Preview

Sample 1Native American Influences On Modern

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2335 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sample 1Native American Influences On Modern
Sample 1
Native American Influences on Modern U.S. Culture
When the first Europeans came to the North American continent, they encountered the completely new cultures of the Native American. Peoples of North America, Native Americans, who had highly developed cultures in many respects, must have been as curious about them. As always happens when two or more cultures come into contact, there was a cultural exchange. Native Americans adopted some of the Europeans’ ways, and the Europeans adopted some of their ways. As a result, Native Americans have made many valuable contributions to modern U.S. culture, particularly in the areas of language, art, food, and government.
First of all, native Americans left a permanent mark on the English language. The early English-speaking settlers borrowed from several different Native American languages words for places in this new land. All across the country are cities, towns, rivers, and states with native American names. For example, the states of Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, and Alabama are named after Native American tribes, as are the cities of Chicago, Miami, and Spokane. In addition to place names, English adopted from various Native American languages the words for animals and plants found in the Americas, Chipmunk, moose, raccoon, skunk, tobacco, and squash are just a few examples.
Although the vocabulary of English is the area that shows the most Native American influence, it is not the only area of U.S. culture that has been shaped by contact with Native Americans. Art if another area of important Native American contributions. Wool rugs woven by women of the Navajo Tribe in Arizona and New Mexico are highly valued works of art in the United States. Native American jewelry made from silver and turquoise is also very popular and very expensive. Especially in the western and southwestern regions of the United States, native crafts such as pottery, leather products, and beadwork can be found in many homes. Indeed, native

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    An important element of Southwest Indian art is the exchange in culture and materials. The Southwest Indians lived in a time of great trade ranging from the east to west coasts, fewer but larger villages dotted present day Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada. Southwest artists are known for their pottery, textiles, and sand paintings. The Late Classic Navajo Chiefs Blanket from 1885 shows the cross cultural impacts that serve as a large theme in Southwest Indian art. The Navajo learned many practices from the Pueblo such as weaving, using the loom, and sand paintings. The materials in the blanket show cross-cultural influences from the wool used in the blanket were spun from sheep from the Spanish and the dyes came from Indian traders.…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Native American culture is an important aspect which every American has the obligation to study .it’s very important to learn about who were the natives Americans and to understand the process of how mix cultures in the United States of America came in to the picture. The study of Native American culture comprises the aspects such as religion, culture and tradition, dancing, food, dressings, way of life, education marriage and much more. All these aspects American culture evolved over the years, and with time, the society changed in to a more flexible and supple society. The movie industry is also one of the most important aspects of Native American culture which has transformed the society greatly, pulling people from all over the world to…

    • 180 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Native Americans have been on this land for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Their way of life is very different from the socially accepted way of the Europeans. The traditional symbols of their people and the ceremonial dress that they wore are considered sacred. Many different college universities, professional sports teams and public businesses use these sacred symbols, images and traditional dress as a logo or mascot for their team or business.…

    • 2426 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Thomas Paine's Beliefs

    • 1479 Words
    • 6 Pages

    It is clear that throughout many years there has been an exemption of treatment when talking about the Native Americans in the United States. Supposedly every individual is endowed with the right of freedom, equality, and of seeking for happiness, but Native Americans were treated irrationally. From the discovery of America, to the founding fathers and settlers, the treatment and attitude towards Native Americans has been unsettling at best. The colonial policies toward the Native Americans affected the Indians in ways that changed their relationship between their tribes and the new nation. Cabeza de Vaca, Roger Williams, Cotton Mather, and Benjamin Franklin all had certain views and preconceived notions when it came to the Native Americans. Amazingly enough the varying degree of each mans perspective is the basis on which we not only view the Native Americans today, but ultimately became the thesis on diversifying cultures and how we view them in society.…

    • 1479 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Europeans started to come over to the new world, they discovered a society of Indians that was strikingly different to their own. To understand how different, one must first compare and contrast some of the very important differences between them, such as how the Europeans considered the Indians to be extremely primitive and basic, while, considering themselves civilized. The Europeans considered that they were model societies, and they thought that the Indians society and culture should be changed to be very similar to their own.…

    • 913 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    There are more than 550 American Indian and Alaskan Native tribes in North America (Ortiz, 2002). The federal government officially recognizes more than 300 of those tribes (Nichols,…

