America and Indian race — страница 6

  • Просмотров 9415
  • Скачиваний 64
  • Размер файла 61
    Кб

became "brothers" through a public exchange of names. The erroneous opinion that the Indian man was an idler, and that the Indian woman was a drudge and slave, is founded upon a misconception of the native system of division of labour, under which it was the man's business to defend the home and to provide food by hunting and fishing, assuming all the risks and hardships of battle and the wilderness, while the woman attended to the domestic duties including the bringing of wood and water, and, with the nomad tribes, the setting up of the tipis. The children, however, required little care after they were able to run about, and the housekeeping was of the simplest, and, as the women usually worked in groups, with songs and gossip, while the children played about, the work

had much of pleasure mixed with it. In all that chiefly concerned the home, the woman was the mistress, and in many tribes the women's council gave the final decision upon important matters of public policy. Among the more agricultural tribes, as the Pueblos, men and women worked the fields together. In the far north, on the other hand, the harsh environment seems to have brought all the savagery of the man's nature, and the woman was in fact a slave, subject to every whim of cruelty, excepting among the Kutchin of the Upper Yukon, noted for their kind treatment of their women. Polygamy existed in nearly all tribes excepting the Pueblos. Houses In and north of the United States there were some twenty well-defined types of native dwellings, varying from the mere brush shelter to

the five-storied pueblo. In the Northwest, Native American cultures lived in a shelter known as the plank house. The plank house varied in shape and design according to the tribe who was building it. It varied from a simple shed-like building to a partly underground shelter like the Mogollon shelter. The plank house was made primarily from wood pieces found along the wooded areas near the sea or water body. Each house was built by placing the wood on poles imbedded in the ground. Eventually the roof was placed on top in a upside-down V shape. These houses were considered very durable to the environment, especially dampness and rain. The villages of the Northwest revolved around the environment which enveloped them. Large structures of enormous logs notched and fitted together

became the primary housing for most of the peoples of this region. Each of these houses had a central living area and distinct, private sections for sleeping areas for the many families which lived there. Other wo oden structures were used for ceremonial purposes as well as for birthing mothers and burial sites. In the eastern United States and adjacent parts of Canada the prevailing type was that commonly known under the Algonkian name of wigwam. The wigwam was a round shelter used by many different Native American cultures in the east and the southeast. It is considered one of the best shelters made. It was as safe and warm as the best houses of early colonists. The wigwam has a curved surface which can hold up against the worst weather in any region. The Native Americans of

the Plains lived in one of the most well known shelters, the tepee ( also Tipi or Teepee). The tipi (the Sioux name for house) or conical tent-dwelling of the upper lake and plains region was of poles set lightly in the ground, bound together near the top, and covered with bark or mats in the lake country, and with dressed buffalo skins on the plains. These skins were often painted in bright colors to show the personalities of the people dwelling there. It was easily portable, and two women could set it up or take in down within an hour. On ceremonial occasions the tipi camp was arranged in a great circle, with the ceremonial "medicine lodge" in the centre. The Native Americans of the Southwest such as the Anasazi and the Pueblo, lived in pueblos constructed by stacking

large adobe blocks, sun-dried and made from clay and water, usually measuring 8 by 16 inches (20 by 40 centimetres) and 4 to 6 in. (10 to 15 cm) thick. These blocks form the walls of the building, up to five stories tall, and were built around a central courtyard. Usually each floor is set back from the floor below, so that the whole building resembles a zigzag pyramid. The method also provides terraces on those levels made from the roof tops of the level below. These unique and amazing apartment-like structures were often built along cliff faces; the most famous, the "cliff palace" of Mesa Verde, Colorado, had over 200 rooms. Another site, the Pueblo Bonito ruins along New Mexico's Chaco River, once contained more than 800 rooms. Each pueblo had at least two, and often