The native Americans

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The Native Americans

Long before the white man had set his foot on American soil, had the native Americans been living there for a long time.
The name “indian” is actually missleading, Christopher Columbus who thougt that he was in India, gave them the name indians. Few of them came from Asia. Also the name “redskinn” is wrong, when the white men first saw the native Americans, they were painted with red paint, Actually their skinn color can be anything from wery light to wery dark brown.
So, when the Europeans started to arrive in the 16th – 17th century the native Americans met them, and they saw their white visitors as a marvel, not only for their beards and outlandish dresses but even more for their technology, swords, cannons and so on.
But as time passed conflicts started to arise. The Europeans seemed attuned to another world, they didn´t seem to now about the rhythms and spirit of the nature. The native Americans detected that nature to the Europeans was an enemy, a forest were just many many feet of timber, a buffalo so many robes and the earht just a dead thing that they could claim.
The religion that the native Americans have is mostly just that everything, living and dead has a spirit and that spirit is hounerd by the native Americans. They have no god that is above them, they have spirits that are around them all the time and among the people. Their spiritual leader is called the Shaman and he have the strongest contact with the spirits, He can with help from the spirits heal wounds, exorcist evil spirits, predict the future and give guidens to the children.
Before the native Americans can do anything they have to ask the spirits first, doing something without asking the spirits about it is harming the tribe.
Well, it was the Europeans’ cultural arrogance and their materialistic veiw of the land and all the animals that the native Americans found respectless.
The Europeans haden´t just brought their desire to claim everything as theirs, they had brought a lot of diseases that hit them very hard.
The Europeans were used to owning the land and they claimed the land as theirs thinkin that the native Americans were just nomads with no interest in claiming land ownership.
The conflics led to war. In theese wars the native Americans tribes were at great disadvantage because of their nomadic life, lack of advanced weapons and unwillingness to cooperate. In the end of the 19th centuary the war ended more or less, the last major war was more like a massacre in 1890 when “indian” warriors, women and children were slaughterd by U.S cavalrymen.
Now I am going to write facts about two “indian” tribes.
Cherokee
The name Cherokee means “speakers of another language” and it´s pronounced, “Chair – uh – ke”. They were the biggest tribe in the southeast (most Cherokees were relocated to Oklahoma in the 1800’s by the Trail of the tears) and they were one of the first tribes to adjust to the European civilisation.
Each Cherokee band was led by one war cheif and one peace cheif, chosen by the tribal council. The war cheif was always a male but the peace cheif could be of either genders.
They mostly lived on corn and hunting. The weapons they used for hunting were bows and arrows and blowguns. Today most Cherokees speak English but back then they had their own languge, Cherokee language.
Here are two easy Cherokee words, “osiyo” is a friendly greeting and “wado” means thank you.
The Cherokees lived in settled villages of houses with plaster and rivercane walls with thatched roof. They also built larger, seven sided buildings for ceremonial purposes, and in most villages there were a lacrosse field with benches for spectators. They also used to have walls around them for protection.
The Cherokee men cut their hair in the Mohawk style (I dont rellay know how that is) or they just shaved it off completely. Cherokee women always wore their hair long, they only cutted it when they were mourning a family member. In times of war the Cherokee men always tattooed their faces and bodies and painted themselves with bright colors. But the Cherokee women didn´t, unlike other tribes. In war they used bows and spears.
The Cherokees were known for their pipe carving, gourd art and pottery. When they were moved to Oklahoma the Cherokees couldn’t get the materials they used for their traditional crafts, so they started to practice beadwork and textile arts.
The descendants of theese people still live scaterd througout the originall Cherokee homeland.

Apache
Apache means Enemy. They were the biggest nomadian tribe in the southwest. They spoke the Athabscan lanugage.
The Apaches lived in Tippis or in tiny huts made of stiks and busches called
Wikiups.
When Francisco Casquez de Coronado first met the Apaches in 1540 he described them as “a nice people that fight for friendship”. But that picture of the Apaches changed when the Spanish farmers constantly lost their horses during the Apaches raids.
The Apaches who lived at the Canadian river were constantly at war with the Comanches (I´m not sure on the spelling on that name) and around 1723 the Comanches defeated the Apaches after the “9 days war” and they moved more souht. The legends say that an Apache warrior can run more then 50 miles whitout stopping. And a U.S army officer called the Apaches “tigers of the human species”
But the Apaches saw themselves differently from all the stories about them, they faced a constant struggle to survive. And when they raided a village it was only because they really needed to.
Apaches lived in extended family groups, each group operated independently under a respected family leader who didn’t answer to any higher human authority. When it was wartime the neighboring groups banded together to fight a common enemy. Unlike an ordinary raiding when the main object was to find food and possessions, war meant lethal business; an act of vengeance for the death of band members in earlier wars.
Leaders of the local family groups would meat in council to elect a war chief, who would lead the campaign. But if any group member would like to follow it’s own chief, he were free to do so.
The Apache family had strong bonding but the strongest bond was between the mother, her children and grandchildren. They all shared a rich oral history of myths and legends that touched many aspects of their life.

Today
Allmost all Indians live in reservation all over America. The goverment supports the Indian reservations and they want them to have a “normal” life.
But the Indians have t...