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Videos of the Week
Shoshone-Bannock History in Idaho PART I OF II: 2008's historic Idaho Democratic Convention, held in Boise, ID, June 12-14, invited Idaho Native American Tribal members from the Shoshone-Bannock/Fort Hall, Shoshone-Paiute/Duck Valley, Nez Perce, and Coeur D'Alene tribal communities to take an active part in the convention activities. On June 12th, the Idaho AFL-CIO hosted a Democratic picnic for convention goers. Mr. Ted Howard, Cultural Resource Director, Duck Valley, spoke to picnic participants about the Shoshone-Paiute-Bannock history in the Boise Valley area. 9:49 minutes.
Part II-Grand Entry, Flag Ceremony and Recessional All convention tribal members participated in the grand entry at the beginning of the June 13th Idaho Democratic Convention gathering followed by a flag ceremony and presentation by Mr. Lee Juan Tyler, Council Member, Shoshone-Bannock/Fort Hall community. Fort Hall and Duck Valley singers and drummers played songs for the grand entry, flag ceremony and recessional.
9:59 minutes
7 Generations Elder Orin Lyons talks about preparing for the next 7 generations. 8:43 minutes
native american indian tribes and Canada first nations resource
Learn about native american indian culture & traditions, American Indian languages, arts & crafts, and native american history from the tribal perspective. Current events, news, stories & issues of concern to native americans. Education for non-indians on cultures, beliefs & perspectives of the indigenous native americans of North America.
QUESTION:
I have been searching for information on the significance of Lakota jewelry in the past. I am a teacher and during watching a film on Lewis & Clark, which included some references to the Lakota, some students were very interested in the pictures of the beautiful bear claw necklaces, etc. They wanted to know what the jewelry really meant. So far, I've had no luck with internet searches. Can you help?
~Submitted by Jewell S.
Answer:
Hi Jewell,
The choice of material for necklaces in the Lakota (and most other tribes) was generally a personal one. They believed in spirit guides or totem animals, and each type of animal, root, stone, tree, and plant was thought to have different properties or skills or life lessons that were passed on to the person with that "medicine."
In the Lakota philosophy, all things both animate and inanimate are living beings and they all have their own medicine or powers and lessons to teach.
A native person would often carry something from their personal guides or totems in a medicine bag or bundle because they felt it empowered them or protected them in some way. This belief often extended to their choices of personal adornment.
For example, bears generally represent medicine and healing as a totemic entity in the Lakota tribe.
Spirit guides could be aquired in several different ways. An animal or plant might come to the person in the form of a vision during a vision quest, (the most powerful), or be taken on as a guide after a significant encounter with a particular animal, or after dreaming of it in a particularly vivid dream in natural sleep.
Persons who went on a vision quest and didn't have a vision (about 2/3 of those who sought a vision didn't have one) could buy the right to use the properties of a particular totem from someone who had received that power thru the vision quest.
A Lakota who survived a bear attack, or killed a bear, particularly in hand-to-hand combat, would probably believe the bear sacrificed it's life to give it's powers to the warrior, so he would be very likely to make a necklace from the claws or a headdress from the bear's head, or wear clothing made of bear fur, etc. He might call upon the powers of the bear to give him bravery in battle, or more likely, to help him locate medicinal plants for different illnesses, or food plants, etc.
Bears have a particular tendancy to seek out roots and berries, so those are the plant parts that would probably have medicinal powers used by a person with bear medicine.
If you study how different animals act in nature, whether they are pack animals or loners, hunters or prey, timid or aggressive, always working or rather lazy, etc you will begin to see the different powers they possess and can impart to the person who has them as a spirit guide.
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