sunisup.tumblr.com (via atlasextinctnations.blogspot.com)
Posted on 11/21/2012 5:24:18 AM PST by Renfield
Everybody knows that Europeans took a lot of land from Native Americans, but this animated GIF by Tumblr user sunisup gives a great sense of just how fast the people living in North America were pushed west after Christopher Columbus "discovered" the continent.
She turned an old graphic by Louisiana State professor Sam B. Hillard into a mini-movie that viscerally demonstrates the gradual chopping away of Native American land through cessions, or a surrender of territory to another entity. The green represents Native American land, and any part that turns white was ceded. She writes: "Made because I was having trouble visualizing the sheer scale of the land loss, and reading numbers like 'blah blah million acres' wasn’t really doing it for me." Numbers wise, the amount of green land shown after 1895 is about 2.3 percent of the original size.
Hillard got his information from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of American Ethnology. The history of Native Americans is complicated, so the graphic only documents land that was ceded. Any land that was ceded but then later turned into a reservation may shop up again later in the time lapse. Whatever the in-between negotiations, it's clear the land disappeared quickly. The difference between 1784 and present day Indian reservations is striking.
sunisup.tumblr.com (via atlasextinctnations.blogspot.com)
I think they left out a number of reservations in the Midwest too.
I think of it this way.
Why was the nomadic nature worshiping Amerindian given so much credit for living at one with nature and being enlightened - while the nomadic nature worshiping Mongol is given so little credit for living at one with nature and being enlightened?
I read a biography of Lewis and Clark awhile back (?Undaunted Courage?). In it there was a basic culture clash between white guys who thought that manhood meant growing up to be prosperous, and well-respected for leadership in the community, and native guys who thought that manhood meant being a warrior. The whole idea of having peace with other tribes, including the white one, seemed ludicrous to young tribesmen, because it would basically mean that they would never have a chance to be real men. Peace was for wusses. If those were the underlying assumptions of the two groups of men, I can see why peace and understanding didn’t happen.
I noticed that too. No Carolina Cherokees.
Isn’t there any Seminole land in FL?
But seriously, unless we get rid of the racial classifications, they have to be called something. Native American is one choice
Several Seminole reservations in the Everglades.
Kind of sounds like the clash between British and German cultures in the 1930s.
This Saturday, it's going to be taken over by Gators. ;)
Imho those terms make more sense.
And those who aren't ready to get back to frontier living are going to be licking the boots of their ultra organized, high tech masters.
This graphic insults Latinos!
It does not show the Spanish settlements in New Mexico and California, implying these areas were inhabited only by Indians as late as 1890, which is just silly.
Also does not show most of the Indian reservations in NM, especially along the Rio Grande.
Even those definitions need nuance and context. Original people and such is questionable.
Does one consider Pre-Clovis perhaps the originals? Clovis? The Western Hemisphere was developed through many different waves of migration.
Just as Europe was migrated from different waves of influence. Though who is considered 'original' in the context of Europe?
It really is a bizarre discussion, pushed by interest groups to secure their own designated degree of being 'special'.
The pre-Aryan people are probably still the Basques and Georgians, but they are heavily intermixed with Aryanic peoples
And the various Aryanic peoples moved in and out -- Celts, Italics, Germanics, Slavs, Balts etc. and then you have the Finns, Magyars, Turks, Bulgars, Avars etc. coming in with their non-Aryanic mixture added to ALL Europeans (which is why I find the Germanic idea of "pure Aryan blood" silly)
But in a North American context, we can either just remove all classifications (preferable) or go the other extreme and call people by their tribes — so a Navaho is different from a Pueblo. The latter makes sense because iirc many of the pre-columbus languages are as intelligible to each other as, say Russian and Italian
The same thing happened to my eastern European ancestors, the Slavs, when the Romans invaded. The Romans destroyed a lot of things and made a lot of people slaves. But they also replaced old barbaric societies with modernity. At some point in history every society that is now modern was once primitive. The same applies for American Indians.
I've read more than a few articles from certain historians who bemoan the coming of the white man and the death of the Indian "civilization." The question these people must ask themselves is: would it have been better for the Indians to remain in a primitive state while the rest of the world's people progressed into a modern system? Sure, things could have been handled better, but if you're an Indian, do you wish you were still living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle?
‘well, for classification, what term would you use to define a person who identifies with a pre-columbus ethnicity?’
extinct?
No doubt. I have less complaint about the way things happened than about the Americans hypocrisy in believing they operate under "The Rule of Law" instead of "Might Makes Right".
No matter what the Indians agreed to by treaty, inevitably a few years later the Great White Father would be saying "I am altering our deal. Pray I don't alter it any further".
Nowadays, our government will still use the force of arms to take away somebody's property (the Kelo case) or somebody's life (Terry Schiavo). Might still makes right.
That is the first time I've heard that statement. Where do you get that information?
Not all Native Americans were nomads. The Pueblo, Hopi, Zuni, Cocopah, Quechan and Tohon O’odam and others were static agricultural societies.
1. Someone forget about all of those living east of the Appalachians. They either died from European diseases or were pushed west by the “settlers” they had helped establish.
2. The “nomads” being pushed west started the house of cards tumbling.
3. Yes, the People were different from the Europeans, but still many gave thanks for their blessings, while European greed and self righteousness used their god(s) (many different “Christian” and non-Christian churches) to serve their cause.
4. We are still being run over by those who think their way is better, and that we should follow blindly.
5. I ain’t sure of my ancestry, but in my heart I am a red man.
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