25 Little Known Facts About Native Americans

25 Little Known Facts About Native Americans | List25

Everybody knows that before Europeans arrived on the shores of America, it was the Native Americans that dominated the continent. They lived in tents and hunted for their food. Everything was fine and then the Europeans showed up and they shared their food and that's why we have Thanksgiving and then the Indian tribes just sort of...went away. Or they walked on some kind of tear trail or something. And then Europeans colonized the New World and everything was great. That's about the extent of knowledge that an average person has regarding the Native American people. Of course, as with most of the things you know (or think that you know), it is no where near that simple. The history of Native Americans is a drama as complicated and nuanced as any you have ever heard. Many of the over-simplifications you heard about in school don't do justice to a period of time that lasted thousands and thousands of years. Entire empires and nations rose and fell within the Americas. Some cities in Central America rivaled the greatest civilizations of the Middle East. And when Europeans came, the relationships between them and the natives was complicated to say the least. These are 25 little known facts about Native Americans.

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Many American states are named after Indian names e.g. Arizona, Kentucky, Missouri

The word "barbecue" is an Arawakan word meaning "framework of sticks"

Actually, English borrowed a lot of Native American words - guacamole, chocolate, chili, poncho

In spite of not being citizens, nearly 8,000 Native Americans served during WWI

In large part due to their service during WWI, the Indian Citizenship Act granted US citizenship to all Native Americans

In the 1600s five tribes that were former enemies banded together to create the Iroquois Confederacy

An all-male council was elected for life to make decisions. Women, however, were allowed to fire the counselors at any time

Benjamin Franklin actually thought that the Iroquois Confederacy had a model of government that the colonies could emulate

The bald eagle on the US shield is actually an Iroquois Confederacy symbol

The Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole tribes were seen as being more civil by the Europeans because they had a similar social system (planned villages and farms)

And more...

Outro Links:

[CJ-sqnf]

One fact is that "they were here first"...

[StarOceanNative]

#26 In Navajo tradition when a Navajo baby laughs for the first time, friends & family honor the child with The First Laugh Ceremony.

[MissBeeMee]

Indian citizenship act?!! To their own country??!!!

[redneckbillyable]

I'm a white man and I respect the native Americans they have been treated so badly

[DustyFae]

Being a farmer's daughter we still learn to do many things the Native Americans did when farming, they were a great help in building America, more then any other race.

[SKC]

Oklahoma used to be called Indian Territory. "Oklahoma" means red man.

[xMister.Misterx]

how do you grant citizenship to NATIVE Americans??

[Al_JumaiIy]

I am an Iraqi, and I am very sad about what the colonialists did to the Native Americans who were oppressed in their land. As soon as I read about what the American government did in my country, Iraq, in terms of devastation, destruction, and the killing of a million innocent Iraqi citizens, I feel extremely sad.Pray to God to protect the Native Americans, the owners of the land, and invite them to adhere to their beautiful customs and traditions that they inherited from their fathers.

[mysonstegman]

Wow how sweet that natives we're granted citizenship of there own land. Good job Mike it's a testy subject but I really appreciate you doing your best at the presentation. Be blessed

[MJRSoap]

3 Things you missed.

1. During both World Wars Metis (with an accented e and pronounced 'May-tea') were not payed a penny because when they were going to be given their paychecks, they were turned back from both stations they would get them from.
2. New York City (The Island of Manhattan) was a 99 year lease, when it was over the US didn't give it back and the lawsuit is still active to this day.
3. Talking about how long Native Americans have been in N. America, their oral history (Spoken history) goes so far back, they speak of the last ice age and palm trees. So Florida.

[sabrinamiddaugh]

Canada comes from the word Kanata, a Iroquoian word meaning village. Thought I'd put that fact bit out there, great list but a little U.S. sided. My opinion.

[CountryBuddyCulture]

you forgot the fact that during the world War 1 Choctaws was Code talkers with a code never broke.

[bokvarv]

In 1917 the Iroquois confederacy declared war on Germany because one of their tribe member was said to have been mistreated in Berlin.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbour the IC renewed their declaration of war and included Japan and Italy

[TheFlyestNavajo]

I'm half Navajo and half white. Thank you for making this video. But when you call us Indians, it makes me cringe. We are not Indians, we are Native Americans. Christopher Columbus thought he landed in India, which he did not. My great grandfather, David Curley, was one of the first Navajo code talkers in the war. Google him. Very informative video nonetheless, great job.

[therezsoilder]

Native americans were here for almost 30000 years ago, Europeans got here over 500 years ago only, then Europeans say they were here first

[Goodthoughts]

You know what’s real sad, other than these facts and I’m sure a lot of other history facts as well, we barely even scratched the surface of what Native American or indigenous people life, culture, and tribes were like. They were on the continent for thousands of years and we will never know how the majority lived since most of them were killed off in the wars or died of disease. We may know a lot about Europe, Asia and Africa but without knowing the long history of the natives from the americas and even Oceania as well we are missing most of human history besides the thousands of years of pre history we don’t know about.

[lizzieburgose]

Natives American greatest people ever!!! My respect to all of you!

[kreedizzle]

im native american and proud to be native american. im Cree from Canada <3

[themechanic]

Didn't chocolate come from the Aztec word "xocolatl"?

[steadynumber]

There were also Mohawk code talkers in WW2, as well as 7 Sioux code talkers.
Not Native American but the British also used Welsh speakers as code talkers on at least one occasion. Although many Germans were familiar with the English language it was not true of Welsh.