Explain Why The Kennewick Man Was Native American

There are over 500 Federally Recognized tribes in the U.S., plus some additional tribes recognized by states, plus unknown number of smaller unrecognized tribes. Many are also divided into clans and loosely categorized into major groups. While it is impossible to totally generalize across such a broad spectrum, the scope of this project and the focus of the information compiled are of the generalized Native American/Alaskan Native. Where appropriate the Alaskan Native is separated

No written history means much of Native American history is unknown, causing misconceptions and stereotypes about Native Americans to exist. Royal also discusses the name of this group that people label today as “Native Americans.” He questions, “ ‘America’ was a name formed in the wake of another Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci. It is difficult to see how being named after an Italian is less Eurocentric than being named after an East Native American” (Royal 46). The discussion about their name shows Europe’s influence on the Americas; it also shows that Native Americans yearn for their own identity without Europe’s input.

Thornton asserts in his abstract that the number of Cherokees who died may have been twice the currently accepted number. However, this is not what he says the number of Cherokees . He argues that the losses of the Cherokee Nation should be determined based upon the number of Cherokee who would have lived, not the ones who died, a vital distinction when one considers the drastic reduction in birth rate immediately following removal. However, when reading this article, one must take into account the potential for bias outside of confidence in one’s research. It is possible that as a Cherokee,

For this assignment, I interviewed Tony Easter, a member of the Native American Sac Fox tribe in Missouri. There are three federally recognized Sac fox tribes in the US, one located in Oklahoma, a combined one in Kansas and Nebraska, and one in Iowa. Tony belongs to a branch of the Oklahoma tribe, which unofficially broke from the Oklahoma tribe in the 1970’s following a dispute on the admittance of members through marriage or blood relation to the tribe.

Kennewick Man is one of the most complete ancient skeletons found to date. The discovery initiated scholarly and public debate of the legal and ethical implications of anthropological study of Native American human remains. The Kennewick Man controversy has called into question the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)’s ability to balance tribal, museum, and archaeological interest in ancient human remains.

As children growing up in the United States, educated through our public schools, we learned about the institution of slavery, which was an integral part of life in our country for nearly 300 years. We do not usually question the historical facts we learned about slavery or ask how we know so much about the history of these people (the enslaved Africans in America) who left behind so little written record. In the classroom, archeologists do not receive much credit, but it is largely through their work and research that we have been able to learn about “America’s diverse ethnic heritage” (Singleton 155). In the 1960’s, excavations of slave cabins

My family always felt that knowing one 's history was of the utmost importance. Binders and books track my maternal heritage through centuries; however, my paternal side kept oral records of our heritage, so much of it was lost through the generations. Determined to find the lost information, my father and I took it upon ourselves to create our own genealogy report and dug through different documents to back trace our ancestry. It was then we discovered Thomas Glass, a Native American also known as Tagwadihi (Catawbakiller) or Chief Glass of the Chickamauga tribe in the early nineteenth century. Desperate to know more about this man, we discovered a journal that gave detailed descriptions of who he was and what he did. That journal is called the Journal of Major John Norton of 1816. This memoir gives glimpses into knowing one of my ancestors, reading from his friend 's perspectives and sharing in the interactions of a family member long since perished and otherwise unknown. From reading it I discovered the wonderful ethnographic data that it embodied. Norton 's descriptions of his acquaintances in the Cherokee nation "are frequently supported and never contradicted by historical records" and historical figures who were briefly mentioned in Cherokee documents become fully-developed in his journal (Klinck lxvi). However it raises questions as to where this journal belongs. Does it belong in Native American Studies, historical studies, or literary studies? Does John Norton have

It has been thought for many years that the Americas were a vastly unpopulated land until Columbus came. However new evidence disputes this previously thought notion. Archeologist, who have been studying the remains of Native American culture, have found evidence suggesting that the Indians were in the Americas for much longer and in greater numbers than what was believed. This new evidence shows us the impact the Europeans had on the New World and gives us insight into what the Americas were like before the Europeans and what they may have been had the Europeans never settled here.

