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Iroquois

Iroquois

The Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee, also known as the League of Peace and Power, Five Nations, or Six Nations) is a group of First Nations/Native Americans. The Confederacy was based, at the time of the arrival of the Europeans, in what is now upstate New York, as well as parts of Pennsylvania, Ontario, and Quebec. Quebec, 1914]]

History

Prehistoric and Protohistoric period

This union of nations was established prior to major European contact, replete with a constitution recorded with special beads called wampum that have inherent spiritual value (wampum has been innacurately compared to money in other cultures). Most Western anthropologists speculate that this Constitution was created between the middle 1400s and early 1600s, but other scholars who account for Iroquois oral tradition argue that the event took place as early as 1100, with many arguing for August 31, 1142 based on a coinciding solar eclipse (see Fields and Mann, American Indian Culture and Research Journal, vol. 21, #2). Some Westerners have also suggested that the Constitution was written with European help, although most dismiss this notion as racism. The two prophets, Hiawatha and "The Great Peacemaker", brought a message of peace to squabbling tribes. The tribes who joined the League were the Seneca, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga and Mohawks. Once they ceased (most) infighting, they rapidly became one of the strongest forces in 17th and 18th century northeastern North America. The League engaged in a series of wars against the French and their Iroquoian-speaking Wyandot ("Huron") allies. They also put great pressure on the Algonquian peoples of the Atlantic coast and what is now subarctic Canada and not infrequently fought the English colonies as well. During the 17th Century they are also credited with having destroyed the Neutral Indians and Erie Tribe as a way of controlling the fur trade, even though other reasons are often given for these wars. Some survivors of these tribes were absorbed into the Iroquois tribes. fur trade According to Francis Parkman, the Iroquois were at the height of their power in the 17th century with a population of around 12,000 people. League traditions allowed for the dead to be symbolically replaced through the "Mourning War", raids intended to seize captives and take vengeance on non-members. This tradition was common to native people of the northeast and was quite different from European settlers' notions of combat.

The 18th Century

In 1720 the Tuscarora fled north from the European colonization of North Carolina and petitioned to become the Sixth Nation. This is a non-voting position, but places them under the protection of the Confederacy. During the American Revolution the Oneida and many Tuscarora and Onondaga sided with the Americans while the Mohawk, Seneca, and Cayuga remained loyal to Great Britain. This marked the first split among the Six Nations. After a series of successful operations against frontier settlements led by the Mohawk leader Joseph Brant and his British allies, the United States reacted with vengeance. In 1779, George Washington ordered Col. Daniel Brodhead and General John Sullivan to lead expeditions against the Iroquois nations to "not merely overun, but destroy," the British-Indian alliance. The campaign successfully ended the ability of the British and Iroquois to mount any further significant attacks on American settlements. In 1794, the Confederacy entered into the Treaty of Canandaigua with the United States. After the American Revolutionary War, Captain Joseph Brant and the Six Nations Indians left New York to settle in Canada. As a reward for their loyalty to the Crown, they were given a large land grant on the Grand River. The original Mohawk settlement was on the south edge of the present-day city at a location favourable for landing canoes. Brant's crossing of the river gave the original name to the area: Brant's ford. By 1847, European settlers began to settle further up the river at a ford in the Grand River and named the village Brantford, Ontario.

Beliefs

These tribes, mostly members of the Iroquois nation, lived in the Northeastern territories of the U.S. and Canada, from the St. Lawrence River down to the Delaware Bay and inland to the Great Lakes. Their close contact with Europeans makes investigation of their original mythology and religion extremely difficult, but core beliefs included a conception of life as a struggle between the forces of good and evil. The "All-Father," and all embracing deity, had no form and little contact of the humans. Spirits animated all of nature and controlled the changing of the season. Key festivals coincided with the major events of the agricultural calendar. Seventh Generation is a precept of the Great Law of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy), which requires that chiefs consider the impact of their decisions on the seventh generation.

The Haudenosaunee

The combined leadership of the Nations is known as the Haudenosaunee. It should be noted that "Haudenosaunee" is the term that the people use to refer to themselves. The word "Iroquois" is reputed to come from a French version of a Huron (Wendat) name—considered an insult—meaning "Black Snakes." The Iroquois were enemies of the Huron and the Algonquin, who were allied with the French, due to their rivalry in the fur trade. Haudenosaunee means "People Building a Long House." The term is said to have been introduced by The Great Peacemaker at the time of the formation of the Confederacy. It implies that the Nations of the confederacy should live together as families in the same longhouse. Symbolically, the Seneca were the guardians of the western door of the "tribal long house," and the Mohawk were the guardians of the eastern door. There exists another, perhaps more compelling, version explaining the origin of the word "Iroquois"; as the French combination of two distinct terms used in the language of the Haudenosaunee. Here is a link to published text discussing this point: http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/index.html#fn1 The participants and writers developing the nascent US government addressed and compared the Haudenosaunee and their ways to a state of achievement in administrative self-governance which Rome itself never reached and which they hoped the US would aspire to and achieve. Another useful reference in learning about the Haudenosaunee exists here: http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/index.html The Iroquois nations' political union and democratic government has been credited by some as one of the influences on the United States Constitution. Please see Figure 31 at this link: http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/EoL/chp8.html#fig31 However, that theory has fallen into disfavor among many historians, and is regarded by some as mythology. Historian Jack Rakove writes: "The voluminous records we have for the constitutional debates of the late 1780s contain no significant references to the Iroquois." [http://hnn.us/articles/12974.html]. The Haudenosaunee issues passports to some of its citizens. Though legal travellers often find it inconvenient to have it recognized.

Member Nations

:::Note 1: Member of Original Five Nations (listed from west to east) :::Note 2: Sixth Nation (Joined in 1720)

Iroquois Clans

Within each of the six nations, people are divided into a number of matrilineal clans. The number of clans varies by nation, currently from three to seven, with a total of nine different clan names.

Government

The Iroquois have a representative government known as the Grand Council. Each tribe sends chiefs to act as respresentatives and make decisions for the whole nation. The number of chiefs has never changed.
- Onondaga 14
- Cayuga 10
- Oneida 9
- Mohawk 9
- Seneca 8

References

- "The Ordeal of the Longhouse", by Daniel K. Richter
- For a detailed account of Iroquois actions during the American Revolution, see: Williams, Glenn F. Year of the Hangman: George Washington's Campaign Against the Iroquois Yardley: Westholme Publishing, 2005.
- [http://sixnations.buffnet.net/Culture/?article=who_we_are Who Are the Haudenosaunee?]
- [http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/ Oldest Living Participatory Democracy]
- [http://www.iroquoismuseum.org Iroquois Indian Museum, Howes Cave, NY]

External links

- [http://www.sixnations.org/ Haudenosaunee Home Page] : the official source of news and information from the Haudenosaunee.
- [http://sixnations.buffnet.net/Great_Law_of_Peace/ Gayanashagowa] Category:Iroquois Category:First Nations in Quebec Category:First Nations in Ontario ja:イロコイ連邦

