THE NATIVE AMERICANS

Who are the American Indians?The American Indians, also called Native Americans, are the descendants of Asian people who came from Siberia to Alaska across the Bering Strait thousands of years ago.20000 years ago large areas of the Earth were full of snow and ice. Asia and America were linked by a bridge of ice. People from Siberia (Russia) walked into Alaska. They moved south where there was no more ice. Then they settled in all parts of America. They formed different tribes like the Sioux who had thousands of members who lived in tepees or the Inuit who lived in igloos. We call them today the Native Americans. They had got different civilizations in those days. Some tribes walked around as hunters and gatherers others were farmers and built little towns. When the Europeans came to North America, many tribes traded with them. They exchanged fur and food for knives, guns and clothes.The name "Indians" was given to these people by the first white explorers who thought they had landed in India. But it would be better to call them by the name of their tribe because Native peoples of North America are very different. They were not one group with one language and culture. The different tribes often made war against each other.There were around one million Indians in North America when the white men arrived in 1620. They were divided into 1.500 tribes that spoke over 300 different languages.The Indians of the Great Plains such as the Cheyennes, the Sioux, the Apaches and the Comanches, are the most famous tribes of all. They loved nature and animals, and when the white men brought horses to America, they soon became the best horse-riders in the world.In the beginning the American Indians welcomed the white men and helped them to survive in their new environment. They even taught them how to grow new vegetables. But there were often conflicts with the whites. In 1622 Indians near Jamestown massacred 350 white settlers because the Virginia Company wanted more and more land for tobacco farms.

The importance of the buffaloThe buffalo was important to the Indians. In fact, they used every part of it: the fur, the bones, … As they spread towards the West, the white men killed almost all the buffaloes,

both to produce meat for the workers building the railroad across the continent, and to destroy the Indian's source of food and clothing. The animal is a symbol for the Indian nation, but for the Europeans it also became a source of business, because buffalo meat is tasty and not as fat as beef. When the white Europeans (who called themselves Americans) built a railway across the country they killed most of the

buffaloes. In 1850 there were over 60 million, 40 years later, there were only 550 left. The Natives were hungry. It was hard for them to find food.

The American Indians todayBy 1890 all the North American tribes were beaten by the white men and their weapons were taken away from them. By 1900 there were only 200.000 Indians left in the United States. Many died of illnesses that the whites brought with them. All of the Natives were forced to live on reservations. Many of them are still there today and the Indian population is troubled by poverty and alcoholism. Moreover, Indian children were forced to go to separate schools. l Compare the two bar-chart graphs. What are the changes and the reasons for them ?

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Equipment: eagle feathers, war paint, spear, bow and arrow, tomahawk (axe), knife

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Indian territory vs. white colonists: Describe the changes on the maps

Exploration before 1675 1820

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Two bar-charts: Around 1800 in North-America were about 10-times more white settlers (ws) than Native-Americans (NA).In 80 years there were about 10-times more ws.The ws became more and more. Millions moved from Europe there.The NA became less and less. Many died because of illnesses that the whites brought.

Maps: Before 1675 the NA had almost the complete territory of today-USA for themselves. The ws had only a small part on the east coast. In 1820 the ws had a big part of the eastern USA- about one third. In 1850 the ws had more territory than the NA.