modern application to a traditional theme through the telling of a Coyote story in which a current election is used as the plot. Another Coyote story is told "bare-bones" to adults because a certain amount of common knowledge is assumed, while more attention to detail is given when these tales are shared with children.

Another example of how Laguna stories bind the community together and preserve the culture is expressed through Silko's feelings about her River stories. "The river is a place where things can happen that can't happen in the village. The river becomes known in several different ways simultaneously," and Silko is unsure which came first - Yellow Woman stories about the river, or "the way the river is." Through these stories, the river takes on an identity and becomes a special place, an integral part of the Laguna culture. Ms. Silko states that these are not "just" stories and gossip, but the basis of what keeps the people together. Everything they know, they know through all time and about themselves.

White Man's Way is a film that focuses on how Native Americans have coped with forced assimilation into Western culture. In the Indian Schools, attempts were made to transform the children, to make them forget being Indian and turn them into "Americans," in order to "solve the Indian problem." Children were often kidnapped by Indian Agents and then taught that there is nothing of value in Native culture. They were dressed in military-style uniforms and paraded before local dignitaries. The schools were set up as factories, every hour of their days were accounted for, bells and whistles ruled every action, and nothing remained of the natural rhythm of life the children were accustomed to. Separation from home, life and the natural world was the prevailing theme.

Parents were sometimes allowed to visit their children to ease their loneliness. These visits served as opportunities to strengthen their Indian ways, and some of the students made personal choices to hold on to pieces of their past while accepting the boarding school ways. The result was a feeling of alienation, both from the white society and from their native culture. Living with a foot in each culture distanced them from both.

Today, Native Americans who attended these schools look back on their experience with mixed feelings. Current problems on the reservations create a yearning for the military discipline they knew as children - a sense of order in a now chaotic world. Time has softened the pain of the past, and these people recognize that they were better educated in the boarding schools than their children are now. The question remains, however: Was the white man's way the solution for Indian problems, or did it create them?

While Western culture has been successful in eradicating many Native American societies and still threatens those that remain, the People who lived here long before the first European set foot on this continent have proven themselves resilient. Able to adapt to Western society while retaining something of their traditional cultures, Native Americans continue to fight for their religious and cultural freedoms by exercising their rights to self-determination.