1. Native American
Literature

2. Native Americans were already inhabiting the
U.S. when the first explorers came to our country
DO NOW: Read page 16.
What can you tell about
Native American beliefs
(especially in relationship
to the land)? What can
you tell about the
relationship/conflict
between the explorers
and the Native
Americans? Write in
complete sentences.

3. Native Beliefs
•Caretakers, not
owners, of the
land
•Nature is alive
and aware –
sacred.
•Nature is a helper
to man.

4. Explorer and
European Beliefs
• Claimed the land
– aggression
toward nature;
dominion
•Traveled for glory
and riches, risked
the unknown

5. What is it that causes people to
seek out the unknown? What
qualities does an explorer have?

6. Many of the early settlers were religious
reformers called Puritans, whose religious faith
was evident in the literature of this time

7. Are people basically good or evil? Are they
destined to struggle against base instincts?
Puritans
believed
people were
sinful and
doomed from
birth.

8. Native Americans:
What’s their story?
• 300 different cultures
• Earliest form of American
literature: ritual songs
and chants, poems
• Creation myths:
explain origin and
natural and
supernatural
phenomena, use cause
and effect
relationships

9. Storytelling (not written
language):
•History and
legend
entrusted to
memory
•Passed from
generation to
generation
•Oral tradition

10. Why is oral tradition more meaningful than the
written word? Do you see any problems with
preserving the culture through the spoken
word?

11. Why do you think this story doesn’t
have a proper author? List any
creation myths/folk tales you are
familiar with. Why do different
cultures have different creation
myths?

12. Myth: a collective belief of
a group of people used to
explain the world view or
justify behavior or ritual of
that group