Native Americans

The relationship between the Indians and the European explorers, trappers, and settlers were the earliest history of the New World. Some of the Indians were friendly at first. The Indians taught the newcomers many things. When the Europeans came to the New World, the Europeans were used to living on farms or in cities.

The Europeans followed the Indian trails to find water sources, copper deposits, gold deposits, silver deposits, turqoise, and other minerals. The Europeans learned how to make snow shoes, toboggans, and travel by canoe from the Indians. Another important gifts of the Indians is food. Such as: 1) avocadoes, 2) corn, 3) peanuts, 4) peppers, 5) pineapples, 6) potatoes, 7) squash, and 8) tomatoes. The Indians introduce tobacco to the Whites.

The Indians learned from the whites as well. The Europeans brought metal equipment, guns, and liqour to the Indians as well as cattle and horses. Horses and cattle were unknown to the Indians.

The Indians and Europeans have different ways of life. Some of the Europeans understood the Indians and treated the Indians fairly. The other Europeans cheated the Indains and took their land. The Indians fought back and thousands of Indians were killed. The only weapons the Indians had were bows, arrows, and spears. The Europeans had guns, measles, smallpox, tuberculosis that killed thousands of Indians. These diseases were brought by the whites.

The Europeans settled in North America and moved westward. The Europeans became a major threat to the Indians way of life. The whites moved the rest of the Indians to reservations. The Indians today still don't follow the white man's ways. In Central and South America, many tribes have kept their language and ways of life. Most of the Indians became part of the new way that consists of Indian and European ways.

The daily activities of the Indians are centered on the family and the main neccessities. The main neccessities of life are good, clothing, and shelter. Men and women have separate tasks. The mend would bring in the food. The women would prepare the food, and they do the work around the house. The main food source of the Indians comes from North America. In parts of what is now Arizona, New Mexico, Middle and South America, these places were farmed by the Indians.

The Indians married at an early age. The girls married anywhere from the ages of 12-15. The boys married anywhere from the ages of 15-20. The parents or relatives would chose the marriage partners for the young people. Love wasn't the idea of marriage. During the marriage, the husband and wife will become fond of each other. Most North American Indians could select their mate. The Indian groom would have to persuade the bride and her parents that he would be the best husband.

In the New World, the marriage was a family affair and not a religious ceremony. The bride's family would usually receive presents from the groom's family. The newly married couples would live with the bride's family. The husband would work for the family. The husband would leave the work until the birth of their first child. After the child was born, the couple would establish their own home. The couple doesn't move to a new home in a new area. The couple will join an existing family group. Sometimes, they will live with one that is close by to them. The couple may move in with a relative of the man or woman. This is called an extended family. The extended family will share the daily work, and they will raise the children.

The Indian societies allowed men to have more than one wife. This practice is common among the rich or powerful men. Certain tribes are strictlly limited men to one mate. Such tribes like this are the Iroquois and the Pueblo of North America.

The wife would sometimes live with the husband's brother as wife after her husband's death. The wife would do this if the husband's brother was married. The wife's family would give her husband another daughter to marry and to replace her after the woman dies.

The Indian families were small for a reason. The reason their children would at birth or die as infants. The children had plenty of other children to play with. The extended families included cousins in addition to the child's brothers or sisters.

When Indian chidlren behaved well, the Indians praised them. They seldom spanked the children. The Aztec and the Inca tribes had schools. The Indian children learned from other tribes to perform the duties of a man and a woman and their older siblings. The games that the children played made them skillfull, strong and expected the boys to prepare for warfare.

When the boys reached their early teens, they will go through a strength or a bravery test. This test is called initiation ceremony. The boys may go without food or have a vision of the spirit that would be his lifelong guardian. Many groups had ceremonies, but they were common for girls. When the boy successfully finished his test, the boy would be considered an adult and be ready to be married.

A family group was even larger than an extended family. A clan consists of a group of relatives who had a common ancestor. The clan members are related either by the men or women, but not related by both. They are willingly to help each other.

The association is another type of Indian group. The association resembles a clan, but the association members are not related. The North American Plain tribes have association for the men that were organized according to age groups. Youths would join a boy's association. Then, they move to other association at various stages in their lives.

Tribes would be divided into halves called moieties. Moieties often played each other in games. They would help bury members of the group. Also, they would comfort the tribe in time of mourning.

