Senior Honors Project Spring 2021

What's Hair Got to do With it? Construction of Identity Through Hair

Gregory Padilla

San Felipe Pueblo

Gregory Padilla- Final Presentation.webm

(Personal Photo)

Sharing One Skin by Jeanette Armstrong

After reading the story “sharing one skin” by Jeannette Armstrong. I learned a lot about all of the different things about the Okanagan Community. Such as what it’s like and how it goes, meaning how Okanagan people are separated by the river and the mountains they also have different roles and duties from whom they come from. Jeanette’s grandmother says ‘the people down there are dangerous; they are all insane’. They want to protect themselves but to also extend those you do have the same skin as they do. They want to stay connected with each other no matter what.

My interpretation of the story is that no matter what they will always stick together and continue to expand, so that they could pass on what they know and what they have learned. My connection to this reading is that as a pueblo member we all want to be together to overcome many things as a pueblo. We are almost like the Okanagan people we are sprayed by clans and sides, we also have different beliefs. We want to protect our traditions and our culture. Our leaders, and grandparents always tell us to listen when they are talking to us in our language because they want us to pass on what we have learned to our younger generation.

Armstrong, Jeanette. “Sharing One Skin: The Okanagan Community,” in Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith (eds), The Case Against the Global Economy. San Francisco, CA, Sierra Club Books, 1996. Pp 460-470.

(personal photo)

Native American Identity by Perry G. Horse

After reading the story “Native American Identity” by Perry G. Horse. I learned that most Native Americans don’t speak their own language. For example, the story states that “ the young people chose not to speak our native language”. Many Native people were intermarrying with the whites, bringing them into their tribes. Later on the native americans had a hard time maintaining their own identity because they were pressured to adapt the ways of the whites. One thing that really affected the Native Americans was colonialism.

My connection to this story is that us natives always stick together no matter what, we always have to practice talking in our language so we don’t lose it. Our parents tell us to marry someone in our tribe because so we can stop bringing the whites to our pueblo. I think that is a good thing because in the story that I read The Kiowa people were intermarrying with the whites, they were bringing them into their tribes. When they did that many of them started to adopt their ways of life. Us natives have our own way of living, different beliefs and that's what makes us special. That is my connection to this story.

Horse, Perry G. “Native American Identity.” New Directions for Student Services, no. 109, © Wiley Periodicals, Inc, 2005. Pp. 61-68.

(Indians.org)

Styling Your Hair with Native American Braids, Not all Braids are Alike Braids

After reading this article “Styling your hair with Native American braids, not all braids are alike” I learned that most tribes have their own tradition when it came to hair. For example in the article it states “ In the Quapaw tribe, women who were married wore their hair down loose while single women wore their hair in braids”. As I read further on I learned that they would roll their braids in coils and put it behind each ear. The coiled braids often would be decorated to attract a mate.

My interpretation of this article is that hair can mean a lot to many native people and has different meanings to it. My connection to this article is that there are many different hair styles and have many different meanings within different pueblo. As a pueblo member I've seen many different styles of braids during our culture events. And there is a specific braid in my pueblo that tells that you know if they are a medicine men.

Styling Your Hair with Native American Braids, Not all Braids are Alike

Braids. Styling your hair with native American braids, not all braid are alike, Indian.org/article/braids.html. Accessed Indians.org 1995 - 2018 indians.org/articles/braids.html

(MIRANDA BRYANT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM)

Native Portraits: Native Hairstyles at MIAC

After watching this video Native Portraits: Native Hairstyles at MIAC I learned that hair is our strength and hair has many meanings in different tribes. According to Marla Billey from Navajo Nation, hair in her tribe represents rain and thinking and she talks about how she was taught to fix her hair during a cultural event . And as i got further into the video a fellow pueblo member Ray Garcia was introduced and he says that we only let certain people touch our hair. As pueblo men they really have to take care of their hair because it represents who you are, your inner spirit.

My connection to this video is that I strongly believe that hair has many meanings to us pueblo people. In most of the tribe's hair represents rain and strength, according to Marla Billey, and Ray Garcia they both say that hair represents rain in their pueblo. I can strongly agree on what Ray Garcia had to say because my parents and grandparents always tell us to always take care of our hair and let it grow. But now most of the men don't grow their hair they eventually cut it. Overall, hair is very important to many tribes.

Native Portraits: Native Hairstyles at MIAC ¨Native Portraits: Native Hairstyles at MIAC,¨youtube, uploaded by Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, 24,November 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKZI-4GExQk www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKZI-4GExQk

"Indian Removal." The American Mosaic: The American Indian Experience

After reading this article called ¨Indian Removal¨ I learned that the federal government viewed the Indian Removal like they were saving the culture and lives of Native Americans from white settlers. The Native Americans viewed the Removal as deaching them from their ancestral land. During that time the Native American were viewed as ¨Hunters¨ and ¨savages¨. The Indian Removal impacted many eastern tribes like the Cherokee, Seminole, Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw. Some of the Northern tribes were also impacted by the removal like the Shawnee, Chippewa, Menominee and so on.

My connection to this article is that a lot of native Americans were asked to assimilate. When the government established boarding schools for the native American they were told not to speak in their language, they were not allowed to dress traditionally and they were also told not to fix their hair traditionally. they were told to speak only in English and attend church, the native Americans had to leave tribal traditions behind.

After reading the article ¨ Indian Removal¨ I learned that the treaties between the tribes and the government underpinned the sovereign right and authority of Native Americans over their lands. I also learned that when the government casted them out they promised them goods during their first year in the west. The government would not protect the Native Americans from state law. All the tribes were forced to pay for their own removal. During the Indian Removal Act thousands of Native American died.

(Kamazotz, Classic Maya Fashion)

Maya Women Hairstyles of the Classic Period

After reading the article “Maya Women Hairstyles of the Classic” I have learned that most Maya women are arranged in complex braids with ribbon, cloth, feathers, and jewels and other material. The most elaborate were mostly used in special occasions like in ceremonies. The Maya women style themselves for aesthetic and religious reasons. The colors white, red, and sometimes black. The white color represents the moon and the red are aesthetic reasons, they say that women who wear red paint are the mark of beauty and the red also gives a pleasant fragrance to the skin.

My interpretation to the story is that many native american people have their own ways of styling hair and have many different meanings to other tribes. And that It is important in many ways in the communities. My connection to this article is that most men in my pueblo are arranged in complex braids when we have certain dances going on in the pueblo, and for our feast day we put parrot feathers in our hair on May 1ss and that represents the corn pollen. In certain dances we put paint on our faces. We are very similar to maya people I think.

The effects of education on Navajo Women

After reading the article “The effects of education on Navajo Women” I learned that the navajo children were usually removed from their homes around the age 6 or 7 to be educated in boarding schools. 50% of all Navajo children were living in dormitories, they never get to see their parents. Five Navajo women attended mission schools sometime in their career. These schools represented the most culturally discontinuous experience remembered by the women. They also said that the punishment was harshest of all schools, some of the women reported that they’ve been beaten with a rubber hose for speaking Navajo.

My connection to the article is that when natives were separated from their families and they had to cut their hair off to attend boarding school. Many of them couldn't even speak their own language because they wanted the natives to be just like the white people. This is connected to my topic because the natives were told to forget about their tradition and learn the ways of the whites.