Interesting Facts About Native American Indians

Native American Indian Facts

The purpose of this site is to provide interesting facts about Native American Indians. On the pages of this site you will discover information on numerous American Indian tribes including where they lived, their history, culture, how they lived, their jewelry, and who their famous warriors and chiefs were. We will cover tribes from all the main American Indian geographic locations including the Southeast, Southwest, Northeast, Northwest Coast, Great Basin, Great Plains, Plateau, and California. We will be adding pages about such tribes as the Apache, Zuni, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Shinnecock, and the Hopi.
Throughout this site you will find links to sites that have beautiful handmade traditional native American jewelry and gifts for sale.

It is generally believed that humans migrated to America from Eurasia over 12,000 years ago. This migration was made possible by a land bridge named Beringia that use to connect America to Eurasia across what is now the Bering Strait. It is believed that three distinct waves of migration took place across this land bridge. These prehistoric people eventually populated the Americas and formed hundreds of distinct tribes each having their own unique traditions and languages.
Below you will find a list of several facts about the indigenous people of America. The other pages of this site contain even more interesting information.

Interesting Facts About Native American Indians

• The term "Indian" originated with Christopher Columbus. He thought that he had reached the East Indies when he landed in America and therefore named the inhabitants Indians.
• European settlers to America brought with them diseases to which the Native Americans had no resistance. These diseases killed millions of Indians and resulted in a huge population decline.
• Europeans brought many animals to the Americas which the indigenous people had never seen, including cattle, sheep, and pigs.
• Horses had been hunted to extinction by the early settlers of the Americas thousands of years before the Europeans arrived. The reintroduction of the horse by the Europeans had an incredible impact on the American Indians. They utilized the horse for travel, hunting, and warfare.
• Numerous conflicts occurred between the American Indians and European settlers before the American Revolutionary War , and after the Revolution between the Native Americans and the U.S. government. These conflicts have been named the American Indian Wars.
• In 1890 the last major battle between Native American Indians and U.S. soldiers occurred. It was called the Battle of Wounded Knee and occurred near the Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. Approximately three hundred Sioux Indians were slaughtered.
• In 1838 one of the most horrible events in American history occurred. This event was a forced relocation of thousands of Indians from their homelands to areas west of the Mississippi River. This march, named the "Trail of Tears", resulted in the death of thousands of Native Americans from numerous tribes including the Cherokee, Seminole, Choctaw, and Chickasaw. Most of the deaths were the result of disease and exposure to the extremely cold weather.
• Benjamin Franklin learned a lot about democracy by observing the Iroquois Indians. The Iroquois had a chief who ruled only as long as the tribes supported his decisions. The Iroquois were a union of several tribes that had in place limits to power held in place by checks and balances, one of the corner stones of democracy for the United States of America.
  
  
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Arizona to Rally Against Native American Mascots; De-chief Wahoo Rally at Arizona Diamondbacks game in Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix, AZ – Arizona to Rally Against Native American Mascots, a group of Arizonians who advocate for

 the elimination of Native American mascots in pro-sports mascots and logos, will hold a rally calling on the

MLB’s Cleveland team and their fans to “de-chief” their merchandise of the grotesque caricature, Chief

Wahoo. The De-chief Wahoo Rally takes place at the Arizona Diamondbacks vs Cleveland Indians baseball

games on Tuesday June 24, 2014 and Wednesday June 25, 2014 from 5:00PM to 7:30PM at Chase Field

in Phoenix, Arizona.

De-chiefing is a movement whereby fans of the Major League Baseball team, the Cleveland Indians, remove

the Chief Wahoo logo from their merchandise as a way to show solidarity towards the efforts of Native

Americans who have been calling on the MLB team to retire the logo since the 1960’s. Professional sport

teams with Native mascots and logos, such as Chief Wahoo and the Redskins, promote stereotypes of

Native Americans and enable people to believe that Native Americans either are non-existent or only exist as

a cartoon or romanticized mascot, not as real human beings.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office declared, on June 18, 2014, six trademarks for the

Washington NFL franchise of the name “Redskins” must be cancelled. The term “Redskins” was established

as disparaging of Native Americans. The lead plaintiff in the case Blackhorse v. Pro Football, Inc. is Amanda

Blackhorse who is leading the group Arizona to Rally Against Native American Mascots along with other

organizers.


Eradicating Offensive Native Mascotry, a group of Native parents and their allies from across the country,

support the efforts of the group Arizona to Rally Against Native American Mascots and the two rallies to

take place next week. In April 2014, EONM called on Nike, Inc. to stop selling products that feature the

Cleveland Indians’ mascot Chief Wahoo by holding a local protest at the Nike World Headquarters in

Beaverton, Oregon and launched a social media campaign to trend the #Dechief hashtag.