First Nations

] First Nations is a term for ethnicity used in Canada that is meant to replace the use of the word "Indian". It refers to the Indigenous peoples of North America located in what is now Canada, and their descendants, who are not Inuit or Métis. The proper terms to refer to the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis collectively is Aboriginal peoples in Canada or First peoples or Indigenous peoples, tribes, or nations. A national representative body of the "First Nations" people in Canada is the Assembly of First Nations. First Nations people have been referred to as Indians, Native Americans, Native Canadians, Aboriginal Americans, Amerindians, and Aboriginals. They are known officially by the Government of Canada as registered Indians if they are entitled to benefits under the Indian Act. Under the Royal Proclamation of 1763, the document many people refer to as the "Indian Magna Carta", the Crown refers to the Indigenous people in British territory as "Tribes or Nations". A more common term is status Indian (from treaty status), with non-status Indian designating a member of a First Nation who is not entitled to benefits. The use of the word "Indian" in day-to-day language is erratic in Canada, with some seeing the term as offensive while others prefer it to alternate terminology such as "Aboriginal". All members of First Nations who are entitled to benefits are entered in the Indian Register, which serves as the official record of members of First Nations. Administration of the Indian Act and Indian Register is carried out by the federal government's Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

"Band" , "First Nation" and "Indigenous peoples, tribes, or nations"

A First Nation is a legally undefined term that came into common usage in the 1970s to replace the term "Indian band". A band is defined as "a body of Indians for whose collective use and benefit lands have been set apart or money is held by the Crown, or declared to be a band for the purposes of the Indian Act ^{[http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/pr/pub/wf/trmrslt_e.asp?term=10]}." There are currently over 600 First Nations or bands in Canada. Roughly half of these are located in the provinces of Ontario or British Columbia. See also: List of First Nations. First Nations are headquartered on Indian reserves that have been created by treaties, such as Treaty 7. Some reserves are located within a city, such as the Opawikoscikan Reserve in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. There are more reserves in Canada than there are First Nations, as some First Nations were ceded by treaty more than one reserve. Not all of a First Nations ethnic group such as the Cree or Mi'kmaq live on a single reserve. For example, the Moravian of the Thames First Nation is a band of the Munsee (Lenape) ethnic group for whom the Moravian No. 47 reserve has been designated. However, they do not constitute all those of Munsee ethnicity in Canada — other Munsee groups live on the Munsee-Delaware Nation and Six Nations of the Grand River reserves. There is some controversy over the use of the term "First Nations" to either self-describe Indigenous peoples within Canada, or for non-indigenous peoples to refer to Indigenous peoples in this fashion. The reason for this controversy is that under international law covenants, "First Nations" per se, have no standing in international law. Indigenous peoples or nations, however, do. The Canadian government, and many Indigenous peoples within Canada, and many non-indigenous people use this term, because they are attempting to be respectful of the right of Indigenous people to use whichever word that they want to describe themselves. However, a careful distinction is often made about the use of the term "First Nations". In general, those Indigenous peoples within Canada who describe themselves as "First Nations" do not believe or hold with the concept of sovereignty of their Indigenous peoples nations, while those who do use the term, or insist upon the term "Indigenous peoples" are sovereignists. There are also Indigenous people in Canada who use the term "First Nation" for any tribal and or nomadic ethnic group deprived of self-determination as a political recognition of colonialization. These groups work internationally on minority rights and self-determination.

Geographic distribution

Each of these main groups contain many tribes, each of whom have adapted to their environments which are all slightly different. The four main groups can be subdivided by the following geographic areas:
- Pacific Coast and Mountains
- Plains
- Northeast Woodlands
- Atlantic Coastal Region
- St. Lawrence River Valley
- Canadian Arctic

Pacific coast and mountains

These people traditionally ate fish, primarily salmon and silvery eulachon from the ocean, as well as fish from lakes and rivers, and roots and berries. Recently discovered clam gardens suggest that they were not limited only to hunting and gathering.'They made use of the forests of the Pacific to build dug-out canoes, and houses made of evenly-split planks of wood. They used tools made of stone and wood. The native peoples of the Pacific coast also made totem poles, a trait attributed to other tribes as well. In 2000 an land claim was settled between the Nisga'a people of British Columbia and the provincial government, resulting in the transfer of over 2,000 square kilometres of land to the Nisga'a. Major ethnicities include the:
- Coast Salish
- Cowichan
- Somena
- Musqueam
- Nanaimo
- Nuxálk (Bella Coola)
- Shishalh (Sechelt)
- Sliammon (Mainland Comox)
- Snuneymuxw (Nanaimo)
- Songhees (Songish)
- Squamish
- Stó:lō
- Katzie
- Kwantlen
- Tsawwassen
- T'Souke (Sooke)
- Interior Salish
- Nlaka'pamux First Nation (Thompson Nation)
- Okanagan
- Secwepemc (Shuswap)
- St'at'imc people (Lillooet) people
- Tsimshian
- Gitksan
- Nisga'a
- Athapaskan
- Dakelh (Carrier)
- Dene-thah (Slavey)
- Tsilhoqot'in (Chilcotin)
- Wet'suwet'en
- Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka)
- Tla-o-qui-aht (Clayoquot)
- Hesquiat
- Mowachaht-Muchalaht
- Ktunaxa (Kootenay)
- Haida
- Kwakwala (Kwakiutl) - Oweekyala speaking groups
- (Koskimo
- Kwakwaka'wakw
- Haisla
- Heiltsuk
- Laich-kwil-taich (Euclataws/Yuculta aka Southern Kwakiutl)
- Weewaikai (Cape Mudge)
- Wewaykum (Campbell River)
- Tlingit

Plains

These people traditionally used tipis covered with skins as their homes. Their main sustenance was the buffalo, which they used as food, as well as for all their garments. The leaders of some Plains tribes wore large headdresses made of feathers, something which is wrongfully attributed by some to all First Nations peoples. The Tsuu T'ina Nation are a notable First Nation in Alberta as their territory now borders the city of Calgary. Major ethnicies include the:
- Anishinaabe
- Plains-Ojibwa
- Blackfoot
- Kainai (Blood)
- North Peigan
- Siksika
- Dene
- Chipewyan
- Nakoda
- Assiniboine
- Stoney
- Okanagan
- Plains-Cree
- Tasttine (Beaver)
- Tsuu T'ina (Sarcee)

Northeast woodlands

Major ethnicies include the:
- Anishinaabe
- Ojibwa
- Mississaugas
- Ottawa (Odawa)
- Saulteaux
- Cree
- Innu (Montagnais and Naskapi)

Atlantic coastal region

- Beothuk (extinct)
- Innu (Labrador)
- Maliseet
- Mi'kmaq (Micmac)
- Passamaquoddy

St. Lawrence River Valley

The largest First Nations group near the St. Lawrence waterway are the Iroquois. This area also includes the Wyandot (formerly referred to as the Huron) peoples of central Ontario, and the League of Five Nations who had lived in the United States, south of Lake Ontario. Major ethnicities include the:
- Anishinaabe
- Algonquin
- Haudenosaunee (Iroquois)
- Cayuga (Guyohkohnyo)
- Mohawk

Native Americans in the United States

:This article is about the people indigenous to the United States. For broader uses of "Native American" and related terms, see Native Americans. Native Americans] Native Americans in the United States (also Indians, American Indians, First Americans, Indigenous Peoples, Aboriginal Peoples, Aboriginal Americans, Amerindians, Amerinds, or Original Americans) are those indigenous peoples within the territory that is now encompassed by the continental United States, and their descendants in modern times. This collective term encompasses a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of them still enduring as political communities. A comprehensive tribal list can be found under "Classification of Native Americans." The U.S. states and several of the inhabited insular areas which do not form part of the continental U.S. territory also contain indigenous groups. These other indigenous peoples in the United States are not generally designated as "Native Americans". This includes groups such as the Alaska Natives (Inuit, Yupik, Aleut, etc.), Native Hawaiians (also known as Kanaka Māoli and Kanaka 'Oiwi), and various Pacific Islander peoples such as the Chamorros. There is some controversy surrounding the names used to describe these peoples. U.S. specific teminology considerations are also covered in the Terminology differences section, below.

