The term "American" is associated with the majority of the inhabitants of our planet with a person of European appearance. Some, of course, can imagine a black man. However, Native Americans look a bit wrong. 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. This word is similar to the name of another nation: Indians. Is such a coincidence random? Maybe Indians and Indians have common historical roots?
In fact, Native Americans got this name by mistake: Spanish sailors, led by Christopher Columbus, were looking for a short way from the Old World to India. They did not know about the existence of the American continent. Therefore, having met the first inhabitants of the new land, they thought that they were residents of India. According to ethnologists, the first Indians are not an indigenous population. 30 thousand years ago they came here from Asia along the Bering Isthmus.
Where did the name “redskins” come from?
Native Americans often appear under the term "redskins." It does not have the negative character attached to the word “black” in relation to the African American population of the United States.
Often the Indians called themselves redskins, contrasting the white colonizers. On the contrary, the term "white-skinned" in their eyes has a negative color. This term came from the Boeotuki tribe. It was located on the Canadian island of Newfoundland. It is believed that it was the Biotuk who were the first to come into contact not only with the arriving Europeans, but even with the Vikings, who, according to some reports, appeared in America long before Columbus.
Beotuki not only had a characteristic skin tone, but also specially applied bright red colors on his face, contrasting himself with white colonizers. It is believed that it is for this reason that all Indians received such a nickname. The Beotuki 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 to the 20th century, the continent was colonized. In fairness, let’s say, both sides suffered losses before the Europeans fully settled here.
It is noteworthy, but the first European immigrants were able to somehow get along with the Indians. The situation changed when the development of these lands became a political goal. French, British, Spaniards, Portuguese, Russians poured into America. War and redistribution of the land, by the way, took place not only between Europeans and Indians.
Native Americans are a warring nation. Constant conflicts, wars between tribes are a frequent occurrence on this continent. It is noteworthy, but the first settlers from the Old World took part in conflicts between tribes.
You can also note the fact that some tribes of the Indians took part in the war on the side of the Europeans. The reason is that blood feud lasted not just for decades, but for centuries. Therefore, to support foreigners in the struggle against blood enemies of some tribes was considered a holy deed, "a testament of fathers and ancestors."
Europeans were also not part of a single alliance. There were conflicts within various colonial settlements, and even wars between countries. For example, active hostilities between England and France at the beginning of the 19th century took place precisely on American territories.
Thus, we can conclude that the colonization of the continent did not take place in the form of massive targeted extermination by the European peoples of the indigenous inhabitants, but was an unraveling of a tangle of constant centuries-old contradictions. In Latin America, the Spanish and Portuguese colonialists staged total genocide of the indigenous population of the Incas, Aztecs, Mayans. The situation in North America was different.
Assimilation since the mid-19th century
Europeans considered the Indians barbarians, savages because of the peculiar way of life and individual culture. Often various laws were passed that banned Native American language, religion, traditions, etc. The government was looking for ways to assimilate the indigenous people.
Quite successful were attempts to shield the Indians from the bulk of the population in isolated reservations. Similar autonomous villages exist today. Of course, in the life of people there are already many elements of modern life: clothing, homes, transport. However, they are still faithful to many traditions and customs of their ancestors: they preserve the language, religion, customs, secrets of shamanism, etc. By the way, each tribe has its own language.
The fight for the rights of the Indians
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. Up to this point, they could not move freely around the country, participate in elections, study in general schools, universities. In the same year, all laws that at least somehow oppressed their rights were repealed.
Activists appeared 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 the complaints of the Indians was created. Since that time, it became profitable for an indigenous resident in the United States: in the first 30 years of the Commission’s work alone, the government paid about $ 820 million in compensation, which equals several billion dollars in terms of the current rate.
Indians habitat
Before the advent of European colonialists, up to 75 million Indians in the territory of the modern USA and Canada. Today this figure is much more modest: a little more than 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, lifestyle, 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 is 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 north of the Iroquois lived the Hurons, who were the first to trade with the Europeans. The Mohicans lived on the territory of the modern states of New York and Vermont, the Cherokee inhabited modern North and South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, and Virginia.
Native Americans - Coins for Collectors
Interest in the culture of the Indians has not died away today. Especially for collectors, coins of the Native Americans series were issued (photo below). These are one-dollar copper coins coated with manganese brass. Such pollination is short-lived, with intensive handling the original form is completely erased, so they can be found only among numismatists. The original name of the series of coins is "Sakagawei Dollars" in honor of a Shoshone girl.
She knew many different languages ​​and dialects of the Indian tribes, helped the expedition of Lewis and Clark. Some coins have her image. As a prototype of Sakagaveya, a 22-year-old girl from the same tribe, Randy Teton, was chosen.