Native American Achievements

My cousin Becca is half Cherokee Indian. She and I are very close and spent an incredible amount of time together as kids. Being the best friend and the cousin of an Indian prevented me from forming prejudice against that group of people, as prejudice is created from observing the prejudice of others around you. That being said, I was still never taught more than the average kid about who Indians actually are and what roles they play in society. I discovered through the reading of Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask that Indians are way more than our textbooks make them out to be. The role they played in the creation of modern society is huge, while the credit they receive is minuscule. Racial and gender advances …show more content…
I was very surprised to learn how many inventions were not brought over from Europe, but instead created in the America’s before the Europeans had come over. More Than Bows and Arrows discussed a multitude of inventions that were the brainchildren of Native Americans. I was most surprised to discover how big of a role the Indians played in the development of our government. I had always thought that the ideas of the Albany Plan of Union and the Articles of Confederation were based off of the Greek democracy. I never would’ve guessed that Benjamin Franklin had a meeting with the Iroquois League to discuss how they run their government. This meeting later helped in the writing of the Constitution. The idea that we could elect someone into office to represent our people also came from the Native American government. Besides the help with our government, they unintentionally helped to end hunger and disease in Europe. Native Americans were the first to domesticate many different types of food. They taught the Europeans to domesticate food, which helped to save people back in Europe. Natives also figured out that the properties of petroleum allowed it to seal boats preventing them from leaking. Native Americans can be credited with many other amazing inventions that changed the way Europeans …show more content…
I was surprised by how little that I knew about their culture. Having a cousin that is Native American made me think I was well versed in the culture of Native Americans, but how wrong I was. I am really interested in learning more about the different languages of the tribes. I think it would be way cool to know some phrases in a language that has so few speakers left. I also want to learn more about the history of the Native Americans in our area. The knowledge that I gained while reading Anton Treuer’s book and watching More Than Bows and Arrows has made me excited to learn more about the various Indian