Early history

See also: archeology of the Americas, models of migration to the New World, and indigenous people of the Americas for more detailed history and migration theories.

The Bering Strait Land Bridge theory

Based on anthropological and genetic evidence, most scientists believe that most Native Americans descend from people who migrated from Siberia across the Bering Land Bridge between 17,000 and 11,000 years ago, where the Bering Strait is today. The exact epoch and route is still a matter of controversy. It should be noted, however, that many Native Americans reject theories of modern anthropology, having their own traditional stories that offer accounts to their origins, which are seen only as folklore by the scientific community. The primarily Siberian origin is widely regarded as the most likely, consisting of at least three separate migrations from Siberia to the Americas:
- The first wave, during the late Pleistocene, would be the forerunners of the Clovis and Folsom cultures, both hunting the abundant large mammals of the virgin continent. This wave eventually spread over the entire hemisphere, as far south as Tierra del Fuego and is believed to have reached the New World no later than 11,000 years ago.
- The second migration brought the ancestors of the Na-Dene peoples. They lived in Alaska and western Canada, but some migrated as far south as the Pacific Northwestern U.S. and the American Southwest, and would be ancestral to the Dene, Apaches and Navajos. This group is believed to have reached North America between 6,000 to 8,000 years ago.
- The third wave brought the ancestors of the Inuit, Yupik and Aleut peoples. They may have come by sea over the Bering Strait, after the land bridge had disappeared. They are believed to have reached Alaska as late as 3,000 years ago. In recent years, molecular genetics studies have suggested as many as four distinct migrations from Asia. These studies also provide surprising evidence of smaller-scale, contemporaneous migrations from Europe, possibly by peoples who had adopted a lifestyle resembling that of Inuits and Yupiks during the last ice age. While many Native American groups retained a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle through the time of European occupation of the New World, in some regions, specifically in the Mississippi River valley of the United States, in Mexico, Central America, the Andes of South America, they built advanced civilizations with monumental architecture and large-scale organization into cities and states. A recent (2004) study has claimed evidence which, if accepted, would extensively revise the timeline of human habitation in the Americas. At the Topper site on the Savannah River near Allendale, South Carolina, a team led by University of South Carolina archaeologist Dr. Albert Goodyear reported recovering what they claimed to be stone tool artifacts from strata considerably below that of Clovis culture remains. Using stratigraphy and charcoal material found with the artifacts, radiocarbon dating performed by the University of California at Irvine Laboratory dated these remains to be at least 50,000 years old. This would indicate the presence of humans well before the termination of the last glaciation. Other archaeologists have disputed the dating methodology employed, and have also questioned whether these "artifacts" are not in fact naturally-formed, rather than of human manufacture. Other recent claims for pre-Clovis artifacts have similarly been made in some South American sites. The notion of pre-Clovis habitation continues to be a subject of scholarly debate, and the issue has not yet been satisfactorily resolved.

Settling down

By 1500 B.C. many tribes had settled into small indigenous communities. In several regions temporary hunter-gatherer settlements were transformed into small permanent or semi-permanent settlements and villages, frequently established in the regions such as river valleys which were conducive to the raising of crops. Several such societies and communities over time intensified this practice of established settlements, and grew to support sizeable and concentrated populations. Examples include those of the Mississippian Culture and the Pueblo peoples (Anasazi). They constructed large and complex earthworks, and were particularly skilled at small stone sculptures and engravings on shell and copper. Agriculture was independently developed in what is now the eastern United States by 2500 B.C., based on the domestication of indigenous sunflower, squash and goosefoot. Eventually, in the last eleven hundred years, the Mexican crops of corn and beans were adapted to the shorter summers of eastern North American and replaced the indigenous crops. The large pueblos, or villages, built on top of rocky talleland or mesas of Southwest around A.D. 700, were a complicated aggregate of family apartments. Towns were one large complex of buildings, with multistoried houses arranged around courtyards or plazas. Wooden ladders provided access to upper levels. Under the courtyards, subterranean kivas, or ceremonial structures, served as meeting rooms for religious societies. While exhibiting widely divergent social, cultural, and artistic expressions, all Native American groups worked with materials available to them and employed social arrangements that augmented their means of subsistence and survival.

European colonization

Initial impacts

The European colonization of the Americas forever changed the lives and cultures of the Native Americans. In the 15th to 19th centuries, their populations were ravaged, by the privations of displacement, by disease, and in many cases by warfare with European groups and enslavement by them. The first Native American group encountered by Christopher Columbus, the 250,000 Island Arawaks more properly called Taino of Haiti Quiskaya, Cubanacan (Cuba) and Boriquen as Puerto Rico were known then, were enslaved. It is said that only 500 survived by the year 1550, and the group was considered extinct before 1650. Yet DNA studies show that the genetic contribution of the Taino to that region continues, and the mitochondrial DNA studies of the Taino are said to show relationships to the Northern Indigenous Nations, such as Inuit (Eskimo) and others. In the 15th century Spaniards and other Europeans brought horses to the Americas. Some of these animals escaped and began to breed and increase their numbers in the wild. Ironically, the horse had originally evolved in the Americas, but the last American horses, were game for early hunters, and went extinct about 9000 years ago, just after the end of the last ice age. The re-introduction of the horse had a profound impact on Native American culture in the Great Plains of North America. This new mode of travel made it possible for some tribes to greatly expand their territories, exchange goods with neighboring tribes, and more easily capture game. Europeans also brought diseases against which the Native Americans had no immunity. Chicken pox and measles, though common and rarely fatal among Europeans, often proved fatal to Native Americans, and more dangerous diseases such as smallpox were especially deadly to Native American populations. It is difficult to estimate the total percentage of the Native American population killed by these diseases. Epidemics often immediately followed European exploration, sometimes destroying entire villages. Some historians estimate that up to 80% of some Native populations may have died due to European diseases. For more information, see population history of American indigenous peoples.

Early relations

During the Seven Years' War many Native Americans sided with France although some did fight alongside the British. During the American War of Independence, the newly proclaimed United States competed with the British for the allegiance of Native American nations east of the Mississippi River. Most Native Americans who joined the struggle sided with the British, hoping to use the war to halt colonial expansion onto American Indian land. Many native communities were divided over which side to support in the war. For the Iroquois Confederacy, the American Revolution resulted in civil war. Cherokees split into a neutral (or pro-American) faction and the anti-American Chickamaugas, led by Dragging Canoe. Many other communities were similarly divided. Frontier warfare during the American Revolution was particularly brutal, and numerous atrocities were committed on both sides. Noncombatants of both races suffered greatly during the war, and villages and food supplies were frequently destroyed during military expeditions. The largest of these expeditions was the Sullivan Expedition of 1779, which destroyed more than 40 Iroquois villages in order to neutralize Iroquois raids in upstate New York. The expedition failed to have the desired effect: American Indian activity became even more determined. Native Americans were stunned to learn that when the British made peace with the Americans in the Treaty of Paris (1783), the British had ceded a vast amount of American Indian territory to the United States without even informing their Indian allies. The United States initially treated the American Indians who had fought with the British as a conquered people who had lost their land. When this proved impossible to enforce (the Indians had lost the war on paper, not on the battlefield), the policy was abandoned. The United States was eager to expand, and the national government initially sought to do so only by purchasing Native American land in treaties. The states and settlers were frequently at odds with this policy.

