American Indian Lore

[chris@hisfarm]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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!