The identity of Alaskan Natives and Native Americans and the ability to delineate tribal affiliation has been a subject of argument for many years. The demands of federal programs determine the blood volume required to be Native. As federal programs increase and decrease so does the blood volume required to obtain these benefits. Blood quantum is the display of colonialism and is gradually eroding and eradicating the roots of indigenous people and sets a precedence that a person’s blood relates to their cultural orientation and identity. “American Indians and non-Indians have defined Indian identity through law, biology, and culture. All three overlap in specific ways, but more significantly, all have ties to outdated blood quantum

Kenneth C. Davis, the author of Don’t Know Much about History, claimed that the true discoverers of America were the people whose cultures and societies were well established here while Europe was still in the Dark Ages, the so-called Indians. For all the diversity of the First Americans, they inherited certain common traits from their old world ancestors. Reflecting their Asiatic heritage, they were generally short to medium stature, with straight black hair, light brown skin, had epicanthic fold, and prominent cheek bones – features that in 1492 reinforced Columbus’ mistaken conviction that he had reached the East Indies and prompted him to assign to the inhabitants the inaccurate yet enduring title of Indians.

While the theory of Roman discovery of America has compelling evidence, such as the many Roman coins found across the country dating as far back as 490 B.C., or the shipwreck off the coast of Texas with a distinctly Roman style, the idea of Romans being the first to find America can be disproven. The artifacts and skeletons of the Native Americans found all over the coasts of California have been dated back close to 10,000 B.C., while the oldest Roman artifact found only dates back to 490 B.C., definitively placing the Native Americans there first. The theory of Viking discovery of America can be similarly disproven, even though there is indeed indisputable proof of the Viking’s forays into America. For example, an ancient Norse settlement and hundreds of artifacts were found in Canada dating back to the journey of Leif Ericson in the 10th and 11th centuries. However, these finds, just like those of the Romans, are too late in history compared to those of the Native Americans. Furthermore, accounts of Leif Ericson’s journey include reports of Leif and his men killing Native Americans upon landing on the American coast, showing yet again that the Native Americans were there

Taught in public schools that Native Americans were more primitive than their European counterparts; children and even adults continue to believe that before Columbus landed in the Americas in 1492, the western hemisphere was essentially pristine, unsullied by mankind. To Columbus, the land must have looked ripe for the taking. However, despite his thoughts on conquering the ‘wilderness’, cultivating the land for the sake of his nation’s exploits, he was ignorant to the fact that man had already resided there and manipulated the land for generations. What is often unclear to society is the Native’s incomprehensible impact on their homeland, for the effects are not always visible to the naked eye.

This black or white categorical system that Western science has created can be greatly offensive not only to indigenous people, but to many other cultures. Tribes claim that Western science has dehumanized and objectified them. Moreover, Western scientists have used the collected data as evidence of Native-American’s primitiveness compared to Europeans. Indigenous people have suffered unimaginable pain and literal torture for over 500 years because of the misconception that they are savages, and meant for extinction. The historic oppression of Native-Americans by Euro-Americans, who are the ancestors of most present day archaeologists, is a principal factor in the standoff between science and belief. The ancestors of most white archeologists fought to not only kill a few hundred Native-Americans, but to remove any traces of them. Ironically, the same Euro-Americans who escaped oppressors and tyrants in search of religious freedom, became oppressors themselves. The “white” invasion stripped Native-Americans of their long hair for short hair, their tribal wear for European buckskin clothing, and their ancestral religions for the “less-weird” Christian religion. Repeatedly, Native-Americans’ beliefs and culture have been violated. According to my childhood friend Loa, Native-Americans have a spiritual obligation to make sure that the deceased are comfortable in the afterlife. Many tribe members never say the name of a loved one after they have passed in order for their spirit to remain at peace. I cannot imagine the amount of devastation, sickness, and anger tribal members must feel when they learn that their ancestors’ have been unearthed, tested, published, polished, and placed on display at their local

While on an expedition in December of 1607, Captain John Smith and his men were attacked by a surge of Native Americans. The Native Americans, that was the Powhatan’s Tribe, killed John Smith’s men, but spared his life after Smith gave them a fascinating object which was a compass. After capturing him,

Looking first to the complicated relationship between First Nations peoples and the institutions that collect ancestral remains (mainly universities and museums), it is easy to the that this relationship is based on inequality of power and knowledge. This inequality lays its routes in the colonial history of anthropology and museums collecting human remains for the “betterment of science and knowledge” (Jenkins 2008, 114). The Eighteenth Century Enlightment ideas in