Native Americans smoking habits, leadership, coming of age rituals, and their survival techniques

Native Americans smoking habits, leadership, coming of age rituals, and their survival techniques

Introduction

Native Americans are also known as Indigenous Americans, American Indians, and other terms. Their ancestors arrived in the United States not less than 15,000 years ago from Asia. These people, just like any other traditional community setting, had their own culture. This work will focus on Native Americans smoking habits, leadership, coming of age rituals, and their survival techniques.

Smoking habits for Native Americans vary widely. To some, tobacco is a sacred smoke associated with certain holy ceremonies and rituals (Adams & Morris, 2019). Only individual tribal members were allowed to smoke some amount. Besides, traditional tobacco has been used by American Indian tribes for medicinal purposes for centuries. Traditionally, a tobacco gift is a sign of respect that may be offered when asking for guidance, help, or protection. It can be smoked in a pipe or burnt in the fire, but the smoke is generally not inhaled.

Native American’s survival techniques, generally known as traditional survival wisdom, are a way of meeting ones’ needs. These techniques enable one to survive if they happen to find themselves without basic essentials like sleeping bags, water purifiers, or tents (Bonvillain, 2016). Native Americans could create shelters using leaves and sticks. Either they could create fire using two dead branches and creating friction between them. Survival techniques are passed on through oral traditions from generation to generation. For Native Americans, survival includes making works of art.

Indian American leadership is variant in several ways. First, Indian leaders need to know their community values and history in addition to the Euro American community because they must perform in both communities. Also, the leaders ought to be holistic since Indian communities are small (Edmunds, 2007). Also, Indians work on a wide variety of issues, and they value interconnectedness. Thus, tribal leaders have to be aware of their cultural beliefs on interconnections and how it impacts on leadership. Also, Indian leaders have to ensure they accommodate Euro-American systems and their communal values to ensure co-existence.

Ceremonies and rituals play a significant role in Native American culture. For girls, It’s a four-day ritual done after thirteen moons under instructions and leadership of aunties and grandmas (Lowe & Struthers, 2001).  During the time, girls sleep together and are not supposed to touch food or drink. Women, mothers, and grandmothers in the camp feed them. They also collect traditional herbs. Also, elders take time to talk to girls about courtship, modesty, pregnancy, and suicide. On the fourth day, every girl spends time with her mother or an auntie, who bathes her in sage water while talking to her about her young days and birth.

References

Adams, T. N., & Morris, J. (2019). Smoking (Tobacco). In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing.

Bonvillain, N. (2016). Native Nations: Cultures and histories of native North America. Rowman & Littlefield.

Edmunds, R. D. (2007). Tecumseh and the quest for Indian leadership. Longman.

Lowe, J., & Struthers, R. (2001). A conceptual framework of nursing in Native American culture. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 33(3), 279-283.