American Indians

I first came across American Indians in my early education after enrolling in one of the
elementary schools. I learned that when Europeans arrived for the first time in America, the
American continent was mainly populated with Native American communities. Hundreds of
thousands of Native Americans lived in different regions, and each Native American community
had its own unique culture (Alchin, 2012). I cannot recollect the Europeans being given any
credit; however, I can vividly recall that many years before the ships of Christopher Columbus
landed in the Bahamas, a different group of people had already discovered America.
Approximately fifteen million Native American communities already occupied the continent
(Weiner, 2007).
I also remember learning that European settlers were focused on moving, renaming,
combining, dispersing, and destroying the Native Americans because of efforts to expand the
settler territories. The discussion ended immediately after the Native Americans had been
forcefully moved on to the reservations by the European settlers. There was no further discussion
on contemporary themes that impacted the lives of the Native Americans while they were in the
reserves. This elementary education established the first opinions concerning the Native
Americans. Besides, this education was subjectively dependent on the perspective of the
European subjugators.
After this elementary education, the best way to obtain knowledge from the perspective
of a non-Native American community is through having a passion, high motivation, enthusiasm,
and the desire to seek and get deep information. Otherwise, the viewpoint of a non-Native
American can be subjective. Education from a non-Native American is not diverse and gives

3
little information concerning the Native Americans, not even the killings and slaughters that the
Europeans committed against the Native Americans (Kent, 2019).
There have always been stereotypes that the masses have created about American
Indians. This could be because we have had a limited personal experience with the American
Indians and we just accept any negative tales about them that are reinforced by others. However,
my thoughts changed because I realized that there is little discussion about the Native
Americans, and more information about them is not included.

4

References

Alchin. L. (2012). History of Native Americans. https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/history-
of-native-americans/
Kent. L. (2019). European colonizers killed so many Native Americans that it changed the global
climate, researchers say. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/01/world/european-
colonization-climate-change-trnd/index.html
Weiner. E. (2007). Coming to America: Who was first?
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15040888