Download Native American History

Forgotten
History
Native American Tribes in the United States
A History Research Paper
By: Katherine Davis
American History is a very important subject in public schools in the United States. It is
important that students learn this history of this country they call home. Educators spend years
teaching American History from early colonization all the way up to the 1990s. They study the
French and Indian War, Colonization, the American Revolution, the Early Republic, the War of
1812, Westward Expansion, the Civil War, and Reconstruction – and that’s just in one of their US
History classes. However, there is one part of American History that is consistently forgotten,
left out, and ignored; and that is Native American History.
Perhaps it’s because school districts and State Boards of Education feel as though Native
American history isn’t part of “United States” history. Maybe it’s because historians feel that we
don’t have very much information on Native American history. For whatever reason, it’s often
left out of the curriculum. One thing that we can all be sure of, though, is that Native American
History is part of US History, it’s part of American History, and it’s part of our history.
Native Americans in pre-colonial America can be divided into groups by the regions in
which they lived. Although there are clear differences between tribes and clans within the Native
Americans within each region, there are also similarities between groups in the same region.
Some of the most well-known groups of Native Americans include the Anasazi whose
descendants became known as the Pueblo, the Iroquois, and the Sioux.
The Anasazi lived in the Four Corners region of the United States from approximately AD
100 to around the 1600s. The Anasazi did not always get along well with neighboring tribes
leading to their name “Anasazi,” which means “ancestors of the enemy.”1 The earliest period for
the Anasazi was known as the Late Basketmaker II period, lasting from around AD 100 to AD 500.2
During this time period, ancient peoples like the Anasazi had already experienced their
Agricultural Revolution, but also still relied on hunting and gathering as well. They created
baskets during this time period in order to store their food. Historians believed their diet
1
2
Encyclopaedia Britannica Onine, “Ancestral Pueblo Culture.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, “Ancestral Pueblo Culture.”
consisted mainly of cultivating maize, gathering wild plants, and hunting animals in the high
desert and plains areas of their homelands.3
The Anasazi are most well-known for their cliff dwellings. At first, early Anasazi people
lived in caves that were semi-underground.
As they progressed with both building and
agriculture, they moved their dwellings to the sides of cliffs.4 Many of these dwellings had
hundreds of adjoining rooms, similar to apartment buildings. The most magnificent of these cliff
dwellings were during the Anasazi’s Pueblo III period, which ended around AD 1300.5 Historians
and archaeologists believe the Anasazi abandoned those cliff dwellings as a result of a drought
lasting from approximately 1266 through 1299.
The modern Pueblo tribes are the descendants of the Anasazi. They include such tribes
as the Hopi, the Zuni, and the Laguna. Historians consider the “modern” period to begin around
1600, approximately the same time that Europeans began exploring the Americas. The Spanish
explorers’ main goal was to convert the Native American people they encountered to Christianity.
They often were quite forceful about this, which created animosity between the Pueblo tribes
and the Spanish Conquistadors.6 The Pueblo tribes successfully revolted against the attempted
conversion by the Spanish, and remained free from Spanish control for fourteen years. However,
eventually, through violence and force, and as a result of disease epidemics, the number of
Pueblo communities drastically decreased by the end of the 1700s.7 Today, the Hopi, Zuni, and
Laguna, among other tribes descended from the Anasazi, still focus on the culture, language,
farming methods, and spiritual beliefs of their ancestors.
In stark contrast to the Anasazi, the Iroquois were a very different group of people. The
Iroquois were groups of Algonquin-speaking Native Americans who lived in the Northeast and
Great Lakes areas of the United States, and some parts of Canada. Early Iroquois were primarily
agricultural, growing corn, beans, and squash. They also gathered wild plants, hunted wildlife,
3
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, “Ancestral Pueblo Culture.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, “Ancestral Pueblo Culture.”
5
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, “Ancestral Pueblo Culture.”
6
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, “Ancestral Pueblo Culture.”
7
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, “Ancestral Pueblo Cuture.”
4
and fished in the plentiful rivers, lakes, and streams throughout the area. Similar to the Anasazi,
the Iroquois lived in settlements with hundreds of people in structures called “longhouses.”8
Spirituality and family were very important to the Iroquois tribes. Iroquois that lived in
pre-Colonial times occupied large areas of land, however, after Europeans began settling in
Iroquois lands, they were forced into smaller and smaller areas. This caused lots of conflict
between groups of Iroquois over territory and hunting areas. Eventually, conflict between some
of the Iroquois tribes was resolved by the formation of the Iroquois Confederacy.9
The Iroquois tribes were the first Native Americans that English explorers and settlers
encountered upon their arrival in America. In a journal entry from one of the early settlers, the
author describes the Native Americans he and his group encountered: “…some of his people led
vs to their houses, showed vs the growing of their Corne & the maner of setting it, gave us
Tobacco, Wallnutes, mullberyes, strawberryes, and Respises.”10 While many European settlers
recorded encounters with Native Americans as being violent, many of the first encounters
between the two groups of people were more curious in nature. The Natives were as curious of
the Europeans as the Europeans were of them. The violence came later, once the Europeans
began to expand their settlements, encroach on Native land, and attempt to force the Natives to
convert to Christianity and the European way of life.11
The Europeans often described the Native Americans as “savages.” While most of this
was because of differences in spirituality and religious beliefs, there was also a distinct
difference in the way that Europeans and Natives presented themselves. Another journal entry
from an early settler described some of these differences: “They goe all naked save their
privityes, yet in coole weather they weare deare skinns, with the hayre on loose: some have
leather stockinges vp to their twistes, & sandalls on their feet, their hayre is black generally,
which they weare long on the left side, tyed vp on a knott, about which knott the kinges and
best among them have a kind of Coronett of deares hayre coloured redd, some have chaines of
8
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, “Iroquois People.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, “Iroquois People.”
