Indian Culture Areas

Native Americans had already occupied all of the Americas when European explorers, traders, missionaries, and, finally, settlers arrived
in the Western Hemisphere.

Contrary to popular belief, Christopher Columbus
did NOT     and European settlers did NOT find
Check your answer below.

As the U.S. government signed treaties with Indians and Europeans expanded their settlements across the continent, the Indian frontiers retreated: see the map.
Answers:
1) Christopher Columbus did NOT "discover" the "New World"-- the Indians already knew where it was!
2) European settlers did NOT find an empty land. For the Europeans who were accustomed to agricultural landscapes based on plows and draft animals, North America seemed like a wilderness, but for the native peoples the land was needed for hunting, fishing, gathering wild foods, and for shifting and permanent digging-stick and hoe agriculture.

 

Created  by Ingolf Vogeler on June 1, 1996; last revised on 09 March 2005.