Southwest Native American Folklore

The Native Americans of the Southwest are engulfed in their religion as a way of life. I believe that because of these strong rooted beliefs, assimilation into the American mainstream society is very difficult if not impossible. The books I've read, Coming to Light and Native North American Art, show these people for who they are and what they really want to be known as, which is simply “the people.” Franz Boaz, a believer in cultural relativism, rejected the theory that Native Americans were primitive people, and that they were justified and right in the way they lived their lives.

They held different beliefs than mainstream society, and evangelical Christians tried to force them to convert to their religion. Their religious beliefs, as I had said before, are deeply rooted into their daily lives and activities, and no amount of force, except God himself, is going to uproot a tree so deeply implanted into the ground. The film Kachinas: The Stories They Tell told of the spiritual guardians, of which the Zuni and Hopi tribes have the most. These creative graven images, which appear in many ceremonies and religious rituals, proved how deeply rooted the people are in their beliefs. Some kachinas were involved in the creation of Earth, others appeared as teachers of right and wrong, and yet others were memorials to wise ancestors. Pottery and other such artwork were also of a spiritual nature, which mainstream society learned when many tribes attempted to reclaim their artifacts from museums.

Numbers and animals were both sacred to the Native American tribes of the Southwest. The number 4 represented the four cardinal directions to be summoned during rituals and ceremonies among all the tribes. The Zuni held the number 6 sacred, as they added above and below, which would be as heaven and hell to the Christian. The kivas, or ceremonial places of worship for the Pueblos, had both a hole in the roof and a hole in the ground to represent those two other worlds. For the Navajo, the coyote and the skunk were lifted up in fables to teach children how to and how not to act in society. Just like the kachinas, the stories of these animals instilled values into children, as if to be more of a parable, maybe, than a fable.

What I thought was the most interesting about the Native Americans of the Southwest was not their differences in beliefs, but some of the similarities I saw to Christian culture. I have objectivist beliefs, in that there are universal moral principles, but that some of these principles are applied in different ways in different cultures. These people believed in the power of words so much that some rituals and ceremonies were not to be recorded, or sometimes even heard, by unbelievers. The power of words is throughout the Christian culture as well as the Native American cultures. The only problem is that some Christians are weak and do not pray and repeat positive messages enough to invoke positive outcomes. The Native Americans are brought up to believe in this power. The power of words and speech are all throughout the book of Proverbs, so the similarity in belief here is uncanny. The Christians, listening to the repetitious chants of their songs, should have realized that the words they spoke held powerful meaning to them, for Christian hymns also have repetitious lyrics. Forcing them to convert and claim that their words are wrong won’t happen. The Navajo story called “Singing up the Mountain” in Coming to Light ,touched on the power of singing to the Gods for protection against the evil dark cloud and the blinding rain and rainbow, to reach a seemingly insurmountable goal (619-623). That story, for me, was one of faith and overcoming with the power of the spoken word.

The converters will be seen as invaders and enemies because one simply doesn’t go into a culture and point blank tell them that they are wrong. Yes, I believe Christians should tell other cultures about Jesus Christ, but if they choose not to accept the good news, it isn’t our job to force it on them, for Jesus said that we are just to shake the dust off our sandals and let God be the judge. We do have a free will, which isn’t respected during a forced conversion. The Native Americans have a right to feel as if they have been invaded. Some Christian missionaries might have thought that their rituals and ceremonies were of the devil, but it is not for them to judge, just to share God’s love. Christian missionaries missed the mark when dealing with these people, for one doesn’t force people to believe the same way, but must simply love them as they are to slowly win them over.

The origin of language of different peoples intrigues me. I wonder where these people were before crossing the Bering land strip. I also wonder about the written alphabet used by many tribes. How has the alphabet changed over time. Did they used to use symbols and letters like that of Biblical Hebrew and other ancient languages, which include glottal stops and sounds within their alphabet? Since many things are not written down in tribal culture, but merely performed orally, how do we know what their alphabet actually looks like?