Native American

Literature
English 11
Ms. Burns

Historical & Cultural Context

Our American identity as we know it is a
product of our past. Our class will focus on
literature which reveals how we arrived at
our society and culture today.
We study Native American literature out of
a respect for the indigenous cultures who
were here before the European explorers
as well as a respect for their cultural and
literary influence throughout the years.

 Indigenous Americans inhabited this

continent before anyone else. They
endured many invasions from the
Spaniards for the following primary
reasons:
1. land
2. gold
3. crops
(all of which were plentiful)

 Once explorers and settlers decided to stay and

start building the natives could do nothing
although they usually tried to fight back.
Natives had a completely different set of values
and traditions:
- some wouldnt fight back until they realized
they would lose their land completely
- they lived off the land and held it in high regard;
earth was the mother
- they never used more than they needed and
they never wasted anything

 The settlers flagrant ways and intruding methods

of desecrating the land came as a huge blow to
the Native Americans.
The Europeans also brought disease that
natives were never exposed to before, which
brought actual physical desecration to their
people.

Storytelling & Oral Tradition

Long before European explorers came to
North America, Native Americans had a
rich literary tradition of their own. Their
stories, histories, and legends were
shared and preserved through oral
tradition. The storyteller is one whose
spirit is indispensable to the people.

 The Native Americans

spoke hundreds of
languages and lived in
incredibly diverse
societies with varied
mythological beliefs.
Despite their differences,
their cultures and literary
traditions had the
following common
elements:

They believed in the

power of words and they
relied on memory, rather
than writing to preserve
their texts

 The oral tradition was a

performance and is
offered to the audience
as dramatic events in
time.
The storyteller is very
important to culture and is
one of the most
honored and respected
members of the
tribe/society

The relationship between

the storyteller and the
audience is established
through: voice emphasis,
gestures, use of space,
eye contact, and the
audience can be
representative of the
characters in the story.

These oral stories include

the following types of texts:
cultural information (beliefs
about social order and
appropriate behavior)
historical accounts
including migrations: how
people got to where they
are
lessons describe how and
why things are the way
they are
creation stories and the
origins of societies (beliefs
about the nature of the
physical world)

Some Dominant Themes & Motifs:

relationships between humans and
animals
respect and reverence for mother earth
and nature
land as the strength of the people
village/community/tribe as sovereign
cyclical patterns: renewal and continuance
importance of tribal traditions and history