October 4, 2015 made me feel like I was walking through the hallways of my former high school on the first day of classes all over again. Experiencing a completely different culture in an environment that is already foreign to me was not something that I was sure that I would be able to accomplish on my own, but, like that first day of high school, I managed, and I gained some knowledge along the way by making simple observations. By participating in a Native American Intertribal Powwow, I managed to pick up on a few things about the native tribe’s societal values, male and female roles, language cues, religious beliefs, and their style of dance. When I first arrived, I noticed that there were several flags and memorials to natives that have served in the military. The park itself was also lined with statues and walls acknowledging veterans. While watching the performance, the powwow leader called for all veterans to carry flags into the circle to be honored with native music and dancing. The combination of these actions and physical features of the park suggests that the native people hold their warriors to a very high regard. Such a high honoring of people who have fought in wars also suggests that their tribes aren’t particularly nonviolent, but I am…show more content… When addressing men the orator said, “kola” meaning friend in Lakota, and he also said that women would be referred to as something else, but I did not catch the second phrase as all of this was spoken to the crowd. The usage of a different term between men and women for “friend” is a sign that the Lakota tribe has a language that is gender specific. From the knowledge that I have gained I know that a vast majority of cultures have a gender specific language, and that makes me wonder if the there is any other significance of having a gender-specific language besides basic classification with spoken
