16th Century Native American Natives

Civilized Natives
In the 16th century, the ethnocentric Europeans believed that Natives weren’t civilized and cultured people. “They caused a huge genocide on the Aboriginal people; leaving only around 800 000 Aboriginal Canadian citizens today.” (Manjikian, notes, 2013) Unfortunately, the Europeans were wrong. The Natives were very civilized and cultured human beings. This can be proven by multiple factors but only three will be analyzed: religion, art and creation stories.
First of all, Natives were civilized human beings because they were very religious. Natives had holy. Religions bring rules to the community which makes them civilized. They practice rituals like the Morning Dance and the Sun Dance. The Morning Dance is a dance that thanks the Creator for creating everything (Quinlan, p.39, 2001). This shows that they had respect to their superior which proves they had culture. The Sun Dance is when one is dancing around a tree or pole. This creates a link between heaven and earth (Quinlan, p.39, 2001). Again, this shows that they have been trying to connect to the supernatural which proves they were civilized people.
Totems were one of the examples of art. These totems link communities, individuals and families together. They were drawn objects, plants, animals and more which represent their ancestors (Quinlan, p.37, 2001). Natives believed that they were related to animals, objects, plants and the earth (Quinlan, p.39, 2001). Art was a way to organize the community into groups and connect to the supernatural at the same time (Quinlan, p.39, 2001). This represents that every piece of art had a meaning to it. Again, this shows that they were very cultured