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Teotwawki
05-26-2008, 10:30 PM
I have looked and looked for good sites that explain American Indian lore - I mean how they did various things from hunting, farming, shelters, crafts, etc.

They knew a lot of useful stuff that seems to have been mostly forgotten.

I cannot find anything that is very useful / informative.

Do any of you know of any sites or books? Sort of "How the Indians Did It?"

FVR
05-26-2008, 10:46 PM
Go here to start.

Google Primitive Ways and Paleo Planet.

http://www.tribaltek.org/lifeskills.html



You're not looking hard enough.

tacmedic
05-26-2008, 11:21 PM
Any of the books by John and Geri McPherson are a great place to start. braintan.com has a lot of good info on brain tanning. The Indian Tipi book by Gladys and Reginald Laubins is another great source of information on Plains Indian life skills.

Teotwawki
05-26-2008, 11:28 PM
Good site - thanks.

Was searching on the wrong keywords: "American Indian Lore" and nothing much useful comes up.

FVR: Give it a try and don't be so quick to judge.

FVR
05-26-2008, 11:38 PM
Maybe I'm just getting grumpy in my old age. I just get so tired of people coming to the site and wanting everything handed to them without doing any work.

I've been doing this stuff for close to 20 years and tire of those that want shortcuts and the easy way.

But then maybe, I'm just and arshole?

Tahyo
05-27-2008, 07:40 AM
Maybe I'm just getting grumpy in my old age. I just get so tired of people coming to the site and wanting everything handed to them without doing any work.

I've been doing this stuff for close to 20 years and tire of those that want shortcuts and the easy way.

But then maybe, I'm just and arshole?

On another site that I belong to we get the same thing and there are times I get annoyed till I realize that some people just don't have the hang of doing searches yet. I think my annoyance extends when it is something that has nothing to do with the subject matter of the site in which I usually give an @$$ chewing or just ignore.

Teotwawki
05-27-2008, 07:42 AM
Sometimes every one of us are both grumpy and arsehole.

Not looking for anything handed to me but I am here to learn. We can't all be masters - at least not early in a journey.

Riverrat
05-27-2008, 08:23 AM
FVR, nice link, thanks.

trax
05-27-2008, 10:58 AM
The way people keep referring to Indians in the past tense. I know a lot of Indians who still follow as much of their traditional hunting and trapping methods as possible. Some ways are lost and the guys I know never hesitated to embrace some modern technology (firearms, snow machines, steel traps) but there's plenty that still know tracking, building shelters, making snowshoes, what else you want to know? Meet someone like that and its a far better link than anything your gonna get off this here Interweb contraption.

RBB
05-27-2008, 11:36 AM
My friend, Tara Prindle, has a great site. This site is actually much larger than it appears at first glance - so keep looking once you get there:

http://nativetech.org/

DOGMAN
05-27-2008, 12:17 PM
The way people keep referring to Indians in the past tense. I know a lot of Indians who still follow as much of their traditional hunting and trapping methods as possible. Some ways are lost and the guys I know never hesitated to embrace some modern technology (firearms, snow machines, steel traps) but there's plenty that still know tracking, building shelters, making snowshoes, what else you want to know? Meet someone like that and its a far better link than anything your gonna get off this here Interweb contraption.


A couple of years ago I took a group of elders and young Indian boys on a river trip sponsored by the American Indian Institute http://www.twocircles.org/index.html

And, this one elder started the trip with a joke:

"What is the difference between a Native American tribe and a bowl of yogurt?

Answer: A bowl of yogurt is a Living Culture.

He then went on and gave a fantastic speech about preserving and Growing their cultures. The American Indian Institute is a great program.

trax
05-27-2008, 12:46 PM
Of all the Indians I know, Indians always have the best Indian jokes. I'm supposed to be politically correct and say "aboriginal peoples" or "first nations" but I just can't be bothered.

RBB
05-28-2008, 07:35 AM
Of all the Indians I know, Indians always have the best Indian jokes. I'm supposed to be politically correct and say "aboriginal peoples" or "first nations" but I just can't be bothered.

All of my relations refer to themselves as "Indians." Yet the younger ones get pissed if others do.

DOGMAN
05-28-2008, 10:39 AM
In my parts the native people prefer to be called American Indians. In school we always had some interesting discussions on who was a "Native Montanan" and who wasn't.

RobertRogers
05-28-2008, 12:32 PM
everybody has their own philosophy about helping others.

buttercup
06-03-2008, 07:01 PM
SURVIVAL SKILLS OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS By Peter Goodchild.

I had a copy that I gave to my fourteen year old grandson since he is part Cherokee on his maternal grandmother's side and is trying to learn all he can about his Indian heritage and Indian ways in general. Some interesting things in the book but I don't know if it is anything that you are researching.


here is the info off the jacket cover.............

