Trick Tracts Facts: Native Americans

Though the Native Americans suffered years of horrible and unspeakable atrocities and persecution they have remained strong in their customs and belief systems. For Jack Chick, in his contemptible tract The True Path [tract][review], to insinuate that Native Americans are going to go to hell for simply believing differently than he is a slap in the face these brave, proud people do not deserve. How a person that claims to be a "man of God" can publish such absurd propaganda is beyond me.

In the 14th century, Europeans first set foot on the soil that had previously belonged to the Native Americans for hundreds of years.

In the terrible years to follow, the "white man" claimed the verdant lands for his own and completely took them over; with no regard for the people that called it home.

Not only did we take away their land, we tried to abolish their long-held customs and beliefs by pushing our ways and our God on them.

Regardless, Native Americans held on to their way of life and today are respected for their peaceful, Nature-loving beliefs.


More Info on Native Americans

North American Natives on Encyclopedia.com:
peoples who occupied North America before the arrival of the Europeans in the 15th cent. They have long been known as Indians because of the belief prevalent at the time of Columbus that the Americas were the outer reaches of the Indies (i.e., the East Indies). Most scholars agree that Native Americans came into the Western Hemisphere from Asia via the Bering Strait or along the N Pacific coast in a series of migrations. From Alaska they spread east and south. The several waves of migration are said to account for the many native linguistic families (see Native American languages ), while the common origin is used to explain the physical characteristics that Native Americans have in common (though with considerable variation)—Mongoloid features, coarse, straight black hair, dark eyes, sparse body hair, and a skin color ranging from yellow-brown to reddish brown. Some scholars accept evidence of Native American existence in the Americas back more than 25,000 years, while many others believe that people arrived later than that, perhaps as recently as 12,000 years ago. In pre-Columbian times (prior to 1492) the Native American population of the area North of Mexico is conservatively estimated to have been about 1.8 million, with some authorities believing the population to have been as large as 10 million or more. This population dropped dramatically within a few decades of the first contacts with Europeans, however, as many Native Americans died from smallpox, influenza, measles, and other diseases to which they had not previously been exposed.

Learn more about the beliefs of Native Americans from Native American Spirituality:

Excerpt:
The diversity of American Indian tribes precludes a comprehensive examination of their religions and their belief systems. Anthropologists have compiled a huge trove of information detailing practices and beliefs of many different groups; this information remains isolated from popular culture. While there is a proliferation of popularized versions of Native American spirituality, these are often not the products of the tribes or their members. The beliefs and practices of many groups are sectarian derivatives of other native groups, and there is also a significant infusion of Christianity, and more recently, New Age beliefs and practices permeating these traditional beliefs...read more.

A comprehensive links resource site for everything Native American on the web WWW Virtual Library: American Indians:

Excerpt:
This site is constructed primarily to provide information resources to the Native American community and only secondarily to the general community. The information is organized, insofar as possible, to make it useful to the Native American community and the education community. The information presented here is the product of much cooperative work. It would be impossible to maintain this list without the email from the hundreds of people who send me updates to their URLs and report new sites. This email is crucial to the operation of this index. The list of "don'ts" given below is simply to make the sorting through of my email a less difficult task. Please do not stop sending me this crucial information...read more.

Learn more on Native Americans from NativeWeb:

Excerpt:
Indigenous Peoples have much in common amidst great diversity: spiritual practices celebrating inter-relatedness of all Life on Earth; and historical suffering at the hands of industrialized nations and corporate entities. NativeWeb is concerned with all this: indigenous literature and art, legal and economic issues, land claims and new ventures in self-determination...read more.

An overview of Native American religions and Christian influences from A Summary of Native American Religions:

Excerpt:
Popular American history has traditionally viewed the past through white eyes. Much of the history and culture of many Native American civilizations were lost during the European invasion of the continent...read more.

Native American History from about.com:

Excerpt:
Read about the people and events impportant to Native American History...read more.


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