    • 1714 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Contrary to the story that European Americans have been all too willing to accept, European immigrants came to inhabited territory in North America. Native Americans were numerous and many dwelt in stable communities. They had cleared land on the eastern seaboard and cultivated extensively. Their nations had established territories which were vital to the hunting component of their economics. These facts were evident to European settlers--especially to those who escaped starvation by accepting as gifts the fruits of Native American agriculture.…

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Christopher Colombus

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages

    There are few other examples in history of two cultures being so different as the Native Americans and the soon to be European settlers encountered. There are two big concepts that I could imagine Europeans having great difficulty understanding about indigenous culture. The first concept I think the Europeans would have great difficulty understanding is the natives idea of land. The Native Americans tied themselves very closely with the land they lived on as they would use it for things such as food, shelter, and navigation. It seems as if the Natives only took from the land what they…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Zuni Indians

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Starting off this year I was pleasantly surprised with our English assignment on Native American tribes. Born and raised in Gallup, New Mexico “The Land of Enchantment” I have had a firsthand experience with Native Americans and their culture. For my English report I would like to take the opportunity to enlighten you about a more unique and obscure tribe that has developed throughout the years in the most innovative ways, the Zuni tribe. There are total of 565 Native American tribes in the United States, all with their own language and beliefs. Tribes like the Zuni are often not well known and, are over shadowed by more prominent tribes such as the Apache, Cherokee, or Navajo tribes.…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Residential Schools

    • 1845 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Long before Europeans came to North America, Native people had a highly developed system of education. There was a great deal for Native children to learn before they could survive on their own. Native elders and parents passed on not only survival skills to their children, but their history, artistic ability, music, language, moral and religious values.…

    • 1845 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Although the first European settlers in America could not have survived without their assistance, it was not long before the Native Americans were viewed as a problem population. They were an obstacle to the expansion plans of the colonial government and the same to the newly formed United States. The Native Americans were dealt with in various ways. During expansion some were outright exterminated through war while others forcibly made to relocate to lands deemed less than ideal. The idea was to make them vanish – out of sight, out of mind. Though their numbers in terms of population and tribal groups dwindled, they persisted and continued to be a problem in the eyes of the federal government. In the latter part of the nineteenth century the United States government instituted a new way to wage war against the Native Americans. This involved assimilating their children through government-run boarding and day schools. Federal policy-makers were sure that by giving the Native American children an American-style education, they would eventually evolve into “Americans” and return to their reservations, but forsaking their previous culture, traditions and way of thinking. The federal government assumed that as the aged died off and, with the children assimilated, within a few generations at most, there would be no need for reservations or Indian policy, thus accomplishing the original goal of making them vanish.…

    • 3826 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    The discovery that Native Americans' culture is not static, is a relatively new one. With the aid of modern archeology, we now know that the Natives were very complex and were ever changing. The evidence we have now is still basic, but we can still learn a lot from it. Because of the lack of evidence, a lot of controversy is attributed to Native Americans. Some people believe that Natives were perfect beings, living in harmony with nature and others believe that they were savages due to human sacrifices, wars, etc. Natives are also often compared to Europeans who like them, engaged in warfare as well. One large difference is that Europeans had more capability to cause destruction compared to the Natives, due to their technology and organization…

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The American Indian is a very unique and integral part of Amreican history,with a very rich and beautiful cultural background.There are over 558 federally recognized tribes in America right now,and another 126 who have applied for federal recognition.At the time of first contact with Europeans, the United states was fully occupied by Indian Nations and some 300 Indian languages existed,approximately 106 of which are still spoken.The diversity and hetrogeneity of the American Indian community cannot be overstated.…

    • 1415 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Native American Culture

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Culture can be defined as a system of beliefs and values that a specific group of people share, which ultimately make up their society. As the exploration period in Europe reached a peak, Europeans were being exposed to entirely new cultures previously thought to be nonexistent. Europeans coming from Spain, France, and England brought their cultures to the New World, but their ethnocentric beliefs and ideology of superiority would have devastating effects for Native Americans (Nichols, p.30). Similar to Europeans, all Native American tribes had specific cultures that defined their way of life. As Europeans continued to encroach on Native lands, cultures collided, and misunderstandings fueled ignorant biases which would eventually result in…

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There are 196 countries in the world, and each country has anywhere from 10 to 20 different cultures. Native Americans are just one of the many different cultures that are in this world. Native Americans are different than other cultures, they have their own beliefs, perception of time, the way they socialize, their diets, traditions, the way they communicate, heritage and even concerns that are they deal with in today’s…

    • 71 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays