When teaching the history of the Americas what begins the topic of Native Americans?

[Theodarzna]

This is sort of a general purpose surveying of peoples recollection, but for those in or outside the United States what is some of the first things you learned about Native Americans in any history course.

For me it was "They crossed the Bering land bridge at the conclusion of the last ice age and settled North and South America." Is this nearly universal in the US and Canada? Or elsewhere?

[Calfredd]

I don't know about all of the US (every state is pretty much it's own nation on some things) but the schools I went to taught us about the them crossing the bridge as well.

[Theodarzna]

I don't know about all of the US (every state is pretty much it's own nation on some things) but the schools I went to taught us about the them crossing the bridge as well.

All my US schooling also started with the Bering Land Bridge as well, and I went to school in California.

[Venant]

This is sort of a general purpose surveying of peoples recollection, but for those in or outside the United States what is some of the first things you learned about Native Americans in any history course.

For me it was "They crossed the Bering land bridge at the conclusion of the last ice age and settled North and South America." Is this nearly universal in the US and Canada? Or elsewhere?

Just doesn't seem complete without talking about Atlantis and Hillary Clinton's ancient lizard people ancestors.

[Templar 331]

For me it was "They crossed the Bering land bridge at the conclusion of the last ice age and settled North and South America." Is this nearly universal in the US and Canada? Or elsewhere?

LOL I don't think they covered that in my schools. It was always "they were here before white people."

[Katie N]

We didn't really have much about that in history, the europeans moved there and natives didn't like it or something and then there was conflicts and that's it.

[Dellis0991]

We didn't really have much about that in history, the europeans moved there and natives didn't like it or something and then there was conflicts and that's it.

^yup but only that at some point the fights got really...really one sided.

[Theodarzna]

Just doesn't seem complete without talking about Atlantis and Hillary Clinton's ancient lizard people ancestors.

I just find the narrative odd. Perhaps it is just my eyes, but it remarkably de-Natives them, implying that they were "but the first wave of people to come here."

[Baneth]

Only thing I remember being taught about the native Americans: Trail of Tears, Small pox blankets, Genocide which killed off 90% of the native American population.

Honestly,that's the only thing that I can remember. I was taught in the state of Illinois.

[Theodarzna]

Only thing I remember being taught about the native Americans: Trail of Tears, Small pox blankets, Genocide which killed off 90% of the native American population.

Honestly,that's the only thing that I can remember. I was taught in the state of Illinois.

thats very interesting. Would you describe your town as liberal or conservative?

[The3rdCatalyst]

We started out learning about the Sioux, Iroquois, the Pueblo and various other tribes. Didn't touch on the Aztecs, Icans or Maya too much until we learned about post-Renaissance. But learned it was from a land-bridge and then they traveled down. But most of the detail of the natives came when the British, French, Spanish and Portuguese colonized the land.

I do feel this makes sense in a scope of world history, because it puts context for later events. As well we wouldn't know great amount of information about the natives because they didn't write everything down like we did at the time. Most of the information would have come from us since we did write most things down.

[Baneth]

thats very interesting. Would you describe your town as liberal or conservative?

I am not quite sure. I believe the town I grew up in (Algonquin' Illinois) was more on the liberal side, with A few pockets of conservative. Never really bothered to find out.

Most states talk about the genocide of the Native Americans. I don't believe it is unique to the liberal states. Some go more in-depth, while others touch upon the worst of it and move onto the next chapter in American history.

Should also point out that there were 2 subjects on history: American history, and World History.

American History talked about the history of the United States (obviously) from the beginning to the most recent.

World history touched upon the most significant events that spanned the globe from the ice age to late 20th century

[PC2]

They taught us that Amerindians came from the Old World just like everyone else.

[Guy4123]

I remember exactly nothing about what school taught me about Native Americans, so it either wasn't interesting enough for me to pay attention to or they didn't teach much.

[Baneth]

They taught us that Amerindians came from the Old World just like everyone else.

From what I can remember, the migration of the Native Americans was talked about in World History. While the genocide of the Native Americans was talked about in American history.

[Kalis]

We started with Pocahontas saving John Smith and ended with Pocahontas dying, and we only covered her because she is buried in my home town.

They taught us that Amerindians came from the Old World just like everyone else.

The Old World typically refers to the regions in Europe, North Africa and Asia, who had some contact with each other from about 2-3,000 BC onwards, and I thought they went to the Americas before that.

[PC2]

The Old World typically refers to the regions in Europe, North Africa and Asia, who had some contact with each other from about 2-3,000 BC onwards, and I thought they went to the Americas before that.

I thought it was typically refering to Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Here is the wiki intro.

The Old World consists of Africa, Europe, and Asia, regarded collectively as the part of the world known to Europeans before contact with the Americas. It is used in the context of, and contrast with, the New World (Americas).

[RickJamesLich]

In history, the first thing I learned was that the native americans helped the pilgrims survive by teaching them about different things such as growing corn. This of course was like in third grade elementary school lol. In high school and college (bearing mind I hated history and didn't pay much attention), things such as the trail of tears, white killing off game that the Indians would use for food, small pox blankets (as someone else mentioned), were taught, but weren't very detailed. To be fair with our history classes, or mine I should say, they pretty much covered so many wide topics yet never really went into much depth, I guess just to give a general knowledge on a lot of things (but not giving much insight in the process).

[Kalis]

I thought it was typically refering to Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Here is the wiki intro.

Read further than the intro and it supports my claim, though they restrict it further and push the timeline 500 years earlier.

The Old World isn't usually used for pre-history, which is when they crossed into the Americas.

[GodlyBob]

I remember learning a few things about the local tribes, Ohlone and a few others, mostly about processing acorns for consumption. I think we visited one of the places where they milled the things, left little divots in a few cliff sides.

We learned about the three sisters that were cultivated together, mostly outside of California and that in some places they used fish as fertilizer. After that, it's the same old story of colonization. I don't recall learning of any individual tribes that were involved with American Colonization until much later; until around high school, I think I just recalled them as a single group of people.

I learned a lot more in college about indigenous peoples, before that they just kind of seemed like the prequel to American history.