Exploring History of Native Americans: A Complex Journey - Essay Sample

Introduction

The ideas and outlook of primitive people, particularly those who lived during the 15th up to 19th centuries have endured in written forms minimal times than is ideal for historians. These types of evidence are extremely scarce, and thus, those who develop an interest in the history of Native Americans also get details from ancient arts, folk literature, folklore, archaeology, among other sources. The history of Native America is made more complex by the growing geographic and cultural backdrops of the individuals involved. As expected, American farmers dwelling in a class-conscious community like Natchez engaged with Europeans differently than Apache, who depended on hunting and gathering.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Most of the indigenous people of America were hunters and gatherers. However, some still practiced fish farming and crop farming. The global outcome of their agricultural activities during civilization is an attest to their moment and labor in reconstructing and farming the foliage primitive to the Native Americas. In some communities, people built monstrous architecture; large scale grouped municipal, dynasties, and dominions (Saunt, 2017). Aztec, Inca, and Maya were amid the ultimate political and socially advanced nations globally. They had an immense understanding of engineering, writing physics medicine, among other related fields.

Indigenous people still populate many parts of America. Partially, a millenary of various languages is articulated in America. Several languages like Aymara have a million speakers. Many also protect forms of primitive cultural practices to different aspects like religion, social gatherings, and livelihood customs. Similar to other cultures, with time cultures specific to many native people have developed not only to absorb traditional aspects but also responsible for the current requirements. As observed, some native people still leave in solitude from practices of western civilization, and a few are still estimated as uncivilized individuals.

In the United States, native people are commonly known as Native American or American Indians. The use of this word originated with Christopher Columbus, who thought he had reached his destiny when he arrived in the East Indies, in his search for India. As a result, those islands came to be known as the West Indies, and the term is still in use. According to archaeological and hereditary proof, North and South America was the last continent to achieve hominid dwelling. The study suggests that the first occupants of the Americas share a common ancestral population known as Beringia that developed from isolation.

The pre-American era covers all era group in the history and archaeology of the Americans before the arrival of important European and American influences on the American continent, back to the time of the first arrivals in the upper stone-age to European establishment at the time of the early modern period (Gorlitz, 2016). Later, Columbian civilization was successful in permanent and urban settlements, agriculture trade astronomy, complicated social ranking, among others. Some of these civilizations had vanished through the time first important European and African appearance. These civilizations are only explained by verbally and archeological analyses. At that time, the European colonists banned Christian beliefs and numerous Columbian written history. Few evidential documents stayed concealed and lasted leaving present-day historians with little information about ancient practices and understanding.

American civilization before and at the time of encounter with Europeans had extremely successful achievements. Aztec, for instance, completed one of the largest municipals in the world. Also, achievements in mathematics and astronomy were laid out in American civilization.

The European colonization of the Native Americans elementary adjusted their lives and the cultural practices of the resident of native people. The exact population of pre-colonized Americans is not known; however, it is estimated that eighty to ninety percentage of the indigenous Americans population decreased. This happened within the first centuries of European colonization. These populations diminish as a result of diseases the early colonist brought from Europe. Initially, the spread of the diseases was slow due to strong hereditary immunity. However, this changed when Europeans began horde human trafficking (Mauk & Oakland 2017). Most of the Native Americans who were freshly exposed to these European infections lacked hereditary repellent to the diseases. These epidemic diseases were the devastating elements of the population decline of American natives.

Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories contemplate about probable visits to or interaction with Americans and others at the time before Christopher Columbus visit to the Caribbean in 1942 (Mauk & Oakland, 2017). This contact is accepted as having happened in prehistory during human migrations that results in the original settlements of the Americans. More so, the discoveries in places like Chile reveal that ancient's oceans acted as avenue rather than barriers, and people had means to cross them. According to Alice Kehoe's article, which is fascinating but contentious, acknowledges the current proof in reevaluations of ancient sailing. This book critically explains the growing body of evidence.

Additionally, there is significant evidence of the exchange of materials between Siberia and Alaska five centuries before the arrival of Columbian. Bronze artifacts discovered in a house in Alaska that was a millennial of years old suggested the existence of pre- Columbian trade.

Kensington Runestone is considered as a hoax. This was unveiled by American farmer Olof Ohman and his son when they came across a two hundred uncovered slab of stone in the rural town of Kensington as they were clearing stabs. Some Norwegians declared the stone was a Swedish dupe. The Swedish historians elevated identical allegations. It was speculated to be beyond circumstantial that the stone was found amidst Scandinavians new settlers in Minnesota, who were still striving for acknowledgment and quite illustrious of their Nordic inheritance. More so, a professor at the University of Minnesota affirmed the stone to be a counterfeit of modern time. The linguistics and historians supported this affirmation in Scandinavia.

Besides, it was noted that the tree to which the stone was found was eradicated in 1910. The engraving was approximated to be 500 years old by examining its dissipation in contrast with dissipation on the bottom (Gorlitz, 2016). The chisel points were noted to be newly pointed and sharpened like it was a freshly engraved one. More so, there was a big difference between the runes used in Kingstone's inscription and those used in the 14 century. Correspondingly, the dialect of the inscription was modern in contrast to the Nordic languages of the 14th century.

Cocaine mummies could be proof of early trade between Egypt and South America. Supposedly, traces of cocaine were found on Egyptian mummies (Gorlitz, 2016). Cocoa was only planted in South America before Columbus. The traces indicate that the ancient Egyptians had contact with the Americans. However, this piece was bluntly ignored until 1992 when new evidence raised. A toxicologist tested the ancient Egyptian mummified remains of Henut-Tawny, and nicotine and cocaine were found. Trace of nicotine and cocaine has evidentially been found in many mummies, thus signalizing the possible existence of trade between Egyptians and Americans. After the experiments were done, there was a potential probability that the mummies were rather contaminated or more likely evidence of fake mummies.

References

Gorlitz, D. (2016). The Occurrence of Cocaine in Egyptian Mummies-New researchprovides strong evidence for a trans-Atlantic dispersal by humans. Diffusion Fundamentals, 26(2), 1-11.

Mauk, D., & Oakland, J. (2017). American civilization: an introduction. Routledge.

Saunt, C. (2017). "Our Indians": European Empires and the History of the Native American South. In The Atlantic in Global History (pp. 63-79). Routledge.