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Indian Fry Bread and Indian Tacos - Preparation Instructions

For today’s State Fair Recipe, I’m going to show you how to make Indian Fry Bread, a Native American quick bread that’s fried and served either on its own, drizzled with honey, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, or topped with ground beef and other taco ingredients.

In the second part of the post, I’m going to go ahead and show you what the fry bread looks like as a base for Indian Tacos. However, the fry bread in the Indian Taco photos is not the right fry bread. It’s the wrong fry bread. It’s the wrong fry bread because I messed it up. But I’d already made the taco toppings and was running out of time, so I went ahead and finished the tacos, planning to make a better batch of fry bread later.

And that’s what I did. So basically, the fry bread and the tacos were made on different days. And more importantly: the day I made the tacos, I was wearing black leggings. The day I made the right fry bread, I was wearing jeans. Important distinction. Didn’t want to leave anything out.

First, here’s the fry bread. There are so many different recipes and methods and if you’re looking for the authentic, 100% correct way to make Indian Fry Bread, you don’t want to rely on me. Others can show you the way much better than I can.

But it really is a cinch once you get the hang of it. And it’s so, so, so, so good.

THE FRY BREAD

Add flour to a bowl.

Then add baking powder.

Some recipes call for yeast, and some don’t have any leavening at all. But the baking powder seems to work best for me.

Next, add some salt.

Now just stir the flour mixture together…

While you slowly drizzle in some milk.

Give it a stir for a little longer to incorporate the milk as much as possible…

Then slowly drizzle in about 1/2 cup of water as you continue to stir gently.

Stop just when it comes together; don’t stir the heck out of it. And add more water if you need to—just enough to make it finally come together.

And now. This really makes a difference. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and let it sit for 30 minutes…45 if you have it. This really makes a difference in how the dough handles, and how it fries up, which I learned the hard way the other day when I made fry bread and it didn’t turn out as well.

This also makes a difference. With my other batch of fry bread (the one I made the other day) one of the mistakes I made was using canola oil to fry the bread. But it just didn’t do the trick like Crisco. (And confession: I didn’t quite have enough Crisco so I topped it off with some lard. Yes, I said lard.)

When you’re ready, grab a little bunch of dough.

Using your fingers, begin pressing in the center of the ball and continue to press, stretching slightly as you go. I like the texture of the fry bread using this method much better than if I use a rolling pin…but it could be because with the rolling pin I always tend to roll it out a little thin. I like the lumpiness of pressing it. But I’m weird and don’t know anything.

Fry them on one side until golden brown, about a minute or so (make sure your grease is hot enough)…then carefully turn them over (I use tongs so the oil won’t splash) and continue frying them for about 30 to 45 seconds.

Remove them from the pan…

And let them drain on paper towels.

If you want a bigger piece, just start with a larger ball of dough.

Mmmm. Good one. This’ll make a nice taco, man.



Plenty of surface area for all those ingredients!

Just drain them on paper towels until you need them.

Now, here’s what you can do from here:

Eat them as they are. Simple and yummy.
Drizzle on honey.
Mix softened butter and honey together and spread it on.
Sprinkle on lots of cinnamon sugar.
Sift on lots of powdered sugar.

Or you can make Indian Tacos!

INDIAN TACOS

FLASHBACK: This was my fry bread a few days ago. It tasted really good. It was just missing a little bit of puffiness/texture. I didn’t let the dough sit and rest, and I think I messed with it too much. Oh, and I used less baking powder.

I’d fried up a bunch of ground beef the day before (I do this sometimes. Habit of mine.) so when I heated it up I added in some different seasonings: cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper. You can add some Mexican red sauce, too, to make it drippy and saucy and wonderful.

I didn’t do that, though. I was too busy wandering around in the smoldering aftermath of my freaky fry bread.

Then I chopped up some lettuce…

Some tomato…

And green onions.

And piled on the meat…

The lettuce…(and here’s where you imagine all of this happening on top of one of those golden brown puffy things at the beginning of this post.)

Tomatoes…

Sour cream…

Green onions…

And salsa. Yum!

Now, it does look like the fry bread is thin and crisper here, but really, they were soft enough to fold. And shove in my mouth. So scrumptious.

But imagine those glorious taco toppings on this beauty. Too delicious for words!

Here’s the handy printable for the fry bread. Feel free to weigh in with your own fry bread experiences—would love to hear your tips!

