Washington’s Sacajawea State Park is located at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers. In explaining the cultural and historical significance of this place, many historic photographs of Indians are on display in the park and in the Sacajawea Museum which is located in the park. The Museum is shown above. According to one … Continued
Like all California Indian tribes, the Cahuilla created baskets which were both practical and aesthetically pleasing. In their book The Cahuilla Indians of Southern California, Lowell Bean and Harry Lawton write: “The Cahuilla endeavored to create beauty in day-to-day projects and in objects which had religious meaning.” Lowell Bean and Harry Lawton also report: “A … Continued
By 1617, four European nations—Spain, France, England, and the Netherlands—were staking their claims in North America through exploration and colonization. Archaeologist Jerald Milanich, in his book The Timucua, describes the reasons for the European expansion into North America: “The driving force behind these initiatives was a desire for wealth: precious stones or metals, fertile lands … Continued
Since the very beginning of the European invasion of North America, Europeans have been guided by an arrogant worldview in which they considered themselves superior to all other peoples and they therefore had the right, given to them by their god, to impose their way of life on other people. In the nineteenth century, this … Continued
Mesoamerica is the area from Mexico south through Panama. In this geographic area, a number of complex cultures emerged with subsistence patterns based on agriculture and wide-spreading trading networks. Like the ancient civilizations in other parts of the world, such as Mesopotamia, China, and Egypt, the Mesoamerican civilizations were characterized by cities, hierarchical governments, and … Continued
As Grandmother Taught: Women, Tradition and Plateau Art was a special exhibit at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, Washington. The exhibit featured several Plateau cradleboards. The Indian nations of the Columbia River Plateau are shown above. Cradleboards allowed infants to be carried easily and safely. They also allowed the mother’s hands … Continued
One of the displays in the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands, California, is entitled Sacred Earth and subtitled Understanding our past and honoring cultures that thrive today. One section of this display looks at some of the technological changes from 8,000 years ago until 3,000 years ago and from 3,000 years ago until 1,000 … Continued
Under the Constitution, Indian tribes are considered to be nations and thus all dealings with the tribes were to be conducted by the federal government, not the states. Administratively, the relationships between the United States and the various Indian nations should have been a foreign policy matter. However, from the very beginning Indian affairs were … Continued
By 1719, many Indian nations had had direct or indirect contact with the European invaders from Britain, France, Spain and the Netherlands. Direct contact had initially come through the European explorers, traders, and missionaries. European manufactured trade goods and horses could be found among tribes who had had no direct contact with the Europeans. Along … Continued
The Artic Culture Area includes the Aleutian Islands, most of the Alaska Coast, the Canadian Artic, and parts of Greenland. It is an area which can be described as a “cold” desert. Geographer W. Gillies Ross, in his chapter in North American Exploration. Volume 3: A Continent Comprehended, writes: “The North American Arctic is usually … Continued
