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AMERICA'S ORIGINAL PEOPLE: Did You Know?

by Roy Cook,
Opata-Oodham, Mazopiye Wishasha: Writer, Singer, Speaker

Did you know about American's original people?

Did you know that:

There are over 600 Indian Nations & Tribes in the United State alone.

83% of federally recognized Nations in the United States have populations of less than 1,000 members.

American Indian's were given citizenship in 1924, after many Indian men fought in World War I.

American Indians were used to send message that could not be decoded during World War II.

The Cherokee had a written language before the coming of European settlers.

60% of the world's food eaten today is of American Indian origin.

The U.S. Constitutions frame was adopted from the Iroquois Confederacy.

Jim Thorpe, Sauk and Fox Indian was selected the greatest all-around athlete of the first half century.

26 of the state names derived from Indian words.

Time to many Indian people is not relative. Things are done as needed.

American Indians believe that patience is considered a good quality.

The respected members of a Nation are one who shares and gives of his/her wealth to others.

Many Indians have large extended families. Aunts are often considered as mothers, uncles are called fathers and cousins are brothers and sisters.

Members are suspicious of members that collect many material possessions.

It is believe that 75 million Indians lived here before Columbus. In
the 2000 census American Indians and Alaskan Natives number only about 2.5 million.

Many Indians do not believe that they came over the Bering Strait. Many Nations have creation stories that tell of them coming from this land.

65% of Indians live in urban areas.

Many of the Nations are matrilineal.

There are 250 Indian languages still spoken.

Indian Nations through treaties with the federal government ceded
Indian lands to America, but retained rights and cultural practices
hundreds of years older that America.

Many Nations were farming as early as 1200 BC.

During the fall of the Romans, Indians were constructing the largest
irrigation canal in North American.

Some Indian villages and cities housed up to 50,000 people. Read up on
Cahokia!

Most Indian Nations have a different name for themselves. Many call themselves "people" or "real people". The 3 tribes of Michigan: The Ojibwa (Chippewa), the Odawa (Ottawa) and the Bode wad mi (Potawatomi) refer to themselves as Anishinaabe, not native or American Indian.

There are Indian ceremonial mounds that are 2 acres bigger that the Great Pyramid of Egypt. (Read up on Cahokia)

By Columbus second trip, the Old World diseases had killed two thirds of the New World's American Indians.

Cotton Cloth was invented by the Native Americans.

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