Removal and reservations

Treaty of Paris (1783) In the 19th century, the incessant Westward expansion of the United States incrementally compelled large numbers of Native Americans to resettle further west, sometimes by force, almost always reluctantly. Under President Andrew Jackson, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which authorized the President to conduct treaties to exchange Indian land east of the Mississippi River for lands west of the river. As many as 100,000 American Indians eventually relocated in the West as a result of this Indian Removal policy. In theory, relocation was supposed to be voluntary (and many Indians did remain in the East), but in practice great pressure was put on American Indian leaders to sign removal treaties. Arguably the most egregious violation of the stated intention of the removal policy was the Treaty of New Echota, which was signed by a dissident faction of Cherokees, but not the elected leadership. The treaty was brutally enforced by President Martin Van Buren, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 4,000 Cherokees (mostly from disease) on the Trail of Tears. Conflicts generally known as "Indian Wars" broke out between U.S. forces and many different tribes. Authorities entered numerous treaties during this period, but later abrogated many for various reasons. Well-known military engagements include the Native American victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, and the massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee in 1890. On January 31, 1876 the United States government ordered all remaining Native Americans to move into reservations or reserves. This, together with the near-extinction of the American Bison which many tribes had lived on, set about the downturn of Prairie Culture that had developed around the use of the horse for hunting, travel and trading. Prairie Culture American policy toward Native Americans has been an evolving process. In the late nineteenth century reformers in efforts to "civilize" Indians adapted the practice of educating native children in Indian Boarding Schools. These schools, which were primarily run by Christians [http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewarticle.asp?AuthorID=2616&id=7375], proved traumatic to Indian children, who were forbidden to speak their native languages, taught Christianity instead of their native religions and in numerous other ways forced to abandon their Indian identity[http://www.sacbee.com/static/archive/news/projects/native/day2_main.html] and adopt European-American culture. There are also many documented cases of sexual, physical and mental abuses occurring at these schools [http://www.prsp.bc.ca/history.html] [http://www.amnestyusa.org/amnestynow/soulwound.html].

Current status

There are 563 Federally recognized tribal governments in the United States. The United States recognizes the right of these tribes to self-government and supports their tribal sovereignty and self-determination. These tribes possess the right to form their own government; to enforce laws, both civil and criminal; to tax; to establish membership; to license and regulate activities; to zone; and to exclude persons from tribal territories. Limitations on tribal powers of self-government include the same limitations applicable to states; for example, neither tribes nor states have the power to make war, engage in foreign relations, or coin money. [http://usinfo.state.gov/eur/Archive/2005/Jan/28-691277.html] In addition, there are a number of tribes that are recognized by individual states, but not by the federal government. The rights and benefits associated with state recognition vary from state to state. Military defeat, cultural pressure, confinement on reservations, forced cultural assimilation, outlawing of native languages and culture, termination policies of the 1950s, and 1960s, and slavery have had deleterious effects on Native Americans' mental and physical health. Contemporary health problems include poverty, alcoholism, heart disease, diabetes, and New World Syndrome. As recently as the 1970s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs was still actively pursuing a policy of "assimilation" [http://www.doiu.nbc.gov/orientation/bia2.cfm], the goal of which was to eliminate the reservations and steer Indians into mainstream U.S. culture. As of 2004, there are still claims of theft of Indian land for the coal and uranium it contains. [http://www.angelfire.com/band/senaaeurope/DRelocation.html] [http://www.shundahai.org/bigmtbackground.html] [http://lists.wayne.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9703&L=tamha&F=&S=&P=7661] [http://www.davidicke.net/emagazine/vol26/articles/tearsd.html] In the state of Virginia, Native Americans face a unique problem. Virginia has no federally recognized tribes, largely due to the work of one man, Walter Ashby Plecker. In 1912, Plecker became the first registrar of the state's Bureau of Vital Statistics, serving until 1946. An avowed white supremacist and fervent advocate of eugenics, Plecker believed that the state's Native Americans had been "mongrelized" with its African American population. A law passed by the state's General Assembly recognized only two races, "white" and "colored". Plecker pressured local governments into reclassifying all Native Americans in the state as "colored", leading to massive destruction of records on the state's Native American community. African American Even after his death, Plecker still haunts the state's Native American community. In order to receive federal recognition and the benefits it confers, tribes must prove their continuous existence since 1900. Plecker's policies have made it impossible for Virginia tribes to do so. The federal government, while aware of Plecker's destruction of records, has so far refused to bend on this bureaucratic requirement. A bill currently before U.S. Congress to ease this requirement has been favorably reported out of a key Senate committee, but faces strong opposition in the House from a Virginia member concerned that federal recognition could open the door to gambling in the state. [http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=74481&ran=162825] In the early 21st century, Native American communities remain an enduring fixture on the United States landscape, in the American economy, and in the lives of Native Americans. Communities have consistently formed governments that administer services like firefighting, natural resource management, and law enforcement. Most Native American communities have established court systems to adjudicate matters related to local ordinances, and most also look to various forms of moral and social authority vested in traditional affiliations within the community. To address the housing needs of Native Americans, Congress passed the Native American Housing and Self Determination Act (NAHASDA) in 1996. This legislation replaced public housing, and other 1937 Housing Act programs directed towards Indian Housing Authorities, with a block grant program directed towards Tribes. Gambling has become a leading industry. Casinos operated by many Native American governments in the United States are creating a stream of gambling revenue that some communities are beginning to use as leverage to build diversified economies. Native American communities have waged and prevailed in legal battles to assure recognition of rights to self-determination and to use of natural resources. Some of those rights, known as treaty rights are enumerated in early treaties signed with the young United States government. Tribal sovereignty has become a cornerstone of American jurisprudence, and at least on the surface, in national legislative policies. Although many Native American tribes have casinos, they are a source of conflict. Most tribes, especially small ones such as the Winnemem Wintu of Redding, California, feel that casinos and their proceeds destroy culture from the inside out. These tribes refuse to participate in the gaming industry. Many of the smaller eastern tribes have been trying to gain official recognition of their tribal status. The recognition confers some benefits, including the right to label arts and crafts as Native American and they can apply for grants that are specifically reserved for Native Americans. But gaining recognition as a tribe is extremely difficult because of a Catch-22 in the process. To be established as a tribal groups, members have to submit extensive genealogical proof of tribal descent, yet in past years many Native Americans denied their Native American heritage, because it would have deprived them of many rights, such as the right of probate. The Waccamaw tribe and the Pee Dee tribe of South Carolina were granted official recognition February 17, 2005. Two other tribal applications were denied for lack of documentation. According to 2003 United States Census Bureau estimates, a little over one third of the 2,786,652 Native Americans in the United States live in three states: California at 413,382, Arizona at 294,137 and Oklahoma at 279,559 [http://www.census.gov/popest/states/asrh/tables/SC-EST2003-04.pdf]. As of 2000, the largest tribes in the U.S. by population were Cherokee, Navajo, Choctaw, Sioux, Chippewa, Apache, Blackfeet, Iroquois, and Pueblo. In 2000 eight of ten Americans with Native American ancestry were of mixed blood. It is estimated that by 2100 that figure will rise to nine of ten [http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:D-aV4g_I9XQJ:www.law.nyu.edu/kingsburyb/spring04/indigenousPeoples/classmaterials/class10/Class%252010%2520Item%2520A6%2520-%2520Gould.doc+genealogy++%22affirmative+action%22+%22american+indian%22%22ward+churchill%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8]. The Massachusetts legislature repealed a 330-year-old law that barred Native Americans from entering Boston on the 19th of May 2005.

