Talk:Happy hunting ground

happy Hunting Ground

I found this can anyone give me more?:

Happy Hunting Ground

All Indians believed in the great spirit. The great spirit ruled over everything and lived in the Happy Hunting Ground a beautiful country beyond the skies. The Indians greatest hope was to go to the Happy Hunting Ground when they died. They would only do this if they served the great spirit well during their lifetime. If they were in battle and the enemy had their scalp, he also had their sprint. This would prevent the Indians from going to the Happy Hunting Ground.

he factual accuracy of this article needs to be checked. The Cherokee nation traditionally inhabited the U.S. Southeast, not the great plains.The six nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquis) reside in what is now New York State and Ontario The term Algonquian refers to a multitude of Nations, only a few of which ever resided in the great plains.

Trivia Section Removed
The Trivia section for this article contained only one item of trivia, and that was that a Dungeons & Dragons environment of some sort was named 'the Happy Hunting Ground'. Personally I thought that was a bit too trivial - especially since there were no other items in the section. For that reason, I've removed it.

I've also tried to tidy a little, although I confess I'm at a loss what to do to make the item more informative. I'm dubious about using Godchecker as a citation - it's a worthy enough site and a very good read, but it's not very detailed and that last paragraph in this article (about the weather being better and prey not running away) doesn't seem to stand so well. To be honest the whole article as it stands is a little difficult to follow - I'm still not sure what significance scalping might have; and I'm not sure it explains too well how "[the presence of a spirit in everything] therefore leads to the existence of an afterlife".

Is there anyone who'd like to have a stab at expanding this one a little? - Shrivenzale (talk) 01:21, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Scalping B.S.
The Native Americans did not believe that part about the scalping because scalping was brought here by the europeans and the Native Americans learned the act of scalping from the europeans.

The Sioux believed that if the face of the dead was faced down to the earth or ground then the soul could not make it to the after life or back into its body. —Preceding unsigned comment added by GLogic (talk • contribs) 11:28, 22 July 2008 (UTC)
 * According the the Scalping page on wikipedia, you are probably wrong, and it provides a source. I have to say I'm kind of disappointed in the quality of this article and the one about Great Spirit. We're talking about fundamental beliefs of a (group of) people(s) here - or is it? When I stumble upon reliable source material I will certainly not hesitate to expand/improve these articles. Zonder (talk) 14:42, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

I agree with you. Both articles appear to me to consist less of what might be called the "fundamental beliefs of a (group of) people(s)" and more of thrown together mishmash of bits and pieces of the belief systems of various native North American groups over time, thrown together with current popular romantic stereotypes of those very same systems. One of the biggest problems, in my opinion, is that an average reader might be encouraged to believe after reading this material that North American traditional beliefs are homogeneous in nature in some sense. A perspective that many would suggest is inherently racist. cheers Deconstructhis (talk) 22:01, 25 March 2009 (UTC)


 * What do you expect? It's a non-literate culture. It's not like we can just read their bible. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.122.208.21 (talk) 19:55, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Sources are extremely problematic.
"The Iroquois of the Grand River" was written for Harper's, not a scholarly source, in 1894, and contains the section " He is the All-Good One, the "Great Spirit," in whom they have an absolute and child-like faith as beautiful as it is touching. Many times during the seasons do they congregate at their place of worship, the "Long House," and in a crude though orderly manner pay tribute to the God whom they believe to be in the happy hunting grounds beyond the western skies."

"The Legend of Princess Onarga" is the homepage of a nursery; there's no evidence of Native American input.

"Myths and Legends of the Sioux", by contrast, is written by a woman who is one-quarter Sioux and was told these stories by Sioux. She does not support any of the details of the meaning of the Happy Hunting Grounds given on the main page.

firstpeople.us gives no citations.

siouxme.com is the Webpage of a man called "Redhawk" who claims to have been "Raised Cheyenne River Reservation, SD, 1942 - 1948" for six years, but does not claim to be tribally enrolled. Again, he gives no citations.

The godchecker.com article http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/native_american-mythology.php begins "Once upon a time there were Red Indians. Then along came the Palefaces... " Need I say more?

For an encyclopedic article on Native American beliefs, these sources are simply not sufficient -- they smack of white people's myths about Native Americans, rather than Native American myths. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jonquilserpyllum (talk • contribs) 16:49, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

dito
It would be helpful if anyone could find out when "Many Horses" lived and when he said (or wrote) the quote attributed to him. I couldn't find any information on the web. There are other persons like Emil Her Many Horses, but they're not identical with him, I guess. The phrase seems to have come up in the 1820s, and spread in the 30s (list of Google Book Search findings). The earliest example I could find was in James Fenimore Coopers Pioneers (1823), ch. 38. --Jonas kork (talk) 06:34, 31 March 2010 (UTC)