Indian History Is Within The Landscape

The Lakota, an Indian group of the Great Plains, established their community in the Black Hills in the late eighteenth century (9). This group is an example of an Indian community that got severely oppressed through imperialistic American actions and policy, as the Americans failed to recognize the Lakota’s sovereignty and ownership of the Black Hills. Jeffrey Ostler, author of The Lakotas and the Black Hills: The Struggle for Sacred Ground, shows that the Lakota exemplified the trends and subsequent challenges that Indians faced in America. These challenges included the plurality of groups, a shared colonial experience, dynamic change, external structural forces, and historical agency.

Popular culture has shaped our understanding and perception of Native American culture. From Disney to literature has given the picture of the “blood thirsty savage” of the beginning colonialism in the new world to the “Noble Savage,” a trait painted by non-native the West (Landsman and Lewis 184) and this has influenced many non native perceptions. What many outsiders do not see is the struggle Native American have on day to day bases. Each generation of Native American is on a struggle to keep their traditions alive, but to function in school and ultimately graduate.

American history frequently centers on the issues of ethnic diversity and resource allocation. In the contemporary, we begin to see the experiences of the Native inhabitants of the Americas in contrast to European settlers and colonizers, is a prime example of this process in motion. When European settlers first arrived to the New World in the 15th century, firstly the Spanish, they brought with them a material cultural based upon an economic standard of resource exploitation, which in a sense was hostile to most of the Native peoples of the Americas. For instance, as Blackhawk notes that, Europeans built permanent settlements consisting of immovable structures, whereas many of the Great Basin peoples were semi-migratory in nature. Additionally, as Europeans claimed possession over the land, its resources, and began a process of territorial delimitation, Native peoples whose lives

Native American, or American Indians, have a rich culture comprised of struggle, strife and success. For this paper, i will discuss the Native American Culture and it's history.

Though obvious to the name, the American Indian Tribes had much to do with the growth of what we now know of as the US. Long ago when the english settlers came over with Columbus, on the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, they had found that there were people living there, were very different from “the white man”. But the American Indians have been located throughout the states from the very beginning and are still thriving, in some cases. One of the more commonly known, American Indian Tribes is the Cherokee tribe.(WKU Meteorology; Dr. Greg Goodrich)

The Navajo had a lifestyle that is not too diverse than the American style of living today. They lived in homes, raised livestock, and the public had roles that are a bit similar to ones in our society. They lived in cone shaped houses called hogans. At first, logs and poles were used as framework, but in later years, they used stone or adobe. The doorways always faced east so that the first thing the family saw was the morning sun. They also raised livestock to increase herds instead of the usual in which the tribe would use up the supply for food. They first received goats and sheep from the Spanish, in which they used for meat, milk, and wool. They also acquired horses at about the same time. Horses gave them greater mobility during raiding and hunting activity. The roles of the people are also similar to the world

A large part of the formation of our country and Western society involved interaction with tribes of Native Americans that inhabited North America well before Europeans settled it. It started with Spanish conquistadors and explorers, then British colonies which would mold and change into the revolutionized American Colonists. Along this succession, the Indian tribes on the east coast experienced extreme prejudice, regime changes and war. Among these tribes are the Cherokee. The Cherokee were at the forefront of Indian-European relations. They remained strong in the southeast, despite war and epidemic. The Cherokee underwent significant culture changes yet not always by choice. War and disease tore apart the Cherokee as well other tribes but

For most of my life, the word “Native American” had immediately made me think of feathers, powwows, and a society uncorrupted by civilization. However, in watching the movie Smoke Signals, a movie that depicts the modern Native American culture, I learned many other things. For one, I learned that many of the customs that modern Native Americans have are very similar to my own. I also saw that the family life of the Native Americans in the film had many of the same problems that my family had undergone in the past years. This film was unlike any that I have ever seen; therefore, it reached me on a very personal level.

Our nomadic ancestors of our modern Native Americans as we know today made their way over the “land bridge” from Asia which is now called Alaska over more than 12,000 years ago. Dividing these nomadic areas into “culture areas,” or groupings of connecting people who shared similar habitats and characteristics into 10 separate culture areas: the Arctic, the Subarctic, the Northeast, the Southeast, the Plains, the Southwest, the Great Basin, California, the Northwest Coast and the Plateau. Focusing on the Southeast, I want to narrow it down to Cherokee Indians because this is my background ethnicity. This being one of the American Indians that we associate with today in our vulnerable populations and health care issues.

Q1: Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America, but I never encounters with American Indians. The first time I knew the Native American is when I want a book call “World history” in my high school, the book had a chapter about how the European Colonizer came by boat and occupied their land. I knew a famous Indian historical figure when I visit the U.S Capitol two years ago, he’s name is Chief Washakie, he caught my eye because of his wearing, Chief Washakie headdress with eagle feathers and his left hand carry a scepter.

As European civilization spread across America, indigenous populations decreased. Disease and war carried off their victims too. The transition of land between Europeans and Indians was accomplished through treaties, war, and violent rejection. For a while, it seemed that the Indians and their history will disappear altogether. We have to give a credit to the Indians like Thomas Builds-the-Fire who was telling the stories of their tribe without any hesitation and fear. Thomas believed that every real Indian must know the history of their tribe; therefore, he saved the history of Native Americans from vanishing forever by word of

The involvement of Native Americans in American history is an important component of the history of the United States. All too often little is taught about Native Americans in U.S. history classes in different time periods and misconceptions run abound. A common place to see blatantly incorrect depictions of Native Americans are in American films about the West. Often in these films Native Americans are of anonymous tribes or display characteristics of completely different tribes, are thirsty for white blood and scalps, and quickly fall down dead with white cowboys’ weapons. Both The Last of the Mohicans and Dances with Wolves, while maybe not Westerns, are feature length films who depict Native Americans and from different time periods,

“The Navajos did not make war just to steal and kill; they earned their reputation as warriors fighting to protect their lands, properties, and families- and a just cause it was.” The Navajo tribe is one of the oldest and is the largest tribe in the United States and branches from the Apache tribe. Their characteristics and traditions of clothing, shelter, and food are still around today. This tribe is known for their peacefulness and religious beliefs and 0many experts consider their lifestyle to have been a wealth of culture. They were resilient and seemed to recuperate from the many hardships they faced, even destitution.

Native American history spans tens of thousands of thousands of years and two continents. It is a multifaceted story of dynamic cultures that in turn spawned intricate economic relationships and complex political alliances. Through it all, the relationship of First Peoples to the land has remained a central theme.

Did you know that the Ancient Indian people of the Southwestern United States have dated back to the year 10,000 BC? First appearing toward the end of the last Ice Age, they were the first “Americans.” (Noble, 1998) When Christopher Columbus arrived in the America’s in 1492 and seeing the people of this land for the first time, he thought that he had landed in India, thus giving them the name “Indians.” (Noble, 1998) However, he was nowhere near India, or that region of the world. Because the Ancient Indians were nomadic people, (people who wondered the lands with no permanent home) through the years they developed, separated, and re-located their clans, developing