This item is written by a
journalist whose father is Cree. As an
aside, I suspect that the Cree did best of all native peoples in the Americas in
terms of generally surviving the impact of the European World. This was simply because they were the
instrumentality of the fur trade. They
survived and comparably prospered against even their own precontact history.
The book itself does not pretend
to be scholarly but is worthwhile and particularly in terms of the discussion
of the Great Law of Peace whose seminal influence has been grossly underestimated. It entered the debate on governance that
informed the enlightenment and in the end was tried out with the US constitution. It is also clear that the Founding Fathers
made few bones about the intellectual debt.
Recall no other convincing example even existed except in ancient
accounts and those were simply scant in terms of written material. Whereas the Great Law of Peace was there to
be read and discussed in the here and now.
He also recognizes the curious
case of the creation of maize. I have
written on this in the past and the most viable explanation is to presume that
it was created in a scientific lab 9000 years ago as part of the founding tool
kit for the colony. Since that is not an
idle proposition, we will leave it at that.
Otherwise we are asked to believe
that a primitive culture did genetic engineering. However, I have also noted that it is
plausible that the use of a specific herb can be used to induce polyploidy
which doubles the chromosome count and that the other candidates for
simultaneous domestication around 9,000 thousand years ago can be explained
this way. The coincidence is a bit
harder.
In short it may not have been a
native invention at all.
What is also telling is that the
Indian culture and system of governance provided a powerful example to the American
Women and also sped the advent of female suffrage.
In the Shadow of Our Ancestors
The Inventions and Genius of the First Peoples
Searching through the annals of North American history uncovers the
diverse and astounding contributions by the Natives of the Americas who
formed the world we know today. In the Shadow of Our Ancestors explores the
rich history of the indigenous peoples of North America
and leaves us in awe of their stunning achievements and inventions:
The Great Law of Peace -- The ideals, words and symbols of the Iroquois Confederacy inspired the governments of the
Cure for Scurvy -- When Jacques Cartier and his men were trapped by the winter ice dying of scurvy in what is now Canada, Chief Donnacona and his people helped to cure them by giving them a tea made from the needles of the white cedar tree, which have a high concentration of vitamin C
Potatoes -- The lowly potato, a staple food of Natives for almost 15,000 years, was unknown outside the Americas until Europeans arrived; now, with almost 4000 varieties, it is the fourth most-consumed agricultural product in the world
Sacagawea -- The settlement of western North America was inspired and influenced by the results of the Lewis and Clark expedition in the early 1800s, with the journey's success made possible because of a Native woman named Sacagawea, whose presence paved the way for the explorers to be seen as a peaceful party
Kayaks -- It may be that the Inuit of the
Code Talkers -- During World War II, more than 400 Navajo soldiers, recruited by the
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