Outro

This will be my final post. Through this blog I have spent a few hours over my 5 hour limit. I've done plenty of research and I have learned many things myself. I hope that the resources I made available will help people become more aware and to help with a wonderful cause.

Native American Art

A lot of Ameri-Indian art is really things that have real practical purpose beyond what is aesthetically pleasing. Common examples of Indian Art is in the form of tomahawks (easily the most common), peace pipes, cradle boards, and dream catchers. The stories behind these things can be found here.

Native American art is spectacular in my opinion because of 2 things, the simplicity and practicality. The simple beauty of such things as a tomahawk or peace pipe, stunningly decorated by expert hands has a certain appeal to it. My personal favorite is and always shall be the dream catcher, not just for its beauty but for its story (found at the link above) where the matriarch of the tribe stopped a young man from killing a spider, and the spider in return gifted the people with the dream catcher, to catch bad dreams. It sends a beautiful message of the sacredness of all living things, and the reward of protecting and understanding the Earth.

Native American Language Preserved Through Art

It's no secret that Native American languages are dying. I've already written an article here that describes it. But there are people preserving the languages through art. Notably the Jim Jarmusch film Dead Man uses intentionally un-subtitled passages in both Cree and Blackfoot language. Films like this that are well researched a free of common stereotypes need to become more commonplace.

Blue Corn Comics is proposing the release of a graphic novel written entirely in Native American languages. They say that they propose this project because of the fact that very few literary works are actually written in Indian tongue, and those that are, are textbooks or childrens books. This is an attempt to keep teenagers and young adults from abandoning their native language.