I will contribute to this thread as a 25% Menominee Indian (Wisconsin Tribe)...
First of all, this thread has gone in a much different direction than the OP intended, so my apologies if I'm not directly contributing to the original post. Since many people can interpret any person that was born in North America as a "Native American", many groups prefer that we be called "American Indians". My grandmother, who's Menominee name is Nesepit, still just calls all of us "Injun's" which of course would be derogatory coming from a non-Indian. Although my family tree is only a few generations away from my hunter-gatherer ancestors, a majority of that lifestyle is long gone. That being said, however, there are still many traditions and skills that are still present, but it's different than most people think. All of my family that live on the reservation live in modern houses, have jobs, cell phones, and have modern problems just like everyone else. But there are some things that make my Menominee relatives quite different than anyone else I've met along the way in my journey...
For example, I went hunting with a relative on The 'Rez a couple of years ago, and a few things stood out to me. First of all, there was no modern Cabelas gear associated with his hunt, like GPS or high tech scent control fabrics or binoculars... just him and his rifle. Second, he hunts on an empty stomach, because he feels his senses are heightened because his hunt is actually filling a need for his body... to provide nourishment. Third, he could hear animals in the woods up to a full minute before I could. It was truly amazing, actually. I know that if I spent my life in the woods instead of at my job and woods bumming on weekends, my senses would be more in tuned, but this was truly an incredible thing to witness.
In addition, my relatives are always speaking of a sign they saw in nature and how they interpret it in a spiritual sense. A dead bird outside on the ground in front of your house means that death is coming. It's not scary or ominous, just a sign. An eagle circling overhead and then flying over the horizon symbolizes a person spirit leaving the physical world. In Menominee culture, when a person dies their spirit is present in the physical world for a while... that's why when any Menominee dies, a male in the family must light a fire and keep it burning for 48 hours... to guide the way for the deceased loved ones spirit. After my dad died, my grandmother saw a bald eagle fly overhead and then over the horizon weeks after he had died. She said that for some reason he had been lingering for a while, and had been refusing to go. After she witnessed that, she didn't feel or sense him around so much in the natural world, he had moved on. The eagle was the sign that he had gone.
So my point with all of this is that while my relatives no longer live in bush shelters and wear animal fur, there is still a greater connection to nature and to the land than I have witnessed in any other people I've known personally. And there is a great spiritual presence in nature to all of my Menominee relatives... the wind, the animals, the forest, the snow... it all means something and there are signs and messages everywhere that guide and shape their lives. This has been the most impactful element of my journey in learning more about my ancestry and my relatives.
Jordan
