Lakota Native American Man at Pow Wow. Photo by Andrew James on Unsplash.
Native Americans, they have been living in North America before the arrival of Christopher Columbus. He is the first person who called Native Americans as “Indians” because he and the other members of his expedition believed they landed in India. Primitive technology is used such as fire, fire drills, and stones for the necessity of survival. With Columbus’s discovery of the “New World,” Native Americans suffered various issues in order to maintain their way of life.
As soon as colonization started, the former inhabitants were threatened by the effects of epidemic disease, the military conquest, and enslavement. This resulted in the death of many Native Americans across the country. Over 150 years from the 18th century, Native Americans survived under the discriminative order by the U.S. government. Simultaneously, they struggled their cultures from vanishing. Many Native Americans moved west because of the Indian Removal Act. The lands were sold to European-American pioneers for cultivating land. After a long time, Native Americans finally received respect from the government as the national citizen in 1924; however, these historical incidents are just one aspect of history.
Native American Man, Pow Wow Regalia Closeup. Photo by Andrew James on Unsplash.
According to Harvard University’s article “Struggle and Survival: Native Ways of life Today,” “Though many Native people still speak their original tongue as their first language, many have lost the ability to speak their languages. . . . A study of 1990 census data found, for example, that 70% of Navajo children in Arizona between the ages of five and seventeen spoke the Navajo language at home. Among Lakota Sioux children the same age, the figure was 15%. Among Ojibwe children, the number was closer to 4%. Among most Native communities, however, the numbers are, sadly, even lower.” Some elements of the culture start disappearing, making it more difficult for Native Americans to understand their heritage and self-identity. Regardless of the negative impact, there are still tribal communities that continue to pass on their heritage to new generations to preserve their culture.
Native Americans are classified into different tribes based on where they reside in the seven cultural areas including Arctic/Subarctic, Californian, Great Basin, Great Plains, Northeast Woodlands, Northwest Coast/Plateau, and Southeast. Today, there are over 500 tribes in the country including some small tribes that belong to other kinds of the indigeous habitants. Unfortunately, the dark history of Native Americans cannot be erased, but people have the power to look back in the past and make changes in learning and supporting Native Americans.
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