The term "American" is associated by most of the inhabitants of our planet with a person of European appearance. Some, of course, can imagine a black person. However, Native Americans look a little different. And they are better known under the name "Indians". Where did this concept come from?
Indians and Indians: why are these names similar?
So, today Native Americans are often called Indians. The word is similar to the name of another nation: the Indians. Is this similarity coincidental? Maybe Indians and Indians have common historical roots?
In fact, the Native Americans got this name by mistake: Spanish navigators led by Christopher Columbus were looking for a shortcut from the Old World to India. They did not know about the existence of the American continent. Therefore, when they met the first inhabitants of the new land, they thought that they were the inhabitants of India. According to ethnologists, the first Indians are not an autochthonous population. 30 thousand years ago they came here from Asia along the Bering Isthmus.
From wheredid the name "Redskins" come about?
Native Americans often appear under the term "Redskins". It does not have the negative character that is attached to the word "black" in relation to the African American population of the United States.
Often the Indians called themselves redskins, opposing the white colonizers. On the contrary, the term "white-skinned" in their eyes has a negative connotation. This term appeared due to the Beothuk tribe. It was located on the Canadian island of Newfoundland. It is believed that it was the Beothuks who first began to contact not only the Europeans who arrived, but even the Vikings, who, according to some information, appeared in America long before Columbus.
Beothuks not only had a characteristic skin tone, but also specially applied bright red colors to their faces, opposing themselves to the white colonizers. It is believed that it is for this reason that all Indians received such a nickname. The Beothuk tribe ceased to exist in the first half of the 19th century.
Colonization
Native Americans (Indians) were not going to give up their territories so easily. From the time of Columbus until the 20th century, the continent was colonized. In fairness, let's say both sides suffered losses before the Europeans fully settled in here.
Remarkably, the first European settlers were able to somehow get along with the Indians. The situation changed when the development of these lands became a political goal. The French, British, Spaniards, Portuguese, Russians poured into America. Wars and redistribution of the land, by the way, took placenot only between Europeans and Indians.
Native Americans are a warring people. Constant conflicts, wars between tribes are a frequent occurrence on this continent. It is noteworthy, but the first settlers from the Old World just took part in the conflicts between the tribes.
You can also note the fact that some Indian tribes took part in the war on the side of the Europeans. The reason is that the blood feud lasted not just for decades, but for centuries. Therefore, to support foreigners in the fight against blood enemies among some tribes was considered a holy deed, “a testament of fathers and ancestors.”
Europeans were also not part of a single union. There were conflicts within the various colonial settlements, and even wars between countries. For example, active hostilities between England and France in the early 19th century took place precisely in American territories.
Thus, we can conclude that the colonization of the continent did not take place in the form of a mass targeted extermination of indigenous peoples by European peoples, but was an unraveling of a tangle of constant centuries-old contradictions. In Latin America, the Spanish and Portuguese colonizers staged a total genocide of the indigenous population of the Incas, Aztecs, Mayans. The situation in North America was different.
Assimilation from the mid-19th century
Europeans considered the Indians as barbarians, savages because of their peculiar way of life and individual culture. Often publishedvarious laws that prohibited the Native American language, religion, traditions, etc. The government was looking for ways to assimilate the natives.
Very successful were attempts to protect the Indians from the bulk of the population in isolated reservations. Similar autonomous villages still exist today. Of course, there are already many elements of modern life in people's lives: clothing, housing, transport. However, they are still faithful to many traditions and customs of their ancestors: they preserve their language, religion, customs, secrets of shamanism, etc. By the way, each tribe has its own language.
Indian Rights Fight
The first half of the 20th century was marked by the beginning of the struggle for the rights of indigenous people. In 1924, a law was passed that gave full citizenship to all Indians. Until that moment, they could not move freely around the country, participate in elections, study at public schools and universities. In the same year, all laws that somehow oppressed their rights were repealed.
Activists have emerged fighting for the return of all illegally taken lands from the Indians, as well as compensation for the damage caused to them. Even a special Commission on Indian Complaints was created. Since that time, it has become profitable for the natives in the United States: in the first 30 years of the Commission's work alone, the government paid about $820 million in compensation, which is equal to several billion dollars in today's exchange rate.
Indian Habitat
Before the appearance of European colonialists in the territory of the modern USA and CanadaThere were up to 75 million Indians. Today, this figure is much more modest: just over 5 million people, which is approximately 1.6% of the total US population.
Where did the Native Americans live? There was no single state. The tribes differed in traditions, way of life, level of development. Therefore, each ethnic group occupied its own land. For example, the Pueblo Indians occupied the territory of the modern states of New Mexico and Arizona. Navajo - the territory of the southwestern United States, next to the pueblo. The Iroquois lived on the lands of the modern states of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois. A little to the north of the Iroquois lived the Hurons, who were the first to trade with the Europeans. The Mohican tribe lived on the territory of the modern states of New York and Vermont, the Cherokee inhabited the modern North and South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia.
"Native American" coins for collectors
Interest in the culture of the Indians has not faded even today. Especially for collectors, coins of the Native American series were issued (photo below). These are one dollar coins made of copper plated with manganese brass. Such pollination is short-lived, with intensive handling, the original appearance is completely erased, so they can only be found in numismatists. The original name of the coin series was "Sacagaweya Dollars" in honor of a girl from the Shoshone tribe.
She knew many different languages and dialects of the Indian tribes, helped the expedition of Lewis and Clark. On some coins there is her image. As a prototype of Sacagaveya was chosen22-year-old girl from the same tribe - Randy Teton.
