I also find the agriculture techniques used by peoples that lived in the SW was incredible. The Hohokam's canal system demonstrates the intelligence and ingenuity of the people. Irrigating the Sonora Desert is no small feat and it amazes me that an engineering accomplishment that rivals European technology of the same period is little known by so many people.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Week 1
The first week of class piqued my interest in why people have such a large lack of knowledge of Native American culture. Most people don't have the knowledge because they never learned about Native American culture. Since elementary school I was taught that Native Americans arrived from Asia by means of the Bering Strait/land bridge; my teachers never mentioned costal migration or that Native Americans might have always lived in America. This is due to a general lack of knowledge and the emphasis on post-Columbus history in America. Many people view pre-Columbus history with little importance, I mean everything before 1492 doesn't really matter, right? Learning about Native American culture will only help increase our knowledge and demonstrate how much we don't know. Until this week I had never heard of Cahokia Mounds, I find this amazing because it was a city that rivaled Paris and the length of time it existed. Native American history is a valuable piece of American history that is overlooked and I believe this is unacceptable.
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I remember the history I was taught as a kid in elementary and high school. Everything we were taught was to make our ancestors seem more patriotic, and as a result, any "enemy" or opposition was treated negatively. We were never taught Lincoln wanted to send free blacks to Liberia, or that Northern citizens of pre civil war were not all abolitionist or anti slavery. We were told about JIm Crow laws and how bad they were, but not all the things that happened to blacks in the South after reconstruction. I was taught about Incas, Aztecs and Mayans, and their advanced society, including their sacrifices, but not about the native peoples of America. Considering I grew up a few miles from Oklahoma, I am surprised now about the lack of history taught, but I wasn't then. I didn't know any better. I did read about Andersonville, and how we could treat our own badly, but not about Native American history. All I knew about Native American history was when my great great grandfather went to court to be "proven" he qualified as Indian to receive benefits.
As an adult, I wonder what other "misconceptions" we were taught as history and as truths.
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