American Indians Land History

Back when the United States wasn’t so immense and powerful, its people and their leaders wanted to expand. The people thought that the entire country should be theirs, and anyone who stood in their way, including the Native Americans, would pay for it. Manifest destiny was the “motto” for the country in this time. The first railroad that could cross the entire country was built. This encouraged many to move out west. While this was good for the Americans, it might not have been so good for the Native Americans. Native American land and culture was impacted by western expansion of the United States because of the Transcontinental Railroad, and the United States army, or militias, and government.

Cherokee Indians have been around for many years, but when the topic of Native Americans is discussed it is only about the struggles and hardships they went through but never their actual culture of how and where they originated or how they came to be. There are many interesting things to learn about Cherokee Indians such as their heritage, religion, language, and their traditional songs, dances, and food.

The Southeastern Native American’s landscape/geography differs from place to place in the region. The climate of Southeast United States was important to the culture because it affected on how they lived and dressed(showed by the Native Americans dressed in the village bottom left hand corner of the project). The rain (the project showed this by putting in thunder clouds raining in the sky )is the only winter precipitation that the southeastern states will have in most areas. That rain is important to the Southeast Native Americans because the Native Americans would build villages instead of being nomads, so one of their ways of getting food would be farming. That rain is used for watering crops. Thunderstorms ( showed the thunderstorms

The Iroquois used nature and their natural resources to provide shelter. The Iroquois made their homes called longhouses from what was around them. In Document #1 it states that they made their homes from sticks and bark, the plant fibers. No scrap of material was ever wasted, it was always used for something else.

To be a Native American, one is not just born into the ethnicity, but it is the sacredness of the culture, language, religion, and land that makes a person a true Native American, and without these things, there are no Indigenous people. Developing a culture is human nature, and for Native Americans, their culture revolves around the land, and to take that away is to take away who they are. The land may not physically be a part of Native Americans, but without their sacred land, there is a missing part of them. The building of telescopes on Mt. Graham is one example of how the sacred Native land is being taken over. Just like how a wheel is a part of a chariot, the sacred land is part of a Native American, and without it, Native Americans are not whole. Their culture is seen as inferior to white culture because of the Racial Contract, and is why their land is treated with disrespect. Native Americans’ sacred lands needs to be treated with respect and protected because without it, they are no longer Native Americans, they are a group of people without a culture to be a part of.

Before 1492, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, there were many tribes living in North America. Two equally similar and different ones were the Iroquois tribe and the Cherokee tribe. On one hand, they are similar because of their geographies and their economies. On the other hand, they are different because of their cultures and religious beliefs.

The moment when Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas was the beginning of the interactions between American Indians and European colonists. These very first interactions were mostly positive due to the the generosity of the Indians but turned violent when the Europeans began to mistreat, kidnap, enslave, and kill the American Indians. Actions taken by the American Indians and European Colonists, especially actions of violence, during the 1600s caused the relationship between the two parties to be negative and conflicting in New England and Chesapeake.

1)Paleo-Indians, the first Americans lived in bands of fifteen to fifty people, and traveled within their territory to hunt. Archaic Indians experienced a warming climate. One of the results of the warming climate was better hunting. Forest grew larger with a greater variety of plants and animals. The changes allowed some Indians to reside in permanent homes. The ample supply of food allowed more peoples to live on less acreage. The weather also allowed for specialization of caring for plants; this was the beginning of controlling crops to better supply the people.

The American territory was sprawling across the Mississippi River and into new Native American territory. The Great Plains and far West were occupied by both Indians and Hispanics whose custom and way of live were distinct in language religion and kinship and governance. The white settlers and hunters were a threat to the resources in which they used for survival.

The northern tribes used bones and deer antlers to make knives, scrapers, awls, fishing tools, whistles, and pendants. The first tribes denpended on agriculture were those that lived on the Atlantic Costal Plain. They learned how to make pottery and cloth. The cloth was woven with thread made from soft layers of splint baskets. They made musical instruments like pipers, rattles, drums, nd they were played during ruitals and ceremonies dances. They built two types of houses, long houses, and wigwams. The first type was formed by bending poles into a cone or dome shape and by tying the poles together with vines. The frame was covered with woven mats, bark, or hide . These people grew corn, squash, beans, pumpkins, and tobacco.

The habitat of the Indians of the Eastern Woodlands, as they would usually live near lakes, streams, or forest. The Indians of the Eastern Woodlands would live by streams or lakes because it was easy access for them to access the water. The people that would live by the lakes or streams they could use it for fishing, or irrigation system. The people lived by waterways like St. Lawrence River and the Great lakes. The hunters of the Eastern Woodlands used the waterways for fish.

In the Metropolitan Museum of art there is a wide verity of objects for the Northwest tribes. In the Northwest coast music is highly associated with ceremonies and feasts known as the potlatches. Potlatches were held by a host to establish or uphold his status position in society. Other times they were to signify a significant event in his family like the birth of a child, a daughter's first menses, or a son's marriage. Potlatches are to be successful and guests are invited to a potlatch to share food and receive gifts or payment. The host provides everything from food, drink, entertainment and, also his gifts to each of his guests. The value of the gift depends on the social status of the recipient, the higher the respect for him the more valuable the gift is. If his gift in not that valuable or wanted it would look bad for the provider. If this happens the host must add another gift to satisfy his guest. A potlatch can last for several days when celebrating a passing spirit that contains feasting, singing, performing ritual dances, competitions and other events.

There were streams full of fish,clams and other shellfish. The California Pomo Indians lived along the California coast. They used natural materials to make useful and artistic things, such as, baskets to hold their foods.-Cambell

The book “How the Indians Lost their Lands” by Stuart Banner is about how he claims everything really went down for the Native Americans of being kicked out from their birth home from the so called “Americans”. Stuart Banner, “who is a law professor at the University of Los Angeles school of law, seemed to have never denied any knowledge regarding the transfer land trade of the United States from Native American to non-natives in the early 17th century to the end of the 19th century” (“Author Introduction: HTILTL”). Instead in “How the Indians Lost Their Land”, he describes and admits the truth of the way it really happened in the early 17th century. In this book Banner mostly criticized about how the Native Americans lived on their private property, due to their birth right, but were tricked into selling their land because of the beliefs

Myths play a large role in Native American totem poles, this is not really a surprise because Native people believed in more superstitious things. They believed that many living beings in nature had either spirits or gods. With these outlooks on nature and life, those beliefs came back to their carvings on totem poles. Respecting spirits and gods of the land was huge for Native Americans, such as showing