Jennifer Childers

The Native American World

Native Americans have contributed many things to the American way of life today. Things that you use or do now, many Native Americans have been using and doing for thousands of years. I believe that the only things people remember about Native Americans are their brutal tendencies-but they contribute too many positive things as well. A lot of time, we only think about things we can instantly identify as representing Native Americans, such as their food and clothing. Other than food and clothing, Native Americans have influenced many areas of American living. Some of these things were begun long before the arrival of the European settlers on North American land. The men were primarily the hunters, woman tended to the home and created life. The Native Americans have always had a deep respect for the land and its living forms of life were considered sacred then and still are today. The Native Americans did not kill anything they could not use. They never killed an animal or a fish for the sport of it. Fishing and hunting were a way to survive. Many of the tribesmen fished for Salmon in the same rivers the used as transportation to trade with other tribes. The Native Americans lived in harmony with nature and did not abuse the natural world. Native Americans learned to grow and use many different kinds of food that many people eat today, never acknowledging that they first came from Native Americans: potatoes, beans, corn, peanuts, pumpkins, tomatoes, squash, peppers, nuts, melons, and sunflower seeds. They also helped the European settlers survive in the New World by sharing their farming methods. Sixty of the present world’s food supply comes from the American Indians’ agriculture, primarily consisting of corn and the “Irish” potatoes. Thousands of American Indian names coincide our maps in states, cities, counties, lakes, mountains and rivers,