People of the Legends
Indigenous People of North America - Early History
Invasion
About 500 years ago Spanish explorers and soldiers arrived in what is now South America, looking for gold. English and French explorers and settlers arrived in North America looking for a new land. The Europeans brought horses with them, so they could travel more quickly.
The Spanish fought with the tribes they came into contact with, and everywhere the Europeans went they brought new diseases which were harmful to the indigenous people.
In South and Central America tribes like the Aztecs and Maya died out. In New Mexico the Pueblo peoples joined together and won their battle against the Spanish. In other places tribes traded with the Europeans and lived alongside them peacefully.
But then thousands of settlers and pioneers arrived and most of the indigenous Americans were moved from their land (displaced). The life they had known for thousands of years ended in the 1800s.
The events of those 500 plus years, up to today, have been different for each tribe and culture. But they were all caught up in the battles fought by different European settlers with their governments, and in the American Civil War and then in the world wars that followed.
Through all of this, each tribe had to find ways to survive and make their future.
Later I will tell you more about some of them.
