Journal # 1 - Native Americans PWN You!

Native American cultures are extremely diverse due to their isolation from each other and lack of total unity between tribes. Most, however, show similar themes. Native American cultures, generally, are very nature-based in their traditions and religions. They tend to believe in spirits of nature, and in some cases gods who control their lives. Blessings from certain gods would bring different consequences. In some cultures, the sacrifices were mundane, such as a part of the harvest or game, but in others, the sacrifices could be human ones.

In a lot of the cultures, sharing was an important part of the community. In many Eastern Woodland Native American groups, the idea of personal property was something brought over by the Europeans and a foreign idea. Houses, food, and possessions were all in common with the entire tribe. For a modern example, if you wanted to borrow your neighbor's dress for homecoming, you could do it and there would be no fuss about it because she would know that she could borrow anything of yours whenever she wanted. It was a much nicer system than the capitalist one we have right now.

Also, in some communities, the societies were matriarchal, where the women were in power. This was not true for all communities, but it certainly was a new concept for arriving Europeans in the 16th century. For example, in Iroquois society, women could hold property, divorce their husbands, and choose the men who would be "elected" to powerful positions. It was like the feminist movements' consequences hundreds of years later.

Some Indian societies grew to large sizes, too. A few communities even rivaled or surpassed cities and towns found in Europe at the time (granted there was widespread plague, but still). For being the "savages" the Europeans called them, the Indians were quite advanced. The Southwestern communities built sophisticated irrigation ditches in order to farm and constructed highways by which to reach other tribes. In Cahokia, gigantic burial mounds were constructed that still stand today, and in Latin America, they built floating gardens in the city of Tenochtitlan.

In addition to all this, there was the fact of their communication. Stories were passed down orally, and not many tribes had written languages (though one in South America came up with a communication system based on knot-tying!). In short, the Native Americans were a lot cooler than the Europeans gave them credit for.