To reveal a cultural landscape of White Mountain Apache people as well as their attitudes towards their lives, it is essential to pinpoint some core definitions used in the reading. After that, the essay will focus directly on White Mountain Apache people and their comparison with Hopi and Shoshone’s views in the context of the cultural landscape.
The chapter is called “quoting the ancestors” that, by definition, assumes remembering predecessors and their cultural peculiarities. The concept of place-making refers to remembering and the subsequent imagining of the place from a historical perspective. Thus, everyone can make up a place by using more or less level of imagination and knowledge-creating place-worlds. The latter, in turn, means myriads of objects, materials, colors, and impressions related to a certain place.
In other words, place-making is a tool of imaginary history reproduction. The cultural landscape is a place-world created from an ethnography perspective that takes into account cultural peculiarities of the place designed both by men and nature.
White Mountain Apache people called themselves “ndee” which means people. They create a place-world quoting their ancestors and reproducing sounds and graphic impressions the latter made. None of the Apache places was named before their tribe came to those places. They were poor and knew nothing about life there yet through great efforts, they became happy. However, their current cultural landscape differs in cultural and climatic senses. The narrator explains that the landscape was wetter and greener thereat.
However, he also mentions dried spring at the foot of the mountain and Juniper tree standing alone. These are the parts of the place-world where ndee lived happily and gratefully for the way they lived, the water they drunk, and others they communicated and collaborated. At that, each of ndee was occupied with particular tasks. For example, women were responsible for corn, and they do it properly as it was the main food of the tribe. Presently, the narrator notes, Apache women have to look after unwanted plants.
Comparing White Mountain Apache people’s views and those of Hopi and Shoshone, it is possible to note that cultural landscape is considered as awareness of what their ancestors did. Likewise, Apache, Hopi, and Shoshone believed that the notion of homeland is based on the spirituality of woods, water, and nature in general. Also, the relation to the environment and each other as well as the way they perceived themselves lies in the foundation of their cultural landscape. Thus, although all three indigenous cultures have their peculiar features, the key to understanding their visions and cultural landscape is their deep spirituality.
I understood that it is of great importance to explore the cultural landscapes of Native Americans through learning about diversity. Modern people live in a world that tends to close integration, and it is crucial to preserve every culture as they contain peculiar values and knowledge. Let us consider the land claim made by Shoshone Indians requiring the preservation of their homeland. There are numerous cases and regulations concerning this topic.
Thus, several treaties were implemented allowing traveling across and then using Shoshone lands in other ways in exchange for the payment. Speaking more broadly, US history has plenty of examples of debates over Indian land claims.
As a result, one can observe reservations where Indigenous peoples can live without fear of being improperly treated. In conclusion, it should be stressed that understanding Native Americans in the context of debates over the Indian question cannot be overestimated as it reflects the core of their ideas and concerns. As for the implications, an accurate and thorough understanding of Indigenous peoples is likely to lead to the best possible resolution of this issue benefiting both sides.