No Future without a Past: Defining Culture in its Origins

    Native American tribes each have rich histories regarding their origins and their ties to their homes. The way a tribe presents their origin story shows not just their ideas on how the world was formed but it can also inform you on their sense of place in the universe, their social structure, and their general way of thinking. Of particular interest for me are the Lakota and the O'Odham.

    Both groups hold the land and all of its inhabitants in the highest regard. They see life in every element of their respective landscapes and have come to accept and rejoice in the cycles of life. But as central as themes of the landscape are to both tribes, both tribes stress very different values. The Lakota believe that they are exiles from a people who live beneath the earth. They specifically believe that they exited the earth from a cave called Wind Cave (its since served as a failed mine and a successful national park with a giant path through what is an incredibly sacred site for the Lakota but that is neither here nor there) and that they can never return to be with their people. The Lakota's stress the ideas of duty  and respect to and for one's family and to elders in general. The O'Odham, on the other hand, believe that they are the product of the a god who created them and the entire world. In one of the origin stories the O'Odham tell of a child and his grandfather [story]. This would be crazy talk and runs in contrast to the core beliefs of the Lakota.

    These ideas of the origins of the Lakota and the O'Odham have power to this day and it would be wise for anyone involved with them to understand where they come from to understand where they might go.