The History of the American Indians - Essay Example

The American Indians

The American Indians were the first people to settle in the United States and therefore they have always been referred to as the indigenous people, Indians or the Native Americans. There are different beliefs as to where the American Indians came from. Some research shows that the American Indians are most likely to have come from Siberia and settled in the America more than 15000 years ago. Ancient DNA has revealed that the modern day American Indians ancestors’ had European roots. Another study reveals that the ancestors of the American Indians from the tip of South Chile to Canada in the north came from Asia in 3 waves most likely who made a great genetic contribution. The first group was that which was referred to as the “first Americans”. It was a single group and it crossed from Asia to America through a bridge known as Beringia. The migrants who came later probably arrived by boats after Beringia disappeared in the ice ages end.

They are referred to as Indians because the first person (Columbus) to land in America thought that he had sailed to India and therefore he named the people he found living there Indians. The name then stuck. The Americans Indians had grouped themselves into nations in relation to the area of inhabitation as well as the culture, for example, the language, customs as well as religion. These tribes are known to have lived peacefully prior to the Europeans as well as Columbus arrival. Almost 22% of American Indians in America live on tribal lands and almost 28% of American Indians live below the poverty line. Their infant mortality rate is higher than that of Caucasians and they have a high likelihood of dying from diabetes than non-natives. Europeans introduced dangerous diseases to the Native Americans such as small pox, cholera, and measles. Most Native Americans have a high likelihood of becoming obese than non-Hispanics (Palmer 90).

The cultural heritage of the American Indians

Their cultural heritage is a diverse one. They have sought for their human rights to be recognized by the international community especially those rights that have to do with living as communities that are self-governed within their homelands that are traditional. in the United States there exists 566 American Indian tribes as well as villages. They each have their own culture, history as well as language. Each tribe has their own traditions that are unique as well as different styles of food, housing, and dressing. The ‘’Indian Wars’’ which happened in the 18th and 19th century caused the Indian Americans to lose their homelands. They were displaced from their ancestral land to reservations where they had lived for generations by forced relocations as well as broken treaties. Their tribes became split, they were united with traditional competitors and they were made to relocate to reservations which were distant from their homes and their sacred places. The notion of ‘’Kill the Indian and Save the Man’’ saw the prohibition of tribes from conducting their ceremonies as well as religion (Force 32). Tribes had no control of their own ceremonial items.in the late 1800s to mid-1900s there was an enacting of legislation by the U.S government whereby they removed Native children from the places where they lived and they took them to Christian boarding schools. They were taken miles away from their homes and their loved ones and whenever they tried to speak their languages or even practice their traditions they would be punished severely. In the U.S as well as in Canada, governments tried to get rid of the native cultures together with their identities through boarding schools aggressive regimes of assimilation and also by the use of the military there were a lot of children who died due to malnutrition and diseases. Those that survived came back after years only to find themselves disconnected from their traditional ways as well as families. This trauma and persecution made their tribal structure and families to break down.it also led to the weakening of their spiritual ties. The children who had attended those boarding schools lost their self-sense because of the cultural identity shaming they had gone through (Adair 65).

Most U.S tribes are now reviving their cultures as well as traditions. They have created programs where they learn the language so as to preserve as well as pass on their dialects of their tribes to their future generations.

Language or dialect

There are no structural features in grammar, phonetics or vocabulary or any interrelated stock whereby the Native American language can be wholly distinguished from languages that are spoken in other places. in America north of Mexico several language groups existed such as Siouan, Athabascan etc. in Mesoamerica there was a larger population of Indians and they spoke at least 80 languages, for example, the Maya languages. Southern Mexico had the greatest linguistic diversity. South America had a great diversity of languages especially in the Andean region which had a powerful Indian empire. Many American Indian language groups disappeared due to the European conquest as well as colonization and those groups which survived there were due to radical changes. Many languages have become extinct and even though there isn’t an exact figure there are a number of languages that are still spoken and some are by huge populations. Most surviving languages in the north of Mexico have less than 1000 speakers each.in such small communities, a lot of people are bilingual and the younger individuals are taught using the English language in schools. Most American Indian languages are dying out and only a few numbers of these languages are flourishing such as the Ojibwa and Navaho.

