Deep Ruts the Wagons Made

There were numerous tribes scattered all across the United States long before they were discovered by foreigners The white man.The period of the Indians was long when they lived within the confinement of the lands they called home. These lands that they cherished, their beliefs they cherished. They were one with the almighty one and free for hundreds of years but in a blink of an eye, they lost it all. They were hunted and annihilated ridiculed and persecuted. They were a race indifferent to us but they were a race the foreigners on their lands didn't want and by what ever means possible they meant to disperse these people from their homes and take from them everything they owned and they did just that.


When Christopher Columbus born 1451 the son of Domenio Columbus stepped ashore on American soil on the 12th October 1492 everything changed for the Indians.By the time De Sota and Ponce De Leon arrived searching for gold and slaves many an Indian had died at their hands.At this time there were supposedly some 10 million Indians inhabiting the land but after three centuries this number was reduced by 90%. The English arrived then the French and the Dutch everySovereign wanted a piece of the land to claim as their own and the Indians succumbed to diseases imported by the whites. Famine and warfare were directed at them as the white people pushed them further and further away from their own lands so they could claim and prosper by them.


Before 1600 there were about one million Indians who lived north of the Rio Grande speaking some 2,000 languages but most of these languages are dead now. These people lived mainly of the land growing maize, fishing and hunting to feed their people. When the Europeans arrived that all changed and destruction quickly followed as these intruders wanting what the Indians had and what was on their lands.


In New England the tribes were hit by diseases brought by the white men which wiped out thousands. The Indian people were cheated by the Quakers, disgraced by the Iroquois and defeated by the Dutch in the Esopus wars of 1660. They never stood a chance against these people and hundred's of years later they still didn't stand a chance.


By 1840 all the Eastern tribes, those that had survived annihilation were forcibly removed to Indian territory west of the Mississippi.


There are no words which could compensate for the suffering over the years of these people, the Native Americans, the Indians. These people who were pushed and shoved all over the United States, starved and murdered, beaten and humiliated but they are growing stronger. They are reclaiming their heritage and people are listening. To many lies were told, to many treaties broken. Many of the tribes who lived in the United States before their exodus to Indian Lands or their extinction can be found at the back of this book. This list may not fully represent all the tribes which inhabited the land over the period. There are many long forgotten names of tribes who were completely obliterated over the years when peace was hard to come by. The tribes listed though do represent a vast majority of the Indians living in the United States during the period before the white man caused some of them to be extinct.


There were many tales of greed throughout the period. Many of the tribes included in this book suffered harshly at the hands of soldiers. The same soldiers the Government had sent to protect them, when in fact, all they did was abuse them for their own ends and for greed and in some cases glory.


The subject of the Native American Indian has always been a touchy one. At times they have been overlooked. At times they have been portrayed as the ''savages'',We have found out over the years that this was not so in many cases. A large injustice was dealt to these people. The real history of these people like many other events has been swept under the American carpet so it is easier to forget whose lands you now live on. Whose blood lies dried in the earth. Whose bones are scattered, some not in peace as even in death some archeologist is looking for artifact's, they do not care if the ground is sacred or not. The Indians paid their price to live upon this earth, let their spirits go free.


Hard to believe, not really considering the record of the white settlers and the forcible removal of the Indians from their lands especially when Gold was found. Eyes lit up, greed set in and murder began.


Yes their story has been written before and it probably will be again for there is a never ending quest for truth and justice for these people, the real first Americans who we seem to overlook at times, for they are the indigenous people.