RED INDIANS CROSSED AMERICA

Indigenous people crossed into America when the two continents were joined by a land bridge which is now called the Bering Strait. They came from north-east Asia between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago.

The earliest evidence suggests the American continent was inhabited around 15000 years ago.

In Mexico, Chile and Brazil finds are dated as early as 30,000 or even earlier.

Indigenous people are usually classified as Mongoloid peoples and seen as a distinct racial group. The Inuits (Eskimos) and Aleuts (inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands) who are definite Mongoloid. They inhabited the New World before the first explorers landed in the late 15^th century.

Archaeological findings show that there may have been several colonisations. The first colonisers had little more than stone tools. The hunters and gatherers spread south killing the plentiful games with their stone-pointed lances.

These indigenous people are now named Amerindians and slowly started agriculture. They developed differently to the Old Wold. It is assumed that it started 7000 or more years ago. It was mainly maize, squash and beans. Cassava being grown in tropical forest regions.

It was a slow progress with no domestic animals, apart from llamas and guinea pigs and no draught animals to pull the plough.

Farmers in the Andes developed skills in working metal from 1000 BC.

Complex societies started in South and Central America. They developed into highly sophisticated civilisations such as the Aztecs and Incas. However, they were destroyed by the arrival of the Conquistadores (Spanish) and other European explorers during the 16^th century.

The worst killing of Indian tribes were happening during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries when the USA government gave their land to European settlers. If they were not killed right-out they were forced into reservation with very poor land or no land at all relying on food supply from the US government which were handled through agents. These agents were mostly crooks and sold their supply to fil their own pockets.

To demoralise them further and to increase starvation; the US Army killed all the buffaloes on the Great Plain which was the Indians' source for meat and clothing. The huge herds of buffaloes kept the grass growing; nowadays it is a dust bowl. Well done politicians.  

They also discovered, now, that buffaloes' meat is the best with the least fat.

BIRTH OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

SUMMARRY  The USA is in North America. Its boundary is the Atlantic Ocean in the east and the Pacific Ocean in the west. On the northern side is Canada and in the south Mexico.

It is a  federal republic of 50 states including Alaska and Hawaii.

The Red Indians, descendants from Asia, now renamed American-Indians were the first inhabitants around 50,000 BC, maybe even earlier, crossing from Siberia to Alaska during the Ice Age. They tried their hardest to stop settlers but colonisation spread like wildfire after the Spanish landed in Florida in 1565 and the English in Virginia in 1607.

The Dutch and French followed. A struggle broke out for supremacy and a Seven Years War followed between Britain and France which ended in 1763. The Treaty of Paris marked the final victory for Britain.

Britain tried to reassert total authorities over the colonies but failed. The FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS met in 1774 to regain the lost rights. The first armed confrontation at LEXINGTON AND CONCORD in 1775 escalated into a full scale revolt. The result was a formal proclamation of the separation of the Thirteen Colonies from Britain in the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IN July 4, 1776.

In 1783 the second Treaty of Paris recognised American Independence. The new state was given legislation by the CONSTITUTION OF THE USA in 1787.

The federal system was established that divided power between central government and the constituent states, with an executive president. George Washington was elected and the first president in 1789.

The new legislature was made up of two houses, the SENATE AND  the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. There was also an independent judiciary headed by the SUPREME COURT.

RED INDIANS VS WHITE MAN -- WHITE MAN VS RED INDIANS

NATIVE INDIAN CHIEFS 1865

When you have two groups of people with complete opposite ideas you bound to have a confrontation. That was the situation in the 19th century when white settlers went into America crossing the country and were convinced it was their God given right to be there. The Red Indians who were there for thousand of years saw it as their homeland, which it was, and would not accept that they should be move away.

White man crossed the permanent frontier and the Indians, at first, rather died than given up their land and territory. You also got to realize that, although Indians had their little confrontations with other tribes but were not equipped or used to that kind of warfare. The Indian people were reduced rapidly while white American population grew. 1800 there about 4 millions white American by the 1860 there were 31 millions.

Settlers trailed across the Plains to reach Oregon and California. The prospectors heard of gold in California, Montana, Wyoming and Dakota. Prospectors are never of a gentle nature or understanding the other people needs. When the railroad came through these territories it frightened the great herd of buffalo and this in turn made the life of Indians harsh.

Eventually, with all these pressures from all corners and being constantly pushed into a corner were they knew that they would and could not survive, the resentment grew and turned into violence.

They attacked wagon trains which in their eyes was the only way to stop more and more white people coming. The whites and the army counteracted and the violence escalated. The army built fords all along the trails and soldiers protected the wagon trains.

There followed treaty after treaty with Indian tribes but the government was always cutting away the Indian homeland. To compensate they offered money as well as guaranteed food, shelter and patches of farmland on ever smaller reservations. These reservations were of poor land with little water which the white man didn't want. The promised hunting for buffalos was more often withdrawn than given. Government rations were either late and/or of poor quality. Traders cheated the Indians. The resentment grew and young Indians ran away to hide in the hills to become hostile.

Every tribe was completely different and had different ceremonial customs. The bead and quill-work was done by squaws. The men painted the pictograms of war and hunted buffalo.

The Dakota Sioux Chief 'Sitting Bull' tried very hard to save his people. After negotiation failed and war failed he joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. In 1890 Sitting bull was murdered because he 'resisted arrest'.

Red Cloud, Chief of the Oglata Sioux, campaigned in 1860 to eliminate the forts along the Bozeman Trail which was in the heart of the Sioux hunting grounds. He succeeded and the army had to burn the forts.