what contributions did the europeans make to native american life?

Answer 1

Europeans brought. . . syphilis, white flour, alcoholism, diabetes, air and water pollution, loss of culture, language and religion, anomia (a sense of hopelessness), confinement (on reservations), loss of land and resources, knowledge of scalping. . . oh yes, they also brought horses, pigs, metal kettles and glass beads.

For more information see:
Seeds of Change: The Story of Cultural Exchange After 1492
by James E. Davis Sharryl Davis Hawke

and

The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 by Alfred W. Crosby

Answer 2

The Europeans imported the HORSE, a major contribution to Native American life. In the sixteenth century, Spaniards and other Europeans brought horses to the Americas. Some of these animals escaped and began to breed and increase their numbers in the wild. Ironically, the horse had originally evolved in the Americas, but the early American horse became game for the earliest humans and became extinct about 7,000 BC, just after the end of the last ice age. The re-introduction of the horse had a profound impact on Native American culture in the Great Plains of North America. As a new mode of travel the horse made it possible for some tribes to greatly expand their territories, exchange goods with neighboring tribes, and more easily capture game.

Answer 3

Europeans brought horses. That made a positive contribution to Native American life.

Answer 4

There are alot of 'contributions' that they made, but most, if not all, were bad. They taught us english, by force, making us lose our original complex language, they gave us alcohol, causing addictions and murders and suicide, they gave us cloth blankets, that came with small pox killing a majority of our people, they gave us processed food, which lead to the high number of natives who are diebetic. Milk, which our bodies cannot handle, so alot of natives are lactosintolerant, including myself. They gave us cars, which made us lazy in a sense that we didn't have to run.

What people don't understand is that First Nations people were perfectly fine pre-european contact, we had a government, we had a healthy lifestyle, we had pottery (which was almost lost as well, thanks to metal) we had gardens, NON POLLUTED earth, good water. Now look at us, we're all sick, so in the end, thats what europeans gave us, sickness and death. thanks for nothing.

Answer 5

They brought horses, metallurgy to North America, and disease. They also brought writing, which had only been developed in a couple of places in the Americas, as well as the alphabet, which I don't think was developed anywhere over here.

To the poster above, who said that Europeans taught Native Americans how to fish and grow food? Are you joking? They did just fine with that without us. In fact, some of the biggest modern food crops were domesticated in the Americas, like corn and potatoes. North and South America had numerous large, complicated cultures that lived a variety of lifestyles, from nomadic hunter/gatherers on up to intensive agriculturalists. These two continents were the equals of Eurasia, not some crappy backwater filled with yokels who could barely feed themselves.

Answer 6

Once upon a time, I actually USED to feel sorry for what happened to the american indians. I even got tricked into feeling ashamed at my race. But that was before I graduated college, before I started watching more History Channel, instead of MTV, and before my 25th birthday.

I'm a lot smarter now. The american indians didn't go through anything that the other races hadn't already gone through. The way of making sure your people will never rely on another race to control your destiny is to be stronger. Whites tried for centuries to bring indians up to speed in the ways of technology. The indians refused, and became anachronisms. Can you imagine the europeans still using wooden warships in the late 19th century? Keep your technology current, people.
The indian needs to realize that the ceremonial rain dances should now be relegated to celebrating the past; much like the occasional swede may don a viking hat. You can evolve your customs, but you can remain the same people by blood.
Only the Japanese were able to grasp that concept in time. It's no coincidence that they are the only nonwhite G8 country.

Answer 7

Intentionally absolutely nothing, along with secretively nothing either. When I say secretive I mean they gave the American Aboriginals nothing in front of the mass majority, because the mass were thinking if something wrong was going to happen it would be behind their backs.

Answer 8

Potatoes, pumpkin, legumes, nuts, tobaco, cocoa, tomatoes, corn, chilli, peppers/capscium (and a lot more) ... these were cultivated by Indigenous Americans. I know my diet would be a lot less interesting without these foods. Potatoes enabled people to have a simple-grown stable and helped spread Industralisation in Europe. It wasn't all one-sided.

Answer 9

Kind of a tough one I suppose, since the bad they did (and some of their decedents still actively do..) far out-weighs the good.

I suppose as others pointed out, horses were probably one of the best, and like all humans of the world...maybe yummy new foods being swapped. (Good stuff, not the unhealthy garbage we have now.)

Answer 10

Oh they did alot. They taught them how to fish, how to grow certain crops, they brought with them religion, taught them about some new forms of medicine, and taught the, some sciences. But, it came with a price. Most native americans would eventually get slaughtered, but it sounds like an even trade-off to me...