Environmental Influence On Native American Culture

Environmental ethics has widely circled around human interactions with biotic ecosystems. Little voice has been given to city residents who are overexposed to environmental hazards. It is a subject rarely touched upon by mainstream environmentalist. Though conservation efforts receive much media attention and advocacy, environmental pollution in urban areas inhabited by minorities and the impoverished receive less attention despite it clearly being a grave injustice. It fact, it can be argued that minority and impoverished neighborhoods are deliberately targeted by corporations and governmental agencies because of the inherit vulnerability of the inhabitants. It is no secret that the impoverished in this country frequently live in areas characterized

Have you ever wonder how the world was created from another culture’s perspective? Native Americans used creation myths to explained to their people how the world was developed overtime. Creation myths are a big part of the Native American culture. they have been passed down from generation to generation. In the creation myths, harmony with nature, rituals, and strong social values are shown in each myths. The purpose of having strong social value in these myths is to teach younger Native Americans valuable lesson if they ever do something bad. These myths reveals how the rituals were created and their intentions for doing it. Creation myths has harmony with nature in it to show a very close kinship between them

Prior to European contact, Native Americans lived as hunter-gatherers, living and traveling in groups typically less than 300. These Native Americans had over 400 languages along with a myriad of different religions (The American Pageant). Across the continent, the Natives built homes

Prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) the Americas were already a home to millions of natives that had already been there for thousands of years. The original natives of America before the arrival of Europeans were descendants of groups of hunters and fishers that crossed the Bering Strait between 15,000-60,000 years ago. Over time these natives developed their own techniques for farming, hunting and fishing. In addition, they had also developed their own religious beliefs, political structures, trading networks and hundreds of different languages. The natives, mostly lived on corn, squash, beans, and some fish, deer and turkey. They lived in 3 different kinds of societies. The three different kinds of societies were nomadic, semi-nomadic and

Culture wasn’t the only thing that the Europeans brought over to the Americas. Along with their customs and rules, came the diseases that the Native American’s have never been exposed to. The Europeans brought many communicable diseases such as small pox and measles which were transmitted to the Native Americans through trade goods or someone infected with them. This quickly annihilated most of the Native American population.

Encomienda System- Nicolás de Ovando created this system with a main goal of being allowed to give Indians to colonists only if they christianized them. This system gave the government permission to force the natives to work for the colonists, after the colonists would come into the natives towns and conquer it for themselves.

Before Europeans landed in the Americas, Native Americans lived within various complex societies across modern day North and South America. Two of the greatest empires that existed at the time were the Aztecs located in modern central Mexico or at the time it was called Mesoamerica and the Incas located in modern Peru, these societies were unique because they were ruled by kings, nobles and warriors whereas most North American Natives were ruled by chiefdoms. North American Native’s religion consisted of animist quality- a belief that the natural world had spiritual powers. They applied this belief to everyday life- praying to be exempt from disease, good crops, and plenty of food. Some societies amongst many North American Natives were matriarchal for example in the Iroquois society power and possessions were passed down through the female line of authority. Most women were gatherers and watched over the towns and men hunted for food for their families, maize agriculture was popular amongst the Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes Natives. The Native Americans traded extensively before the Europeans arrived, for example there were annual trade fairs between the Navajos, Apaches and the Pueblos. In 1521, Hernan Cortes arrived in Mesoamerica and quickly overcame the Aztecs, not only by force but also disease. Europeans unknowingly brought many diseases, such as smallpox, influenza and measles, that the Native Americans were never exposed to and it was one of the biggest killers of the Natives. At first, Europeans forced Native Americans to be slaves and work on their plantations but soon they were replaced with the African slave.

It is estimated that 60% to 90% of Native American tribes had died from new diseases brought from the Columbian Exchange from the Europeans. Numerous diseases such as the infamous smallpox were introduced to the Native Americans and were degrading to the population as the Europeans grew a type of immunity from the diseases unlike the Native Americans. Conflict between the Spanish and the Native Americans brought war which encourages diseases to spread through hand to hand combat. Cultures and tribes were on the brink of extinction, as European expansionism and imperialism succeeded in claiming land that was formerly the Native Americans. The mass genocide and epidemic of various diseases towards the Native Americans reach to new heights due to the Columbian Exchange as Europeans militants strived for land and gold at the cost of the Native American’s

Native American culture originated in some parts North America. These countries are known as the United States of America and some parts of Canada. In the United States, there are 6.6 million Native Americans, which form about 2.0 percent of the population (Bureau, 2016). Europe had realized there were about 50 million people already living the “new world” and these people were called Native Americans. Native Americans were originally called Indians, but later through history they formed a new name. These people were called this because of them being native to the “new world” and the American part came after the colonist named the United States. Throughout history, Native Americans believed that using raw material in nature was the best way to provide for their people. Their culture thought no part of an animal should go to waste. They would eat the meat, use the skin for clothing, and make jewelry from the bones. Over the years a lot of their culture and customs were lost due to conforming with society. Their languages were referred to as “Indigenous Languages” because of them being extremely complicated and diverse. Some important factors that help understand the foundation of Native American culture are their rituals/practices, death ceremonies, holidays, family, and stereotypes.

