Tribal Tattooing II

While this is about tattooing, and not a history lesson in the native American nations, tribes and clans. It’s difficult to discuss one without getting into the other.

When Europeans came here, they pretty well tried to eradicate everything the Native Americans believed in, this included art and tattooing.

Of course they couldn’t remove the tattoos the people had, but they did manage to stop them from getting any more tattoos. Since most of the native peoples didn’t have a written language, and the whites forced their will on the native people, the art, tattoos, and ceremonies were lost.

Many of the Native American societies were aligned by the women. This was how they traced their ancestry. Frequently, the tattooing was designed to show the clan the person belonged to. Thereby eliminating the chance of killing a member of your own clan in a battle. Since women owned the land or the possessions, the men needed to be tattooed to show their link to that woman’s clan.

This is not to say that women didn’t get tattoos also. For example the Sioux women were the ones to be tattooed, and the men were not. Another example would be the Cree. Both men and women would be tattooed. The women usually had several on their face, while the men would have lines as well as figures.

Many of the tribes would use animals or things in nature as a talisman for protection. Most of the societies had medicine men, or shaman who were believed to have a special relationship to the spirits that guided the tribe. They would ask the spirit about things like scared names, or tattoos that an individual should have.

Now the more modern tribes, don’t put much stock in this any more. Still before you get a tattoo, you should try to find a relative that can tell you as much as possible about you  particular nation, tribe or clan.

Having a killer whale tattoo on your arm, and finding out you are a plains Indian, would be an offense to your heritage.

I would like to encourage you to find out all you can about your ancestors while you can. As the population is aging, we are losing history that will never be found again, unless we learn of it now while our elders are still with us.

Tags: Arts, Cree, Ethnicity, Indigenous, Native American, Native Americans in the United States, Sioux, United States