Introduction
The truth about the history of American Indians is often distorted. While people tend to consider these cultures immature, the wisdom of centuries remains unknown on a large scale. However, there is visible progress in terms of the present-day approach to Native Americans’ history since it is studied and discussed more frequently. Nowadays, the task of primary importance is to educate the society and convey the idea that the rich past of the American Indians should be remembered.
Knowledge of American Indians
I have to admit that my prior knowledge about American Indians lacked consistency. I was familiar only with the general facts: some names of the Indian civilizations, such as Maya, or “the Cradle of the Americas” idea (Oakes et al. 6). Although I did not support the opinion that Native Americans were barbarous, I could not rationalize my viewpoint. In the context of what I studied, this background became a fundament on which the new material was reinforced. For example, I knew that farming was significant, but the fact that it was connected with political power in relation to Iroquoian women who played a large part in agriculture astonished me (Oakes et al. 9).
Food Strategies and Culture
The diversity of American Indians cultures in housing, gender roles, and religion is partially explained by the types of food strategies they designed. Farming brought the Mexican model of villages when houses were built around court-yards and many great constructions, some of which were “built largely for ceremonial purposes” (Oakes et al. 8). Under such circumstances, men and women could exercise political power. As for hunting and gathering, such cultures were connected with nomadic life, lodges, wooden totem poles, and men’s critical role. Women were mostly involved in gathering while men hunted.
Cronon and White’s “Indians in the Land”
Cronon and White supplement the information about the impact of agriculture and the attitude towards the environment. They emphasize that Indian people were environmentalists in their own manner different from the European perception: the development of agriculture brought reshaping the land by fire; to kill an animal meant to have social relationships with it. The key idea is that one should not implement the same criteria considering different cultures.
North America before European Settlement
No society is absolutely good or evil. It would be equally wrong to blacken American Indian’s past or extol it. Contrary to the popular opinion, their cultures were not primitive. Before the first European settlers arrived, they managed to carve out their lives and achieved substantial progress. Just as any people, these groups entered into alliance, negotiated, or fought. The masterpieces of architecture, for instance, Moctezuma’s palaces, amazed the newcomers. Aggressiveness attributed to American Indians also bears no relation to the actual state of affairs. The stereotype that Indians routinely sacrificed thousands of people at a time has nothing to do with their reality: still, they could sacrifice some prisoners of war to their gods (Oakes et al. 8). If the Europeans had not come, these cultures would have continued to advance naturally. Probably, the democratic tendencies registered in some groups could have been reinforced.
Conclusion
To sum up, the history of American Indians before the European settlement is notable for its uniqueness: these people who lived and evolved separately from the Old World created highly developed civilizations. These regions were neither ideal nor totally atrocious. One should not ignore both sides of the same coin. The way people treat the heritage of the Indians’ past should be reconsidered: to evaluate these cultures, it is necessary to learn history and think critically.
Works Cited
Oakes, James, Jeanne Boydston, Mark Summers, Camilla Townsend, and Karen Dunak. Of the People: A History of the United States, Volume 1: To 1877. New York: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2015. Print.