building a native american culture form scratch

[sinner]

I am going to be using a native american tribe as part for my fiction manuscript but I cant find what I am looking for in real histories from my research. I didn't want to desecrate one by just adding on to their culture and be a hated author just using them for my own benefit. So I want to build a culture with similarities to the known nations and use that one instead.

I have been in contact with a dear friend who has been working on his own fictional language and culture and he recommended I post something here and I would acquire some guidance as to what to do to start, since he doesn't remember much of what he did at the beginning.

I am reading much about the cultures in the area I have chosen to place my fictional tribe and now I am branching to others, gathering information and further increasing on filling blanks with my own thoughts.

any other guidance and research options you could offer? I am basically open to just about anything.

 

[ThinkerX]

Try reading the novels by Gear? Their stories are set within fictionalized native american cultures, strongly rooted in reality.

 

[Ankari]

I listen to NPR everyday. Today, they replaced an interview on Fresh Air with a guy that wrote two books:: 1491 and 1493. The first deals with life in the Americas before Christopher Columbus' influence. The latter deals with the Americas afterwards. I'm not sure if that is what you're looking for, but the snippets of information they discussed fascinated me.

 

[Steerpike]

Heh. I was just going to recommend 1491, by Charles Mann. Excellent book. Can't recommend it enough.

 

[sinner]

Thank you guys...I am actually in the waiting list for 1491 at the library! Next week, I will look into 1493 and the works done by Gear...

If the books are as good as you say, and see by the list of waiting people for 1491, I may just contact the library and ask to be in the waiting list they most sure will have on the others.

I am reading much into the Cherokee since its the richest information well I could find regards to native american culture on the web and documentary articles. Which is quite possibly, one of the nations I will be using as inspiration.

Thank you again for your help in this endeavor!

 

[DTowne]

Try finding "The mystic warriors of the plains" by Thomas E. Mails. Its one of the most detailed and comprehensive books on the plains indians tribe. Shows how they are all different. Its like 800 plus pages if I remember right with lots of illustrations.

 

[CupofJoe]

I have found the book " Native American Architecture" by Peter Nabokov and Robert Easton; invaluable. I find it very useful in getting the buildings and settings right for Native America cultures or those inspired by them.
What area are your tribe going to be set in?

 

[Kahle]

As for progression, you've established who and where, so explore the economic religious aspects. What is available to them to construct their essentials? Are they limited to leather, bone, and wood? or do they trade with another culture? Are there forests near for wood supply, or are the few trees used for only special purposes? Where did they come from, who were their ancestors? How do they see themselves in relation to the world? Do they give back, or is it a constant struggle to survive? What are their views on death?

Answer these and you should have a pretty good idea of the culture you want. Our identity as a civilization/culture comes from the tradition and history of our ancestors. How we see life and interact with the world was taught to us, but those ideas came from farther back than just one generation.

 

[DTowne]

I used the book I found to add detail to a few cultures, but the main one is of a people living in a boreal forest and tundra. This location though won't be seen in the first book. The first is set in foreign lands.

 

[sinner]

Found it and saw it as a fantastic refference for my research. Thank you. Im elbows deep in it right now...lol

 

[sinner]

Elbow deep in it right now!
Found it to be more than helpful!
Using it as point of basic reference...thanks!

 

[sinner]

As for progression, you've established who and where, so explore the economic religious aspects. What is available to them to construct their essentials? Are they limited to leather, bone, and wood? or do they trade with another culture? Are there forests near for wood supply, or are the few trees used for only special purposes? Where did they come from, who were their ancestors? How do they see themselves in relation to the world? Do they give back, or is it a constant struggle to survive? What are their views on death?

Answer these and you should have a pretty good idea of the culture you want. Our identity as a civilization/culture comes from the tradition and history of our ancestors. How we see life and interact with the world was taught to us, but those ideas came from farther back than just one generation.

I am making a questionare similar to this one...tho i will admit there was a qqq in here (or 2) that i didnt have in the list...thank you for this point of reference!

 

[sinner]

update on research....

Still ongoing.

Attending courses on Native American History as an observant. (Cant believe i could do that!)

Reading anything that crosses my path!

Thank you all for the on going help from here. It has proved invaluable!

 

[Shockley]

Unfortunately, Native Americans are not my strong suit (I'm almost completely indifferent and ignorant about historical items occurring outside of my area of major focus), but I do know this:

The life of a Native American Pre-Columbus was magnitudes different than what it was after he arrived. That might be what Mann's book is about, but I can give the 'guy who's tangentially aware of Indians' short version.

There were, for example, some rather large native American settlements on both ends of the North American continent and all over South America. They were moderately progressed technologically, and definitely less regressed than a lot of the tribes the Europeans would meat on the push to California (though these later tribes would have guns and horses). Some of their structures are just mind-boggling - we have Meso-American style ruins in Georgia and I believe in Ohio there is a burial mound larger than the Pyramid at Giza.

Disease and warfare really did a number on the native Americans. What the Americans ended up fighting, for the most part, were ragtag remnants of their civilization - and ragtag elements that were only 10% of an estimated 90 million population in North America alone.

 

[sinner]

Dear Shockley,

However little it is the bit of information you just provided, it shook me to shambles. What an impact a few words of value can have! I certainly had no idea that the history I was studying about Native American Cultures was virtually about nearly their extinction! (By that I dont mean real extinction, but my opinionated conclusion of their horrid historic accounts before finally assimilating into the American western)

This is something that will require deeper research...Mann's book will finally be in my possession sometime the next week (fingers crossed). And it comes with many recommendations, now including yours.

Thank you for summarizing the understanding of the book in a rich paragraph, my interest is even more peaked as to what else I will find with in its cover.

Sir, your words were, for certain, food for thought.

 

[Shockley]

I know next to nothing of Mann's book, nor have I ever heard of it before I read this thread. These are things I've come across in my pursuit of a history degree, nothing more.

 

[sinner]

Mr. Shockley,

I am sorry to have misunderstood you.

Still, this is research worth following upon...and I thank you then for the "gps re-direction".

Truly,

S

 

[Jastius]

The Encyclopedia Britannica has a very comprehensive survey of the north american aboriginal communities as well as their locations and affiliations.
For information about the pre columbus organization and way of living i would browse issues of 'northamerican archeology'.