10
National Archives, Native Americans – Source 4.
11
Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Iroquois People.”
9
long linckt copper about their neckesm and some chaines of pearle, the common sort stick long
fethers in this knott, I found not a grey eye among them all. Their skynn is tawny not so borne,
but with dying and paynting them selues, in which they – delight greatly. The wemen are like
the men, onely this difference; their hayre – groweth long al over their heads save clipt –
somewhat short afore, these do all the labour and the men hunt and goe at their plesure.”12
Although the Europeans made no secret of their goal to convert the Native Americans to
Christianity, they also expressed a reverence and admiration for Native American culture. This
admiration continued throughout the centuries, even though there was significant conflict
between the Europeans and Iroquois tribes throughout the colonization period and beyond.
Warfare was very important to the Iroquois, who prided themselves on being exceptional
warriors. Men in Iroquois society gained respect from others and improved their own selfrespect through victory in battle.13
There are many tribes that are descendants of the Iroquois. Some of these tribes
include the Mohawk, Huron, Cherokee, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca.14 Many of
these tribes played an active role in events during the Colonial Period of the United States. The
Mohawk and Huron, among other groups were heavily involved in the French and Indian War in
the 1750s. The tribes that composed the Iroquois group were Algonquin-speaking. Although
the European settlers eventually forced assimilation on the Native Americans, there are still
many people in the Great Lakes region of both the United States and Canada who are of
Iroquois descent and continue to keep their languages, traditions, and cultures alive today.
The Sioux were a large group of Native Americans that lived over a large area stretching
from the western part of the Great Lakes region all the way across the Plains to the Rocky
Mountains. Some of the most well-known Sioux tribes were the Dakota, Blackfoot, Lakota, and
Teton tribes. The Sioux hunted buffalo in the northern Great Plains, in what is now Minnesota,
North and South Dakota, and parts of Wisconsin.15 The Sioux often traded with the Plains
Native Americans who lived south of the area occupied by the Sioux. They shared many
12
National Archives, Native Americans – Source 5
Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Iroquois People.”
14
Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Iroquois People.”
15
Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Sioux.”
13
characteristics with Plains tribes, such as using tepees for housing, wore clothes made from
leather and fur, and also traded buffalo skin, bones, and meat for corn that was grown by the
Plains tribes.16
Unlike the Iroquois and Pueblo tribes, the Sioux tribes did not have much contact with
European settlers until after the American Revolution. Most of their contact with the European
settlers came during the Westward Expansion period of United States history. During that time
period, settlers were less interested in learning about Native American culture and more
interested in fulfilling their idea of Manifest Destiny, however, there were some people
continued to try to learn about these different cultures they encountered. One of those people
was Alice Cunningham Fletcher who wrote many letters and diary entries about her contact
with the Sioux.17 In addition to detailing accounts of her contact with the Sioux, she also
transcribed 14 of their folk tales.18
The Sioux had many violent conflicts with the United States government in the 19th
century. Many Sioux tribes were forced off of their homelands or pushed farther west. Most
ended up on reservations. The United States government was not kind to the Sioux and Plains
Native Americans during the 19th century. This was often seen in violent clashes and battles
such as Wounded Knee and Little Bighorn.19 In addition to forcing the Natives from their
homelands, the US government also forced many Native American tribes to abandon their
century-old beliefs and assimilate to western culture. Today there are still approximately
160,000 people who are descendants of the Sioux tribes.
The majority of what we know today about Native American history comes from journal
entries, stories, and accounts from encounters with these groups of people by European
settlers and explorers. Some of the history has been preserved and passed down through
surviving members of various tribes, and those pieces of history are invaluable. We can read
these journal entries and stories and be transported back in time. We can retell the stories and
16
Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Sioux.”
Smithsonian Institute, “Alice Cunningham Fletcher Papers.”
18
Smithsonian Institute, “Alice Cunningham Fletcher Papers.”
19
Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Sioux.”
17
honor the traditions of these people who inhabited these lands before any of our European
ancestors, Founding Fathers, or explorers arrived here. Through those stories and traditions,
we can keep Native American History alive.
Native American History is American History. It’s United States History. It’s our history.
The closing scene in the film Last of the Mohicans perfectly sums up why Native American
History is so important. “The frontier moves with the sun and pushes the Red Man out of these
wilderness forests in front of it, until one day there will be nowhere left. Then our race will be
no more, or be not us… A new people will come, work, struggle. Some will make their life. But
once, we were here.”20
20
The Last of the Mohicans film.
Works Cited
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Ancestral Pueblo Culture.” Encyclopædia Britannica,
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 27 May 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/AncestralPueblo-culture.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Iroquois.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia
Britannica, Inc., 6 May 2020, www.britannica.com/topic/Iroquois-people.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Sioux.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia
Britannica, Inc., 6 May 2020, www.britannica.com/topic/Sioux.
Mann, Michael, director. The Last of the Mohicans. Morgan Creek Productions, 1992.
“MS 4558 Alice Cunningham Fletcher and Francis La Flesche Papers.” Smithsonian Institution,
www.si.edu/object/archives/sova-naa-ms4558?edan_q=alice+cunningham+fletcher.
The National Archives. “Native North Americans - Source 4.” The National Archives, The
National Archives, 11 Apr. 2014,
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/native-north-americans/source-4/.
The National Archives. “Native North Americans - Source 5.” The National Archives, The
National Archives, 11 Apr. 2014,
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/native-north-americans/source-5/.