Examining Native Americas

Indians arrived in America some 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. Archeological findings and Radiocarbon testing suggested that the prehistoric people who populated the Americas were hunters following the herds of wooly mammoths. They walked from Siberia across a land bridge into Alaska. They headed south toward warmer climates, slaughtering the mammoths as they went. As the glaciers melted, the oceans rose and covered this land bridge, creating the present-day Bering Strait and separating Alaska from Russia. By the time Christopher Columbus arrived, they were millions of what might be called First Americans or Amerindians occupying the two continents of Americas. The first noted documentation of the Beringia theory of the peopling of North America was by Jose de

American Indian Students do not have the same educational access and opportunity other traditional students do. Due to financial hardships, no non-major specific scholarships, and family obligations, American Indian students drop out in their second or third year

Since the 16th century, the Bering Strait region has been viewed as the likely route of travel from the Old World to the New World. Paleoindians moved into North America beyond the Bering Land Bridge between Eastern Siberia and present-day Alaska during the Late Glacial Maximum (LGM) when sea levels were significantly lowered due to the Quaternary glaciation. (Rivals & Semprebon, 2012, pg. 1608-1609). Pleistocene animals grazed their way through ice-free corridors, water logged routes, across Beringia and into Siberia, leaving footprints in the dry land in which hunter gatherer Paleoindians

At the outset, data indicates that Alaska native students fall behind non-natives in academics at Alaska

A comparison of native students and their non-native peers quickly brings one to the realization that native students are not experiencing a comparable degree of education success in Canadian schools. It is vital that native Canadians address this issue thoroughly, to insure that the nation is no longer faced with a semi-literate, unemployable population, requiring financial support. In order to fully address native educational underachievement it is important to examine the historical causes of the problem, the issues we are faced with today, as well as, identifying possible viable solutions.

For many Native Americans, there is an insightful feeling of being disregarded within our American society. While being ignored, Native Americans are expected to comply to the stereotypes and misunderstandings of what we know as Indians. If you were to speak with a person who was “Native American” they would culturally identify themselves as a part of their national tribe such as Apache, or Cherokee. In modern times, Native Americans are only discussed in their pre-1900 existence. Throughout schools nationwide, students learn about Native Americans twice yearly, (one lesson around Columbus Day and another lesson around Thanksgiving). In the essay “All Indians Are Dead?” Sarah Shear states, “Students are graduating from high school without even basic knowledge of contemporary Native challenges

Native American people arrived in the Americas approximately 15,000 and 600,000 years ago after venturing across the Bering Strait in groups known as the Paleo-Indians. They dispersed and split throughout this new world in concurrence with game routes, spreading from the northern Canadian regions, throughout Central America, and then further to South America.

Basic Argument- Native American students in Alaska disproportionally receive less involvement, support, and interaction from university faculty and staff, causing a decline in the completion of their collegiate studies.

However, with the remains of their pieces of tools and other goods across the lands in different villages it can be speculated that some groups of Native Americans had social relations with others, or had mobile groups spread across the lands. For example, the clovis was an instrument used for hunting by the Paleo-Indian groups. The Clovis and Folsom peoples, and has been found in animal and village remains across the land. Judging that their groups traveled a lot this means that they built social connections with other groups. Leaving behind many small villages of fewer people for archaeologists to excavate. Additionally, social constrictions are seen in the people who follow after the Paleo-Indian peoples who focused more on hunting and gathering, but relied heavily more on natural foods such as fruits and nuts. As a result of this gathering technique for food supply, more villages were formed beginning with the archaic peoples. I believe this had led to the evolution of larger populations in native villages as I had read throughout Plog’s book that the villages got bigger with the increased use farming agricultural goods such as maize and beans. Rather than small campsites, villages rose as a result such as the Shabik’eschee peoples in Chaco Canyon. The development of village life led to new cultural customs such as cremation of the dead and preserved

To Entering and adjusting to college is often stressful on any student but for Native Americans it is often more stressful. The number of under-graduate students enrolled in college in the U.S. in fall of 2012, was17.7 million, Native Americans account for approximately .9% of the total population of college students. (U.S. Department of Education, 2015)On average, 57.5% of students who entered a four-yearinstitution of higher education in the United States in the year 2000 graduated within six years.Only 40.2% of Native American students who entered four-year institutions in that same year graduated within six years.(Crosby, 2011) Areas that can highly affect a Native Americans success at college are family support, structured social support,

The high school graduation rate for First Nations is at 31%, while the non-aboriginal graduation rate is 72%. It is said that 7 in 10 First Nations won’t graduate from highschool. People think low of Aboriginals because they drop out of school and get themselves into trouble, but they never think about how we could prevent this from happening. Some First Nations are dropping out because they feel that their culture isn’t being supported. Non-Aboriginals get to learn about their cultures and go to schools that support them, but they don’t. They feel like people are trying to change them. They don’t want to go somewhere they don’t feel accepted for being

Many Native Americans are unaware of opportunities that are available due to the isolation that they face on reservations. In 1992 only seventy-eight percent of Native Americans received a high school diploma. This makes Native Americans the least likely of all minority groups, besides Hispanics, to obtain a high school degree. One main reason for Native Americans being unable to obtain a high school diploma is having to leave school to get a job. If a member of their family faces an illness or disability that causes them to be unable to work, the younger members of the family are going to need to help provide for the family. In many cases there is not a disability or illness, Native Americans have very poor wages and are unable to survive on only two incomes. Only eleven percent of Native Americans continues on to college after high school and receives a degree. Being a minority student automatically gives Native Americans a

For many years Native American people have been discriminated against in the United States as well as in the Public School system. Beginning with the common-school movement of the 1830s and 1840s, which attempted to stop the flow toward a more diverse society, the school systems have continued to be geared exclusively toward WASPS (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants). Native Americans have been forced to abandon their culture and conform to our “American” ways (Rothenberg, 1998, pp. 258-259.)

The modern American society is best defined by its education. The “American dream” is founded on going to school, getting a good job, and becoming successful. Ironically, the actual native peoples of this country are actually the least likely to attain this dream. The largest obstacle they face is lack of proper education. The standard educational practices being used for the instruction of Native American peoples is not effective. There are many pieces to this road-block, and many solutions. This can be rectified by having more culturally aware teachers and parents, and by teaching the general population more about the Native American cultures.

Due to varying geographical conditions Indian villages had to find stable sources of food and water; they did this through the invention of agriculture. Agriculture then lead to the downfall of migration and the beginning of stable, city-like environments. Indians began to develop ways to bring water to arid land so they could plant and supply food for themselves. In doing this these people could increase the population, stabilize the population, and develop a