The Native Americans
The first settlers in North America were groups who migrated from Siberia about 14,000 years ago over the Bering Strait. By 9,000 BC the landbridge had vanished under the rising sea levels. Common language and cultural traditions still survive on both sides of the Bering Strait and fauna and flora are almost identical on both land masses.
Groups from Siberia gradually spread thoughout North America, settling in nine geographic areas: the Arctic, the Subarctic, the Plains, the Northeast, the Southeast, the Southwest, the Plateau and Basin, California and the Northwest Coast. These areas differ from each other in climate, vegetation and animal population. The resources of each area were exploited to the full by the tribes who lived there and their life styles were in turn affected by the resources available.
It is estimated that by the time Christopher Columbus reached America in 1492, the population of Native Americans was 5 million. By 1890, the numbers had shrunk to 250,000. European settlers had taken ancestral lands which had been occupied by tribal groups for centuries. They destroyed their way of life by upsetting the economic balance of nature, by forcibly removing tribes to Indian Territoty, by wars and by the introduction of diseases such as smallpox, influenza and measles against which the tribes had no natural resistance.
Since then, there have been dramatic changes. In 1990, 100 years after the massacre of Wounded Knee when Native American hopes were at their lowest ebb, the population was estimated to have risen to 2 million. Despite many difficulties, they have revitalized their traditional cultures and are taking steps towards self-government. The famous feather war bonnet, traditionally made from the feathers of the Golden Eagle, was worn only by the bravest warriors of the Teton Sioux. The bird is now a protected species, but war bonnets are still made, although dyed turkey feathers are now used. The war bonnet has become the symbol of Native American pride and nationalism and is worn at tribal festivals.
The Native American artefacts in the Museum's collection, dating from the 19th and 20th centuries, illustrate both the ingenuity and love of beauty of their makers.
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