Author: jason

Indigenous Mythology and folklore influenced Modern American Culture in ways that are often not apparent (in some cases – denied), and continues to influence popular culture to this day in ways that have caused the traditional stories to become inseparable from contemporaneous culture. In this essay, a popular cartoon from the last 100 years will […]

Characters that are represented traditionally in Native American texts imply a sense of direction and clarity in understanding the connection to the reader, where nontradtional characters do not convey the same level of understanding to the reader, at least immediately. A character that’s chosen a traditional path is seen in Anna Lee Walters’, “The Warriors”, […]

European, and later American, displacement of Indigenous people has since transformed into an urbanization which empowered coordinated efforts of Urban Indians to influence Modern American (and global) Politics. This success scenario is practiced by many previously displaced groups of people and is particularly successful with more than one other displaced community whose Suburban efforts are […]

Throughout the last few thousand years, spiritual beliefs have been expressed through myths and stories in order to explain the natural world and to provide an outlet to express the Divinity felt in consideration of a particular topic or belief. Methods of story telling through skilled crafting are employed that interconnect and overlap with different […]

In Linda Hogan’s, “Power”, the tribal court system judged Ama to be spiritually at fault and as such charged her with banishment. This was the punishment for seeking to gain spiritual power over her own tribe. To have concealed the tribe’s revealed weaknesses from them was a powerful act in itself, and the crime wasn’t […]

The painting, “Deer’s Skull and Pedernal”, by Georgia O’keefe, and the poem, Poem (the spirit likes to dress up), by Mary Oliver, are two pieces of art that show a level of spiritual awareness that indicate that both authors were spiritual people who were trying to show their spiritual beliefs in their work through the […]

God, dominion, nature and their roles in an established hierarchy were common themes in many writings that American and English authors have shared for centuries. Unifying these themes are the Judaeo-Chrisitian religions that form the base for this hierarchy to be presented. In this essay, Henry Thoreau’s “Walden” as well as William Blake’s “The Lamb” […]

Two selected works from reading this past week enshrine a contrast between spiritual belief systems found in European (Celtic) Paganism and Judaeo-Christianity and Indigenous North American Cheyenne Spirituality quite well. The Cheyenne Creation Myth, “The Great Medicine Dance,” and an anonymous story, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” offer a rugged disparity between the cultural […]

Here’s a brief background of John Martin’s Joshua Commanding the Sun to Stand Still upon Gibeon (1816). Following the end of the Neapolitan War in 1815, it’s not much of a surprise to see Martin completing a painting such as this the following year. This painting may be categorized as an example of Romantic art […]

So I don’t eat the same things many people eat. For the most part I’ll be found to be eating slow cooked foods that people otherwise wouldn’t typically pick first. A few examples would be pulled pork barbecue (aka – carnitas meat), baked beans with chicken & bacon, oats, vegetable tomato sauce, and slow cooked […]