 

Recipe

Indian Fry Bread

Prep Time:

 30 Minutes

 

Cook Time:

 10 Minutes

 

Difficulty:

 Easy

 

Servings:

 6

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 3 teaspoons Baking Powder (slightly Rounded Teaspoons)
• 3/4 cups Milk
•  Water As Needed To Get Dough To Come Together
•  Vegetable Shortening Or Lard For Frying

Preparation Instructions

Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir with a fork as you pour in the milk; keep stirring for a bit to get it to come together as much as possible. Add just enough water (about 1/4 to 1/2 cup) to get it to come together. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and let it sit for 35 to 45 minutes to rest.

When you're ready to make the fry bread, heat about 1 to 2 inches shortening/lard in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Grab a plum-sized piece of dough (or larger if you want larger fry bread) and press it into a circle with your fingers: place it on a clean surface and begin pressing in the center and work your way out, stretching it as you go.

When the circle is about 4 to 7 inches (however big you want it) carefully drape it into the skillet. Allow it to fry on one side until golden brown, about 1 minute, then carefully flip it to the other side using tongs. Fry it for another 30 to 45 seconds.

Remove the fry bread to a paper towel-lined plate and allow it to drain while you fry the other pieces.

Serve warm!

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10 Things Native Americans Can Do Better Than You

Native Americans are skilled at various things, but here's a list of 10 things Native Americans can do better than most. (No, seriously. We can.)

10. Play lacrosse

Illustration by George Catlin. Courtesy Wikipedia/Smithsonian Institution

Because we invented it.

9. Snowshoeing

courtesy Library of Congress.

Because, although Europeans had their own form of snowshoes, Native Americans are lauded for inventing the most efficient and diverse.

8. Run on Indian Time

Because “White Man Time will give you stomach cancer.”

7. Letting you know why this is completely and utterly wrong.

Naturally, a Native American will give you a better run down as to why this is fantastically repugnant.

6. Find unique ways to flirt while remaining traditional.

Facebook/Cumash Pow Wow 2013/AmigoNonProfitFilms.

Let’s face it: the potato dance is an art form and a fine way to hit on someone at a pow wow.

5. Host inipis (sweat lodges).

AP

Listen, just don’t do it if you’re not qualified. It canend seriously bad.

4. Deep fry some dough.

Courtesy Wikipedia

It’s not super healthy, but it’s super nostalgic and pretty delicious with honey and powdered sugar.

3. Not act terribly surprised when celebrities claim to be Native American.

It happens a lot. (Brad Pitt claims to be Seminole and Cherokee.)

2. Honor Mother Earth

Thinkstock

It’s kind of been our thing from the beginning.

1. Laugh

Thinkstock

Because, well, without humor the past 521 years would’ve been a lot harder.

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Trending in Indian Country: #PrezRezVisit Gained National Attention

On June 13, As President Barack Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama made their way to visit the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota and meet with Tribal leaders, ICTMN and Indian country took the#PrezRezVisithashtag Twitter Ball – and ran with it.

Within hours of first introducing the hashtag on Thursday, via a tweet by this correspondent@VinceSchilling, Thousands and thousands tweeted about the excitement, cautious optimism and speculation about President Obama and the First Lady’s visit.

Shortly before President Obama was to land in North Dakota, the#PrezRezVisithashtag had gained such steam and recognition,The Washington Post’s Abby Phillipreportedon the “cautious hope” Native Americans were expressing.

“[O]nline, Native Americans have been determined to keep the conversation alive. More than 5,000 tweets with the#PrezRezVisithashtag have been sent out so far, after the trend was started Thursday by Indian Country Today correspondent Vincent Schilling,” Phillips wrote inThe Washington Post.

RELATED:Obama Visits Indian County in ND, Follow Along With ICTMN’s Twitter

Immediately after posting of the tweet, Indian country and supporters jumped into action on#PrezRezVisitwhich only gained traction as the time for the President’s and First Lady’s arrival loomed closer. Within hours, the hashtag was trending in such places as Chicago, Philadelphia and Canada.

In addition to attention fromThe Washington Post, MSNBC’s Ed Show also dedicated a segment to Obama’s visit and the popularity of the#PrezRezVisitHashtag.

The rest of the day was a true celebration of tweets with Indian country and the visit of the President and the First Lady.

Though President Obama was scheduled to appear earlier in the day as indicated on the White House Live Stream webpage, rumors that he would not speak until 6 p.m. ET prompted a lot of Indian time jokes.

In addition to the lighthearted teasing, others recognized Michelle Obama’s healthy Americans efforts:

There were many who were glad to see the culmination of efforts and the impressive showing of Indian country on social media and Twitter. While some took the time to criticize a few things that stood out to them like a lack of mainstream media coverage. Though the days events were covered by the Associated Press, CBS, Fox and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams dedicated a segment to the visit.

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