I need some help with history home work.?

Question

I need some websites that I can get some information on this topic. the topic is "Was the story of the native Americans exclusively one of oppression and exploitation, or is there more to the story than that? how did they adapt to their world before the arrival of the Europeans, and what were some of the ways they reacted to the Europeans?"

I really need some help. I tried Google so don't suggest that. I did not find very much there.

Answer 1

Find the series "500 nations", rent it, Library might have it, I think it might even be available as a torrent somewhere.

While it doesn't cover EVERY last detail, they do cover A LOT of ground.

I can answer SOME general questions, but my particular Area is California Indians being I AM.
feel free to email me.

Answer 2

Excuse me, where are you from? what space ship did you step out of?
OK, nevermind. Here's the real story, skip all the bunk and self-guilt that America is drowning in, which will end in destroying the country from within.
1) First of all, America started with the mostly ENglish white people who came over for religious tolerance lacking in England at the time. It was not----NOT-----a haven for all the misbegotten people of the world at that time. We WE established it as that, when we fought and died for the idealistic nation that George Washington and his ilk decided was what they wanted to establish out of the "colonies" of GReat European nations.
2) So THOSE people who are now being systematically denigrated as bigots, racists, slave-masters and the like, were the people who established this enormous (the most democratic nation that has ever existed on the face of the earth) step forward in human civilization.
3) When the Indians lived here, they were a backward race just waiting to be overthrown by the aggressive explosion that Europe had become, after almost being overthrown by the Muslims. The muslims had swept through Africa with the sword, and on the east were at the gates of Vienna (yes, all the way in there) and on the west had ALREADY GONE through Spain and were moving through France at Poitiers.
Then for reasons unknown they were stopped and thrown back out of Europe, and became quiescent for 2 thousand years, until now.

Answer 3

Quite frankly that is the story. Europeans invaded Amerca, exploited the Natives, killed them drove them from their lands. The story does vary from place to place America is an awfullt big place and can be defined as Arctic to Antarctic if your teacher is including North Central and South America.

If a 'clear' conscience is needed then adopt the Spanish attitude; all that the Colonizers did was excusable because they brought the Indians/Natives the one thing they did not have: Jesus. Seriouslly, you would not imagine how many Puritans and later Americans felt that this alone shoud make the Natives grateful.
But I am veering off the topic, here are links and snippets for you - - - oh, yes, it is also argued that in Mexico the Aztecs were brutal and that the Spanish did end a Brutal Regime, much like Bush in Iraq, but the fact is that Natives traded one harsh master for another. At the very least in Central and South America the Spanish created an Indian-White Society whereas in the USA the Natives were simply shoved aside or died in the process...
http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/encyclopedia/IndianReactiontoEuropeans.htm
""Indian Reactions to Europeans in their First Encounters
[This text was written by J. Castell HOPKINS in 1898. For the full citation, see the end of the document.]
When the white man first encountered the Indians there can be no doubt as to the latter's kindly feeling toward the intruders. Columbus found this to be the case, and The first Relation of Jacques Cartier, 1534, further illustrates the fact : "In St. Martin's Creek," says the discoverer, " we saw a great number of the wild men ; they went on shore, making a great noise, beckoning us to land, showing us certain skins upon pieces of wood, but because we had only one boat we would not go to them, but went to the other side. They, seeing us flee, followed, dancing, and making many signs of joy and mirth, as it were desiring our friendship, saying in their tongue, “Napeu tondamen assurtah,” with many others that we understood not. But we having but one boat would not stand to their courtesy, but made signs to them to turn back, but with fury they came about us and we shot off two pieces among them and terrified them. The next day they came to traffic with us. We likewise made signs to them that we wished them no evil, and two of our men carried to them knives, with other ironware, and a red hat for their captain. They seemed very glad to have our ware and other things, and came to our two men, still dancing, with many other ceremonies. They gave us whatsoever they had, not keeping anything, that they were constrained to go back again naked, and made signs that the next day they would bring more skins." In this description are other similar accounts, and Cartier took with him to France two sons of a native chief, by the consent of the father. In the next year he went again to Canada with the two Indians safe, and met with people throughout the country equally well inclined to friendly intercourse. At Hochelaga "all the women and the maidens gathered themselves together, part of which had their arms full of young children, and as many as could came to rub our faces, our arms, and what part of the body they could touch, showing us the best countenance that was possible, desiring us, with signs, that it would please us to touch their children . . . . As far as we could perceive and understand this people it were an easy thing to bring them to some familiarity and civility, and to make them learn what one would. The Lord God for His mercy's sake set thereupon His helping hand when He seeth cause."
In the first Report of Sir Walter Raleigh's expedition to Virginia it is also stated by his captain and followers, in 1584, that they "were entertained with all love and kindness, and with as much bounty (after the manner of the natives) as they could possibly devise. They found the people most gentle, loving, and faithful, void of all guile and treason, and such as live after the manner of the golden age." The Report says further that "There came to us Granganimeo, the king's brother, with forty or fifty of his people. When we came to the shore to him with our weapons he never moved from his place, nor even mistrusted any harm to be offered from us, but sitting still he beckoned us to come and sit by him, which we performed, and being seated he made all signs of joy and welcome, striking on his head and breast, and afterwards on ours, to show we were all one, smiling and making show the best he could, of all love and familiarity. A day or two after this we fell to trading with them, exchanging some things that we had for chamois, buff, and deerskins. He afterwards brought his wife with him to the ships, his daughter, and two or three children. His wife wore pearls in her ears, whereof we deliver your worship a little bracelet. Granganimeo was very just of his promise, for many times we delivered him merchandise upon his word, but ever he came within the day."
A settlement was made here, but the settlers seem to have soon outraged the rites of hospitality so bountifully shown to them. Within two years after the date of the Report, Sir Francis Drake touched upon the same coast, where he found the colony in deep distress, and almost despairing of relief. Sir Francis consented to leave two or three ships with them, so that they might come away in case of urgent necessity. But a storm arising drove most of the fleet suddenly to sea. "Those on land perceiving this hasted to those three sail which were appointed to be left there, and for fear they should be left behind they left all things confusedly, as if they had been chased from thence by a mighty army. And no doubt so they were, for the hand of God came upon them for the cruelties and outrages committed by some of them upon the native inhabitants of that country." This latter statement is by Hakluyt, Prebendary of Bristol, an earnest supporter of the early colonists, and the faithful compiler of their histories. """

http://www.angelfire.com/realm/shades/nativeamericans/nativeam11.htm
""Nonetheless, Native Americans soon recognized that the Europeans themselves were very human. Indeed, early records show that 16th- and 17th-century Native Americans very often regarded Europeans as rather despicable specimens.

White Europeans, for instance, were frequently accused of being stingy with their wealth and avaricious in their insatiable desire for beaver furs and deer hides.

Likewise, Native Americans were surprised at European intolerance for native religious beliefs, sexual and marital arrangements, eating habits, and other customs.

At the same time, Native Americans became perplexed when Europeans built permanent structures of wood and stone, thus precluding movement. Even village- and town-dwelling Native Americans were used to relocating when local game, fish, and especially firewood gave out.

To many Native Americans, the Europeans appeared to be oblivious to the rhythms and spirit of nature. Nature to the Europeans seemed to be an obstacle, even an enemy. It was also a commodity: A forest was so many board feet of timber, a beaver colony so many pelts, a herd of buffalo so many robes and tongues.

