Cultural Characteristics Of Native American Indians

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Native American / American Indian
Any cultural group is formed by different characteristics, such as home country, language, education, and traditions, work, among others. As part of a cultural group in the United States, the American Indians are the indigenous peoples of the Americas. According to Funk and Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia (2014), the name Indian is supposedly first given by Christopher Columbus who thought that the mainlands were part of the Indies, in Asia (p. 1). During the first contact between the Americas and Europe, there have been said to be over 90 million Indians living in the United States (Funk and Wagnalls NWE, 2014, p. 1). The cultured parts of North America are most of the south, the Plains, the California region,
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115). Although, president Roosevelt started the Indian Reorganization Act or the Indian New Deal. This act protected several rights for tribes and funding for education, medical care, and agricultural support. Later on, Young worked with William Morgan to create four dictionaries: in 1943 The Navaho Language, in 1951 A Vocabulary of Colloquial Navaho, in 1980 The Navajo Language, and in 1992 the Analytical Lexicon (Perry, 2011, p. 118). Perry (2011) mentions that each dictionary had a slightly different purpose and structure, while proving the logical and systematic nature of Navajo with standardized pronunciations and grammatical rules (p. 118). In their first dictionary Young and Morgan (as cited in Perry, 1971), they make a point of explaining Navajo’s equal linguistic status with English, “it s quite obvious that the Navaho language is not a primitive tool, inadequate for human expression, but a well developed one, quite as capable of serving the Navaho people as our language is of serving us” (p. …show more content…
Another reason was having poor roads, which did not allow for the use of motorized vehicles or carts non-the less, they left this to their livestock, which would carry necessities ex: food. These to us more modern people and our more modern culture would think of having poor road conditions and being isolated from society a burden, because our cars could get messed up or how would we manage, but to the Navajo this were blessings in disguise as it helped them retain their culture and not lose sight of who they were and where they came from. However due to the advancement of laws, roads, and the school system the Navajo are changing. The reservations that once were are way different now. As late as 1950 paved roads ended at the fringes of the reservation at Shiprock, Cameron, and Window Rock. Even wagons were not widely used until the early 1930s. The Navajo are really interested in keeping their own ways/ culture that they continue to help to better strengthen and jeep the old traditional ways of the Navajo

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