Native Americans

Native Americans were all the people who lived in America before Christopher Columbus and the Europeans discovered America and called them by mistake Indians.
There were many different tribes who lived in different states with their own customs, languages and cultures.

Two famous tribes were the Sioux, who mainly lived in Minnesota and Dakota, and the Cherokee, who lived in the eastern states, like Georgia or South Carolina.
The Sioux are also known because of the massacre at Wounded Knee, where at the end of the 19th century hundreds of Sioux died in the las major battle with the army of the United States.

The Cherokee are known because of the Trail of Tears. In the middle of the 19th century many Indian tribes were relocated, with means they had to leave their land and were forced to lie somewhere else.

Between the 16th and 19th century many Native American died either because of diseases which the Europeans had brought with them or in battles with the American army who wanted to take their land away from them.

Today many Native Americans live in reservations or poor communities where they often face problems like unemployment, alcohol addiciton and so on. Many of them, however, are also successful and proud of their origins and ancestors.

One famous Native American chief was Chief Seattle who is best known for his famous speech to the President of the United States of America in 1855:

"... My words are like the stars that never change. Whatever Seattle says, the great chief at Washington can rely upon with as much certainty as he can upon the return of the sun or the seasons...
... I here and now make this condition that we will not be denied the privilege without molestation of visiting at any time the tombs of our ancestors, friends and children..."