Losing the Native American Culture in a European Mindset

While reading the myths and legends of the Native American Indians in Erdoes and Ortiz’s collection, many of us began asking the question of the truthfulness of translation. Many of the stories that are recorded in this book are eerily similar to many European Biblical stories of Christianity, despite the fact that these two religions did not come in contact with one another until the late 15^th century. Due to the large amount of friction between the Europeans and the Native Americans of the New World, it is very easy to hypothesize that these white settlers may not have translated the oral stories of the Native Americans as accurately as they should have been. Even more so, those Europeans who were responsible for translating them may have directly or indirectly inserted parts of their own religion and culture into the ancient stories.

Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Florida backs up this theory in their article, “Native American Traditions and Roman Catholicism in Early America.” They talk about the issues that arise
when attempting to understand the history and culture of the early Native Americans, primarily due to the problems in translation. The College explains how the lack of written language by the Native
Americans forced a lot of their oral stories to first pass through the “filter” of the Europeans as they were being recorded and translated. This is especially problematic as the two cultures are not only different in language, but in beliefs and basic understandings of the world around them. Therefore, the stories of the Native Americans cannot be accurately depicted in the framework of a European language or mindset.

The Gulf Coast Community College also explains that even though many of the Native Americans learned English and may have attempted to tell their oral stories in the new language, the European influence on these individuals had already taken place, thus allowing scholars to have even more difficulty decided which parts of these traditions are original to the culture, and which parts have been added, edited, or misunderstood. Furthermore, there were more than 500 Native American tribes with many different languages and beliefs. Because of this, a direct translation to English for one tribe most definitely does not work for all the tribes. Sadly, all these facts simply amount to the fact that the beliefs and culture of the early Native Americans may be lost forever.

Article: http://socsci.gulfcoast.edu/rbaldwin/REL2121G1.htm