Language Epistemology Identity
Indigenous Methodology is an essay by Margaret Kovach. Kovach evaluates tribal epistemology and compares the indigenous methods of obtaining knowledge to traditional western methods. Kovach centers her research around the Plains Cree tribe located in the northernmost area of the North American plains (North Canada).
Unlike western academic research methods, indigenous knowledge cannot be standardized because it is highly dependent on the relationship to person and place. Indigenous methods of obtaining knowledge share characteristics and qualities and are in the constructs of a paradigm. Some of these qualities and characteristics include ceremonial practices, dreams, rituals, and prayers, which are very holistic and metaphysical. These methods and concepts of indigenous’ knowledge are foreign to western practices of research.
The idea of metaphysical, extraordinary, and energy-based knowledge and calling it the fact is hard to swallow for me as well. I thought about one method of obtaining knowledge that I learned in school: the scientific method, which includes observation, question, research, hypothesis, test, analysis, and report. Growing up this method has always made sense to me. However, after reading this essay and thinking about allowing for instance dreams to be a method of knowledge and accepting it as fact is insane to me. But it is highly accepted and practiced in indigenous culture. In fact, some descriptive words of knowledge obtained according to Kovach’s research include, “interactional, interrelational, broad-based, whole inclusive, animate, cyclical, fluid, and spiritual, pragmatic, ceremonial, physical, and metaphysical.” That is twelve descriptive words when compared to only seven words in western methods.
In my opinion, the western methods of obtaining knowledge are limited when you compare them to indigenous methods. For instance, Kovach talks about language and how it is intertwined in a people’s culture and identity. In the Plains Cree tribe, oral history and storytelling is an integral method of exchanging knowledge. It can be limiting when comparing oral methods of communicating knowledge and storytelling to the western process that only accepts reports and documenting as valid knowledge. Kovach goes on to talk about the energy that is transmitted through word choice with skilled orators. The listener is very much a part of the story. The orator allows the listener to walk through the stories and find their own interpretations. According to Kovach, since language is so closely tied to identity and culture, one of the first things that are attacked when trying to erase a culture is their language.
I think another interesting tradition of the Plains Cree tribe is the buffalo hunt. It is done in such a respectful and sacred manner. Old men sing buffalo songs and wear buffalo robes. The buffalo hunt in the plains Cree tribe is a reference point on how to do things in a good way. The Buffalo hunt made me think of a modern artist named Julie Buffalohead. She had an art exhibition at the Denver art museum a couple of years ago. She is based out of Minnesota and is part of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma. Buffalohead’s work often consists of animals like squirrels, foxes, bears, and rabbits as subject matter. Animals in her artwork represent social, political, and gender issues. She uses storytelling and metaphor narratives in her artwork and often analyzes the commercialization of American Indian Culture. Even Julia Buffalohead, a modern native American artist uses the traditions of storytelling in her artwork today.
Unlike western academic research methods, indigenous knowledge cannot be standardized because it is highly dependent on the relationship to person and place. Indigenous methods of obtaining knowledge share characteristics and qualities and are in the constructs of a paradigm. Some of these qualities and characteristics include ceremonial practices, dreams, rituals, and prayers, which are very holistic and metaphysical. These methods and concepts of indigenous’ knowledge are foreign to western practices of research.
The idea of metaphysical, extraordinary, and energy-based knowledge and calling it the fact is hard to swallow for me as well. I thought about one method of obtaining knowledge that I learned in school: the scientific method, which includes observation, question, research, hypothesis, test, analysis, and report. Growing up this method has always made sense to me. However, after reading this essay and thinking about allowing for instance dreams to be a method of knowledge and accepting it as fact is insane to me. But it is highly accepted and practiced in indigenous culture. In fact, some descriptive words of knowledge obtained according to Kovach’s research include, “interactional, interrelational, broad-based, whole inclusive, animate, cyclical, fluid, and spiritual, pragmatic, ceremonial, physical, and metaphysical.” That is twelve descriptive words when compared to only seven words in western methods.
In my opinion, the western methods of obtaining knowledge are limited when you compare them to indigenous methods. For instance, Kovach talks about language and how it is intertwined in a people’s culture and identity. In the Plains Cree tribe, oral history and storytelling is an integral method of exchanging knowledge. It can be limiting when comparing oral methods of communicating knowledge and storytelling to the western process that only accepts reports and documenting as valid knowledge. Kovach goes on to talk about the energy that is transmitted through word choice with skilled orators. The listener is very much a part of the story. The orator allows the listener to walk through the stories and find their own interpretations. According to Kovach, since language is so closely tied to identity and culture, one of the first things that are attacked when trying to erase a culture is their language.
I think another interesting tradition of the Plains Cree tribe is the buffalo hunt. It is done in such a respectful and sacred manner. Old men sing buffalo songs and wear buffalo robes. The buffalo hunt in the plains Cree tribe is a reference point on how to do things in a good way. The Buffalo hunt made me think of a modern artist named Julie Buffalohead. She had an art exhibition at the Denver art museum a couple of years ago. She is based out of Minnesota and is part of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma. Buffalohead’s work often consists of animals like squirrels, foxes, bears, and rabbits as subject matter. Animals in her artwork represent social, political, and gender issues. She uses storytelling and metaphor narratives in her artwork and often analyzes the commercialization of American Indian Culture. Even Julia Buffalohead, a modern native American artist uses the traditions of storytelling in her artwork today.
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| The Heist - 2014 After reading this essay and thinking about tribal communities and how intertwined their culture is with nature, storytelling, dreams, and respect for elders and traditions. I have an entirely new respect and it has opened my mind to new ways of learning. Truly western epistemology is limiting and quite arrogant if you think about it. Who says that there is only one method of obtaining knowledge and fact. Michael Hart was interviewed in the latter part of the essay. He is a Plains Cree descendant that speaks only English. He has tried to learn his ancestor's language and understand it but does not speak it fluently. He has a different understanding than Cree speaker. According to Hart Because there are not enough Cree speakers, the Cree tribe has lost aspects of the future. It is important to retain the language of tribal nations to retain the culture and all the methods of knowing. Whether it is from songs, prayers, oral narratives, or pipe if language is lost then tradition and history will be lost from our beautiful tribal communities. |
Sources:
Buffalohead, Julia. “The Heist,” 2014. http://bockleygallery.com/artist_buffalohead/available/08.html
Margaret Kovach, "Epistemology and Research: Centring Tribal Knowledge," Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations, and Contexts (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009).
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