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American Indians

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The Treasure Hunt on American Indian History

Introduction

uring the Soviet time there were translated books by Fenimor Cooper and movies starring Gojko Mitic, a Yugoslavian actor, who played brave Indian warriors. They fueled imagination of lots of children who would see themselves as Mohicans or Apaches fighting against enemies. Due to those novels and cinematography they would know that there were controversial pages in the US history. But the reality, perhaps, was even harsher.

The history of indigenous peoples in the United States is an issue that makes some people feel ashamed of the past or at least look at it from a different angle.

Europeans, settling on the east coast and constantly moving to the West despite the hardships and hazards of nature, would face Indians who were not happy to see white men in their lands. Colonists would not come to stay for a while but forever and that led to clashes and eventual elimination of the way the Indians had lived before.

Follow the Process and Resources below to know more about American Indians.

Process and Resources

Here are the instructions to use when looking into the American Indian history.

1. AMERICAN INDIANS IN THE PAST. The whole group should read the articles below and answer the questions:
   • How did explorers describe Indians living in the Great Plains?
   • What animals were important to the Plains Indian and why?
   • What were the East Coast Indians like?
   • What were the problems that caused clashes between the white settlers and Indians?
   • What happened to the eastern Indians by the middle eighteen-hundreds?
   • Were the western Indians hard to deal with? Why?
   • Was the battle at Little Bighorn the final one?
   • How did the wars end?
   • What was the primary reason for the white man's settlement in the west?
     • Optional reading - "First Peoples," by Paul Thompson, VOA Special English.
     • Read or listen to "American History Series: Buffalo, 'Mystery Dogs' (Horses) and the Lives of the Plains Indians," by Paul Thompson, VOA Special English. Native people believed that the bison offered everything they needed. Nothing went to waste. But hunting them was difficult -- until the Spanish brought horses to North America in the 1500s.
     • Read or listen to "American History Series: A Clash of Cultures in the New World," by Paul Thompson, VOA Special English. Differences over land ownership and religion led to mistrust between European settlers and Indian tribes. The arrival of diseases from Europe further damaged relations.
     • Read or listen to "Native Americans Went to War to Protect Their Lands," by Frank Beardsley, VOA Special English.
     • Read or listen to "Native Americans Fight Two Wars Over Land Rights," by Frank Beardsley, VOA Special English.
     • Optional reading - "How the Western United States Was Settled," by Frank Beardsley, VOA Special English.
2. AMERICAN INDIANS TODAY. The whole group should read the articles below and answer the questions:
   • What is "domestic dependent nations" status?
   • How many Indian reservations are there in the U.S.A.?
   • What is life like on Indian reservations?
   • Why do you think the most Indian reservations are situated to the west of the U.S.A.?
     • Read "United States Respects Indian Tribes' Right to Self-Determination," by America.gov.
     • Read "Indian reservation," by Wikipedia.
     • Watch "30 days - Life on an Indian Reservation" or try another link. The video can be inaccessible beyond the U.S. borders. "Morgan Spurlock will leave America as he knows it, without ever actually leaving US soil, to live with a people who many see as refugees in their own country, when he heads west to spend 30 days with the Native American Indians on the Navajo Nation."
     • Read "Life in the USA. Indian Reservations," by USA tourist community.
     • Study the maps below:
       • a map of Indian reservations or a map of the United States, with non-reservation land highlighted,
       • a physical map of USA or US Maps.

Big Question

Having studied the past and present history of American Indians, you are expected to come up with your answer to the Big Question:

• What is the future of American Indians?

Conclusion

ome aspects of American Indians' culture in the modern U.S.A. is quite a usual thing for many Americans. Lots of places derive their names from Indian words like the states of Connecticut, Dakota, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming. The crops, cultivated by the Indians long before Europeans came to the New Land, like corn, tomato, potato helped the colonists to survive in Jamestown and Plymouth and nowadays they are consumed on every day basis by millions of people.

Less Americans are aware that the life on the modern Indian reservations is far from the average in the country. Unemployment, intoxication, loss of languages and culture are concerns in some of the territories. Nonetheless, Native Americans remain resilient. Today, numbering 4.5 million people (about 1.5 percent of the total U.S. population), Indians still have the culture which is admired both in the country and overseas.

Source for the conclusion:
U.S. Society > Native Americans:
http://usa.usembassy.de/society-natives.htm.

News Feeds

Here are the news feeds provided by some of the US mass media. You can use these resources for a five minute news warm-up at the beginning of our class. Click the headline to open the whole article in a new window.