Charlotte,

I think this is why Kenuche suggested reading an older book. I guess you have to understand what happened to the tribes in the last century culturally. While there are many authentic and traditional natives still in existence, there has been a great amount who have turned to Christianity. Many were baptised when young and raised in Catholic or Christian homes and boarding schools. This caused somewhat of a breach in the teaching of traditional values to the young for preservation. The children were simply not home. What the result has been are many native americans who may not know what they should've known about their own culture. Take my own inlaws for example. They admit that they do not get blessing ceremonies as often as they should. They don't burn their trash. My mother in law does not know how to dry corn for grinding it to make corn meal the next year. They go to church (Christian) every Sunday and their Navajo is only so-so. They do love going to powwows and they do practice some traditions, particuliarly when it comes to their granddaughter. The sad thing is, this is pretty normal for most of the Navajo that I have met on the reservation. My husband is, in some ways, more traditional than his parents because he grew up mostly at the family ranch, herding sheep and under his grandparent's care. Evenings were sitting with his grandfather listening to him tell stories in Navajo while he smoked his mountain tobacco and at night, the storytelling would continue in the dark one room home that they lived in because there was no tv or radio.

Finding a truly traditional Navajo can be hard. You can see it in the Navajo grandmothers that wander through the flea market in their broomstick skirts and decked with squashblossom jewelry. Or the man whose long hair is bound in yarn and is wearing simple turquoise earrings and necklace.

In the 60's and 70's, it was the age of the hippies. Both of my inlaws were hippies as were many others of this particuliar tribe. It's a time period where new age was attempting to be born and the interpretations of the young tribe at that time may have been a little skewed. The tribes had cultural genocide attempted upon them and I believe each tribe is still trying to rebound from it. In the Navajo tribe, I have heard that medicine men are becoming scarce, particuliarly those who may know the less used ceremonies. There is a strange juxtaposition where there are still children being sent to school with Navajo as their primary language but more children have english as theirs and don't know any Navajo. The schools are having to teach both Navajo and English to the same groups of children. It's kind of strange.

These are all reasons why Wade has suggested reading books from the 19th century to the early 20th. The tribes today are not necessarily what they were 100 years ago. There are many different intrusions into the culture and, although there is nothing wrong with any individual making their own life choices, it does pose a problem with authenticity when it comes to traditional matters. It is not to say that all the tribes have lost their culture. I wouldn't even begin to be that presumptous. It's just saying that is is likely that some have. Just because one person has indian blood, does not mean that they know their own tribe's ways.

Stephanie

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