There are plenty of There are plenty of minority groups who are undeniably disparaged against but none as much as the Native American community. Not only did we take their lives and their land but we continue to disrespect the entire community every single day. Our negative attitudes, misconceptions, and offensive stereotypes that we direct their way are not only hate induced but have an extremely negative impact on the Native American Identity. Our poor media representation of the Native American community is overwhelmingly harmful to its citizens and does not seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. We are hearing quite a bit about the Native American community right now with the protesting going on in North Dakota. Oil big business has plans to build a pipeline that will transport crude oil across North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois. This project will undoubtedly have major environmental impacts on the land that is runs under. The oil company responsible for the project meticulously mapped out where this environmental blunder should be built, and it is unfortunately no surprise as to where they decided it should be. The underground pipeline is set to be built across thousands of acres of Native American land. Of course it is. The level of disrespect and blatant disregard we have as the majority monstrous with dealing with Native Americans. History is once again repeating itself. We are taking land that does not belong to us, destroying it, and then expecting a

In the 1500s, the Conquistadors came to the new world from Europe. After the Conquistadors came and conquered the new world many Native Americans fell ill with the diseases brought from Europe. After the Europeans entered the new world an estimated 15 to 20 million Native Americans died (doc 5). A majority of these deaths were due to the introduction of smallpox from Europe to the new world (doc 5). This is because the majority of the Native American population did not have the immunity to these diseases as the

Microbes, (diseases) were a definite negative in terms of the Columbian Exchange. A majority of the native people had once response to the arrival of Europeans and that was “death”. It is estimate that more than 50% and as high as 90 % . Some people

The way of life significantly changed for the Native Americans after Europeans imposed the Columbian exchange into the New World. Along with the exchange of livestock and plants came unprecedented and unintentional deadly diseases that, in turn, practically wiped out the Native American population as a whole (textbook, 19). The decimation of the population occurred at alarming rates, which affected the trade of products between countries. The natives were not massacred by the popular belief of guns and knives, but 95% of the indigenous population was killed by exposure to European disease, like smallpox and the sheer epidemic of it (PBS). The Columbian Exchange brought on by the Europeans was to blame for the countless fatalities of Native Americans. The exchange was altered because of diseases that reshaped the Columbian Exchange as a whole, meaning infecting and spreading illness from livestock, crops growing without a means of processing or distribution, and an economical instability regarding wealth and lifestyle in other parts of the world. This began when the natives were incapable to work due to the crippling ailments that onset in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. For all of these reasons, the Columbian Exchange was made more difficult in exchanging goods from the New World to Europe, South America and Africa.

“My people are few. They resemble the scattering trees of a storm-swept plain...There was a time when our people covered the land as the waves of a wind-ruffled sea cover its shell-paved floor, but that time long since passed away with the greatness of tribes that are now but a mournful memory.,” Chief Seattle Speech of 1854. The culture of the Native American people has been deteriorating ever since the Europeans arrived in the Americas. The impactful and immense loss of lifestyle that they faced is one that can never be recovered, what the United States has given them are generations of trauma and blatant suffering. However, the U.S. did not stop there, a multitude of cultures have been broken to help keep America pure. For instance, one of the most significant cultures that have been dismantled by the U.S. other than the Natives and their music were the languages and music of the African slaves. The apparent likeness of these two cultures in the ways in which their deconstruction impacted them is in more of an abundance, such as the dominating influence of the Christian religion and the gravely vital role of maintaining what little heritage they could through language. In contrast to this, the two groups had an opposing difference pertaining to how the Natives and slaves tried to compensate the immense loss of their culture through the generations.

By 1542, the Taino population that Columbus encountered on the island of Hispianiola lost more than 90 percent of its three million peoples and were extinct only a decade or two after. Natives in other parts of the Americas also faced decimated by smallpox and other diseases. Because of population loss, the social structures and the cultures of various Indian tribes changed dramatically; many traditions and knowledge was lost to history when religious and political leaders and elders succumbed to smallpox. But one of the greatest impact of smallpox was the imbalance of natives and whites, creating a system of racism and culture. The loss of natives' labor prompted colonists to import African slaves, altering the genetic composition of the population.