The Indians who live on the plains of the U.S. and those who livee in thee woodland areas of Canada ate mostly meat. The Pueblo and othre farming groups mainly liveed on beans, corn, and squash. The Inca's important crop is the potatoes. Indians, who lived in the tropical areas of South America, made a loaf of bread from the roots of bitter cassava. Cassava is a small shube. Indian tribes, who live near water, caught fish and gathered shellfish. Most of the Indian groups ate berries, nuts, roots, seeds, and wild plants. Also, the Indians would gather salt and maple syrup whenever they could.

They made tea from plants such as sassafras and wintergreen. The Indians, who lived in Middle and South America, drank a mild beer chicha. Chicha was made from corn, cassava, peanuts, or potatoes.

Indians, who ate mostly meat, cooked it by roasting, broiling or boiling. Farming Indians and orthers, who ate mainly vegetables, developed different methods of baking. They preserved their food by smoking the food or by drying the food in the sun. They would mix their dried meat with grease and berries to make a food called pemmican. The Indians would eat with their fingers, but some of the Indians would use spoons that was made from shells or wood.

The Indian clothes are made from animal skin and fur. Tanned deer hide was the common clothing material in North America. Also, they used buffalo hides, rabbit fur, and bird feathers. The NW coast tribes of North America made their cloth from bark and reeds. The Pueblo Indians wove cotton for their clothing material.

In some tribes, the men wore only a breechcloth. A breech cloth is a narrow band of cloth that passed between the legs and looped over the front and rear of a belt. The NW coast and the South American Indians often wear no clothing. The women of the tribe wore aprons or skirts. In colder climates, the Indians wore leggings, shirts, and robes. Also, they wore sandals or moccasins to protect their feet.

The Indians had differed kinds of homes. The reason that they had different homes is they lived in different kinds of slimates and had different building materials. The Haida Indians built large houses where many families lived together. The Pomo Indians, who lived in CA, built simple huts that could house a few people.

A wig wam is a dome-shaped house that is made of bark and has a pole framework. Many Indians used these houses in the Eastern Woodlands. The Iroquois Indians used long houses. The long houses were long and rectangular. Most of these houses are 100 ft (30 m) long. Wickiups were used by the Apache and Paiute Indians. A wickiup is made up of brush and matting to make simple huts. Earth lodges were used by some North American tribes. These Indians built their houses in the pits and roofed the structures with sod. The Navajo Hogan was formed with poles or logs covered with earth cone-shaped tepees of buffalo skins were built by the Plains Indians. The Indians in other areas covered the tepees with animal skin or with tree bark. At the southern tip of South America, the Indians used skins to cover their windbreaks. Adobe, sun-dried bricks, were used by the Cliff Dwellers and other Pueblo Indians to make many-storied "apartment houses." In Mexico and the Andes Mountains of South America, the Indians used adobe too.

The Indians used or hunted birds for their feathers. Also, they prized some of the animals. Such animals like: 1) beaver, and 2) vicuma. The Indians hunted these animals for their furs.

The important animals of fame of North and South America are: 1) deet, 2) rabbits, and 3) other small game. Other small game includes: 1) duck, 2) geese, and 3) herons. Sea mammals include: 1) seals, 2) sea lions, 3) whales, 4) turtles, and 5) snakes. Only in North America, bear, buffalo, caribou, elk, and moose lives. In South America, the guamaco, jaguar, peccary, rhea, and tapir were hunted.

The Indians huted with weapons they used for war. Bow and arrows, spears, and clubs had their own special features for hunting. The Hopi Indians stunned their small game with a kind of boomerang.

The Indians caught fish with traps, nets, spears, hooks, line, and harpoons. Indian tribes, who were from the NW coasts, used long poles called herring rakes. The herring rakes had points that were jagged and could catch a number of herring at one time. Indians, who lived in tropical South America, shot fish with bows and arrows. They got these bows and arrows from the dand bars in the rivers.

Indians, who lived in North and South Americca, used drugs to capture fish. The Indian fisherman chopped up a certain number of plans and drop them in the water. Walnut bark was used by the Cherokee and Iroquois Indains. The roots of the soap plant was used by the California tribes. Indians, who lived in the Tropical Forest, used 100 plants or more of tropical plants. The plant drugs paralyzed the gills of the fish for a few moments. The fish would come up for air, and the Indians would catch them.

