A Research On Native Americans: Origin, Culture, Way Of Life And Contribution To The United States

The demarcation and presence of inwrought the Statesns in the Western Hemisphere has been one of the virtually debatable issues in both American and world historical studies. European invaders entering the new land were quite challenged to find about ampere-second million inhabitants in the Americas a land they had always presumed was vast and vacant.These European settlers as rise as scientists believed that the American natives belonged to the biblical Lost Tribes of the dry land of Israel, while others fancifully argued that these natives could guard been the remnant of lost civilizations such as Mu or Atlantis.Early European settlers insisted that inseparable Americans must realise had their origin in ancient Israel, Rome, the Irish, Welsh or Viking lands. Scientists have however changed their perspective oer recent times and joined Native American voices to support the public opinion that these nation ar indigenous to the Americas.Tied into the issue of native origi n are legal standings regarding Native sovereignty, possession of sacred artifacts and Native remains, Native American spokesman-ship or representation, as intumesce as the rules that should be used to psychoanalyse the evidence deduced from history and science about their indigenous status in this land (Carliste & Golson 2006, p.1).Native Americans in the United StatesHistorically, the earliest Native tribes to inhabit the Americas are the Athapascans and Inuits who are believed to have entered the land by dint of the Bering passing game that connects Alaska and Siberia. Others are tell to have traveled by boat or canoe any(prenominal)what the North American Pacific coast and Arctic Circle to run North America and parts of South America.But the Native American pack have together with others. Always questioned the Bering Strait theory and gone frontward to insist that they have inhabited the Americas as far back as their origin can be traced.Researchers into the origins of Native Americans have suggested that these mickle could have entered the Americas through multiple migrations non only by the land span or boat at the Bering Strait but in addition through sea from Polynesia and parts of Europe.Genetic evidence has also come up with suggestions that Native Americans had already arrived in the Americas about 15,000 to 30,000 years long before the Bering Strait had been exposed by lowering sea levels. Recent discoveries have represent genetic evidence of Polynesian origin among five Native tribes standardized the Mapuche, Cayapa of Ecuador, Huilleche, Nuu-Chal-Nulth in Canada, and the Atacameno of Chile.Native oral traditions tell about a journey to the Americas by boat and the present-day continent popularly referred to as the United States of America is an ancestral home to over 500 Indian nations. The state of calcium alone was home to over 60 tribes of between 30,000 40,000 Native pack before the early European invasion (Stubben & Sokolow 2005, p.1-3 Carliste & Golson 2006, p.1-6).Native American tribes spoke a variety of languages but most of the northeastern tribes lived in semi-permanent and permanent dwellings, socially organized under clan membership.The clans were matrilineal and young men were raise in the households of their mothers by their maternal uncles. Daily Native American biography revolved around search, gathering, farming and fishing, the main crops being maize, beans and squash.Native Americans moved in aggroups of about 50 100 people because such a group could manage reasonable hunting exploits curiously when hunting large overawe herds. Family was very important to the Native Americans and all members of a family ranging from grandparents, parents and the children shared a very special bond. Family and tribal elders were highly respected and their decisions in respective(a) matters were crucial to the existence of a clan or entire tribe.Men did the hunting and took care of other tribal ma tters such as maintenance of tribal boundaries while the women provide labor for tilling the fields as well as doing several other chores. In some tribes like the Iroquois, women also held powerful positions whereby they controlled the election and removal of clan chiefs.These gender based pagan traits were to create a lot of cross-cultural conflict when the European arrived in the Americas (Stubben & Sokolow 2005, p.57 Carliste & Golson 2006, p.113).Life for the Native Americans however changed drastically with the arrival of European settlers to America especially during the early 1800s, when the Americas experienced an influx of European settlers.The need to supply the American nation with foodstuffs, clothing and lumber led to the displacement of Native people and immediately, plans got under way to resettle them to reservations. European invasion is express to have led to the extinct of some Native tribes like the Beothuk who are said to have been wiped out completely.Most ot her tribes lost over 90% of their people to European genocide because the white settlers had better weapons of warfare that were also more(prenominal) extreme and violent than the native peoples could resist.In their conquests, European invaders murdered noncombatants as well as used biological warfare such as calculated spread of disease and starvation. 75 million Indians are estimated to have died with some estimates going as high as 112 million (Pritzker 2000, p.162 Carliste & Golson 2006, p.9, 26).European settlement was ruinous to Native American existence because it disrupted every aspect of their lives. The resettlement f Native tribes from their native lands disrupted their way of life.Between 1854 and 1855 for example, Washington regulator Isaac I. Stevens signed four treaties in quick succession with the Waka Walla Cayuse, Yakima, Makah, Nez Perce, Lushootsedd and Coer d Alene Native tribes around the Oregon and Washington territories.Through these treaties, Native land s were ceded back to the government which include the choicest lands of Tacoma, Seattle and Olympia. In return, these tribes were allotted tracts of lands although the government held the right over waterways and public transport throughout these territories.Although native tribes retained such rights as fishing, hunting and pasture rights, these allotments marked the beginning of a restricted lifestyle for the Native tribes.These treaties not only eroded native culture but their lifestyle as well, and forced their assimilation into reservations (Hoxie, Mancall & Merrell 2001, p. 67 Pritzer 2000, p. 5, 214 Carliste & Golson 2006, p.29, 75, 111).