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Native Americans: Yesterday & Today
A Project Work by Irene Petrashchuk, Group 34-EUnder the general supervision of O. ZabolotnyiMany different Native American groups
lived in North America. Different tribes living in thesame region shared the same culture because the land they lived on shaped their way of life.LONG BEFORE the white man set foot on American soil, the American Indians, or rather theNative Americans, had been living in America. When the Europeans came here, there wereprobably about 10 million Indians populating America north of present-day Mexico. And they hadbeen living in America for quite some time. It is believed that the first Native Americans arrivedduring the last ice-age, approximately 20,000 - 30,000 years ago through a land-bridge acrossthe Bering Sound, from northeastern Siberia intoAlaska . The oldest documented Indian cultures in North America are Sandia (15000 BC), Clovis (12000 BC) and Folsom (8000 BC)Although it is believed that the Indians originated in Asia, few if any of them came from India.The name "Indian" was first applied to them by Christopher Columbus, who believed mistakenlythat the mainland and islands of America were part of the Indies, in Asia.
 
Page 2.So, when the Europeans started to arrive in the 16th- and 17th-century they were met by NativeAmericans quite enthusiastically. The Natives regarded their white-complexioned visitors assomething of a marvel, not only for their outlandish dress and beards and winged ships buteven more for their wonderful technology - steel knives and swords, fire-belching harquebusand cannon, mirrors, hawk bells and earrings, copper and brass kettles, and so on.However, conflicts eventually arose. As a starter, the arriving Europeans seemed attuned toanother world, they appeared to be oblivious to the rhythms and spirit of nature. Nature to theEuropeans - and the Indians detected this - was something of an obstacle, even an enemy. Itwas also a commodity: a forest was so many board feet of timber; a beaver colony so manypelts, a herd of buffalo so many robes and tongues. Even the Indians themselves were aresource - souls ripe for the Jesuit, Dominican, or Puritan missionaries, who tried to turn them toChristianity.
Right:
Locomotives from the easternand western United States are depicted here meeting in Promontory, Utah,where crowds gathered to watch the joining of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads on May 10, 1869. Thisfirst transcontinental railroad opened theWest to supplies and resources from theEast and served as the chief means of transportation for settlers in the West.
It was the Europeans' cultural arrogance, coupled with their materialistic view of the land and itsanimal and plant beings that the Indians found repellent. Europeans, as a whole, were regardedas something mechanical - soulless creatures that used diabolically ingenious tools andweapons to accomplish their crazy plans.
Buffalo
The buffalo provided the Plains Indians with food. Its skin was used for clothing and for shelter.The bones were turned into spoons, cups and other tools. The stomach was cleaned and madeinto a bag for carrying food and water.
The end of the buffalo
came with theEuropeans. Some killed it for sport, othersfor business. Passengers of the trainsshot the animals from train windows.Professional hunters like Buffalo Bill Codyshot them for their valuable skins.Railroad companies hired hunters tokeep buffalos away from the new raillines. The hunters did their job well.Between 1870 and 1885, they killed over 10 million animals. For the first time,many Indians did not have enough to eat.
 
Page 3.
Right:
WilliamFrederick Cody, (1846-1917) known as BuffaloBill, American scout and showman, at Fort Garry Gateway, Winnipeg,Manitoba, Canada withNative Americans.
The Europeans brought with them not only a desire and will to conquer the new continent for allits material richness, but they also brought with them diseases that hit the Indians hard.Conflicts developed between the Native Americans and the Invaders, the latter arriving inoverwhelming numbers, as many "as the stars in heaven". The Europeans were accustomed toown land and laid claim to it while they considered the Indians to be nomads with no interest toclaim land ownership. The conflicts led to the Indian Wars, the Indian Removal Act empoweredby President Andrew Jackson in 1830 and other acts instituted by the Europeans in order toaccomplish their objectives, as they viewed them at the time. In these wars the Indian tribeswere at a great disadvantage because of their modest numbers, nomadic life, lack of advancedweapons, and unwillingness to cooperate, even in their own defense.
Left:
U.S. Cavalrymen are chasing the Indians.
Below:
The map of the battle of Little Big Horn, where on June 26,1876 a U.S. cavalry unit commanded by General Custer was rooted by the Sioux Indiansled by Chief Sitting Bull.
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aorober

Congrats to Irene! superb job, kid! I'll have my english303 students read your work and I'm certain they're going to enjoy it as much as I did. roberval

reply06 / 01 / 2008
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