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Mariah Castillo
Professor Brian G. Benington
Dance and Culture
10, December 2014
Life History Interview
For my life history project I interviewed Laura Youngbear she is Native American and
had been raised in the Sioux tribe. In this tribe they are very spiritual and respectful of the
earth and all animals. I picked this culture because its different from mine and I have always
wondered the cultural background of Native Americans tribes, it has always fascinated me.
Laura was in the same dance and culture class as I was and we had been talking about who
has and hasnt done their life history project when I announced that I had not had a chance to
finish, later on I asked Laura if it would be alright if I interviewed her. When she had said
yes to the interview we set up a date and time when we could get together, I was pretty
excited to be meeting someone new and learning about a different culture. I think the
interview went great, I learned a lot from it and now since the interview Laura and I hang out
all the time.
We began the interview by talking about the different experiences Laura has had in Utah
and how being a part of a different culture has affected these experiences. She began by
saying that most people think Native Americans are extinct. There may not be a lot of
culture here in Utah from Native Americans but this does not mean that they are extinct. To
me this word is a little harsh, when I hear the word extinct I dont think of humans I think as
extinct referring to objects or a type of exotic animal. Since there are not a lot of people here
in Utah that see or understand much about Native Americans or their culture, when they see a

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darker skinned person with darker hair and dark eyes they automatically think that they are
Hispanic because this culture has been shown in Utah a lot more than Native American
culture. Laura explained to me when she goes into stores she feels unwelcomed or
discriminated against because she wont ever be greeted as a customer because people
repeatedly assume that she does not speak English. There has been some cases where even
Hispanics have confused her with their own culture saying why dont you speak your own
language? when she does not respond back in Spanish when asked a question by a Hispanic.
When Laura is not being stereotyped as a Hispanic because of her dark features she also gets
discriminated against because of the Native American stereotypes. For example, people will
call Native Americans drunks and always violent because of the stereotypes individuals
have watched in the movies. Another thing people do to stereotype Native Americans is they
ask of things as can you interoperate my dreams or Can you understand what animals are
saying even though these things may happen in movies they are not realistic.
Native Americans religion is very earth connected; they see earths abilities as greater
spirits. These greater spirits are described as ancestors and they are the ones who give earth
the moon, sun, thunder, lighting, and so on. This is why it is to be said in the Native
American culture not to be afraid of the thunder and lightning because these are our great
ancestors communicating to the people. Depending on the tribe they also believe that certain
animals will be signs of certain things. An example of this is in a number of Native American
tribes believe the hooting of an owl can be a sign of death. I love this part of Native
American culture because I do believe that every animal shows a different spirit and I believe
that depending on the animal it can show different signs in your life. One of my life
experiences is when I had been walking to class and saw a hawk looking straight at me and it

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was only a couple feet away from me, later on I had told Laura what had happen thinking it
was pretty cool to have a hawk be that close and she replied asking me if it was facing
towards me or away from me and when I had told her that it was facing towards me looking
at me she said that in her culture if a hawk was facing towards you that it was a sign of
something good coming towards you in your life. To me this was something really
interesting and a subject I would love to study more on.
Native American culture has changed over the years because of the influences individuals
have put on their culture and life styles. One example is Native American are very nomadic
people and they used to fallow the buffalo herds wherever they went, although, when the
pilgrims had came they had destroyed the buffalo in order to destroy Native Americans
economy because they knew that the buffalo herds had been an essential part of the Native
American lifestyle and resources.
The Sioux tribe, the tribe Laura belongs to is known as fighters, warriors and game
followers; however the Sioux only fight if necessary unlike other tribes as the crow tribe who
instigate fighting and violence. Family lives are pretty similar to other cultures where the men
and women have different roles. The men traditionally hunt and are warrior as the women skin
hide and make clothing. When boys hit puberty they will also join the men of the tribe to go
hunt. Traditionally these tribes are very close and have small communities. When discussing
extended family they do not consider there aunts and uncles the same as other cultures do
they will instead call them their mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters, there are no
extended family labels in Native American culture. Different tribes also speak different
languages, the two main languages that are spoken are Lokata (meaning friend) and Dakota

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(meaning ally), although these languages are not spoken as much in the culture today especially
in Utah because of Native American not learning these languages.
Most dances in the Native American culture are group daces relating to specific groups
as the medicine men, warriors, or communal dances. They also have rain dances, sun dances,
and Powwows which are for Native American cultures to get together with music, food, and
dance. Although, these Powwows have changed over the years into gaining profit instead of
something cultural. Many of the Native American foods and dances have been diminished.
Laura explains that they try and teach the culture to the members of the tribe young so that
they can carry on traditions but many of the cultures traditions have become modernized. For
example most Native American men have long hair although you may not see this in places like
Utah because the men want to look modern.
I really enjoyed learning all the things from Laura and from someone who has actually
grown up in a tribe instead of learning things from Hollywood movies. One thing that I have
learned that I did not know before was that there are several different tribes just like there are
many different Hispanics. When someone uses the word Native Americans there could be
meaning many different tribes that fall into this category. Another thing that I thought was
really interesting that has related to my culture is how Indians originated, if you go more
towards the West they relate more towards Hispanics and if you go towards the East they are
more related to whites. This is because in the West many of the Aztec cultures had settled and in
the East is where many of the whites had settled like Columbus. I have made a good friend from
this project and learned a lot about her and her culture and would hope someday that she could

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bring me to a Powwow or another cultural event to learn more about the culture. I also would
love to learn some of the dances associated with the Native American culture.