Native American | Travels in Finland and abroad

March 8, 2010

Native American life

Filed under: Native American — Sartenada @ 08:20
Tags: American Indian, Indian life, Indians, Native Americans, Tatanka Iyotaka

My background concerning about American Indians and Wild Frontier.

My interest in American Indians started in 1954 and when my family moved from Helsinki close to small town called Varkaus. I bought plenty of comics and among them I found interesting stories about American Indians and the West (Wild Frontier) also. My soul was sold to travel far away, to meet in these adventures heroes and villains. I remember some names of those comics: Pecos Bill, Captain Miki, King of the Royal Mounted which stories were written by “Romer Grey” and “Gaylord DuBois”. Also “Tex Willer”. Tex Willer was leader of the Navajo tribe, although he was a white man. In Tex Willer is shown up also Kit Carson. I do not know if these “heroes” are known nowadays.

Also I read plenty of books telling about Wid Frontier and American Indians. Among them I was extremely inspired about books of Zane grey. Few years ago I read all these books published in Finnish and some in Spanish. If one is interested in horses, riding, American Indians, love, feelings of human mind, flowers and nature, then these books are for him / her. Of course I read other books like: “The last of the Mohicans” by Fenimore Cooper and books by Karl May. Books by James Oliver Curwood had also impact to me, although they did not tell about American Indians. Also the film telling from Davy Crockett in Battle of the Alamo, impacted me.

Especially I was impressed by the book “Betty Zane” by Zane Grey. From these books I learned to know American Indians and their thoughts. Later when I started to learn English, I ordered, me a schoolboy, from the States a magazine called “Arizona Highways” and now I am talking times dating back upto 50 years. In this magazine I saw for the first time color photos from Native Indians and their life.

All these inspired me so much, mixing in my mind Indians and Wild Frontier, that I learned myself to move in forest like an Indian, without any noise and also to read signs of nature, animals and humans. In army 1965/1966 (artillery) I was trained for to give artillery fire commands, but when in military exercises, I was selectied to act as a scout to find out enemy’s movements (to reconnoiter), so natural!

The exhibition of life and the times of Sitting Bull.

The exhibition told about the life and the times of Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake). There were videos (old movies), music, old photos from Sitting Bull, his tribe, his wives, his tomb, handwork and much more. Also on walls there were interesting texts telling about Sitting Bull’s life. Anyway, my photos tell more to You than my words. Sitting Bull’s daughter’s grandchild Ernie LaPointe, 61 years old, honored this exhibition at opening day!