It would help if you atleast pointed out what tribe or even general area youre talking about.

>>38 Well, I was talking in general because I wanted to know about all tribes, even the small ones, but let's go with the better know ones. Mohicans, sioux, blackfoot and Navajos for example.

>>39 >I was talking in general because I wanted to know about all tribes Nigger do you even realize what you ask? Thats the entire population of pre-clumbian america save for 3 empires. See the crux of the problems is that natives, for the most part, didnt have written records (aztecs and mayans had but noone knows really what they say, incans used a system of knots but noone knows hot to decipher them either), so the most we have is the written records taken by europeans, now heres the funny part, the only europeans that bothered to write about the native were catholic monks, so in a largely protestant area like what is now the USA, theres jackshit of written records, only unreliable oral tradition.

>>40 That's the fucking point. I searched even for dictionaries for the mayor native american tribes like the sioux or the mohicans, mayor mythology legends for something beyond "creation myths" and other things and nothing. The best I found was a "fan page" still built like if we were in the 90s and all of them just tease a fucking academic book that cost more than a playstation. It's extra painful because I actually worshipped the whole north american indian concept until I learned how they are full of larp shit and made up mysticism.

>>41 Well thats how it is, unless you go back in time and manage to write down first hands accounts of their culture, blame it on the anglos being too lazy to keep records of them.

>>42 Well, fuck it then. All in christian names and I'll make a note that there are no references to their classic language because not even the fucking savages remember it.

>>37 I used to work with a Native lady that was apart of the Navajo. Basically how their naming conventions work is that usually they're all very Americanized but they all have a "true name" that they can only speak to and be referred to as by their close family (Mother, Father, Spouse) and that's usually some native spiritual bullshit like "One-Eye Eagle" or "Two-Bears-Hi-Fiving". Her last name was kinda funny. It was "Blackburn", which she told me that back during her granddad's time, her grandfather had massive, bushy sideburns so all the people he worked with referred to him as "Blackburn." So come WW2, because natives at that time weren't considered citizens and therefore had no documentations, when he volunteered he wrote his last name as "Blackburn". So, while she had a regular name like "Jessica" or some shit, she still had that last name.

>>48 That brings another question I have. Do native americans, in the case of the navajo this time, have family or clan name? or they just have the usual indian name?

>>49 So, if I'm not mistaken they didn't have the "first name - last name" type deal going on. I could be wrong, but I think it's still the same deal where they'll have a name in their group's dialect, so in this case it would be a name meaning something in the Navajo language, but they'll still have their "true name" only spoken and heard by family members. So, what I would do is try to find words and characteristics that you can find in those dead language and name your character off of that. Just doing a cursory search on google, apparently one name is "Ahiga" meaning "he fights" in Navajo.

Well, I refuse to believe that the whole board is dead already, so let's throw some wood to the fire. Any examples of slavery between the tribes?

>>61 who cares. Fucking gut the lawless savages.

I heard once about how one tribe would go out into the woods to meditate and while doing so they would be visited by their spirit animal. The chief that the video was talking about never actually revealed what his spirit animal was though.

>>37 >that isn't behind books that cost hundreds of dollars just use Anna's Archive then you fucking retard

>>72 There's a lot of traditions like that, but it varies a lot. For the Great Lakes tribes (Ottawa etc.) you go out in the woods and fast for four days. Hallucinations should start in about 3... In the southwest, it's basically a simple diet for a week in a remote cave, possibly with peyote. >>37 Most of the 'recognized' tribes in the US promote language learning, with dictionaries etc. If you compare these modern dictionaries with the old Catholic ones from the 17/18th century, you can see a lot of 'corruption' has happened. Same with mystic texts -- a passing familiarity with the Bible and you'll start to notice how bits of Christianity have snuck into supposedly 40,000 year old traditions. There are also a few outright forgeries (Wallam Ollum), so it can be tricky if you aren't an area expert. The US-ian tribes, while mostly lacking writing, did have a tradition of 'memory aids' -- illustrated stories on birch bark, with an associated story that you memorized. Many of these survive, although again it's been five centuries since 'contact'.