Native American Societies

1. Native American Societies

2. With someone next to you, share your ideas about how you think Columbus was received by the first natives and how did Columbus understand the native people?

4. Columbus’ Journal

5. They have no iron, nor steel, nor weapons, nor are they fit for them, because although they are well-made men of commanding stature, they appear extraordinarily timid. The only arms they have are sticks of cane, cut when in seed, with a sharpened stick at the end, and they are afraid to use these. Often I have sent two or three men ashore to some town to converse with them, and the natives came out in great numbers, and as soon as they saw our men arrive, fled without a moment's delay although I protected them from all injury. As I know you will be rejoiced at the glorious success that our Lord has given me in my voyage, I write this to tell you how in thirty-three days I sailed to the Indies with the fleet that the illustrious King and Queen, our Sovereigns, gave me, where I discovered a great many islands, inhabited by numberless people; and of all I have taken possession for their Highnesses by proclamation and display of the Royal Standard without opposition. Primary Source

7. So, how are we to view the Native American culture? Holmberg reported, that the natives were “among the most culturally backward peoples of the world.” Living in constant want and hunger, he said, they had no clothes, no domestic animals, no musical instruments, no art or design, and almost no religion. Incredibly, they could not count beyond three or make fire. Their poor lean-tos, made of haphazardly heaped palm fronds, were so ineffective against rain and insects that the typical tribe member“undergoes many a sleepless night during the year.” Crouched over meager campfires during the wet, buggy nights, the natives were living exemplars of primitive humankind as Holmberg put it. For millennia, he thought, they had existed almost without change in a landscape unmarked by their presence. Then they encountered European society and for the first time their history acquired reality. Holmberg’s Mistake1940

9. These great civilizations of the Inca’s, Maya’s and Aztec’s each had populations of 20million + were highly advanced societies in math, astronomy, government, and architecture.

11. Cahokia

12. At the time of European encounter and colonization, the original Iroquois League, based in present-day New York, was also known as the Five Nations, as it was composed of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and the Seneca. These Five Nations are believed to have emerged as distinct tribes by the 15th century or earlier. League of Five Nations The Five Nations was one of the most important instances of representative intertribal governance. Its leaders, chosen by the women of the various tribes and appointed for life, were selected for their wisdom, tolerance, and generosity of spirit.

13. Russell Means (American Indian activist) was once quoted as saying: “We were enslaved as American Indians, we were colonized as American Indians, and when we gain our freedom as American Indians we will then decide on what to call ourselves”! So, how do the Native Americans want society to refer to them?