Embedded Files
Introduction
Imagine the land, that is now an area for a factory that is billowing dark smoke, as a beautiful plain filled with thousands of buffalo and antelope that goes as far as you can see. That is what it used to be like for the Indigenous People that used to live here.
The Native Americans lived with the land, not on the land. They never took more than they needed. For example, the native tribes that depended on the buffalo used every single part of it and they never wasted anything that they killed for food. Even the tribes that did not depend on the buffalo for their food gave thanks to the animals that they ate, and all tribes asked the animal’s spirits that they killed to forgive them. The Indigenous People of Turtle Island took good care of the land which we live on now.
This is the perspective we have studied this year in relation to the land, the Indigenous People, the impact the Europeans had on the land, the animals, plants, and most of all the first people and the expert stewards of this land. People we can learn so much from, the Indigenous People, are still here to continue their stewardship.
Katherine Welsch
What we knew about Indigenous People Prior to this Study:
Most of us said we didn’t know anything.
We thought the people were all one tribe
We had seen movies with Indians in it
We thought they always rode horses
We thought all Indigenous people lived in tipis
They all spoke one language
They moved around all the time- no home
The explorers were the first people on the land
What we have been told about Thanksgiving is true
Sean Langeroud
What we learned and we want you to know about Indigenous Peoples:
Who are the Indigenous Peoples, Native Americans, Native, American Indians past and present?
The Indigenous People are the people who were the true pioneers, the first people on this land that is part of Turtle Island(North America). The people who take great care of the land and love and respect of all of nature. They are the first stewards and still the primary stewards, often the only stewards of the land called Mother Earth. The land that, if all of us would allow her, provides everything needed by animals, the plants, and the people.
Did you know that before the Europeans came here, there were between 30 and 60 million Indigenous Peoples living all over Turtle Island? And not just living on it, thriving on it. Every time any part of nature was used the people showed gratitude with gifts to the animal that gave its life, the plant that fed or cured the people, and land. Always gratitude and thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was and is everyday with the Indigenous Peoples.
This is just a small part of who the Indigenous Peoples are. They are also mothers, fathers, grandparents, people who work in technology, teachers, doctors, lawyers, activists, people with a strong focus on family, community and Mother Earth. They are people with a rich history that needs to be learned and recognized.
Liam Landrigan
The map below shows where tribes lived prior to European settlements.
These can be purchased: www.tribalnationsmaps.com
What we learned and we want you to know about Indigenous Peoples:
As you can see on the map above, millions of people lived on this land for thousands of years before European explorers came to claim the land 500 years ago
About 570 tribes still live in the United States and speak around 600 languages
Each tribe has a different language and different traditions and culture-they didn't all speak the same language or live in teepees!
It depended on where the people lived and the natural resources as to what people ate, kind of shelter they had, and what traditions and cultural activities they had and still have
Children are cherished and taught through storytelling to respect the elders- they learn from a young age how to respect and honor the land and nature.
Orion Sanchez
Elders are highly respected and the teachers of the history of the tribe-
In some tribes the women built the shelter and owned it, they also took it down and moved it from camp to camp, then put it back up
Something that came up again and again was that the Indigenous People don’t take more than they need from the land- they make certain there is enough for everyone, even the animals-
Indigenous People don’t waste what they are given by nature- for example Plains People hunted buffalo and used every part of the buffalo- and thank the buffalo and give it gifts like tobacco-
The Europeans claimed land in order to own the land. The Indigenous Peoples want to live with the land and take care of it, live in harmony with it
Bella Porter
There are three tribes that lived or live in Colorado and in the Boulder area. They were the Nuu-ciu or Ute, the Tsistsistas or Cheyenne, and the Hinono-eino or Arapaho-
This land we live on and the Heatherwood, Wood Brothers, and Gunbarrel Hill stand on, is the land of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute. It was taken from them. They are still connected to this land through their ancestors and history
The Cheyenne and Arapaho were and are still allies
Since all three of these tribes were Plains Indians, they mainly lived in teepees made from 6-20 buffalo and deer hides-now they live in houses
Mac Friedland
The Cheyenne and Arapaho got horses in 1745 which made hunting much easier as well as moving camps
The Arapaho were known for being excellent at trading for goods- and learned many languages by traveling to trade
Cheyenne and Arapaho were sent to Sand Creek as a safe place. The group was mostly women, children, and elders. Chivington led troops to massacre them November 29, 1864
In late 1800s the Southern Cheyenne and Southern Arapaho were sent to the reservation in Oklahoma- The Northern Cheyenne were sent first to Nebraska then Montana. The Northern Arapaho were put at Wind River with the Shoshone. Analia Ecklund
The Ute were the first tribe in Colorado to get horses from the Spanish in late 1500s and it changed their culture allowing them to travel farther and trade more-
The Ute are Colorado’s oldest continuous residents and are still here today on two reservations in Southern Colorado
The Ute hunted buffalo here in Colorado and deer, elk, and bear in Utah.
