Native Americans: Exploring The Americas

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

From the very first interaction, the social and political relations between the Native Americans and the Europeans had begun with much tension. Many Europeans came to the Americas with the intention of discovery. However, when it became apparent that these new lands were inhibited the motives changed, and then the natives were colonized, abused, and in many cases killed. From then and throughout the impending periods of time, the relations between the natives and the Europeans had a few points of mutual peacefulness, but were overall negative.

The domesticated animals that the Europeans brought carried over diseases such as small pox and measles which ultimately decimated the Native American population along with numerous animals and thus harming the ecosystem. Furthermore, after numerous crops from the New World was introduced to the Old World, there came a rising demand for those crops. This eventually led colonists to mass produce these crops in hopes of selling them for extra money. Excessive farming eventually led to deforestation for farm land along with depletion of the nutrients in American soil (Nun 174). Soil depletion then resulted in poor farming which followed starvation of the colonists and the destruction of American land. This early example shows the dangers of deforestation and poor soil that people still risk today by harming the

The Native Americans, at the time of the first encounter, were still very culturally and socially primitive compared to the Europeans. They moved a lot, lived mainly of fishing and hunting, spent their time cultivating and used primitive tools and equipment in their daily activities.

The fascination with Native Americans has been a constant with outsiders since explorers first “discovered” the New World. The biggest surge in this fascination came in the mid-19th century when the Indian Wars were starting to come to an end and the belief that Native Americans were disappearing, walking into the sunset never to be seen again. This led to an increase in the collecting of anything Native American, from artifacts to stories to portraits. The inevitable outcome of this was that Native Americans, who were never considered very highly to begin with, where now moved into a category of scientific interest to be study. This scientific interest in Native Americans is what many museums and other institutions based their collections and exhibits on and is one of the issues that many Native Americans have with how both their people and their culture were, and to some extent still are, represented in these places.

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.

On February 28, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson, with the approval of congress, created the Corps of Discovery. Their mission was to map the newly acquired western lands of the Louisianna Purchase, almost 1803—828,000 square miles of unexplored territory, as well as find a route to the Pacific Ocean. This expedition was led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. During their adventure, the group encountered many hostile Native American groups, and if not for Sacagawea, these tribes would have surely jeopardized their operation. Due to her role as a helpful guide, Sacagawea was crucial in the encounter between the Corps of Discovery and the Native Americans because she negotiated and traded between the groups, functioned as a peace token, and served as an interpreter.

When Europeans came to the American continent, contact with the Native Americans who were already living there was inevitable. In the colonization of early America, the various groups of European settlers: the Spanish, French, English, and Dutch each had unique experiences with, and therefore individual opinions of the Native Americans whom they interacted. Each of these nations also shared commonalties in their colonization processes and in how they viewed Native Americans. Furthermore, the Native Americans held differing opinions of each group of Europeans whom they encountered while some features of their relationships with Europeans were consistent despite the tribe or nation involved.

The Native American 's encounters with European colonists led to different interactions between the two, as well as a development of varied relationships. America had been home to Native Americans since around 13,000 B.C. The Europeans arrived in America around 1492 to find that the land was already inhabited. Before the Europeans arrived, the Native Americans had lived in harmony with nature and with each other in communities, having strong family ties. When the Europeans arrived, they held different values than the Native Americans. As the Europeans settled in New England, Chesapeake and New York/New France, these differences shaped the relationships between the Native Americans and the European colonists.

“We gave them corn and meat; they gave us poison in return.” (Red Jacket,1) A quote that greatly summarises the overall encounter of Native Americans and explorers over the course of hundreds of years where the result was in the end, all the same. Despite the Native Americans obtaining European goods, the Native American experience was bad because they helped explorers, but were seen as savages, had things stolen from them and many died as a result of their experiences from war or just a desire to kill Native Americans. These experiences matter because they were what helped the US become what it is today.

When the colonists decided to travel to the New World, they were looking for the New World to better their lives. They came to gain knowledge of the world; which eventually they did from the Native Americans, and their own experiences. They were hoping for better opportunities within their colonies such as learning to manage money, to hunt and fish, and build homes for themselves; many did not know how to do these things before their travel. In the New World, they were also able to gain freedom, something they didn’t have in England. Eventually, they learned many new traits during their travels to the New World, which took them three months.

I am Tisquantum, or as you may know me, Squanto. I am the last of my tribe. I was taken from my homeland, the Americas as a slave to Spain. From Spain, I traveled to England, Newfoundland, and back again to my homeland, near Plymouth. I am now free, but use my land, animal, and English knowledge to assist the new settlers of Plymouth in a multitude of ways; I also use my influence with the natives and the Colonists for my own benefit. Unfortunately, I died an early death, but my legacy remains today, with the national holiday of Thanksgiving (Tindall & Shi, 2013).

Over the course of the expedition, Lewis and Clark developed a ritual that they used when meeting a tribe for the first time. The captains would explain to the tribal leaders that the their land now belonged to the United States, and that a man far in the east – President Thomas Jefferson – was their new “great father.” They would also give the Indians a peace medal with Jefferson on one side and two hands clasping on the other, as well as some form of presents (often trade goods). Moreover, the Corps members would perform a kind of parade, marching in uniform and shooting their guns. Fifty years before Lewis and Clark, the Blackfeet Indians had a reputation of being hospitable to Europeans, who occasionally even

When Columbus came from Spain and took a trip heading for the Americas, he brought over horses, rats, and pigs. With the Spanish bring over the horses it impacted the New World by them becoming very important in battles. In battles it gave the Spanish an advantage because they sat high above the ground, they could move very fast and the horses terrified the natives of the land. The horses also impacted the Spanish when they were in the new world because the horses are an important way to carry information for the explorers. The horses eventually multiplied so much that there started to be wild horses running around the Americas. The pigs impacted the explorers in the new world by giving them meat to eat. Pigs were the main meat source because they can adapt easily and they reproduced many offspring. The cattle were important because they were the main export from the New World. They were killed for meat and their hides. The colonists killed the cattle and sent the hides back to the Old World so they could make money. The rats, especially the black rat, came across to the New World by accident. They would come across the colonial ports and stowaway on ships. The rats carried a disease that plagued the colonists. The disease is called Bubonic Plague and Typhus. This plague affected the Natives in America because the plague killed off the animals that the natives depended on for living. All these animals impacted the New World in a negative way because they grazed so much that the colonists needed to move them to a place with a lot of

Always historicize! This famous dictum becomes the trigger for anyone who wants to have an investigation by looking at the significance of historical dimension of a text. Such investigation also examines the cultural and social objects in a larger social relation. As history is the key, the investigation further goes to use it in order to restore and reshape our perspectives on a particular text. This is not to say that after finding the connection our analysis is done, but it actually goes beyond that. The assumption that a text reflects what is in the society, is enriched and explored more by using Jameson’s critical investigation. Such framework of analysis enables us to see more. Just like what the indigenous people in the North America