American Indian Cultural Values

In the wake of violent confrontations between Indian and the established power structure of the United States--at Alcatraz, at Wounded Knee, at the Bureau of Indian Affairs--Robert Burnette and John Koster wrote: "The American Indian today is a product of history and of the disruptive elements of modern society. Federal policies--from the signing of the Constitution down to the present day--can be said to legislate his every waking action, for good, or, more frequently, for ill." There is little doubt that this is true. During the great period of Westward expansion in the United States, the Indian was viewed by the settlers--the white man--as a barbaric force to be exterminated, often with the approval and the aid of the Federal government. The American Indian was defeated in battle and in the peace that followed those battles. Deprived of their land, shunted off to isolated reservations where the land was of poor quality for agriculture or anything else, the Indian was persecuted and deprived throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. "Two facts show how far apart the experience of the Indian has set him: only the Indian, of all Americans, has ever been subjected to a conscious and stated policy of genocide by the United States government; and only the Indian,

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g been provided for the Indian by the Almighty." Again, we see the common elements of Indian cultural values--the importance of brotherly love, the closeness of the family and its value to the Indian, and the belief in God. The Native American Church has preserved those elements of the tradition which have resisted assimilation. The Arizona legal decision described the use of peyote in the ritual of the Native American Church. "When thus consumed, it causes the worshiper to experience a vivid revelation in which he sees or hears the spirit of a departed loved one, or experiences other religious phenomenon; or he may be shown the way to solve some daily problems, or reproved for some evil thought or deed. Through the use of peyote, the Indian acquires increased powers of concentration and introspection, and experiences deep religious emotion. There is nothing debasing or morally reprehensible about the peyote ritual." Thus far this paper has focused upon the cultural values of the American Indian. The genesis of those cultural values is found in the traditional history, religion, and society. But it is evident that those cultural values such as harmony with nature, concepts of time, saving, and work, family loyalty and
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Approximate Word count = 6598
Approximate Pages = 26 (250 words per page)

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