Ramble Day 18: Saturday Presentations

Today was my presentation on the indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. There’s this ritual in my family that on Saturdays, I would give a presentation on figures and sometimes events that we are not aware of or we’re misinformed about. The Native Americans were the latter, and I was already curious about their history, so I went on a deep dive, but I still feel like I haven’t scratched the surface. Oh, and the presentation was supposed to be on Saturday, but circumstances pushed it to today.

Some things I was shocked by:
The decrease of the Native American population throughout the Americas is by 90-95%, insane.
In the United States, the decrease is said to be mostly due to European diseases that were brought to the Native Americans, but I find it hard to believe. I think it played a significant role, but I still think there’s a lot of information that is not provided for the general public.

Another shocking thing, not exactly shocking to find out, but shocking that to this day it isn’t taught, is that there is historical documentation that some British colonists,“Americans”, purposely spread diseases to the natives by giving them blankets riddled with smallpox, to kill them.

The adoption system, where white families would take in Native Americans to assimilate them into white American culture, as well as the boarding schools, with horrible conditions, that would force native kids to forget about their families and lose their culture and language, broke my heart.

The term America actually comes from an Italian explorer named Amerigo Vespucci, who accompanied the horrible, violent killer Columbus.
The Americas, with more than 500 tribes living there for thousands of years, were named after a European man.

Some things I loved:
One of the earliest forms of democracy was actually set up by the native Haudenosaunee Confederacy (colonial name: Iroquois confederacy), a council made up of five native tribes that each had representatives.
This system inspired the modern democracy in the US, with the federal government versus the states and their autonomy.

The Haudenosaunee tribes also inspired women’s rights because of how well-respected women were in their tribes, while the colonists had a system of women essentially being their husbands’ property, as well as having no voting rights or jobs. The Haudenosaunee women had a position, called Clan Mother, where they would have the power to put in place and remove the tribe leader.