American Indian identity

American Indian identity

Introduction

This research paper will explore American Indian identity, outlining the more significant contributors, their views or constructions, and the cultural-historical forces that have shaped the history of American Indian identity over the last two hundred years or so or since the white man showed up and in significant ways began the "Indian" construction process.The essay will also incorporate a discussion of Native American identity today and discuss theoretical framework that clarifies Native American Identity. Historians commonly accept that the settlement of the Americas began around -30,000 to -12,000 BC. The dates are very imprecise because they depend on climatological data and not on human remains. These men are hunter-gatherers from Asia who inadvertently took advantage of a general softening of the climate. The glaciers further north up a wide passage between the liberated Siberia and Alaska, the famous Bering Strait could be crossed on foot. It is assumed that men who borrowed this passage continued the game as they hunted the bison or mammoth. However, this corridor of nearly 1500 km wide closed quickly, leaving only the first Americans to their fate. We find that soon they head to the south of curiosity or demographic pressure, the two probably. Men have always tried to broaden their horizons, those pursuing the game, and dependent on them, or those seeking paradise described by so many ancestral myths. Mobile and probably few of this vast territory, which opened to them, they have left no trace for archaeologists very usable. So they keep their secrets even if it can be little doubt that they are descendants of the huge Asian steppes of Siberia.

Discussion & Analyses

The first traces of human presence in Mexico are mainly discovered graves containing some pieces of pottery and semi-precious stones. The few skeletons, including Mexico, reveal men clearly Mongoloid physical features (almond-shaped eyes, round face, full lips, dark hair and stiff.). But history is a science and, like all true science, nothing is ever certain. From the early sixteenth century, shipowners Norman, Basque and Portuguese sent their ships to refuel cod off Newfoundland. Soon the sailors come in contact with the Indians and exchanged metal objects, hitherto unknown, against the skin. Very soon will be established a colonial tradition: the precious metals are exported by Hispanic America, north, furs. In fact, apart from the French colony on the St. Lawrence, New England and Virginia home, where the colonists settled at once for agriculture, colonial policy elsewhere and exploratory newcomers is inspired by the fur trade. This is not so much to find that control, before the other, new fur-rich territory. In the seventeenth century, the French intensely engaged in this activity from Montreal, the Dutch did the same from New Amsterdam (now New York since), the English from Hudson Bay, north. In the eighteenth century, explorations continue, inspired by the same reasons, including the Russians along the coast of Alaska, or those of Alexander MacKenzie to the Arctic Ocean or Lewis and Clark, the first to ...