American Literature

The Native American Oral tradition

The Native American literature begins with the oral traditions in the hundreds of indigenous culture of North America and finds its fullness in all aspects of written literature as well.The native American oral literature is known for its rich oral tradition.It is primarily studied for its ethnographic interest.The Native American literature also called Indian literature or American Indian literature is the traditional oral and written literature of the indigenous people of America.It includes ancient hieroglyphic and pictograph writings of middle America and also an extensive set of folktales,myths and oral histories that were transmitted for centuries by story tellers.

The collective knowledge that has been passed down orally from generation to generation is an invaluable piece of preserving tribes’ history, culture, beliefs and sense of identity. It preserves the cultural legacy and traditions passed on through myths, songs, legends, and tales,and places great importance on language.Instead of using a written language to document their history, these indigenous people simply relied on their verbal language to share their history, customs, rituals and legends through vivid narratives.These people do not share a single, unified body of mythology or literature.Each tribal group have their own stories about the creation of the world, the appearance of the first people, the place of humans in the universe, and the lives and deeds of gods and heroes. They are often told by the tribal elders to the younger generations.

The sources and forms of oral tradition are very diverse and there is actually a wide variety of types of oral tradition present in Native American cultures apart from story telling, including eyewitness accounts, poems, songs, choreography, speeches, that have contributed to the development of rituals and ceremonies.

From ancient times until late in the nineteenth century, their literature existed only as an unwritten and anonymous oral tradition. Much later, anthropologists and linguists tried to convert the anonymous tradition into a written literature that preserves the spirit of the original. Thus, today Native Americans are writing poems and prose fiction that carry forward the creative work that reaches back in a continuous line to its ancient beginnings. For the Native Americans, language was so magical. They used it in various songs, spells, and charms to control their world.

Usually the songs were chanted to make rain and to assure a profuse harvest, charms to cure sickness and ease pain, spells to overcome an enemy, win a reluctant lover. The language that Native Americans used invoked the spirits of the sky, the earth and the winds. Their prose stories were short tales of their human origins, of their heroes or admired tricksters, of visitations by their gods, or of prophecy. Since language was held in high esteem, eloquence was a quality necessary for leadership.

The Cask of Amontillado-Edgar Allan Poe New

The five boons of life-Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn-Mark Twain

Characteristics of Native American Oral Tradition

Native American literature works are deeply rooted in myth and symbolic archetypes and features the combination of oral story telling techniques and tribal mythology with European literary forms such as short story or novel.

Hero Initiation

One recurring motif in Native American literature is of a the young man who undergoes ritual initiation and eventually accomplishes a heroic act.Often the young man is born under divine circumstances or has mixed percentage.Neither he fully belongs to his native tribe nor to the European settler world and must prove himself by some daring feat.

Symbolic Languages and Mythology

This involves attributing human characteristics to landmark formations or inanimate objects.This is part of a more generalized anthropomorphic tendency in Native American folk Traditions. Animals may be given human behavioural characteristics such as greed or jealousy.Inanimate objects and animals may be accorded an equal place with humans in the cosmos and this equality emerges in Native American literature.

Storytelling

Storytelling is the most famous and most often studied form of Native oral tradition. The stories are inherently spiritual, shrouded in symbols from nature,plants and animals, earth and sky,fire and water.While Western folklorists often divide stories into categories of myth, folktale, and legend .Some stories are rooted in reality while others have a more spiritual, ethereal setting. Most of their stories do follow a pattern like some native stories are viewed as sacred, true accounts of the ancient past, such as creation stories similar to myths, a second type similar to Western folktales which are told for amusement, and a third type of story which is of legends, whose truth cannot be confirmed. In Native stories, we find legends and history, maps and poems and the teachings of spirit mentors and also find instructions for ceremonies and rituals.

The trickster figure is common in oral storytelling and are often used to teach moral lessons to children, Trickster stories usually portray a situation in which being a trickster is being deceitful, but does not achieve their objective, proving that dishonesty doesn’t pay.. One of the most common trickster characters is Coyote, who is considered a cunning figure who sometimes experiences bad luck. Other tricksters include Iktomi (spider), Veeho, Rabbit, Skeleton Man, and Raven.

Many stories convey practical information about nature. Native Americans, like many other cultures, used storytelling to help make sense of the natural world. For example, in the Dakota legend, How Turtle Flew South for the Winter, the story explains mysteries of nature including why turtles’ shells are cracked and why turtles hibernate in the winter while birds fly south. A child who hears this story is simultaneously entertained and informed about nature. In comparison to Western literature, the Native perspective on animals is often elevated and highly respected. In many myths and folktales, animals and humans are interchangeable and considered equals. Origin stories may even feature animals as taking part in creation and animals often offer insight and impart wisdom to human beings.

