Native american Culture Blog

This past week in class we have talked about Native Americn history. Personally, going into this week i did not know much about the culture of Native Americans except for a man that i knew in my childhood.
My whole life I have grown up in the same church. There was an elderly couple at my church, Marilyn and Monte Barnes. Both Marilyn and Monte were caucasian, but they had an adoptive daughter, Tina, who was Native American. At the time i was probably five or six, so i didn't think much of it. Tina had married a man, whose name I don't recall. He was also Native American. I remember laughing in church one sunday because Tina and her husband had came to church dressed in Native American outfits. I was so young that I did not realize how important their culture was to them.
Since Tina had grown up in an adoptive home, it was up to her to find out her heritage. I suspect that her husband, who also was adopted, had to do the same. That culture is all they knew of their relatives and they did their best to keep it alive.
a few years after Tina and her husband had been married, her husband suddenly passed away. I was older by then, maybe eight or nine. Being good friends if Tina and her parents, my family attended the funeral. The funeral was at a little church in somewhere in the cornfields of wisconsin. Marilyn, Monte, a few other members of our church, and my family were the only ones out of about 100 people who were not Native American. The funeral was not like a regular funeral. My memory of it is a bit foggy, but i remember chanting instead of singing, and drums instead of a traditional organ. That was the first time I really thought about how different cultures act, especially Native American culture.
Obviously, I am not the same girl that I was ten years ago. I have come along way from sitting in church laughing about the way someone dresses. Since Tina's husband has died, and I have lost contact with Tina, I have not really thought about Native American culture until this unit in class. I found it quite interesting to see how different it was and how ideas have changed from generations.  If I have learned anything from this unit its that we should take time to learn of other cultures because it can be interesting and enjoyable.