Native American Culture and Civilization

311 Words2 Pages
American Indians were the first inhabitants to North America. These Indian cultures were made up of migrants from other areas of the world. Even though these people came from other places they adapted their cultures to their surroundings. Thousands of years later when the Europeans began to explore westward and settle these Indian cultures were affected the influence of the European arrival. The Native Americans had to migrate to North America. These people came from Asia sometime before 35,000 B.C.E. When sea levels dropped drastically the Bering Strait was turned into a grassy plain. This became a land bridge for humans and animals to cross into new lands. Sometime after 8,000 B.C.E. global temperatures began to rise. Glaciers melted and flooded the oceans. This submerged the Bering Strait. The next 25,000 years saw settlements move southerly through Alaska and into Central and South America (Davidson, Gienapp, Heyman, Lytle, & Stoff, 2006). The Aztecs were an Indian civilization greatly affected by the arrival of the Spanish sometime in the 1540’s. The Aztecs had never seen horses, ships or the guns firing from the ships. Men on horseback were thought to be one creature. The Spanish also brought cattle, sheep, oxen, pigs, goats, donkeys, mules, and chickens to the continent (Davidson, Gienapp, Heyman, Lytle, & Stoff, 2006). Exposure to European diseases like small pox, influenza, typhus, and measles devastated entire villages as the Aztecs had no immunity to fight these diseases. The Aztecs were quick to learn the fighting ways of the Spanish. They almost had victory over the Spanish however, the raging spread of diseases were the downfall of the Aztecs (Aztec-History.com, 2011). The North American continent has been host to many diverse cultures. The people of those cultures have had to change and adapt over thousands of years and still do even
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