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1) Woodland Indians cultivated corn,
potatoes, wild rice, beans. They taught the Europeans how to cultivate land.
2) Early colonists could not believe the
Woodland
Indians actually drank from streams and rivers. That’s because their waters
in
Europe were
polluted.
3) Fish were so plentiful it was said that
you couldn’t see the bottom of the stream.
4) Woodland Indians had knowledge of herbs
in nature and used them to cure their physical ills.
5) The
Woodland
Indians were spiritual people, hunters, trappers, agriculturalists,
architects, and skilled laborers.
6) Longhouses were the center of clan life
for the
Woodland
Indians. They symbolized a communal way of life.
7) The
Woodland
Indians had a matriarchal society.
8) Clan mothers set the agendas for tribe
councils. They selected candidates for leadership and had the power to depose
leaders.
9) In
Woodland
tribes, the men stood in the forefront of society while the women directed
them where to go.
10) In
Woodland
Indian society, the word ‘borrow’ never meant ‘to pay back’. The community
shared everything in common.
11) The
Woodland
Indians believed that we are all equal and one race – the human race.
12) Before the settlers from Europe came,
the
Woodland
Indians had experienced a period of cannibalism and violence. They changed by
admitting their mistakes and overcame their violent tendencies.
13)
The
Woodland
Indians had the idea of democracy long before the Europeans. Wampum belts
have been discovered that contained laws and indicate the beginning of western
democracy.
14) In 1492,
Columbus
arrived under two flags. The flag of
Spain
and the flag of the Roman Catholic Church.
15) Europeans established that if no
Christians occupied these newly discovered lands (
America
), then the land was considered unoccupied and could be taken over.
16) Europeans saw the
Woodland
Indians as violent savages who needed to be converted to Christianity. They
were seen as heathen souls that had to be saved.
17) Europeans came to the new world to
seek religious freedom. They wound up taking away the religious freedom of
the
Woodland
tribes.
18) The Spanish brought disease like
cholera, diphtheria, and smallpox to the
Woodland
tribes and reduced their population drastically.
19) The
Woodland
Indians did not understand the concepts of ‘land ownership’ or ‘buying and
selling’. They truly understood the concept of sharing everything they had.
20) The
Woodland
Indians considered the sky as their roof; the earth as their floor, and
everything in between as full of bounty.
21) The Woodland Indians experienced this
cycle over and over: Settlers came to their territories-forts were
built-conflicts ensued between the Woodland Indians and settlers-the
Woodland
Indians were defeated and forfeited their lands.
22) The Iroquois leader, Ganazadego, met
with Benjamin Franklin and suggested that the colonies united together, or
they would perish. This meeting took place in
Lancaster ,
PA
in 1744.
23) Thomas Jefferson claimed that the
Woodland
Indians enjoyed more happiness under their form of government than the
Europeans did under theirs.
24) In 1869, Ulysses S. Grant approved of
the Peace Policy which removed Indian children from their homes and sent them
to boarding schools. The idea was to assimilate them into American society.
25) Colonel Francis Pratt founded the
Carlyle
Indian
School in
Carlyle,
PA.
It was designed to take the ‘Indian’ out of Indian children. It really
was a military prison for Indian children.
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