The Ute lived and hunted all over Colorado and Utah as well as parts of Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
Louis Lopez Ramirez-Saenz
Impact the Europeans Had on the Indigenous Peoples
Impact the Europeans Had on the Indigenous Peoples
The map below shows the invasion of the European and when land was taken from the Indigenous Peoples
'The Why' Europeans Could Explore and Conquer
“As we were studying about the Indigenous Peoples, I began to wonder why people felt like they had the right to come to land and claim it for their country even though people were already living on the land. We found out why! In 1455, Pope Nicholas V made a law that all land that didn't have Christians living on it, could be taken. The People on the land could be killed or enslaved. Their belongings could be taken. The people had no rights to own the land. They had no rights as non-Christians.
This law gave permission for this to happen anywhere in the world. The United States Supreme Court adopted this law in 1823 and still refer to it in cases related to Indigenous land. The People still do not have the right to control land they have lived the land on for centuries. It is called the Doctrine of Discovery."
Brynne Truesdale
Europeans Brought a Hidden Enemy
As the English, French, and Spanish explorers came to Turtle Island they brought deadly changes to the Indigenous Peoples. Europeans carried a hidden enemy to the Native People : a new disease Native people of America had no immunity to the diseases European explorers and colonist brought with them. Diseases such as smallpox, influenza, measles, and even chickenpox proved devastating to people. Europeans were used to these diseases, but Native people had no resistance to them. Sometimes the illnesses spread through direct contact while other times they were transmitted through trading goods with one another. The result of this contact with Europeans' germs was horrible sometimes whole villages perished in a short time.
Over time, their lives changed as the Indigenous People adapted to different environments. The Native people are creative. They found ways to live in desserts, in forests, along the oceans, and on the grassy prairies. Native peoples were great hunters and gatherers, and farmers. They built towns and traded large distances with other tribes prior to the Europeans and knew how to survive. These are the people the European explorers met when their ship landed in America. These are the people who are still here.
Silas Mathis
Impact on Animals, Land, and People
When the Europeans traveled to America they did not take care of the plants and animals like the Indigenous People did . The Europeans made a ton of unhelpful changes to the wild life. For example, they hurt the wild life so much that beavers were being over hunted for Beaver hats. In some areas the beavers were almost extinct. With no beavers there were no beaver ponds which impacted some other types of animals like moose fish and deer. Plus it was the same with buffalo the Indigenous people depended on buffalo to survive. The Europeans shot most of the buffalo for the purpose of starving the Indigenous People. When the Europeans came to Turtle Island there were 30-60 million bison prior to Europeans coming to this land. By the end of the 19th century there were 325 left.
The Europeans also raided the indigenous land and made building that hurt the wild life. The Indigenous People did not believe in private land because they viewed it as their kin to be respected and cared for, to be reused and to help them and they helped the land too. Also, the Europeans kicked the Indigenous People off the land and gave them tiny pieces to live on. You can see this in the video at the top of the page.
Logan Sprague
The Impact The Europeans Had on the Indigenous Peoples
When the Europeans arrived on Turtle Island, Native peoples believed the Europeans were powerful people that came from the sky. The Europeans came looking for gold, slaves, land to claim, religious freedom, and land to live on. Europeans didn’t understand native cultures and viewed the Indigenous Peoples as savages.
European settlers fought over and took land to live on, to mine on, to hunt on. Europeans made treaties in English, but most of the Native People could not read English, so they signed things they might not have agreed to because they could not read English. To the Native People, promises and treaties were held as almost sacred and were honored. The Europeans saw them as a means to get what they wanted. They made over 400 treaties with the Native tribes and broke every one of them.
After taking land, the Europeans then attempted to starve the Indigenous Peoples by killing off animals the people depended on, such as the buffalo, or putting them on land that wasn't fertile or didn't grow their traditional foods.
Europeans told them it was best to put the kids in boarding school so that they could learn English to read the treaties and they could learn to be “civilized”. The Native peoples only agreed because their children were starving and their lives were endangered.
In the Boarding Schools, the children had their hair cut off, they couldn’t wear their own clothes and were given military uniforms, they were not allowed to speak their own language and were sometimes beaten for doing so. The goal was to assimilate the children, make them fit into the ‘white man's world’ so that they would not return to their families.
Clearly, the Europeans made a big impact on the Indigenous Peoples. But the Native people are still here and are still speaking their language, celebrating their culture, and trying to protect Mother Earth for generations to come.
Vivian Zimmerman
Why we are learning about the Indigenous People:
It is important to learn history from different perspectives in order to get the whole picture. If we don’t get the whole picture how do we understand the people and what their experiences have been? For people to understand one another, we need to know all sides of the story, what people went through, and how they survived. Learning about other cultures is a way to bring us all together and appreciate one another for our differences. Learning the ways of other cultures will repair relationships as well as things like the earth. A great example of this is that if we learn from the Indigenous Peoples -how to be good stewards of the land- to honor, respect, and care for nature and all it gives to us, the life of the earth will get better. Maybe even stop climate change!!
Thank you for listening to what we have learned. I hope you learned something you didn't know!
Zyla Calkins
Page updated
Report abuse