American Indian History

The World Turned Upside Down '1

The meaning of the word nation ' can be interpreted in different ways but it always signifies the people , native language , traditions and a territory . Every nation has its own usages and they are inherited by its population across the generations . The people love their culture and love their land . Long time ago people learnt to cultivate the soil and to grow the crops . However , the land is not just people 's wet-nurse . It is something more for natives , because it unites them into one whole into

one nation . But when somebody deprives people of their land , the power of population as a nation weakens

The world turned upside down ' - wrote Colin G . Calloway trying to bring to the readers a sorry plight of Indians after blood-thirsty invasion of Englishman into their land . Peace and idyll of Native American 's life remained in the past and new era of a disaster came . One group after another endured successive waves of epidemic disease inter-tribal and European warfare , rapid environmental change , colonial pressure for cultural change , displacement , and sometimes enslavement and servitude

Some groups disintegrated under the pressure , but others found ways to survive and some new groups came into being . It was not easy for them to adapt to the new laws white men had brought with them . The Indians felt that something was dying for ever and their home had changed . But the main human instinct of a survival played its key role . The Indians learnt to live with colonists

In this we 'll discuss the various ways Indian peoples adapted to their new settlers . To open the subject perfectly we 'll look to the life of the Native Americans through the history

For thousands of years land that is now the United States belonged to the Indians . They spoke many different languages . They lived in many different ways . Some were farmers . Some were hunters . Some lived deep in the forests in villages of strongly built houses . Others roamed over the grassy plains , carrying all they owned with them

Each Indian belonged to a tribe , which was made up of a number of bands Just two or three families constituted some bands . Each Indian thought of himself first not as one man but as part of a band and of a tribe All the members of a band took care of each other . They hunted or farmed together and shared whatever they caught or grew

Some tribes were warlike . Others lived in peace

Indian religions were many . Some believed in one god , others in many but all believed that man and nature were very close . Hunters or farmers all knew that the wind , the rain , the sun , the grass , the trees , and all the animals that lived on the earth were important to them . For thousands of years Indians wandered through the forests , over the grassy plains and great deserts . The earth was their mother , supplying all their wants . Then men arrived from...