Native_American_Oral_Traditions

Native American Oral Traditions Native American Oral Traditions Literacy was unknown to the Native Americans before outsiders introduced it. Native Americans communicated their entire lifestyle, including history, genealogy, and spirituality, through speech. Therefore, to fully understand Native American culture and all its characteristics it is necessary to study their oral traditions. There is no doubt that a real history is embedded in Native American oral traditions. Oral traditions contain cultural information about the past carefully preserved and handed down from generation to generation within a tribe. In Native North American cultures, the people would sit in a circle with everyone at the same height so that no one is in the lead or in a higher position. The literature of the tribe was passed on verbally. Oral literature, called folklore, legends, or myths, includes songs, stories, and rituals or ceremonies. Storytelling is used to educate the members of the tribe on beliefs and history. The storyteller defined the member's place in the world and purpose. The storyteller also was given some leeway to make his or her own interpretation of the story. Most stories kept the theme - Man must live in harmony with the physical and spiritual universe. Storytelling is an native, oral, american, storytelling, elders, knowledge, tradition, story, stories, world, traditions, storyteller, know, important, generation, cultures, culture, because, americans, teach, people, makes, history, words, way, tribe, tales, should, sense, part, over, often, need, music, lost