One of the things that I see evidence of every day in the local tribes out here is the evidence of alteration due to the advent of european settlers. Kenuchelover cited two excellent examples for the Navajo--silversmithing and sheepherding. These two things are both hugely important to Navajo culture today but they did not exist prior to the advent of Europeans. A great deal of the "traditional" foods out here actually stem from europeans, in particuliar, breads. Santo Domingo bread is a round, raised white loaf of bread made from flour. Fry bread? Spanish based on the sopapilla. Considering how much the cultures of the various tribes have been altered since the european arrival, it's a wonder that connections can even be made to those tribes former selves.

Can anyone else think of more things that would confuse the issue as to which culture was associated with that? To me, it's unsurprising that there is uncertainty about where tribes may have originally arrived from. The Navajo today are dramatically different from what the Navajo 1000 years ago would've been like--and probably unrecognizable as being Navajo.

Stephanie




In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.--Ralph Waldo Emerson