Dallas Cowboys and Indians

Dallas Cowboys and Indians

Culture or Civilization taken in its wide ethnographic sense is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits required by man as a member of a society.

-E.B. Tylor

In America, there are two cultural traditions that have blended together to form the alloy that is American culture or the American system of "knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom..." The first cultural tradition, European, is widely thought to have been the dominant culture in influencing American culture. We think that our ancestors brought the European way of life over to the New World and the old simply evolved a little bit. However, the idea that European culture is the predominant culture in American cultural mix is a misconception. The reality is that the dominant culture in the American cultural alloy is Native American or Indian culture. According to Jack Weatherford, José Barreiro, and other writers, much of the "complex whole" that comprises our culture is strongly influenced by Native American culture. To illustrate this point I will use examples that revolve around a type of group that is a part of current American culture: a football team.

Food and Drugs--Indian Style

One way that Indian culture has impacted American culture is in the foods we eat and the clothes we wear. When Grinnell College's football team went on its recent road trip to Jacksonville, Illinois, the team was given an entree (steak or chicken and a baked potato) and unlimited trips to a buffet at a Ponderosa Steakhouse. However, the foods that were offered in both the entree and the buffet are indigenous to the Americas. First, the entree contained one native foodstu...

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...f American Government." Indian Roots ofAmerican Democracy. Edited by Jos~ Barreiro. Akwe:kon Press. Ithaca, New York. Pp.4-S, 48-9, 50-1

Lankford, George. "Red & White: Some Reflections on Southeastern Symbolism." Southern Folklore. 1993. Pp.55-60

Schlosser, Eric. "Fast-Food Nation: The True Cost of America's Diet" Rolling Stone. September 3,1998. Pp.61,62

Venables, Robert W. "The Founding Fathers: Choosing to be Romans." Indian Roots of American Democracy. Edited by Jose' Barreiro. Akwe:kon Press. Ithaca, New York. Pp.4-S, 69-70.

Weatherford, Jack. Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World. Fawcett Columbine. New York. Pp.42-3, 63, 72-3, 84-5,134,136-9,140-1 181-3, 183-91,

Weatherford, J. Mclver. Tribes On The Hill. Bergin & Garvey. New York. 1985. Pp.30-2,189-93

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