Indians\'old World: Native Americans and the Coming

¶ … Indians'Old World: Native Americans and the Coming of Europeans, (Salisbury, 1996) details how many of the characterizations that have been presented about the Native American cultures in the United States have been incorrect. The author explains that historians have treated the coming of the Europeans to North America as the beginning of history about the people in North America, whereas, in realty, the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 and the onslaught of other Europeans who followed was merely a blip in the history of North America. Native Americans and their complex cultures and nations had occupied the North American continent for centuries preceding Columbus' arrival and historians have done these cultures a major disservice by minimizing their existence.

The article also suggests that the fact that historians have either minimized or ignored the contributions of the Native Americans brings into question the accuracy and validity of these historians' assessment of the situation that constituted the history of North America. Because many of these historians tended to treat the Native Americans as one culture such historians failed to completely understand the full nature of the contributions that the Native Americans made to the history of North America. Treating Native Americans in such manner ignores the fact that the Native Americans were actually hundreds of cultures deserving of individual treatment. By treating these individual cultures as one centralized culture continues the marginalization that most historians have done to Native Americans since the Europeans arrived in North America.

Putting this treatment aside, the author attempts to examine through the use of archaeology and other historical data how the Native American cultures operated prior to the arrival of the Europeans. Because the Native American cultures that were present on the North American continent were lacking in sophistication in terms of writing down their own history there is little documentation of their activities pre-European arrival. The author, however, is quick to point out that the activities of the Native Americans were far more complex than originally thought. Through the study of archaeological digs, it has been determined that Native American cultures did not isolate themselves from each other as broadly as once thought. Historians have largely depicted most Native American tribes as operating as individual units completely independent of other tribes but there is archaeological evidence that indicates that Native Americans actually engaged in a highly integrated system of trade and exchange of skills that allowed different Native American cultures to assist each other. Materials native to certain areas of the country such as the Great Lakes or the Rocky Mountains have been found in other areas of the country giving rise to the theory that the Native Americans traded with each other in order to supplement their own supply of goods and natural resources.