2007-05-17 16:29:58 · 20 answers · asked by boricuascorpio 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
They believed in higher spirits, then the missionarys came around, changed their belief and all hell broke lose. They seemed to be better before the white men came.
2007-05-17 16:34:28 · answer #1 · answered by QaHearts 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
My grandfather was Cherokee and his people were much happier and healthier. The arrival of the white man quickly changed Indian life. A wave of explorers, colonizers, and missionaries swept over America. Some wanted only gold and quick profits, some wanted to convert the Indian to Christianity, and cared little for Indian rights or their way of living and traditional beliefs. Others tried to prevent bloodshed and help the Indians. But the white man brought new diseases, such as measles, smallpox, tuberculosis, and influenza. Epidemics killed thousands of Indians. The newcomers also brought liquor, which had disastrous results then and to this very day. Tribal traditions broke down, and Indians had no standards to put in their place.
2007-05-17 16:34:39 · answer #2 · answered by HoneyBunny 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There were 400 nations. Life was lived many ways before missionaries. Some grew crops, some hunted, some lived off the sea. Their lives were not always happy, nor peaceful, but they lived with as much freedom and dignity as any people.
Read Black Elk Speaks.
2007-05-17 16:38:39 · answer #3 · answered by Lao Pu 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Life was free of total self-gratification. The system was set for survival and all of the people worked together to accomplish goals and tasks including hunting and gathering. Everyone had a part. There wasn't an exchange of money or merchandise, so one tribal member could own more the other. They all worked together. This is not what is going on now.
2007-05-18 14:37:35 · answer #4 · answered by Dianna B 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Calm and simple. Missionaries screwed everything up for them.
2007-05-17 16:34:05 · answer #5 · answered by Nunyabusiness 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
yeah, just wonderful
many native american tribes, when a man died, his wife was stripped of all her posessions, cast out from the tribe, and left to starve.
life was brutal, nasty and short
but
white-people arriving from Europe was not exactly a gift...and we/they have plenty to be ashamed of....B
ps---my ancestors arrived well after all that stuff---but I imagine that there was some nastiness in my own family tree.
2007-05-17 16:39:55 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The diseases and the booze that the Europeans brought virtually destroyed their population, and thus their culture. Wouldn't you imagine that the result is that they would have been better off left alone?
^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^
2007-05-17 16:37:09 · answer #7 · answered by NHBaritone 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Well, let's see. Cannibalism of the Anasazi in Arizona, constant tribal warfare, with torture for prisoners. On the move constantly because they couldn't even dig a well, so follow the water.
No protection or security whatever for families....should I go on.
Missionaries taught them to farm, brought them to peace, and security against warring tribes, dug wells making permanent settlements possible. Taught them civilization.
Thank God for missionaries, huh?
http://www.billygraham.org/SH_StepsToPeace.asp
2007-05-17 16:35:36 · answer #8 · answered by Lazarus 3 · 2⤊ 5⤋
Highly spiritual.
2007-05-17 17:33:35 · answer #9 · answered by flowerpower 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Small-pox free.
2007-05-17 16:34:10 · answer #10 · answered by lcraesharbor 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