Cultural aspects

Though cultural features, including language, garb, and customs vary enormously from one tribe to another, there are certain elements which are encountered frequently and shared by many tribes. Early nomadic hunters forged stone weapons from around 10,000 years ago; as the age of metallurgy dawned, newer technologies were used and more efficient weapons produced. Prior to contact with Europeans, most tribes used similar weaponry. The most common implement were the bow and arrow, the war club, and the spear. Quality, material, and design varied widely. Large mammals such as the mammoth were largely extinct by around 8,000 B.C., and the Native Americans were hunting their descendants, such as bison. The Great Plains tribes were still hunting the bison when they first encountered the Europeans. The acquisition of the horse and horsemanship from the Spanish in the 17th century greatly altered the natives' culture, changing the way in which these large creatures were hunted and making them a central feature of their lives. bison

Society

The Iroquois tribes, living around the Great Lakes and extending east and north, used strings or belts called wampum that served a dual function: the knots and beaded designs mnemonically chronicled tribal stories and legends, and further served as a medium of exchange and a unit of measure. The keepers of the articles were seen as tribal dignitaries. Pueblo tribes crafted impressive items associated with their religious ceremonies. Kachina dancers wore elaborately painted and decorated masks as they ritually impersonated various ancestral spirits. Sculpture was not highly developed, but carved stone and wood fetishes were made for religious use. Superior weaving, embroided decorations, and rich dyes characterized the textile arts. Both turquoise and shell jewelry were created, as were high-quality pottery and formalized pictorial arts. Navajo spirituality focused on the maintenance of a harmonious relationship with the spirit world, often achieved by ceremonial acts, usually incorporating sand paintings. The colors—made from sand, charcoal, cornmeal, and pollen—depicted specific spirits. These vivid, intricate, and colorful sand creations were erased at the end of the ceremony.

Religion

The most widespread religion at the present time is known as the Native American Church. It is a syncretistic church incorporating elements of native spiritual practice from a number of different tribes as well as symbolic elements from Christianity. Its main rite is the peyote ceremony. The church has had significant success in combatting many of the ills brought by colonization, such as alcoholism and crime. In the American Southwest, especially New Mexico, a syncretism between the Catholicism brought by Spanish missionaries and the native religion is common; the religious drums, chants, and dances of the Pueblo people are regularly part of Masses at Santa Fe's Saint Francis Cathedral.

Gender roles

Most Native American tribes had traditional gender roles. In some tribes, such as the Iroquois nation, social and clan relationships were matrilinear and matriarchal but several different systems were in use. Men hunted, traded and made war, while women cared for the young and the elderly, fashioned clothing and instruments and cured meat. The cradle board was used by mothers to carry their baby whilst working or traveling.

Music and art

cradle board Native American music is almost entirely monophonic, but there are notable exceptions. Traditional Native American music often includes drumming and/or the playing of rattles or other percussion instruments but little other instrumentation. Flutes and whistles made of wood, cane, or bone are also played, generally by individuals, but in former times also by large ensembles (as noted by Spanish conquistador de Soto). The tuning of these flutes is not precise and depends on the length of the wood used and the hand span of the intended player, but the finger holes are most often around a whole step apart and, at least in Northern California, a flute was not used if it turned out to have an interval close to a half step. Performers with Native American parentage have occasionally appeared in American popular music, most notably Shania Twain (ethnically European, but raised by a First Nations adoptive father), Buffy Sainte-Marie, Robbie Robertson, Rita Coolidge, Wayne Newton, and Redbone (band). Some, such as John Trudell have used music to comment on life in Native America, and others, such as R. Carlos Nakai integrate traditional sounds with modern sounds in instrumental recordings. A variety of small and medium-sized recording companies offer an abundance of recent music by Native American performers young and old, ranging from pow-wow drum music to hard-driving rock-and-roll and rap. The most widely practiced public musical form among Native Americans in the United States is that of the pow-wow. At pow-wows, such as the annual Gathering of Nations in Albuquerque, New Mexico, members of drum groups sit in a circle around a large drum. Drum groups play in unison while they sing in a native language and dancers in colorful regalia dance clockwise around the drum groups in the center. Familiar pow-wow songs include honor songs, intertribal songs, crow-hops, sneak-up songs, grass-dances, two-steps, welcome songs, going-home songs, and war songs. Most indigenous communities in the United States also maintain traditional songs and ceremonies, some of which are shared and practiced exclusively within the community. For further information, see A Cry from the Earth: Music of North American Indians by John Bierhorst (ISBN 094127053X). Native American art comprises a major category in the world art collection. Native American contributions include pottery, paintings, jewelry, weavings, sculptures, basketry, and carvings. carving Artists have at times misrepresented themselves as having native parentage, most notably Johnny Cash, who traced his heritage to Scottish ancestors and admitted he fabricated a story that he was one-quarter Cherokee. The integrity of certain Native American artworks is now protected by an act of Congress that prohibits representation of art as Native American when it is not the product of an enrolled Native American artist. See: Blackfoot music

Economy

Survival in the environments in which they lived defined the work of the native groups. The Inuit, or Eskimo, prepared and buried stocks of dried meat and fish. Pacific Northwest tribes crafted seafaring dugouts 40-50 feet long for fishing. Farmers in the Eastern Woodlands tended fields of maize with hoes and digging sticks, while their neighbors in the Southeast grew tobacco as well as food crops. On the Plains, some tribes engaged in agriculture but also planned buffalo hunts in which herds were efficiently driven over bluffs. Dwellers of the Southwest deserts hunted small animals and gathered acorns to grind into a flour with which they baked wafer-thin bread on top of heated stones. Some groups on the region's mesas developed irrigation techniques, and filled storehouses with grain as protection against the area's frequent droughts. As these native peoples encountered European explorers and settlers and engaged in trade, they exchanged food, crafts, and furs for trinkets, blankets, iron, and steel implements, horses, firearms, and alcoholic beverages.

Terminology differences

:For more detail see, Native American name controversy When Christopher Columbus arrived in the "New World", he described the people he encountered as Indians because he mistakenly believed that he had reached the islands known to Europeans as the Indies. Despite Columbus's mistake, the name Indian (or American Indian) stuck, and for centuries the native people of the Americas were collectively called Indians in America, and similar terms in Europe. The problem with this traditional term is that the peoples of India are, of course, also known as Indians.

Common usage in the U.S.