Many indigenous languages of North America have shown language contact and have been borrowing vocabulary items and other features from each other. When the American Indians came into contact with Europeans, some of the groups borrowed little and others a lot from the Europeans. Most words for acculturation’s new items were produced based on words that were native. Most of the state’s names such as Kentucky and Missouri in the U.S are derived from words in Amerindians and a number of Native American words such as guacamole and potato have entered the language of English. There are also other places that owe their origins to American Indian languages such as Oklahoma and Tennessee (Quesnel et.al 125).

Symbolic systems

Religion

most American Indian spokespeople deny any religion engagement by their people .they insist that their social structure as well as the culture was and is still infused with community inseparable spirituality.in the ancient times, their religious conviction was not categorized as a religion because their dogmas couldn’t be well understood. This is because they lacked a set of written guidelines. The Native American spirituality is very detailed .the Native Americans believe in supernatural beings which control the social as well as the natural world. Each tribe consists of their own religious observances set which are devoted to that aim. People tried to appease spiritual entities which are powerful by sacrificing valuable items such as food or doing private prayers, however, when the communities needed assistance so as to get good harvests, successful hunting or victories in war fares they used to call upon shamans, priestesses, and priests who were believed to have supernatural powers. The shamans were wise and also had experience. They enjoyed a social status that was higher among the groups.

Their religion focuses around nature and many environmental elements such as plants and animals play a significant role in their religion. They passed down many legends to try and explain natural events. The American Indians religion consists of a number of ceremonies, practices as well as traditions. These ceremonies are normally done to honor some events. Ceremonies include music, feasts, dances and other performances. Native Americans used animals to represent specific characteristics spirits as well as ideas. Other tribes used the animals to tell the creation story which some were centered on Ravens.

Cuisine

The Indian American cuisine varied from tribe to tribe. Some tribes were agricultural and could stay in one place and farm the land while others were semi-nomadic whereby they relocated from different places hunting as well gathering food for their families. Ancient Americans found food using five basic ways. They hunted, gathered, fished, farmed and raised domesticated animals. The Indian Americans most important meal was Indian corn. Most tribes grew it and those that did not would trade with their neighbors for it. They also ate other food such as squash pumpkin peanuts etc. most had diets that were very meat heavy. The Native American cooking was simple. Most of them preferred eating fresh foods without many spices while a few others such as those in Mexico could use less fresh meat and would cook food with more spices. After Europeans took over, they introduced some new plants and animals that did not exist originally for instance wheat. Other tribes forcefully changed traditional lifestyles. Although some tribes such as Eskimos still earn by going to hunt and trap, however, it is becoming rare. Most Americans Indians still enjoy their traditional Native Indian food today and they still eat modern food just as the non-natives do. Modern day Indian American cuisine is varied (Markowitz 134).

American Indian clothing

Nearly every tribe American Indian tribe had their own different dressing style and a person could be easily identified by the way they had dressed as well as the ornaments they wore. Most American Indian tribes wore breechcloths together with leather leggings when it was cold. Most Native American men didn’t wear shirts. Their dressing was dictated by the availability of animals’ fish and birds as well as the climate. The men and women also wore different clothes based on traditions of the tribes they belonged to. They highly respected the nature and they never used to waste any animal products .they put the animal products to good use by creating their clothing as well as ornaments. This included the skins of buffalos, snakes rabbits, and deer. They also used plant products to make clothes. They could strip, dry, shred and make fibers from the bark of trees. Native Americans were known to use the hairs of a porcupine to make hair brushes and they would also take a stick, cut it into the right shape and frayed it at the edges so as to make a toothbrush (Quesnel et.al 57).

Physical appearance

The Native Americans were known to have high cheekbones; some had rounded faces; widened or flat nostrils; very dark hair and most have brown eyes.

Art

The American Indian art includes quillwork, metalwork, and beadwork. They also have paintings; carvings and basket weaving have preserved their artifacts in museums. Their art remains have been found in many places in the country.

Work Cited

Adair, James. The History of the American Indians: Particularly Those Nations Adjoining to the Mississippi, East and West Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, and Virginia. , 2013. Internet resource.

Force, Roland W, Maryanne Force, and Sandra Stotsky. The American Indians. New York: Chelsea House, 1996. Print.

Markowitz, Harvey. American Indians. Pasadena, Calif: Salem Press, 1995. Print.

Palmer, Rose A. The North American Indians: An Account of the American Indians North of Mexico. Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger Pub, 2008. Print.

Quesnel, Alain, Frances Halton, François Davot, and Gilles Ragache. American Indians. Bath: Cherrytree Books, 1994. Print.