• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Serpent_Mound_(aerial_view).jpg
• Ohio Serpent Mound website http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/northamerica/serpent.html

Today, we have one major goal: To revise our attitudes about American Indians by debunking several myths.

Land Bridge Migration:  The first American Indians came from Asia to No. America between 11-12,000 years ago via a land bridge over the Bering Straits.

Reality:  From a strictly scientific viewpoint, we do not know how ancient human remains might be related to contemporary Indian peoples, nor do we know from whence they came.  Two opposing theories exist - the migration and the indigenous origin theory.  Most American archeologists believe American Indians descended from northern Asians who migrated to North America by crossing over a now-submerged land bridge from Siberia to Alaska somewhere between 11,500 and 20,000 years ago.  Most members of Native American communities claim that they are indigenous to the Americas and have been on the continents "since the first day of light."

• Map, Pre-Historic Migrations at http://www.thefurtrapper.com/images/Pre-historic%20Migrations.gif
• Prehistoric Migrations of American Indians by O. Ned Eddins at http://www.thefurtrapper.com/prehistoric_indians.htm

Reality:   When Columbus landed in Hispaniola in 1492 he did not discover this land. Columbus could not discover what another people already knew and owned.  Rather than finding a "New World," Columbus established contact with a very old world and initially facilitated the meeting of two ancient cultures - European and Indian.  With the arrival of the slave trade, the Spanish facilitated the meeting of three ancient cultures - African, European, and Indian.

• Map of Columbus' Voyages http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/eviau/edit557/vespucci/dan/m302.html
• The First Voyage of Columbus http://www.columbusnavigation.com/v1.shtml
• Map, Slave Trade from Africa to the Americas, 1650-1860 http://www.slaverysite.com/Body/slave_trade_1650-1860_b%20-%20www.slaveryinamerica.org.jpg

Reality: When Europeans arrived, American Indians had already altered their various environments to fit their cultural needs, and their numbers had been dramatically decimated by earlier contact with European disease.

 

 

• Map, Forests over time http://ecologyfund.com/registry/ecology/res_maps.html

Reality.  Historical evidence indicates that many Indian tribes had attained impressive levels of agricultural, cultural, and/or technological sophistication prior to the "discovery" of the "New World" by Europeans. Indeed, when European settlers arrived, between 500-600 separate tribal societies existed in North America, most of which were highly civilized in terms of their political, economic, social, and spiritual development.   Each society had developed the capacity for unified action, had learned how to adapt to their natural environment, had achieved some sense of group identity and ethnic pride, and had created its own system of family and social organization.

• Map of Mississippian Mound Building Cultures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mississippian_cultures_HRoe_2010.jpg
• Cohokia National State Park http://cahokiamounds.org/explore/archaeology/origins
• Photograph of Monk's Mound http://www.legendsofamerica.com/IL-Cahokia.html
• Cahokia Mounds Research Facility http://www4.uwm.edu/archlab/cahokia/index.cfm
• Interactive map of Cahokia Mounds http://www.cahokiamounds.com/explore/

Reality. European progress was impeded not because the indigenous peoples were uncivilized and incapable of living harmoniously with the settlers, but because Europeans were unwilling and incapable of accepting the American Indians' political, social, economic, and spiritual traditions as civilized.  The real obstacles that got in the way of European acceptance of Indian peoples were that they were not Christians and no visible forms of worshipping God; they made no effort to subdue the land and make it profitable; they had no understanding of the importance of private property; and they were not willing to give up their land and submit to English rule.

1. It is unclear how and when American Indians came to be living on the North American continent.  Controversy exists between the academic community that supports a migration from Asia theory, and the majority of Native American communities that believe they are indigenous to the land.
2. When Columbus landed in Hispaniola in 1492, he did not find a “New World” or virgin wilderness.  Instead, he entered an old world that, in some native societies, was as densely populated as Europe, had already been environmentally altered, and was as highly developed as any western nation at the time.  The Moundbuilders of Cohokia are an example of such a society. 
3. North America’s sovereign Indian nations were technologically, agriculturally, and politically sophisticated.  Most lived in settled communities that had the following characteristics of a highly civilized society:  division of labor among men and women; solid subsistence base; economic, social, cultural, political, and spiritual diversity; hierarchical organization; and environmental adaptation to their natural environments.
4. American Indians did not comprise a single, unified entity; rather, they consisted of many complex cultures, egalitarian societies, and political systems that had adapted to the natural environment.
5. Because of the sharp contrast between European and American Indian spiritual, cultural, political, and economic values, white settlement was destined to result in great conflict between the new settlers and the indigenous peoples.
6. While such conflict was inevitable, it was not inevitable that Europeans defeat, conquer, and decimate the indigenous peoples in order to ensure European survival and progress. European progress was impeded not because the American Indians were uncivilized and incapable of living harmoniously with European settlers, but because the majority of Europeans were unwilling and incapable of accepting American Indians as political, economic, social, and spiritual equals.
7. The myths about the indigenous peoples of North America have persisted largely because of the desire by the conquering Europeans to justify and rationalize the consequences of their actions.
8. The years between 1621 and 1775 were a model of what America might have been.  They were filled with struggle and compromise between two peoples - a continuous process of give and take.  As long as both sides recognized that they needed one another, a precarious peace existed.