Preview

How Civilization: Were Native Americans Civilized?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
340 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Civilization: Were Native Americans Civilized?
Native Americans are a group of people with a variety of political structures and numerous ways of life. Most people envision Native Americans as uncivilized; however, this is often an overlooked topic and there are multiple pieces of evidence to prove they are civilized people. The Native Americans were civilized in many forms, they lived in harmony among nature until the white men kicked them off their land. The meaning of civilized is for a group of people to have well-organized laws and rules about how people behave with each other. Natives showed the organization of laws and rules when they “adapted to their new environmental conditions and natural surroundings, and eventually developed their own political systems, religious beliefs, and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Native Americans had been all throughout the United States in early history, keeping to themselves living their lives. Americans believed the Indians to be savage and not worth the life they lived and some thought they should be exterminated, however, there were those who had compassion that believed that the Indians should be converted to Christianity and then everything would be fine (23). Native Americans showed as much willingness as white people to participate in the market economy (48). The Indians figured out different ways to communicate with the whites so that they would be able to trade and barter with them effectively (27).…

    • 2200 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Narrator: Overall, many events in American history has shaped Native people as a whole, but individually they all handled it differently. From the first step in a New World, the Colonists changed how the Native people diversified themselves, adapted to an ever-changing world full of disease, horses, and alcohol, how the Natives organized their society, and how they would be able to remain true to their Native roots without adopting European customs. Each of these tasks was a further step for a colonial foothold in Indian America.…

    • 114 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Best Essays

    The Cherokee were a civilized tribe of natives, more civilized than most native tribes. They were considered civilized because a lot of them were educated and they had their own language. They used all of their natural resources to their advantage. They were a very agriculturally based people. The women in the Cherokee tribes did the majority of the farming and the men hunted and cleared the land for farming. Descent was matrilineal, meaning everything was passed down through the women, not the men like in most societies. As more and more “civilized” people came into contact with the Cherokee, the more and more they started to lose their customs and traditions. They were picking up habits and customs of the white settlers in order to assimilate with them.…

    • 1762 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    1. The Native Americans were very practical people. They would use the nature for their source of survival. They used the sky as their calendar and they relied on crops for their food supply. The Natives were warriors and they had cities, towns and villages.…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Indian reservations were structured in a way that closely resembled colonial societies. The native population was ruled by outside influence and their culture, traditions, religion, and way of life where assaulted and outlawed in the name of civilization. Native American children where sent away to school with civilized classrooms that would teach Indians to speak English, worship the Christian god, and leave their tribal ways. By the late nineteenth century, the whites’…

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dbq Indian Removal Act

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “The Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and the Choctaw knew that they could not defeat the Americans in war” ( ) the settlers were so “land hungry” that the Native Americans knew that all they could do was try to appease the white man. Native Americans were willing to ty to do whatever they could do to be able to keep even just a small portion of their own land. “One method was to adopt Anglo-American practices such as large-scale farming, western education and slave holding. (www.pbs.org) having done so the natives were designed designated as the “five Civilized Tribes”. The Natives Americans did all of these things in order to co-exist the white settlers and try to keep the hostility at a minimum. With everything the Native Americans did it still wasn’t good enough and just lead to the settlers having resentment and anger towards…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagine you're surrounded by a hot and dusty land. No matter where you look all you see is desert. Your resources are limited. Where will your next meal come from? How will you make a shelter when all you see for miles are dead trees and cacti?…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Native Americans were the first people to have arrived in America, and to have built an establishment in America. Many people have a stereotype on how they lived and still live currently, and many Native Americans don’t consent to that at all. The way many people believe that the Native Americans lived a nomadic type of lifestyle, such as hunting large animals for food, using animal parts to create clothing, and many other actions. This article that the author has wrote is very convincing on how a Native American feels about how people are stereotyping him and his type of people. It gives a perspective from a Native American’s point of view of what they deal with on a daily basis, and throughout their entire life. The main reason that is convincing…

    • 867 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    History on Race Report

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages

    It seems that the Native American people have faced a tremendous journey throughout history. When Christopher Columbus first came into contact with the Native Americans, he described them in such a positive manor. Upon meeting the Native Americans (Indians) Christopher Columbus recorded and entry into his log. “They ... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks ' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned... . They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane.... They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” (Log of Christopher Columbus) Although it seemed that the Native Americans were thought of as hospitable and generous, the Europeans took full advantage and became greedy over many things including land. Settlers brought diseases to the Native Americans and most of the disease…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The differences between European and Native American culture plays an important role in how two interact. European’s whole society is built on the idea of “private ownership”, the more land someone had was equated with that person’s status and wealth. (Lecture 1, slide 20) They have a very distinct division on what is sacred and secular, they even believed that the secular world was there to serve them. (Lecture 1 slide 21) Native Americans had a completely different perspective.…

    • 804 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Native american medicine

    • 1784 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Native Americans believe that in order to stay strong and healthy, they have to keep a strong spiritually, mentally, and physically. If you stay true to the Native traditions, beliefs and obey tribal religious tenets you will maintain healthy living. One of the way that this can be achieved is by treating all life with respect. Treating animals, plants, rocks, rivers, rainbows, ect, with the up most respect for this beings. The spirit is a representation of your physical body, and Native Americans believe that each and every person is responsible for their own health and well being. There are some primary tools that Native Americans use to help them maintain the balance between good and bad harmony in their lives. (1)…

    • 1784 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Like many countries who have been invaded by a foreign power, Native Americans are also regarded to have been subjected to significant change. When the Europeans first arrived in the late 1400s, they brought with them the intent of not only exploring to find India, but also to find gold and much more wealth. The Europeans made a mistake in their navigation causing them not to arrive in India, but rather what they referred to as the “New World.” The Europeans had stumbled upon the Native Peoples that occupied that place. The Native Peoples were soon to become overpowered and eventually become slaves of the Europeans. With the Europeans now being part of the Native world, they eventually left a significant impact, an impact that affected them influentially, ethnocentrically, and population-wise.…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The development of Native American civilizations in the New World differed from those in the Old World because they did not have the resources transport and communicate like the Old World did. The New World did not have horses or any other draft animals, so they relied on man power alone. Major civilizations were not all located along major rivers, and due to the difficulties traveling presented them with, had very poor communication with one another. They were also faced with the disadvantage of geographic isolation from the rest of the world. Despite these setbacks, the Native Americans were still able to create astoundingly complex civilizations, with surprisingly similar characteristics to eastern hemisphere civilizations. Similarities…

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    When Christopher Columbus made the historic voyage to the Americas, it opened the doorway for more expeditions to the “New World.” Europeans had been kept into one area of the world and likewise the natives from the Americas had been kept in their own area, creating their own culture and way of living that was completely foreign to the newcomers. However, when these worlds collided it changed the daily lives of the Native Americans forever. They learned new things from the Europeans, they were also killed and separated from their friends and families. Some Europeans also forced them to change their lives and give up key parts in their culture. All these factors came as a result of exploration and colonization on the native…

    • 125 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    During westward expansion many Native American Tribes were forced out of their homelands and moved into what was known as “Indian Territory” which is modern-day Oklahoma. The Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Creeks, known as the “five civilized tribes” and the Plains Indians, which had been relocated to the western part of the territory on land leased from the Five Civilized Tribes, were moved into this area. Many of these tribes were enemies and were now being forced to live next to each other, which was not easy. Because of this, the tribes struggled for power amongst themselves. Cherokee nation was usually most powerful but now they were having to learn to live in a western way which didn’t carry on their traditional activities.…

    • 1499 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays