LONG BEFORE the white man set foot on American soil, the American Indians, or rather the Native Americans , had been living in America. When the Europeans came here, there were probably about 10 million Indians populating America north of present-day Mexico. And they had been living in America for quite some time. It is believed that the first Native Americans arrived during the last ice-age, approximately 20,000 - 30,000 years ago through a land-bridge across the Bering Sound, from northeastern Siberia into Alaska . The oldest documented Indian cultures in North America are Sandia (15000 BC), Clovis (12000 BC) and Folsom (8000 BC)

Although it is believed that the Indians originated in Asia, few if any of them came from India. The name "Indian" was first applied to them by Christopher Columbus , who believed mistakenly that the mainland and islands of America were part of the Indies, in Asia.

So, when the Europeans started to arrive in the 16th- and 17th-century they were met by Native Americans , and enthusiastically so. The Natives regarded their white-complexioned visitors as something of a marvel, not only for their outlandish dress and beards and winged ships but even more for their wonderful technology - steel knives and swords, fire-belching arquebus and cannon, mirrors, hawkbells and earrings, copper and brass kettles, and so on.

However, conflicts eventually arose. As a starter, the arriving Europeans seemed attuned to another world, they appeared to be oblivious to the rhythms and spirit of nature. Nature to the Europeans - and the Indians detected this - was something of 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. Even the Indians themselves were a resource - souls ripe for the Jesuit, Dominican, or Puritan plucking.

It was the Europeans' cultural arrogance, coupled with their materialistic view of the land and its animal and plant beings, that the Indians found repellent. Europeans, in sum, were regarded as something mechanical - soulless creatures who wielded diabolically ingenious tools and weapons to accomplish mad ends.

The Europeans brought with them not only a desire and will to conquer the new continent for all its material richness, but they also brought with them diseases that hit the Indians hard. Conflicts developed between the Native Americans and the Invaders, the latter arriving in overwhelming numbers, as many "as the stars in heaven". The Europeans were accustomed to own land and laid claim to it while they considered the Indians to be nomads with no interest to claim land ownership. The conflicts led to the Indian Wars , the Indian Removal Act empowered by President Andrew Jackson in 1830 and other acts instituted by the Europeans in order to accomplish their objectives, as they viewed them at the time. In these wars the Indian tribes were at a great disadvantage because of their modest numbers, nomadic life, lack of advanced weapons, and unwillingness to cooperate, even in their own defense.

The end of the wars more or less coincided with the end of the 19th century. The last major war was not really a war, it was a massacre in 1890 where Indian warriors, women, and children were slaughtered by U.S. cavalrymen at Wounded Knee , South Dakota , in a final spasm of ferocity.

A stupefying record of greed and treachery, of heroism and pain, had come to an end, a record forever staining the immense history of the westward movement, which in its drama and tragedy is also distinctively and unforgettably American.

Kat

But your previous arguments have stated that the renaming of a nation is alright. You have insisted on it's being a simple matter of translation. Correct?

That was for adj not Kat.

Funny thing is whether you believe in evolution or the bible, we all came from the same place in the beginning.

Yup. Very true.

as mexico is part of the north american continent

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But your previous arguments have stated that the renaming of a nation is alright. You have insisted on it's being a simple matter of translation. Correct?

i stated that the eskimo is in the northern regions of north
america

you said i was wrong and they were inuit

i posted def. inuit is a member of the larger eskomo conglomerate

i said eskimo is the translation

that was incorrect as shown be kats earlier post

and the definition i posted at about 10:30

but all of this is not relivient to how i feel

about american being used to describe a citizen

of the united states because it is what it is

no matter how i feel about it

Robin,
Do you use the "N" word when describing African Americans?

Im assuming you dont.
Im also assuming you dont because it is classed as a derogatory term for a non A.A. to use it.

So, when presented with someone saying that the majority of a population find the term Eskimo offensive, why not change what you call them?

Is it such a hardship to maintain a little more peace for the sake of a little change?

Life really is tooo f'kin short for this

I didn't ask about being named a citizen of the United States of America. The question is .... Does the renaming of a nation make it right, make it fact?

We're all headed to the same place or places too!

Doesn't your fellow man have any meaning to you while you're here? Whatever it is that you believe?

Sad thing is that some will call me a commie, liberal, bleeding heart but what I see myself as is a human being first and foremost. I don't honestly believe that any political party will save any one of us. We can only save ourselves, with each others help.
Please keep your segregationist terminology to yourselves. Thank you.

well to be honest i don't think

they should be called african americans

were they ever to africa were their parents from there

after second generation third at most

you should drop the ethinicty from the citizenship

it leads to racism

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as for eskimo

if i was talking only of inuit yes i should use inuit

but when speak of all north american artic tribes

they are eskimo as defined in the dictionary

from kat's 11:30 post

"Eskimo" remains the only word

that describes all

the physically and culturally quite homogenous groups that extend from the Siberian side of the Bering Strait to Greenland. The American Heritage Dictionary sums up, "While use of these terms ('Inuit' and 'Yup'ik') is often preferable when speaking of the appropriate linguistic group, none of them can be used of the Eskimoan peoples as a whole; the only inclusive term remains Eskimo."

Adj would you please answer the question I've asked.

Does the renaming of a nation make it right, make it fact? This renaming done in a fashion easy to comprehend with no 'translation' errors.

do you say it is ok to call all citizens of united states americans

That would not entail the renaming of a nation. That would be true if I renamed the US Frazaland and said you were a Frazian.

karm's question

Does the renaming of a nation make it right, make it fact? This renaming done in a fashion easy to comprehend with no 'translation' errors.

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like i said what i think is not of consequence

the fact is it happens

and it is not going to stop

what is the 4rth planet from the sun

and if their is life on it what is it called

so the inuit are not canadian

are you trying to out them from their citizenship

The US shall be known as Meximerica from now on!

are you saying that all of europe should remain in barbarian control

Fine. By YOUR logic the renaming of a nation makes it right. This is what you have held on to for dear life. Therefore when my nation is renamed by the President of your nation then it must be so. So if I accept this as fact then I am also an American. Therefore my going there would not be illegal. I am an American, your President said so.

If A leader has said that we are all of the same people, we are all human with no differences then that would also be fact. Therefore there are no illegals because we all belong to the same nation, the nation of man.

well hey come on down

we already have canadians in the stragic defense complex

in the mountain

but don't forget if ya gonna make it that easy

start sending your tax money to washington

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