Some Europeans perceived the Native Americans themselves as a resource-souls ripe for religious conversion, or a plentiful supply of labor.
Europeans, in sum, were regarded as somewhat mechanical-soulless creatures who wielded ingenious tools and weapons to accomplish their ends"""

http://www.native-languages.org/kickapoo.htm
"""People: The Kickapoo tribe was originally an offshoot of the Shawnee tribe ("Kickapoo" is thought to be a corruption of a Shawnee word for "wanderers,") but their language and customs had more in common with the neighboring Fox and Sauk. Fiercely resistant to European cultures, the Kickapoo Indians never assimilated, preferring to continue relocating further south from their original Michigan-Wisconsin-Illinois homeland. Today, 3000 Kickapoo people live in three groups in the US--the Kickapoo tribes of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas--and one community in Coahuila, Mexico.

History: Native American tribes are frequently defined by their historical reaction to European colonists. The Cherokee tried to fit into the new civilization; the Apache fought them tooth and nail. The Kickapoo tribe primarily withdrew. Wanting neither to fight the powerful invaders nor surrender to them, most Kickapoos left their native lands and moved southward to get away from white Americans, a process they repeated several times until the Kickapoos were living in Texas and Mexico--a far cry from their native Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois. Some of the Kickapoo Indians in Mexico did eventually return to the United States, but their ancestors may have had a point--Kickapoo culture is most traditional and the Kickapoo language most alive in the Mexican Kickapoo tribe, furthest from the reach of the United States government and its programs.""

http://www.cabrillo.edu/~crsmith/anth7_hist1.html
"------------------In eastern North America many groups began to supplement their gathering and hunting diet by the deliberate planting of native plants. The seeds (sunflower, goosefoot, marsh elder, gourd) eventually taken under domestication were collected from wild stands along river floodplains for centuries before they were cultivated deliberately. This development occurred within a number of more-or-less isolated gathering-and-hunting cultures living in small river valleys, with the cultivated plants filling a small niche in an otherwise very diverse diet of wild plant foods, fish, waterfowl, and game animals.
Accompanying the rise of supplementary cultivation and more intensive exploitation of wild food resources was greater sedentism, regular social interaction and economic exchange, some degree of social ranking, and increased ceremonialism, especially surrounding burial and life after death. Shortly after 3000 years ago, powerful chiefdoms arose in the midwestern and southeastern parts of the U.S., societies among whom elaborate burial customs and the building of earthen burial mounds and earthworks were commonplace (giving rise to the common name "The Moundbuilders"). The best known of these moundbuilding cultures were the Adena and Hopewell centered in the Ohio Valley. The Adena lasted from about 1000 B.C. to A.D. 200; the Hopewell, from about 300 B.C. to A.D. 700. Although they shared many cultural traits and coexisted for several centuries, their exact relationship is not known nor do we know where either of the two cultural systems originated.
Adena
The Adena were gatherers and hunters and also may have engaged in incipient agriculture - growing sunflowers, pumpkins, gourds, and goosefoot. But it is their earthworks, found in and around their villages, that affirm their high degree of social organization. Conical and dome-shaped burial mounds grew larger and more ambitious over the centuries and towards the end of Adena times, high mounds were constructed over multiple burials, with the corpses usually placed in log-lined tombs. The grave goods associated with burials tells us that there were social inequalities in the culture, while the raw material from which many of the grave goods were made speaks to long-distance trading networks.
--------------Hohokam subsistence was based on maize, beans, gourds, cotton, &other crops, as well as on gathering. Crops were planted to coincide with the semiannual rainfall &flooding patterns, cultivating floodplains &catching runoff from local storms with dams, terraces, &other water catchment devices. They also practiced irrigation from flowing streams, building canals (some as much as 10-15 kilometers long) to carry water from streams and rivers to their fields.""


THIS STATISTIC is a realistic gauge as how well off the Natrives were after the European Invasion
http://www.sciway.net/hist/indians/peedee.html
Population Estimates
1600: 600
1808: 30 """

Peace

(do not mind helping but using Google is an inexact science but there is info out there only in fragments admitedly frustrating)
Also see Frederck Merk ''History of the Western Movement' dry in spots but very good and for fun readable history see any book by Ted Morgan, the one hand I can teleport to you is 'A Shovel of Stars.'

Pax--------------------------