Native American Racism and Stereotyping



Native American Racism and Stereotyping

Introduction

The term Native Americans refers specifically to the descendants of people living in what is now the contiguous United States prior to the mass arrival of settlers from other continents. . Other terms to refer to Native Americans include American Indian, Indian, Amerindian, Native, and Indigenous. Native Americans have a long historical relationship with the U.S. government, beginning before the American Revolution with the signing of treaties, mostly for trade and friendship, between Native American tribes and European-American colonies.

The Culture and the People

History has clearly highlighted that Native Americans have existed in the United States of American even before Christopher Columbus had laid the foundation of America. There was an entirely different group of people, who were the Native Americans; they discovered the land of America. Historical data suggests that when European lands were starting to get discovered on earth, an estimate of around 50 million people was already residing in the United States of America.

An anthropologist Edward Sapir discovered in the year 1906 that the Native Americans initially used to link life to the sun and the moon, mountain, rock and deer even. They related life with anything that appealed to them in the nature around them. The native people lived in the Southwest Oregon for thousands of years. It was very difficult for their survival as new people emerged in the region and the development in the region flourished. They had to fight for the food and shelter.

Native Americans are also called American Indian or the First Nation People. The people who resided in America before the Columbian era, used the material nature to seek their survival on land, like the fire, stone implements of many kinds, netting, pottery etc. American Indians made use of a variety of plants and animals, including corn, maize, beans, potatoes and turkeys, llamas, alpacas etc, as well as a variety of nut- and seed-bearing plants. 

On the basis of culture, the Native Americans are divided into two groups: American Indians and the Arctic people. American Indians are time and again further grouped by areas in which these people reside: Northern America which is today northern United States and Canada, Middle America which is today Mexico and Central America and South America.

The culture of the Native Americans is discussed in the following sections of 10 separate culture areas:

The Arctic

The Arctic region was a cold, flat and a tree less region, near the Arctic Circle. The Inuit and the Aleut were the Natives of this region. Both the groups spoke and the people residing in this area still speak, Eskimo-Aleut Language. Because the region and its climate were so inhospitable, the population of this region was very small in number and it was mostly scattered. The Arctic people mainly relied on hunting and gathering. The region usually faced harsh winters, but the summers also exploded the region with vegetables and fruits. The people in this region mainly lived in dome shaped ...