How Did The Environment Affect The Native American Indians With Particular Reference To The Woodland Indians? The environment hugely affected the Native American Indians in many different ways. This is because of the way in which the Indians used the environment and the surrounding land. The Indians were very close to nature, and so that meant that any changes in nature would be changes in the Indians. Land The Indians thought of land very differently to the white man. The land was sacred, there was no ownership, and it was created by the great spirit. They could not sell their land to others, whereas the white people could fence off the land which belonged to them, and sell it freely to whoever they wanted. The Europeans didn 't think that the Indians were using the land properly, so in their eyes, they were doing a good favour to the earth. To the Indians, the land was more valuable than the money that the white man had brought with him, even though it didn 't belong to them. Indians lived all over America, in many different environments including the flatlands, the forests, the mountains, the deserts, the prairies, on the coast, and even in the arctic. All these Environments affected the different Indians in different ways, so that different Indians evolved over time. Religion Religion was a very big part in many Indians life. Almost every part of Indian life is related to religion, the land is sacred, and religion plays a part in what can be done with it,
Southern indians had the most effect on their environment. For agriculture they needed clear grounds which was relatively easy for them, they did this so they can set fires to wood and completely clearing the land. They would plant crops especially corn on that land. Stripping forest for firewood and clearing field wasn’t only actions indians took, they burned extensive sections of forest twice a year which would consume all the rubbish and underwood, destroyed the vermin, kept weeds and thickets under check and recycled the nutrients back into soil which caused grases, shrubs and nonwoody plants to grow more luxuriantly. Burning of some areas also encouraged extensive growth of other areas which created boundaries between grass and forest area. This creation of ideal habitats attracted animals to certain places which allowed indians to hunt them
The effect of being Plains Indians located on a reservation in Oklahoma during the 1900. Between 1865 and 1900 there have numerous events that have occurred for the plains Indians that changed their way of thinking, and their way of life here in the United States of America. It all started with as a simple introduction of the horses, buffalo, boarding schools, loss of land and major attacks on the Indians.
Native Americans were the first environmentalists and horticulturists. They were the spirit world was embodied in every part of the natural world, whether animal, vegetable or mineral. Survived by being big game hunters and/or fisherman. They would settle in different regions and form independent tribes with distinct Indian cultures. According to Bible Scripture, by 1492 there were over 300 Native American languages. Native Americans left so much history for people today and how America got started. Many people don't realize how much the Indians achieved during the time.
Have you ever been in a place of green with forests and animals everywhere? Well, where some of the Native Americans lived, there were such things. Native American tribes such as the Crow lived in the Great Plains. The Crow tribe of the Great Plains were nomadic and followed the buffalo migrations which provided their food. This tribe spent a good part of the year living in camps that could easily be dismantled and moved to follow the buffalo migrations. Other tribes of the plains were more sedentary. These tribes lived in permanent villages year round.
Both had to be recognized and accepted by the other villages or communities. Since the land was a divided boundaries, Europeans had deeds for the land, records of ownership, that made it accessible to sell and buy land. Since the Indians thought of the land as free for anyone to use, nor did they have the need for money, therefore the Indians couldn’t buy land and Europeans believed that they were indigent.
Europeans came to the Americas for many different reasons. Religious freedom, adventure, gold, new opportunity, and land are a few of them. Perhaps the most serious was the different way that Europeans and Native Americans thought about land. Land was extremely important to European settlers because land meant wealth, in which they established many communities where they lived and worked. Many of the settlers in the new country could have never owned land in Europe because they were too poor. The Native Americans believed that no one could own land. They
The Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida, they inherited all of these lands from their ancestors who cultivated for generations. According to Elias Boudinot the natives considered themselves to be just as equal as the Whites, he states, “What is an Indian? Is he not formed of the same materials with yourself?” (Boudinot, 1826) The natives saw themselves to be no different from the Whites, in fact they cared for one another as a whole, they lived in kinships, where there was never an Indian left alone without a family. They followed a society based off of the concept of interdependence, they had in their mind that everything is dependent of something. The Indians were very advanced, and were able to prosper in their society, although the Whites believed otherwise, and believed that the natives were uncivilized.
Native Americans controlled their environments by burning forested areas inhabited by elk, deer, and turkey to facilitate hunting. Also, Native Americans burned fields to remove their old stock in order to cultivate the land more smoothly.
Physical characteristics would have affected settlement patterns in the seventeenth century by changing whether a population would have to spread apart or if they would have to remain concentrated in one area and by changing what kind of homes they could have. The Eastern Woodlands included the Midwest and Northeast Regions. This region had rolling hills, plains, plentiful rainfall and moderate seasons. The Iroquois lived mainly near the Great Lakes and oceans in areas close to lakes and streams. Because of the welcoming climate, the Iroquois were able to farm allowing them to have permanent settlements with the longhouses that they preferred. Furthermore, because they lived near water, they had the ability to fish using the boats they were
The Native Americans sustained and took care of their home, while the Europeans pushed and pulled for more money to fall from it. This caused the land to lose a lot of its density and eventually the Europeans’ wealth as well. Things that were lost were proper farming grounds, culture of the Native Americans, and wild life. Different views of the Europeans and Native Americans caused a lot of conflict. The Europeans’ views on the Indians’ way of life became critical once they saw and felt as if their society was not controlled
Indians did many different things for themselves. Horses greatly increased human movement and activity on the plains, Such as bufflalo, dogs, housing, culture, trade,
There were two world altering centers of invention: the Middle East and central Mexico. All the inventions in the Middle East traveled all over Africa and Eurasia but the Americas had to do everything on their own. The America’s excelled mostly in agriculture and nearly half the grown today were developed in America. The Indians were very good at exploiting the land. Instead of just taking the land how it was they would shape it to what the needed primarily by burning it. When the Indians were gone all the areas they had made into savannahs became forest. A growing number of researchers believe that Indians had a large impact on the environment around them especially the jungle. Many people believe that the Amazon rainforest is an area totally untouched by man when in fact it is believed to have been either directly or indirectly created by human. Indians were also the keystone species of their environment and when they were gone it caused a huge shift in the ecological system. The population of many animals exploded,
Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England authored by William Cronon discusses the history of the ecological changes of colonial New England in consequence to the relationship of Native American and European Settlers and the land. Cronon exemplifies this by helping readers understand the effect of the change of dominance in New England from Native Americans to Europeans had on landscape and ecosystems.
Another area in which the Indians thrived was that of agriculture and their understanding of the earth. Europeans had little knowledge of agriculture, or chose not to use what they did have. Europe was in a state of agricultural depression. Most of the soil was completely exhausted due to overuse and general mistreatment of the land. Both activities which continued in America.
Native Americans have played an important role in the United States for over thousands of years. The Native Americans once lived on their land with little disturbance, having made their own meals and lived in a traditional culture up until Columbus had discovered their land. From their first arrival into the Native land, the Spanish mistreated and disrespected the Indians by trying to enforce their way of life and their beliefs upon them.