Native American Culture prior to Columbus

Exploring the Americas and the Changes that One Man Brought

            The Native Americans arrived thousands of years before the arrival of the Europeans. Most of them came over the Bering Strait land bridge. Some of the tribes settled down while others continued pushing further South into Central America and eventually into South America. Central and South America language and architecture were strongly influenced by the explorations of Rameses III during the 25^th Egyptian dynasty. Those influences spread up through what we know now as the American Southwest. Each of the “Indian” nations had a different culture and when the Europeans happened upon the stage in 1492 C.E. they found a thriving and virtually unknown civilization with estimations as high as 80 million people. It was the European’s greed that led them to the discovery, conquest and eventual enslavement of the Native American People. In his quest for fame, Christopher Columbus’s discovery led to the colonization of the Americas and almost to the extermination of an entire race. (Baron, 2011)

The Native American tribes all had their own culture and because of this there was much diversity. The main cultural differences can be seen in whether or not they were hunters or farmers. Some of them relied on irrigation and 3 crop planting to continue to have subsidence. The hunters had a tendency to have temporary nomadic camps with a centrally located city or town. The hunters would trade their furs and meat to other tribes who would specialize in growing food. The farmer types would almost always have a permanent dwelling for a family and extended family for the purpose of a large community to work the fields. This required large areas of flat land that was well irrigated. The Midwestern United States was once the home of the largest producers of cereal grains for the most of the Native Americans. With the established trade routes it only took a few weeks to get them to modern day Mexico before pushing them deeper south. In those regions they regularly practices crop rotation every 2-3 years to prevent the soil from burning out.  3 crop planting was used more in the regions that had a naturally higher temperature. They would plant several crops together in the same field. For instance they would plant corn, hay and peas together. This would protect the earth from the scorching sun and would also keep the moisture in the ground. (Dimas, 2009)

The trade routes that ran through the America’s were quite effective. There were 5 main routes that ran through North America and they consolidated into 1 route once it entered modern day Mexico. And then branch off into 3 different routes in South America. Part of the reason the Aztec nation was so rich and powerful, was because of the trade industry. All the trade routes led directly to their capitol. News was also able to travel relatively fast throughout the different nations because of these routes. With the coming of the Europeans we find that something else can travel quickly along these trade routes as well. Diseases, common colds to Europe but with no immunities previously built up, they became capable of wiping out entire slowly at first then rapidly as the Europeans settled the entire New World. (Dimas, 2009)

The overall religion was typically paganistic in nature. In South American the natives were more likely to worship in temples with actual carved gods while up in North America it was more usual to see nature worship. Most of them believed in some form of reincarnation and thus they were more in line with the natural cycles of life than most people would be. They were not usually a very inventive people. They seemed to use the same technology that you would see used in ancient Egypt to do most of their construction. One major disadvantage was that the wheel was never invented and also that they had fewer examples of forgery. Unlike the European world, where the wheel led to major expansion and where the smithy was the single most important middle class job of that time. (Legrand, 2011)

While this civilization was still unknown to European powers, there was a trade rush to get to the Far East. The main problem was that the only current route was to sail around the horn of Africa and then head back North. The only other route was to take it to the Mediterranean and then overland by caravan. Neither of these routes were safe from bandits or tribes. As a young man Christopher Columbus had read about Marco Polo’s exploits and had always dreamed of being an adventurer. He believed that that the earth’s circumference was 50% smaller than it actually was. He was hoping that by sailing west he would meet the East Indies. In 1477 he realized that he might actually be right. He was in Ireland on holiday and had a chance meeting with man and his family who had sailed from North America on a simple adventure. He records it in the margins of one of his journals that day. He soon began asking in earnest to be sent to “discovery” a new trade route. He was in it for the fame and the glory. After 20 years he eventually gave up and joined a monastery and finally received his chance to leave for the New World. (Pitten, 2009)

After the discovery, Spain and Portugal began to rapidly populate the New World. The Spanish mission statement read that they were to gather gold, gain glory and spread Christianity. The spread of Christianity was what hid the public’s eye from what was actually going on. The Spanish had slave labor, they stole as much gold as they could get their hands on and they had no issue just killing anyone who stood in the way. As fame and greed controlled the Spaniards, the Native Americans died by the thousands and their memory would rapidly be forgotten in the annals of time.

Works Cited

Baron, T. (2011). Discovery and settlement. Retrieved from http://www.apstudynotes.org/us-history/topics/discovery-and-settlement-of-the-new-world/

Dimas, P. (2009). Colonization. Unpublished raw data, History , Phoenix College, Phoenix AZ,

Legrand, C. (2011). Before columbus. Retrieved from http://rense.com/general43/before.htm

Pitten, W. (2009). Discovery. Retrieved from http://www.real-dream-catchers.com/Ojibwe_culture_and_language/native_american_discovery_of_europe.htm