Eyewitness Account

In addition to storytelling, another form of oral tradition is the eyewitness account, in which a person describes and passes on information about an event that occurred during the teller’s lifetime and about which the teller has firsthand knowledge. An example of this type of oral tradition is the oral accounts provided by Lakota, Cheyenne, and Crow warriors after the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Little Big Horn was a significant event in American Indian history and the oral tradition surrounding it is historically valid, as it was more accurate than many, if not most, written accounts at that time. While very informative, eyewitness accounts are not extremely common in oral literature, as the time frame and events of one’s own lifetime can be restrictive in terms of what one may share.

Poems

Poems are another example of oral tradition and usually include a musical component and may include choreography as well. “Sayatasha’s Night Chant” is considered ritual poetry from the Zuni tribe of modern day New Mexico. The poem is chanted during a Zuni ceremony called Shalako. In the ceremony, the kachinas, spirits of the earth’s forces and Zuni ancestors, are said to come to the village with seeds and moisture to renew and continue life in the village for another year. In this example, the successful oral passage of this poem was highly important, as it is an important ingredient of the Zuni’s spiritual practices.

Visions, Dreams, Hallucinations

Visions, dreams and hallucinations are types of oral tradition that have contributed to the development of Native American rituals and ceremonies, in which individuals receive information in these forms and then share the knowledge orally. Visions have often served to inform the rituals and ceremonies of indigenous peoples because oral tradition that comes in this form is considered to be communication from the supernatural realm to the living. For example, in the Lakota story of White Buffalo Calf Woman (a wakan-sacred,divine being) she first appeared to two scouts. White Buffalo Calf Woman was a beautiful young woman dressed in white buck skin and one of the men was filled with desire for her and approached her with bad intentions. His companion warned him that she appeared to be a sacred woman, but the man did not listen. The first man embraced White Buffalo Calf Woman, and was reduced to a pile of bones. After this, the second man conveyed a message at her request that she would be visiting their tribe soon and that they should prepare a feast. The distinction between the two young men’s behaviour demonstrates which type of behaviour is culturally appropriate and which is not, so the story is useful as a tool for instruction. Additionally, it also demonstrates how visions are used in oral tradition. Upon her arrival, the White Buffalo Calf Woman taught the Lakota people the seven rituals and also gave them the chanunpa, or sacred pipe.

Speeches

The speech is considered to be eloquent, appealing to both logic and emotion, and is also important in a historical context, as Chief Joseph resisted the white takeover of his people’s lands in the Oregon Territory by trying to flee to Canada, travelling over 1500 miles with his people through Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. In the end, Chief Joseph surrendered 40 miles from the Canadian border, but about 150-200 Nez Perce, including his wife and child, made it into Canada and there are Nez Perce descendants still there today. Yet, there is controversy over the origin of these words attributed to Chief Joseph. C.E.S. Wood, an aide to General Howard, stated that he wrote down Chief Joseph’s words verbatim, but some historians have doubted Wood’s claim. The dispute over this speech may possibly be the longest over the authenticity of a text in western American literature and illustrates some of the issues that arise when Western scholars are asked to accept oral tradition as literature.

The rain dance, was traditionally performed by Southwestern tribes in the USA. These rituals and the words to say were passed down through oral tradition and still survive today. In 2014, tribes and other individuals in drought-stricken California have been holding weekly rain dances. To Native Americans, as individuals chant, “Amani, amani, amani. Rain, rain, rain…” these words bear power.

A last key element in oral tradition is repetition, a literary device used often in oral literature. Repetition is often used to create expectation and to jog a storyteller’s memory. The Navajo Nightway Ceremony includes about four hundred songs that are sung over nine days and eight nights.

Conclusion

Native oral tradition in all its forms is a way of remembering a people’s past. Preserving the past is of vital importance, as it informs a people’s present and future. To American Indians, the oral tradition of past generations is seen as a valid source of history and a source of knowledge of the sum total of a people’s past experiences. This historical knowledge helps to explain the how and why of present-day conditions and also offers possible solutions to current challenges that Native people face. For example, many believe that oral tradition contains information on how one should live his/her life and that some of the problems we now face are because many have turned away from those guidelines and truths that were provided by prior generations.

The rich oral tradition of Native Americans has served to preserve vital information that may not have otherwise survived. American Indian storytelling serves the purposes of entertainment, conveying lessons to listeners, and defining the culture and beliefs of indigenous nations, in years past and still today. Thus, the ability and motivation to continue to carry on oral tradition is not only a defining characteristic of Indian nations, but of vital importance to Native identity.