Abstract
This paper examines both what the Sioux cultures were like before European contact as well as what that culture has evolved into. The paper focuses on the music of this people set within a broader artistic and cultural and even political context. The paper is broken down into four chapters: An introduction into the Sioux people, their musical instruments, the songs of the people, and finally a larger cultural context. The final section of this paper examines the Sun Dance and the Ghost Dance as the two most important single types of musical performance.

From the Paper
"Traditional Sioux of the last century - or the centuries before - would have found the entire idea of putting on their best clothes and going to a concert hall to listen - as relatively passive observers - to a musical performance extremely odd. For them, as for other native peoples of the Americas (and arguably other native peoples throughout the world before the onset of industrialization) music was something that was integrated into the fabric of ritual and everyday life."

Tags:native, culture, tradition, politics, colony, dance

From the Paper
"Traditional Sioux of the last century " or the centuries before " would have found the entire idea of putting on their best clothes and going to a concert hall to listen " as relatively passive observers " to a musical performance extremely odd. For them, as for other native peoples of the Americas (and arguably other native peoples throughout the world before the onset of industrialization) music was something that was integrated into the fabric of ritual and everyday life. It was not something apart. Music and dancing were nearly always integrated into either ceremonial or celebrative activities of personal and communal life (Hassrick, 1964, p. 140). Such a degree of integration is hard for citizens of the almost-21st century to imagine."

Tags:indians

Abstract
This paper traces the fascinating history of the third largest Native American tribe in America, the Sioux. It shows the way the Sioux have fared socially, culturally and economically as a tribe living among a white majority in the United States. he paper also examines the book, "Land of the Spotted Eagle", by Luther Standing Bear in which he offers an analysis of his people, the Lakota Sioux, including their relations with the white government. Finally, the paper examines the means in which the Sioux, as well as other Native American tribes, are struggling to maintain their cultural identity in America today.

From the Paper
"Various Native American groups have been pressing for greater respect through legal and other efforts to remove Native American symbols and names from schools, sports teams, and even geographical features. The issue was raised recently with reference to the University of North Dakota, whose mascot and team are known as the Fighting Sioux (Brownstein 46). The issue is not always clear-cut. One term that has been given much attention recently is "squaw," a word once used by white settlers to refer to Indian wives and that is found on hundreds of place names in the country, from rivers to valleys to mountain peaks to town names. An example is Squaw Peak, a familiar Phoenix landmark targeted for change by Native American groups. They claim that the word "squaw" is derogatory to tribal members and all other women, pointing out that the word is derived from an Indian word for female genitalia."

Tags:Chippewa, Dakota, Treaty, of, Fort, Laramie, Nadowesioux, Reservation, Nixon, Civil, Rights, Act

Abstract
This paper gives a brief account of the origins, culture, society, and history of the Sioux Indians. The paper follows their history up to present-day conditions and talks briefly about Sioux society and culture today.

From the Paper
"Of all the North American Indians that lived and survived on the prairies and plains, the Sioux are the most popular and widely known. Their area of habitation ranged from the Mississippi valley in the east to the Rocky Mountains of the west and from the Saskatchewan River in Canada to the Rio Grande in the south. The cultural traits which came to characterize the High Plains Indians were dependent on bison, a limited use of roots and berries, limited fishing, and the skillful use of bison and deerskin for clothing and shelter. However, this culture was also dependent upon the introduction of the horse and to a lesser extent on changes in tribal locations farther east, and "together with the introduction of firearms, the fur trade and the trading of goods, the Plains Indians experienced continuous change from the 17th century and well into the later years of the 19th century in America" (Lund, 67)."

Tags:prairie, tribes, siouan, dakota, winnebago, north, american, civilizations, crazy, horse, sitting, bull

Abstract
The paper notes that throughout the history of the United States not all people have not been treated equally and that the Native-American peoples were forced from the homes and lands that they had always known and that were sacred to them. The paper highlights that today the United States devalues the Native-American peoples and their cultures. The paper discusses the Sioux tribes who made a monumental, but often forgotten, contribution to world and American history and discusses the Sioux lifestyle, culture, mode of livelihood and existence, as well as their rituals and religious beliefs, and their battles with the US.

From the Paper
"Regardless of the extreme extent to which the United States devalues the Native American peoples and their cultures, from Inuit to Hopi, each has a culture that is now recognized as an important contributor to world and American history. While just one of the tribes who made this monumental, but often forgotten, contribution, the Sioux resided in the Great Planes areas of Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North and South Carolina. With a population of around 30,000 during the mid-1700s, the Sioux consisted of smaller tribes such as the Wahpekute, Mdewakantowan, Wahpetonwan, Sisitonwan, Ihanktonwan, and the Tetons".

