home of the dreamcatcherslair native american emporium , and the home of true 21ST century Native American Spirit

THE 21ST CENTURY NATIVE AMERICAN I am purified and I am free andI will not allow you to ignore me I have brought you a gift it isall I have but it is yours you may reach out and enfold it.It is only the strength in a gentle breeze but it will carry you tomeet the Eagle in the sky My name is I am living....I am here My name is I am living I am here Ane Lee WaltersPawnee/Otoe from I Have Bowed Before The Sun Native Peoples have struggled and continue to struggle to answer the same Question...... What is a Native American in 21ST century America....? Could Native Americans work in and at everyday socio-economic occupations and still be Native Americans ?Non Native Americans tend to view Native American cultures as a neither or proposition. If Native Americans seem to enjoy thetrapings of modern day non Native American culture, they areconsidered progressive and assimilated.... their Native American charecter diluted,contaminated,or lost. Traditional, or the old ways as some like to call them, validates one thereforeas a true Native American....but tradition also signifies, especially to non Native Americans the past....often a mythricalpast of tipi's,feathers, and war paint. Here therefore lies oneof the paradoxs of Native Americans in the 21ST century... If Native Americans change, their cultureis considered to be contaminated, and thereby have lost theirNative Americanness. If they donot change, they remain Native Americans, but are thereby refused a real existance in the modern word in which we must now live. If you define ones self as a Native American therefore today in the 21ST century it means walking a fine line between the dominance and allurance of American culture and the resitance and resilancy of one's own tradition. We have survived the " indian new deal " the governments atempt to assimilate and terminate NativeAmericans...., the BIA's continued determination at domination of indiginious peoples, and the ongoing assault of Alcoholism,Drugs, poor health care, child birth defects, and poverty in perpituiuty......the American cultural legacy to the Native Americans.... It is true that Native Americans were not the only minority group to struggle with social inadequecies in the 21ST century.....the Afro-americans,and Chicanos did, also even the white americans were no less imune to the alure of identity polotics. Even today, some Americans, celibrate other cultures for their authenticity. It is from this socio-economic,political,and cultural milieu, that many young Native Americans turned to naturally traditional practices.... whether they grew up on reservations or were the product of BIA schools.... they began and continue to define themselves as Native Americans in the 21ST century by " pulling their pasts into the 21ST century present and Be it a mode of dress, or the return of tipi's and sweat lodges to common usage again today, the urban Native American has begun to reclaim his past thru the reclamation of traditional practices, language,and rituals that have come to symbolize Native American idenity,.... they have turned back to their homelands...back to the full blooded traditionals, to reclaim that which was lost............. It is therefore thru this reclamation of our past, that we maintain and restablish that which has always been....... OURSELVES..... We do this by introspect.... I personally follow an old Apache ritual called the path of the Eagles Quill... for if we follow the Eagles Quill back to it's roots, we find the trail leads to the heart.. to look within and remember who and what we really are. I know !!..... Do you ?......

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