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> It was much more convenient to declare the native Americans as barbarians with little culture & society and the land unused and open to be claimed by European
by kodah 4y ago
> It was much more convenient to declare the native Americans as barbarians with little culture & society and the land unused and open to be claimed by European settlers.
I went to a US public school in the South and also went to a private school. We spent most semesters of history learning about Native American civilizations, construction, and at one point had to build small-scale physical replicas of their cities.
That's to say, I don't really buy your explanation for the broader US. Maybe specific pockets. What I do think is more likely is that people believe that warring kingdoms were still normal back then and view Native American tribes as just that - kingdoms that were conquered. That much I can live with, but the constant lying and taking back promises we made to the Native Americans is absolute trash and should be rectified.
- zasdffaa 4y agoCities, yeah? Big ones? I know of mesoamerican cities like Tenochtitlan but I am unaware of any north american Indian cities (to be fair, I'm not from the USA), so some pointers would be very welcome indeed.
- dreamcompiler 4y agoHere are two: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/cahokia-mounds-state-historic-site-world-heritage-site.htm https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/cahokia-mounds-state-histor... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaco_Culture_National_Historical_Park https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaco_Culture_National_Histo...
- zasdffaa 4y agoThe first is debatable as it's city-ness. But that is an eye-opener! The second, wow! Thanks. I guess the scale both indicate a large social structure.
- GuardianCaveman 4y agoI heard a podcast about this I forget which one but they said basically that corn was slowly developing and spreading north but it was not developed to support large civilizations like it did in the central and South America. Had Europeans not come for another 100-200 years I think it would have adapted to northern latitudes and the base for large populations and large cities would have been there. Yes the natives had corn in the north but it was a strain with very few kernels compared to what was being grown in central Mexico. I can’t recall the details but that’s the gist . I think they said only one million natives existed in the continental US when colonists first landed too
- kodah 4y agoSomeone already mentioned Chaco, but I'd like to point you at the Puebloans more widely: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puebloans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puebloans
- zasdffaa 4y agoI was aware of the people but I thought they just lived in caves and didn't know of their buildings. Great stuff, thanks.