Farming was based on corn, squash, and beans by the Indians. Other crops that the Indians had included: 1) avocados, 2) cacao, 3) cassava, 4) coca, 5) cotton, 6) guavas, 7) peanuts, 8) peppers, 9) potatoes, 10) tobacco, and 11) tomatoes.

The farming equipment the Indians had are: 1) pointed sticks for digging, and 2) hoes made of wood, stone, bone, or shell. Indian tribes, who lived in the eastern US, used dead fish to fertilize the soil. The Hohoham Indians, who lived in the desert areas of the southwestern US, dug long irrigation ditches to bring water to their crops. Irrigation was developed even more in Mexico and the Andean people. Also, these Indians cut hillside terraces to increase the amount of farmland by using mountain slopes. Indians, who lived in the Eastern Woodlands and the Tropical Forest, used the slash-and-burn farming method. They would cut down a number of trees and would burn them. They would plant their crops among the tree trunks. The ashes would serve as fertilizer.

Indians, who lived in the southern US, Mexico, the Carribbean area, raised turkeys. The Andean Indians raised llamas and alpacao for food and wool. Also, they used them as beasts as burden. Dogs were the only tame animals in North and South America.

The Indians would travel by water. This is the common means of transportation. Some of the Indians used bark canoes. The bark canoes were light and easy to carry. Also, the Indians made light boast of reed. The Plain Indians would make a bullboat. The bullboats were made out of stretched out buffalo skins over a round frame. Indians, who lived in the snowy north, developed snowshoes and tobaggans. The Inca nobles traveled on wood frames that were carried by their servants.

The Plains Indians used dogs and horses to pull a load carrying frame called travois. Indians were often supported a heavy load on their back with a pack strap called a tumpline. The straps are attached to both ends of the pack and stretched across the forehead.

The Indians used painting with other arts. The Aztec and Maya Indians made wall paintings for important ceremonies and historic events. Some of the wood carvings of the NW tribes had painted designs. The Pueblo Indians were the first to make sand paintings. The Navajo Indians improved the sand paintings to ceremonial arts.

Some of the Indian groups told their folk tales and poetry by word of mouth for centuries. The Chippewa Indians recorded their tribal songs on bark. The Maya Indians left behind manuscripts to be told of their anciet history.

The Indians had no set religion. Their religious beliefs were widespread. The Indians belief was the mysterious magic force in nature. The Indians thought the spirit power superior to humans.

The Indians believed that the spirit power was gained by certain people or ceremonies. This certain power was centered either on animals, area, or things. This might make things dangerous. Other tribes may have a different name for the spirit power. Iroquois Indians called it orendo. The Sioux Indians called it wakanda. The Algonkian Indians called it manito.

Some of the tribes believed in the great spirit. The greatful spirit was a powerful god.

The tribes feared greatly of the ghosts of the dead. Few Indians gave thought to life after death.

A guardian spirit was a personal spiritual helper. The Indians thought the guardian angel helped a person through their hardships of life.

The Indians have many kinds of ceremonies to ensure the Indians had plenty of food. Buffalo Dance would ensure success of hunting buffalo by the Plains Indians. The Green Corn Dance celebrated the summer's first crop by the Eastern Woodland Indians. The Hopi Snake Dance was to release snakes to ask the rain god to send rain. The Plain Indians used the Sun Dance to rank an Indians as chief. The Sun Dance would last several days.

Many Indian tribes used rattles, clappers, and drums. Also, they would use flutes and whistles. A series of hollow reeds tied together is called panpipes were used in the Caribbean reagion and South America. Most of the Indian tribes had simple dance patters except for the Plains Indians.

The legends of gods, ancestors, and spirits were handled from the father to son. Various ceremonies were based on these legends.

The Indian Reservation is an area that was set aside for the Indians in the US. There are about 800,000 Indians living in the US. Half of the 800,000 Indians live on reservations.

The reservations are owned by the Indians. The reservation were held in trust by the federal or state governments. The Bureau of Indian Affairs manages the federal programs on the reservations. The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the Department of the Interior.

Canada has 2,200 or more areas set aside for Indians. These areas are called reserves.

There is a Bureau of Indians Affairs in Cherokee, North Carolina.

Types of American Indians

Native American Links

Further Readings

Dream Catchers

The Mysterious Wolf