The term Native American was originally introduced in the United States by anthropologists as a more accurate term for the indigenous people of the Americas, as distinguished from the people of India. Because of the widespread acceptance of this newer term in and outside of academic circles, some people mistakenly believe that Indians was outdated or offensive. People from India (and their descendants) who are citizens of the United States are known as Indian Americans. However, some American Indians have misgivings about the term Native American. Russell Means, a famous American Indian activist, opposes the term Native American because he believes it was imposed by the government without the consent of American Indians. [http://www.peaknet.net/~aardvark/means.html] Furthermore, some American Indians question the term Native American because, they argue, it serves to ease the conscience of "white America" with regard to past injustices done to American Indians by effectively eliminating "Indians" from the present. [http://www.allthingscherokee.com/atc_sub_culture_feat_events_070101.html] Still others (both Indians and non-Indians) argue that Native American is problematic because "native of" literally means "born in," so any person born in the Americas could be considered "native". However, very often the compound "Native American" will be capitalized in order to differentiate this intended meaning from others. Likewise, "native" (small 'n') can be further qualified by formulations such as "native-born" when the intended meaning is only to indicate place of birth or origin. However, neither of these two senses invalidates the other, so long as the intended sense is made clear by the context. A [http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762158.html 1996 survey] revealed that more American Indians in the United States still preferred American Indian to Native American. Nonetheless, most American Indians are comfortable with Indian, American Indian, and Native American, and the terms are now used interchangeably. [http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aihmterms.html] The continued usage of the traditional term is reflected in the name chosen for the National Museum of the American Indian, which opened in 2004 in Washington, D.C.. Recently, the US Census introduced the "Asian Indian" category to more accurately sample the Indian American population. In practice, most Indian Americans and of course Indian nationals think of themselves as the "real" Indians. This guarantees that the terms & their usages will evolve over the next few decades.

Bibliography

- Adams, David Wallace. Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience 1875-1928, [http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/ University Press of Kansas], 1975. ISBN 0-7006-0735-8 (hbk); ISBN 0-7006-0838-9 (pbk).
- Bierhorst, John. A Cry from the Earth: Music of North American Indians. ISBN 0-9412-7053-X.
- Hirschfelder, Arlene B.; Byler, Mary G.; & Dorris, Michael. Guide to research on North American Indians. American Library Association (1983). ISBN 0-8389-0353-3.
- Nichols, Roger L. Indians in the United States & Canada, A Comparative History. University of Nebraska Press (1998). ISBN 0-8032-8377-6.
- Snipp, C.M. (1989). American Indians: The first of this land. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
- Sturtevant, William C. (Ed.). (1978-present). Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 1-20). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. (Vols. 1-3, 16, 18-20 not yet published).
- Tiller, Veronica E. (Ed.). Discover Indian Reservations USA: A Visitors' Welcome Guide. Foreword by Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Council Publications, Denver, Colorado (1992). ISBN 0-9632580-0-1.

External links

General information and history

- [http://www.LostWorlds.org Lost Worlds: An Interactive Museum of the American Indian]
- [http://soda.sou.edu/tribal.html Southern Oregon Digital Archives First Nations Tribal Collection], ethnographic, linguistic, & historical material.
- [http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_000107_entries.htm Houghton Mifflin Encyclopedia of North American Indians]
- [http://www.comanchelodge.com Comanche Lodge - American Indian History And Genealogy]
- [http://www.csulb.edu/projects/ais/ American Indian History and Related Issues]
- [http://www.nativepeoples.com/ Native Peoples Magazine - Arts, Culture and Lifeways of the Native Peoples of the Americas]

Tribal, regional and reservation information

- [http://www.kstrom.net/isk/maps/cultmap.html North American Pre-Contact Culture Areas]
- [http://www.dickshovel.com/trbindex.html List of North American Tribes]
- [http://www.rootsweb.com/~rigenweb/IndianPlaceNames.html American Indian Place Names], incl. Bibliography
- [http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0030193 A Population Genetic Portrait of the Peopling of the Americas] by Jody Hey

Organizations

- [http://www.ncai.org National Congress of American Indians]
- [http://www.ncaied.org/ The National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development]
- [http://www.narf.org/ Native American Rights Fund]

Photography

- [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ienhtml/tribes.html Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian: Photographic Images (by culture area)]
- [http://www.csulb.edu/projects/ais/nae/ American Historical Images On File: The Native American Experience]

Culture

- [http://www.ericdigests.org/1997-2/antibias.htm Countering Prejudice against American Indians and Alaska Natives]
- [http://www.androphile.org/preview/Culture/NativeAmerica/ The Two-Spirit Tradition], an essay on shamanism and male love in Native American religion.
- [http://www.ericdigests.org/1992-2/natives.htm Using Literature by American Indians and Alaska Natives in Secondary Schools]
- [http://www.ericdigests.org/1996-4/native.htm Teaching Young Children about Native Americans]

Language

- Map of languages in the US - William C. Sturtevant. (1967). Early Indian tribes, culture areas, and linguistic stocks.: (caution: Material is out-of-date)
- [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/early_indian_alaska.jpg Alaska & Hawai‘i]
- [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/early_indian_west.jpg Western US]
- [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/early_indian_east.jpg Eastern US]

Art

- [http://www.nativetech.org/ NativeTech: Native American Technology and Art] Category:Native American history Category:North American history Category:Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica ja:アメリカ州の先住民族 nb:Innfødte amerikanere simple:Native American

Wampum

Wampum, or sewan, was a string or belt of beads prized by early Native Americans and First Nations, and was used as a trading currency up through the early decades of European colonization.

Description

The beads of wampum, generally purple and white in color, were made by rounding small pieces of the shells of quahogs and whelks, then piercing them with a hole before stringing them. Originally, wampum was used as a memory aid in Oral tradition, badge of office, and ceremonial device of indigenous cultures such as the Iroquois. When Europeans came to the Americas, they realized the importance of wampum to Native people, and soon wampum came to be used as a kind of currency. Perhaps because of its origin as a memory aid, loose beads were not considered to be high in value. Rather it was the belts themselves that were considered currency. A typical large belt of six feet in length might contain 6000 beads or more. With stone tools the process was labor intensive, and the shells were available only to coastal tribes. These factors increased its scarcity and consequent value. Wampum had enough importance to coastal and nearby interior tribes that it is featured in the Coat of Arms of New Brunswick for the Canadian Province. In the area of present New York Bay, the clams and whelks used for making wampum were found only along Long Island Sound and Narragansett Bay. The Lenape name for Long Island was "Sewanacky", reflecting its connection to wampum. By the time of the arrival of the Europeans, the Pequots used their dominance of tribes around this area to gain control of the sources of the beads.

Post-colonization wampum

In 1609, Henry Hudson received a wampum as a gift from upriver Indians. The first European credited with discovering the significance of wampum was Jacob Eelkes, a Dutch fur trader in the New Netherland colony. In early 1622, Eelkes seized a sachem of the Pequot on Long Island and threatened to cut off his head unless he received a large ransom. The sachem gave Eelkes wampum of over 840 feet in length, which Eelkes discovered would command many more pelts in trade among the Indians than European-made goods. As a result, the two-trade system for the purchase of pelts quickly supplanted direct barter methods. The Dutch began both accepting and distributing wampum as a currency at their trading stations. They began an aggressive campaign of buying as much wampum as possible from coastal Algonquins and transporting it up the Hudson Valley, where it was scarcer, to trade for pelts among the Mahicans. The sudden growth of wealth of Mahicans, who were considered a peaceful people by the Europeans, soon brought them into conflict with the Iroquois tribes of present-day upstate New York, resulting in the Mohawk-Mahican War. Word of the value of wampum was spread to English settlers in Massachusetts by Isaak de Rasieres, the chief commercial agent of the Dutch West India Company, who informed Governor William Bradford of the Massachusetts Bay Colony of the significance of the belts. The system of wampum trading did not survive long after the arrival of Europeans. The European introduced metal tools, specifically rasps and steel drills that greatly reduced the labor needed to manufacture wampum. Additionally, the English in the Massachusetts Bay Colony began to manufacture wampum on their own. The resulting decrease in wampum's trade value became one of the issues that led to the Pequot War.

