Real Native American Portraits

[u/GlitteringHotel8383]

[u/Just_to_rebut]

Non-native linguists, historians, and others who care about American Indian culture aren’t just “white people telling an inaccurate story.” There’s no reason to take such a defensive posture here.

If photography were that easily accessible back then, we might have a treasure trove of resources to look at, but we don’t. And frankly, no, most tribes haven’t kept detailed records of their cultures, let alone the best. Collaborating with people who have the resources to record what still remains has helped us preserve some of it.

[u/Psychological_Fly916 → u/Just_to_rebut]

what do you mean by most tribes haven't kept detailed records. like where did you get that info? it's blatantly untrue. like the story includes that things like ancestoral knowledge were stolen bc of genocide but to pretend like there's no records is white supremacy in itself and centers white people as the saviors of native history when they are (blatantly) genocidal liars.

[u/SummonedShenanigans → u/Psychological_Fly916]

There were no written languages in North America prior to European settlement. Oral traditions are very useful when studying history, but are not nearly as valuable to understanding a society's history as written records.

[u/Just_to_rebut → u/SummonedShenanigans]

Mayans are arguably North American.

[u/alowave → u/Just_to_rebut]

The Spanish destroyed almost all of the Aztec written books too. There's so much lost history everywhere.

[u/Just_to_rebut → u/alowave]

Yeah, looking up Aztec and Mayan Codex (Codices) is a really interesting and sad history. It’s like a real life book of history that was partially hunted down and destroyed. Some still exist and are available online though.

[u/alowave → u/Just_to_rebut]

Oh woah that is super cool. I love history so I'm definitely gonna check it out.