Tribal Lifestyles in Modern Society

Today’s society does not lend itself readily to a true “tribal lifestyle”. I am married to a Ho-Chunk (formerly Wisconsin Winnebago), Native American. We lived in an area of Wisconsin that is highly populated with Native Americans. Even in this area it was difficult to truly practice tribal rights and rituals. Immigrants (by that I mean everyone other than Native Americans, including myself) do not understand the significance of tribal traditions and are not interested in learning. My husband and I are trying to raise our daughter in the Ho-Chunk traditional way. This has caused a stir with our friends and family.

Our daughter is being raised traditional Ho-Chunk. She follows the ways of the Ho-Chunk people and often gets questioned about her beliefs. She is not allowed to touch a drum or bow and arrow. She cannot attend wakes or funerals until she becomes of age. She is not allowed to play hide-and-seek when it is dark. Because she is Bear Clan, she cannot play in the snow until it snows 4 times and sticks to the ground. She is not allowed to go swimming until tobacco has been poured. She has been told the ancient stories about how the native americans walked with the dinosaurs. She has been to Medicine Dance and Sweat Lodge. She attends traditional ceremonies and smokes the pipe because those are a part of her culture and tradition. She recently came home from school and advised her father and I that in her music class a drum was passed around and each of the children in the class were to play it. She stated that she told her music teacher that she was not allowed to play the drum due to her traditions. He gave her a zero for the day because she refused to participate. Her father and I had to go to the school to explain to her teacher the reason that she is not allowed to play a drum. Even after our discussion, he did not change her grade. Although she has not yet been directed to archery in her gym class, it is a requirement. I can only surmise that she will again be marked negatively because of her refusal to participate. Our family and friends think that we should just abandon those particular beliefs. I do not. Once you start making exceptions for the small items, you will begin to make exceptions for the larger items such as Medicine Dance, Sweat Lodge, Healing Ceremonies, or Sun Dance. They become unimportant because society dictates that they are unimportant. Each of the tribal traditions have significant meaning and should never be abandoned simply because modern society doesn’t understand. My family is not native american and they choose not to learn anything about our lifestyle. The majority of our friends are non-native and really don’t have an interest in the traditions.

Modern society is so caught up in being American that they have forgotten the Native American. The people that were driven from their lands and rounded up like cattle. I have lived in modern society and still live in modern society. My family has been assimilated. I want more for my daughter. I want her to be steeped in ancient ways as well as modern ways. I want her to know the old traditions and be able to pass them to future generations like a recipe. There has been so much tradition already lost. It cannot possibly hurt todays society to have one little girl who believes that her ancestors walked with the dinosaurs or believes in the power of herbal medicines or that spirits walk and talk to us.