Anthropologist

See Anthropology. A list of notable anthropologists. __NOTOC__

A

- John Adair
- Timothy Asch

B

- Nigel Barley
- Fredrik Barth
- Vasily Bartold
- Keith H. Basso
- Ruth Behar
- Ruth Benedict
- Wilhelm Bleek
- Franz Boas
- Pere Bosch-Gimpera
- Paul Pierre Broca

C

- Mauro Campagnoli
- Joseph Campbell
- Napoléon Chagnon
- Pierre Clastres
- Carleton Coon
- Frank Hamilton Cushing

D

- Raymond Dart
- Ella Cara Deloria
- Eugene Dubois

E

- Mircea Eliade
- E. E. Evans-Pritchard

F

- Dian Fossey
- James Frazer

G

- Clifford Geertz
- Max Gluckman
- Jane Goodall
- Robert J Gorden
- Hilma Granqvist
- Marcel Griaule
- Jakob Grimm
- Wilhelm Grimm

H

- Marvin Harris
- Arthur Maurice Hocart
- Earnest Hooton
- Aleš Hrdlička

I

J

- William Jones

K

- Dorinne K. Kondo
- Conrad Kottak
- Grover Krantz
- Charles H. Kraft
- Alfred L. Kroeber
- Hilda Kuper

L

- William Labov
- George Lakoff
- Edmund Leach
- Louis Leakey
- Mary Leakey
- Richard Leakey
- Claude Lévi-Strauss
- Robert Lowie

M

- Bronislaw Malinowski
- Grant McCracken
- Margaret Mead
- Mervyn Meggitt
- Nikolay Miklukho-Maklay
- Sidney Mintz
- James Mooney
- Ashley Montagu
- Lewis H. Morgan
- George Murdock

N

- Laura Nader
- Raoul Naroll

O

- Marvin Opler
- Morris Opler

P

- Bronislav Pilsudski
- Hortense Powdermaker

Q

R

- Wilhelm Radloff
- Hans Ras
- Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown
- Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff

S

- Marshall Sahlins
- Edward Sapir
- Wilhelm Schmidt
- Afanasy Shchapov
- Tobias Schneebaum

T

- Edward Burnett Tylor
- Colin Turnbull
- Victor Turner

U

V

- Karl Verner

W

- Camilla Wedgwood
- Leslie White
- Benjamin Whorf
- Clark Wissler
- Eric Wolf
- Sol Worth

X

Y

Z

Anthropologists simple:Anthropologist

1600s

Events and Trends

- November 5, 1605 - The Gunpowder Plot to blow up the British Parliament.
- 1607 - John Smith of Jamestown enters Virginia and meets the princess, Pocahontas.
- September 2, 1609 - Henry Hudson enters New York Bay.
- Galileo popularizes the astronomical use of the telescope.
- Breast baring is a popular fashion amongst the women of England and the Netherlands. [http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20040517/breasts.html] Category:1600s ko:1600년대

Oral tradition

Oral tradition or oral culture is a way of transmitting history, literature or law from one generation to the next in a civilization without a writing system. A example that combined aspects of oral literature and oral history, before eventually being set down in writing, is the Homeric epic poetry of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Oral tradition also falls under the domain of Folklore.

1100

:For alternate uses, see 1100 (number).

Events

- William II of England dies in a hunting accident - Henry I becomes King of England
- King Henry I proclaims the Charter of Liberties, one of the first examples of a constitution.
- Baldwin I becomes King of Jerusalem.
- Baldwin of Bourcq becomes Count of Edessa.
- Dagobert of Pisa becomes Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
- Bohemund I of Antioch is captured by the Danishmends, leaving Tancred as regent of the Principality of Antioch.
- The cities of Kalmar, Kungälv, and Varberg, Sweden are chartered.
- In Iceland, Althing decides that the laws should be transferred to a written form
- Approximate date of the invention of checkers.
- Approximate date of the rise of the Ancient Pueblo Peoples culture.

Births

- May 23 - Emperor Qinzong of China (d. 1161)
- Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst, English conjoined twins (died 1134)
- Gilbert de Clare, 1st Earl of Pembroke (died 1148)

Deaths

- January 8 - Antipope Clement III
- February 23 - Emperor Zhezong of China (b. 1077)
- July 18 - Godfrey of Bouillon, King of Jerusalem
- August 2 - William II of England
- September 16 - Bernold of Constance, German chronicler
- October 13 - Count Guy I of Ponthieu.
- December 22 - Duke Bretislav II of Bohemia Category:1100 ko:1100년 simple:1100

1142

Events

- End of the reign of Emperor Sutoku, emperor of Japan
- Emperor Konoe ascends to the throne of Japan
- Henry the Lion becomes Duke of Saxony

Births

- Farid od-Din Mohammad ebn Ebrahim 'Attar, Persian mystical poet (died 1220)
- Hugh III, Duke of Burgundy (died 1192)

Deaths

- January 27 - Yue Fei, Chinese military leader (born 1103)
- April 21 - Pierre Abélard, French scholastic philosopher (born 1079) Category:1142 ko:1142년

Racism

streetcar terminal in the United States in 1939.]] Racism is the belief that people of different races differ in value, that these differences can be measured on a ranked, hierarchical scale, and that result in the social, political, and economic advantage of one group in relation to others. The belief that the character and abilities of individuals are correlated with their race is not necessarily racism, since this can be asserted without implying an inequality in value. Racism as a term is usually applied to actions by a dominant group in a society on others. Weaker groups are unlikely to practice racism publicly on a more dominant or powerful group, as they would effectively be unable to. This highlights the difference between oppression and repression. In general, racism separates groups of people on the basis of race with the intent of viewing one race as more valuable and others as less valuable. The belief that the character and abilities of individuals are correlated with their race is not necessarily racism, since this can be asserted without implying an inequality in value, though whether or not all racialism implies racism is a matter of some dispute. But the application of this belief in dealing with members of that race, especially with little regard for variations within "races", is known as racial prejudice. Granting or withholding rights or privileges based on race or refusing to associate with persons based on race is racial discrimination. Sometimes racism refers to beliefs, practices, and institutions that discriminate against people based on their perceived or ascribed race. There is a growing, but somewhat controversial, opinion that racism is a system of oppression — a nexus of racist beliefs, whether explicit, tacit or unconscious; practices; organizations and institutions that combine to discriminate against and societally marginalize a class of people who share a common racial designation, based on that designation. In some countries, accusations of racism are alleged to be used by supporters of cultural relativism and political correctness to stigmatise their adversaries due to the association between racism and extreme violence in parts of the twentieth century. Since the last quarter of the 20th century, there have been few in developed nations who describe themselves as racist, so that identification of a group or person as racist is nearly always controversial. Racism is regarded by many as an affront to basic human dignity and a violation of human rights. A number of international treaties have sought to end racism. The United Nations uses a definition of racist discrimination laid out in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and adopted in 1966: :...any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life. [http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/d_icerd.htm]

From "racial theory" to "racism"