This comprehensive review of Native American life skills covers collecting and preparing plant foods and medicines; hunting animals; creating and transporting fire; and crafting tools, shelter, clothing, utensils, and other devices. Step-by-step instructions and 145 detailed diagrams enable the reader to duplicate native methods using materials available in local habitats. A new foreword, introduction, and index complement the practical information offered.

wildWoman
06-03-2008, 08:16 PM
The way people keep referring to Indians in the past tense. I know a lot of Indians who still follow as much of their traditional hunting and trapping methods as possible. Some ways are lost and the guys I know never hesitated to embrace some modern technology (firearms, snow machines, steel traps) but there's plenty that still know tracking, building shelters, making snowshoes, what else you want to know? Meet someone like that and its a far better link than anything your gonna get off this here Interweb contraption.

yeah, no kidding...unfortunately many whities are too prejudiced to get to know any natives. I worked for the local band for a while, a few years back, and feel very lucky. Not many people there who do anything in the bush other than by skidoo or ATV but it's still a totally different culture and well worth getting to know.

FVR
06-03-2008, 10:04 PM
Use to do alot of rendezvous, pow wows, and art shows.

This one art show, I'm sitting there knapping some arrowheads. This old man walks up, picks up one of my arrows and starts asking questions about the real sinew, the Cherokee fletching and all. He then asks me about my good luck pouches and why I do not call them medicine bags. I told him that since I'm not a medicine man, can't do medicine bags. He smiled, shook my hand and thanked me for keeping his tradition alive.

He turned an walked away, I asked a young man by chance, who was the old guy, I was told that he was an old Cherokee medicine man and that he was very happy with me.

I have to say, that that is one of the best compliments that I have ever rec'd about my prmitive bows/arrows and gear.

Ahhhhhh, it's just my way.

Teotwawki
06-03-2008, 10:13 PM
Cool story - FVR

dragonjimm
06-04-2008, 12:54 AM
thanks for the links......

chris@hisfarm
10-08-2012, 03:43 PM
I am Choctaw, My grandmother was raised on the reservation in oklahoma. I do not think that I will ever be offended by anything others may call me. I refuse to give my self worth power to anyone.

Living on the land and taking care of it, while remembering that I live in abundance, by my standards, no one elses is the wealth that none can steal from me.

We who are born here are still natives. We are all related, it just depends on whether or not we can put up with those who think that nature is a television program.

WolfVanZandt
10-09-2012, 09:03 PM
There's actually quite a lot on the Gutenberg Project site and the Internet Archives on Native American culture - the stuff is sorta old but, well, so is Native American culture. These are books so you might want to check them out. If you want links:

http://archive.org/index.php
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Pale E O
10-10-2012, 05:43 PM
Survival Skills of Native California by Paul Campbell is a favorite of mine. Lots of how to.

But keep in mind some etiquette I've learned... sometimes painfully:

New Age is not Native American.
Native American is too broad a term, so a tribal affiliation is usually better.
Tarzan had the wrong idea: don't try to be better at going native than the natives.
Indian culture is not gone, it is changing. You probably don't have the skill set of your great, great, great grandpa had either.
FVR has the right idea: Don't ever imply your skills or your workmanship is tribal, no matter how well you have replicated it.
All of us have ancestors who were hunters and gatherers, so you ARE the real deal.

Oh... and have a great time learning, because there really is a lot out there.

your_comforting_company
10-29-2012, 08:39 AM
A good book on the daily lives of Natives that lived right here where I live, is "The Old Beloved Path". It utilizes evidence that was excavated from the burial mounds just about 45 miles from here, and is written by college professors, one of which runs the Zoo in Albany.

I'm not sure if you are looking for "lore" or instructions, though. Lore is 'legends' and 'tales', while daily life and "how it was done" would not fall into that category.

LarryB
12-26-2012, 12:54 AM
Any of the books by John and Geri McPherson are a great place to start. braintan.com has a lot of good info on brain tanning. The Indian Tipi book by Gladys and Reginald Laubins is another great source of information on Plains Indian life skills.
Still have the Laubins book on Tipi's. Classic :)

Wildthang
12-26-2012, 08:21 AM
Being from eastern Oklahoma, a lot of my best freinds were Cherokee Indians, and I have a great respect for all Tribes and their people. I got to know one of my freinds great Grandfathers, and he felt it was more important to know and understand the spiritual beliefs than the skills themselves. He was a very spiritual and wise old man and I will never forget him. When I met him for the first time, I could sense his knowledge, wisdom, and power, and he was 85 years old. At that age, he would still walk into the woods and stay gone all day just to connect with nature and the spirits he knew so well. One day when he was around 95 years old, he walked away and never returned. We searched for months and never found him!