Tags:animosity, genocide, physical, mistreatment, wayward, philosophy

Abstract
This essay examines Richard Lee's The "Dobe Ju/'hoansi" and Elizabeth Grobsmith's "Lakota of the Rosebud". We learn how the Dobe Ju/'hoansi are a tribe of fierce and independent people who live on the border between Namibia and Botswana. Lee focuses on several cultural traits among the Dobe Ju/'hoansi, especially their hunting techniques, sexuality and religion. Grobsmith, meanwhile, shows us the culture of the Rosebud Sioux Reservation and its people. We see many similar similarities and differences with the Dobe Ju/'hoansi.

Abstract
The paper examines three works, "Gandhi's Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, "Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux" and "The Hiding Place" that represent completely different cultures, regions and faiths in the world, but all have similar messages of hope and redemption. The paper shows how each work expresses humility as a personal standard and faith as a steadfast individual character trait, expresses belief in the inherent good of humanity, and stresses the need to make personal sacrifices for the good of others.

Outline:
Introduction
Contrast
Comparison
Conclusion

From the Paper
"Religious experience is a foundational aspect of human development and various people around the world have different and yet similar religious and spiritual experiences that make them a part of humanity. Many profound works of intimate individual experiences have been written that anecdotally express the experience of spirituality, across world religions and cultures. Regardless of the diversity of the person experiencing spiritual understanding, even if it is significantly different than your own a reader can find universal ideals and messages."

Tags:spirituality, humility, sacrifice, hope, redemption

From the Paper
"In the book Land of the Spotted Eagle, Luther Standing Bear offers an analysis of his people, the Lakota Sioux, their relations with the government of the whites, and a strong sense of what it means to be part of a population whose land has been systematically stolen, whose culture and rituals have been denigrated, and whose future is in doubt.
Luther Standing Bear was raised in the traditional Sioux manner. He was away from the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation in South Dakota for sixteen years before returning in 1931, and soon after, he wrote this book. His absence gave him the point of view of both a tribal member and an outsider at one and the same time, for he could see where changes had been made and could compare the way his people lived on the reservation with the way people lived elsewhere. His outside experience coupled..."

Tags:AMERICAN, INDIAN, STUDIES, BOOK, REVIEWS

From the Paper
" On a winter day at the end of December of 1890, U.S. Army troops confronted a band of Lakota Sioux near Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Abruptly, shooting broke out. By the time it ended, some 30 soldiers and as many as 300 Lakota were dead, a majority of the latter women and children.

Such was the battle--or massacre--of Wounded Knee, the last significant episode of the nineteenth-century Indian Wars, and the last ghost of an effort by American Indians to assert their independence in a traditional context. For some years thereafter, several thousand Army troops--then a substantial fraction of the U.S. Army--remained stationed near Indian reservations to suppress any potential uprisings. Even in the opening years of the twentieth century, when the Army was called upon to garrison the Philippines in the aftermath of the Spanish.."

Abstract
This paper discusses revisionist Westerns Kevin Costner's "Dances with Wolves" (1990), a film sensitivity to cultural differences and to the importance of Native American culture and Thunderheart (Michael Apted, 1992), which enters a more modern Indian community. The author points out that Costner still made major errors in depicting the history and culture of the Lakota Sioux tribe portrayed in the film. The paper continues that "Thunderheart" tried hard to elevate the Native American but a stereotype emerged in this film that the Native American is in some way a mystic more in touch with supernatural and spiritual forces than the non-Native population would be.

From the Paper
"The film did more than revive old stereotypes in new forms, though, and it fails in terms of its accuracy on a number of counts. One problem faced was to recreate the language of the Lakota dialect spoken by the Sioux tribes in the 1860s. The film producers hired Doris Leader Charge, a 60-year-old teacher at South Dakota's Sinte Gleska College and one of only a few thousand Sioux still fluent in Lakota. Leader Charge translated the script and served as a dialogue coach during production. She also played a small part in the film. However, as Seals points out, the men in the film generally speak Lakota in the feminine form, a result of having the script translated by a woman who did not make allowances for the differences. Seals states that a number of Indian leaders were angry about this error and found it maddening in a film that claimed to be authentic. Seals does note, though, that the film managed authenticity in other ways, such as the way the ruling elders' council was handled. The film was correct in its use of the Pipe, which is the sacred Canupa of White Buffalo Calf Maiden, who founded the buffalo culture nineteen generations ago. The Pipe Keeper and others asked that the film not depict the smoking of the pipe, but it does so just the same."

Tags:lakota, errors, sioux, supernatural, stereotypes