Before considering racism, it is an important methodological point to distinguish historically when the concept of "racism" became known as such. Historians disagree largely when "race" emerged as a concept, ranging from those who believe aspects of it have always existed among humans, to those who place it as a concept separate from general distrust of "difference" (in which case it emerged either in the Age of Exploration or even as late as the 19th century). In any event, the division of people into discrete groups, usually based on external anatomical features or assumed geographic origin, and theories about how many "races" there were, and theories of how to "rank" these races against each other, existed long before they acquired any sort of distinct stigma against them. Fear of sexual relations between Colored men and White women was central to the tenets of racism. During the late-19th century, a number of thinkers emphasized that these views were morally and ethically unjust, but this was a significantly minority opinion. Even those who opposed institutions such as slavery often did so not on the basis of equality of races, but on overall equality in treatment of "mankind". In the 20th century, however, there began a growth of thought that theories of racial "superiority" and "inferiority", much of the discourse relating to racial theory of this sort came out of the United States in the years after the American Civil War, while European thinkers began to think of people in terms of linguistic "nations" more than they did "races." The term "racism", according to the Oxford English Dictionary, emerged in the early 1930s as distinct from the "theories of race" which had existed for at least a hundred years before that. A turning point in racial thinking came with the rise of Adolf Hitler's Nazism, which built much of its political agenda upon the rhetoric of anti-Semitism and overt statements of racial superiority and inferiority. Full opposition to these ideas did not begin until the outbreak of World War II, and a large part of Allied propaganda efforts were in labeling Nazi Germany as a "racist" state, and distinguishing their own states from them. By the end of the war, the association of racism with the Nazis, and the genocidal policies they undertook, thoroughly established the meme that "racism" was something to be opposed. In the United States, the experience of the Civil Rights Movement further emphasized this point. Now, "racism" is seen as something entirely to be opposed by almost all mainstream voices, though there is little agreement over what is "racism". It is worth remembering this, when looking at current concepts of "racism". In hindsight, many eminent scientists, philosophers, and statesmen appear "racist" by late-20th century standards, though the recognition of the historical nature of these judgements is deemed by many to exonerate these figures or governments for their ideas or actions.

Origins of racism

One view of the origins of racism emphasizes stereotypes, which psychologists generally believe are influenced by cultural factors. People generally respond to others differently based on what they know, which may include superficial characteristics often associated with race. A "white" person walking after dark in a primarily "black" neighborhood in an American city might be anxious for a combination of reasons. The same may be said for an African-American walking in a white neighborhood. A police officer who spends most of his day in that same city encountering criminality or hostility among people of a certain ethnic background might be expected to react negatively to a member of that same ethnic group whom he meets off-duty. A law-abiding African-American man is less likely than a law-abiding white man to view that same police officer as an ally and protector, and more as a threat to his or her personal safety and well-being. In both sets of cases, theories of conditioning may apply. Debates over the origins of racism often suffer from a lack of clarity over the term. Many use the term "racism" to refer to more general phenomena, such as xenophobia and ethnocentrism. Others conflate recent forms of racism with earlier forms of ethnic and national conflict. In most cases, ethno-national conflict seems to owe to conflict over land and strategic resources. In some cases ethnicity and nationalism were harnessed to rally combatants in wars between great religious empires (for example, the Muslim Turks and the Catholic Austro-Hungarians). As Benedict Anderson has suggested in Imagined Communities, ethnic identity and ethno-nationalism became a source of conflict within such empires with the rise of print-capitalism. Notions of race and racism, however, often have played central roles in such conflicts. Historically, when an adversary is identified as "other" based on notions of race or ethnicity (particularly when "other" is construed to mean "inferior"), the means employed by the self-presumed "superior" party to appropriate territory, human chattel, or material wealth often have been more ruthless, more brutal, and less constrained by moral or ethical considerations. Indeed, based on such racist presumptions, the political or moral decision to enter into armed conflict can be made less weighty when one's potential adversaries are "other than," because their lives are perceived as having lesser importance, lesser value. In history, some examples of the brutalizing and dehumanizing effects of racism, are: the trading of smallpox-infested blankets among Native Americans as a biological weapon in order to reduce their population. In the western world, racism evolved, twinned with the doctrine of white supremacy, and helped fuel the European exploration, conquest, and colonization of much of the rest of the world -- especially after Christopher Columbus reached the Americas. Basil Davidson insists in his documentary, Africa: Different but Equal, that racism, in fact, only just recently surfaced—as late as the 1800’s, due to the need for a justification of slavery in the Americas. The idea of slavery as an "equal-opportunity employer" was denounced with the introduction of Christian theory in the West. Maintaining that Africans were "subhuman" was the only loophole in the then accepted law that "men are created equal" that would allow for the sustenance of the Triangular Trade. New peoples in the Americas, possible slaves, were encountered, fought, and ultimately subdued, but then due to western diseases, their population decreased innumerably. Through both influences, theories about "race" developed, and these helped many to justify the differences in position and treatment of people whom they categorized as belonging to different races (see Eric Wolf's Europe and the People Without History). Some people like Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda even argued that the Native Americans were natural slaves. In Asia, the Chinese and Japanese Empires were both strong colonial powers, with the Chinese making colonies and vassal states of much of mainland Asia, and the Japanese doing the same in the west Pacific. In both cases, the Asian imperial powers believed they were ethnically and racially superior to their vassals, and entitled to be their masters.

Expressions

Racism may be expressed individually and consciously, through explicit thoughts, feelings, or acts, or socially and unconsciously, through institutions that promote inequalities among "races". Although some speakers attempt to express a semantic distinction by using the word racism rather than racialism (or vice versa), many treat the terms as synonymous (see below). Racism may be divided in three major subcategories: individual racism, structural racism, and ideological racism. Examples of individual racism include an employer not hiring a person, failing to promote or giving harsher duties or imposing harsher working conditions, or firing, someone, in whole or in part due to his race. Researchers at the University of Chicago (Marianne Bertrand) and Harvard University (Sendhil Mullainathan) found in a 2003 study that there was widespread discrimination in the workplace against job applicants whose names were merely perceived as "sounding black." These applicants were 50% less likely than candidates perceived as having "white-sounding names" to receive callbacks for interviews, no matter their level of previous experience. Results were stronger for higher quality resumes. The researchers view these results as strong evidence of unconscious biases rooted in the country's long history of discrimination. This is an example of structural racism, because it shows a widespread established belief system. Another example is apartheid in South Africa, and the system of Jim Crow laws in the United States of America. Another source is lending inequities of banks, and so-called redlining. Racism is usually directed against a minority population, but may also be directed against a majority population. Examples include racial apartheid in South Africa, wherein whites (a minority) discriminated against blacks (a majority) or contemporary United States of America wherein federal legislation has been interpreted as mandating preferential treatment for non whites; this form of racism also occurred during the former colonial rule of such countries as Vietnam (by France) and India (by the United Kingdom). This is known in United States politics as "reverse racism". "Reverse racism" is a controversial concept; it is usually applied to instances of perceived discrimination against members of a dominant (rather than minority) group, usually as a reaction to previous policies' racism by said group. In the United States, many people, mostly conservatives, criticize policies such as affirmative action as an example of reverse racism. They point out that insofar as these policies provide preference to certain racial groups and not others, they are race-based discrimination, even if their goal is to correct a previous act of discrimination. Supporters of affirmative action argue that those policies counteract a systemic and cultural racism by providing a balancing force, and that it does not qualify as racist because they are enacted by politicians (mostly part of the majority) and directed towards their own race. Increasingly significant numbers of white people (i.e. people of European ethnicity) believe that political correctness has led to a denigration of the white race, through "special attention" paid to minority races. For example, they consider the existence of Black History Month (February) but not a White History Month, Amerindian History Month, or Asian History Month to be de facto racism directed at the majority and non-black minorities. Yet again, others argue that the lack of a White History Month is due to the fact that much of the school year is devoted to teaching history from a Eurocentric perspective. Racial discrimination is and has been official government policy in many countries. In the 1970s, Uganda expelled tens of tho

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