Native American Stories

Examination of how native american stories are more than mere words.

Native American stories are rich with meaning.  You will almost always find a theme of nature or animals in native American stories.  Another common topic in Native American stories deals with ancestors.  Proof that native American stories promote respect of nature is the fact that you can examine lore told by native Americans all the way from Alaska to Florida and find a common thread.

Some native American stories are poems in the telling, some are actually maps.  Perhaps the most deeply loved of the native American stories are those that tell of tribal history and the legends associated with those tribes.

Culture abounds in native American stories.  How certain plant life or animal life believed to have come into existence permeates native American stories.

Culture also is heavy with rituals and ceremonies, and these are portrayed through native American stories, as well.

We normally think of stories as the spoken word, and can just envision children listening to their parents and grandparents recounting native American stories.  However, native American stories go beyond the spoken word.

Native American stories are also told through ceremonial dance, the singing of songs, and even prayers that are offered.  Even day to day living, things considered as mundane as preparing meals are taught in native American stories.

Upon the death of a love one the native American story of his life is told through singing of songs.  In fact, it was common for over five hundred songs to be sung, and this ritual lasted several days.  After all, native American stories are describing many years of a person’s life, and is offered in the hopes of helping those who are grieving.  It was also believed that these native American stories aided the one who had died to journey on to his next world, whatever that may be.

All cultures held ancestors in high esteem, and this is obvious in native American stories.  Ancestral native American stories tell of how life was believed to begin, and how different tribes had their beginning, as well.  

No matter what, native American stories always promote a healthy relationship with the land.  Native American stories are not considered to be individual; rather they are all a part of one another, a collective story of life.

Native American stories can be descriptive of such things as the soil that crops are grown in, rainfall and snow, hunting, agriculture and even how to eat the earth’s bounty.  Native American stories also include things like love and marriage, and lessons for life.

Words are not just uttered in native American stories.  Each word used to tell native American stories is there for a purpose, carefully thought out.

Native American stories even include the heavens, and describe how the moon, sun, and stars were thought to have begun.

An interesting fact about native American stories is that many of them have survived for generations, even with opposition.  Native American stories are full of history, and a first hand account of beliefs of a nation of people worthy of our time and attention.