The Importance of Passing the Wisdom On - Aging Artists Would Mean End of Culture

 For at least two generations, an aging population has meant the extreme loss of Native culture. This goes back to the beginning of reservation days, when things like regalia-making, powwow-dancing and spiritual practices were outlawed by the United States Government, in order to eliminate the Native American Tribal identity from existence. My great-grandmother would tell us stories of these events: according to her, when she was a child, only those sixty and older were allowed to take part in powwow dancing and singing. New drums and drumsticks were not allowed to be made. New dancing clothes and regalia were not allowed to be made, and younger people were not allowed to even stand at powwows. In this way, much of our traditions were lost because they were forced to be taught in secrecy. Moving forward, younger people lost these cultural connections, and the amount of people who participated in things like beading and regalia-making sharply decreased. 

Earrings made by me


In the present day, the amount of younger people who participate in the learning of traditional cultural practices is still a very small portion of our population. While numbers have increased since our cultural practices became legal in the 1970's, children these days do not have that much interest in spending many hours beading or fringing buckskin. As time progresses, those who still hold this sacred knowledge find themselves without people to pass this knowledge on to. As an example: when I learned to bead, I learned from my grandfather. Out of all of my many cousins, only two of us ever learned to bead. As time progressed, I tried to teach my younger sisters when they were around the same age I was when I began to learn our traditions. However, they were not interested in investing the time to create even a single pair of earrings, something that would take around six hours total to complete (on time scale of beading projects, this is very little time). 

Beaded bracelets (top) made be me, and my grandfather (bottom)


If children are not interested in spending long hours learning our practices, these traditions will die. Colonized mindsets are to blame for this. Our Native youth are told that money is the goal, and that creating these objects is not a feasible way to support themselves, and so, the time investment is seen as a waste. Luckily, as Seventh Generation pride grows in my age group, more and more young people feel the calling to learn our languages, traditional techniques and aspects of the culture that were unavailable to many elder members of our families. Though my sisters may have rejected learning how to bead before, they understand the importance of learning those parts of our culture so that it survives past us. In the future, when I return home, I will try again to show them, until they learn and understand. 

Medallion I made for my uncle


At the end of the day, it remains important to learn from our elders and respect the valuable information they can teach us, before it is too late. All of our younger generation Natives have the duty to continue teaching our culture to those who do not know, so that these aspects of our lives are not lost forever. 

The first pair of beaded earrings I ever made


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