It’s the need of the hour to bring forth some of the essential Native American facts for kids, probably because still many people have only a vague understanding of various societal problems facing Native Americans today. Before Christopher Columbus actually discovered America and landed ships in Bahamas, a distinct group of people were already dwelling there; those dwellers were in fact the nomadic ancestors of modern Native Americans and that they occupied most of the land now called Alaska some 12,000 years ago. As a matter of fact, when European adventurers moved around in America in the 15th century, historians maintain that some 50 million people already inhabited the Americas. Out of these numbers, nearly 10 million settled in the land we now know as America.
Native American Facts For Kids
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that there are around 4.5 million Native Americans and Alaska natives currently settled in United States which accounts for 1.5% of the population.
Native Americans are the indigenous peoples in North America, United States, and within the island state of Hawaii.
Although the Native Americans and European settlers had lived side by side but the cultural differences between them resulted in political tension, social disruption, and ethnic violence.
Probably in the 15th century, Native Americans died in great numbers precisely due to their contact with infectious Eurasian disease.
Native Americans are fairly different from the United States because they may belong to specific tribe, bands, nations, and treaty rights.
“All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth”
(Chief Seattle)
(Suqwamish and Duwamish)
Since 1960’s, Native Americans are given recognition in the cultural paradigm and also that they have founded online media and independent newspapers.
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The first Native Americans television channel is FNX. It was started in 2011.
Native Americans had also been involved in the Indian-and-French War which lasted for seven years.
During the American Revolution, the Native Americans did not play in favor of United States, rather they sided with the British to wipe out Americans on the hope that colonial defeat would bring about halt to further expansion onto Native American land.
In the 19th century when Americans continued to expand their land, Native Americans repelled to prevent them to occupy certain regions of a new nation.
The Indian Removal policy in the 19th century forced Native Americans to relocate to the West. Historians believe that the relocation was deemed to be voluntary as many Native Americans stayed in the East.
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The first Native Americans to be recognized as U.S. citizens was ‘Cherokee’ in 1817.
The last Native Americans who lived was ‘Ishi’. He was found on 29th August, 1911 near Oroville, California. Ishi spent most of his years while living apart from European-American culture.
In the World War II, some 44,000 Native Americans served in the U.S. military. It was a turning point in the history of Native Americans (and Americans) since they never were on one side. The fellow soldiers often regard their Native Americans in high esteem.
Slavery was deemed to be too common practice for Native Americans before introduction of European settlers.
The studies revealed that Native Americans and Africans had lived side by side rather harmoniously; the earliest contact between these two nations took place in 1502.
Even today in some parts of the U.S. where Native Americans still exist, they face real discrimination, inequality, or mistreatment whenever they’re confronted with non-Native Americans.
The first Native Americans to be certified as a medical doctor was Charles Eastman. He had graduated from Boston University.
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