North America?

Edited by pinguin - 26-Dec-2007 at 17:44

Indeed. For instance, the Medice Wheel of Saskatchewan that is two thousands of years old.

Very interesting. We shouldn't forget though, that the U.S. also have the impresive civilization of Cahokia. Pictures:

Again I mentioned only the Waterloo Village cite because I lived near it and went there as a child many times. I didn't know about the Megalithic sites in North Jersey.

well i guess i meant famous sites.

Originally posted by pinguin     I wonder why Americans don't tell more about its archaeology. Is there a tabbu in the states to talk about pre-contact people?

In fact the States abuse the Amerindians more than Canada, it almost seem tabooed there. But it is not for me to say for all Americans. I know many Americans that are some the the best people to hang out and have a pint or 2 with.  

Edited by The Canadian Guy - 27-Dec-2007 at 01:06

They really dont have or have very little ancient archaeological sites. I mean just south of the USA in Mexico you find so many amazing ancient sites and south american continent is also full with ancient sites. I think over all North America has the lowest number of ancient sites in the world. Despite it being such a large land with thousands of years of history.

The problem with the North American continent is that there was never a unifying major civilization on par with the Maya, Inca or Aztecs. So that means that there were no major monuments because rulers couldn't spare enough labor to construct them.

Also the US is brimming with major Native monuments they just aren't as well publicized as those in Latin America, since sadly there is less of an interest (due I would imagine to a shortage of North American mestizos). For instance in Ohio there are the Great Serpent Mounds of the Adena culture. In New Mexico you have the great Pueblos made by the Anasazi. The Etowah Indian Mounds in Georgia. And Jeffer's Petroglyphs in Minnesota which bear a striking resemblence to the Nazca lines.

The problem is is that in North America many of the best sites for natives were also some of the best sites for the European colonists to settle. So this meant that any cities and monuments built by natives would've been usurped and destroyed by the Europeans.

Pinguin, your opinion with all due respect is greatly misguided. You really don't know what you are talking about with regards to American perceptions of Indians. Americans know that there were people here before Europeans came. Your assertion that the American people are a people with out roots is greatly unfounded. I am an American and I have roots, my family might be relatively new to America but nonetheless I still have roots here. I have deep patriotic feelings about the land in which I was born. All Americans know about the Indians that were here whether their knowledge comes from a study of campaigns against Indians (the trail of tears, Europeans giving Indians smallpox infested blankets, forced migration, or massacres like that at Wounded Knee). This is a part of our curriculum of study in High School. The roots of Americans are simply the fact that we are a nation of immigrants, who love the new found opportunities that we or our ancestors got by coming here. We acknowledge that this land was inhabited and that the Europeans committed nefarious acts to gain control of said land. Part of the celebration of our Thanksgiving is about the Indians not just the Pilgrims.

"There is a lot of North American mestizos. The problem is � in my opinion � they are so much brainwashed to believe Europe is pure, sublime and superb, they just want to forget about anything that smell or spell Indian." Although I do like the poetry of this sentence (the alliteration is wonderful), it is totally wrong. I don't know where you get your information about North American Indian groups or mixed groups, but they do venerate their ancestors both Indian and other. This is a part of who they are and most embrace it. I went to college in upstate New York and there were a number of these "mestizos." They did not play down their ancestry, what they did was quite to the contrary; they wore their ancestry upon their sleeves with great pride.

Americans believe they are just living in a cloned Europe? What are you basing your opinion on?   

In closing your misguided opinion is founded upon ignorance. You, again, have fallen prey to your delusion of expertise. You are talking about things that you don't really know about.

Originally posted by anum well i think he meant that americans who are european desent dont really care or know anything about the indians that lived here. In a way its really true. I doubt most americans would know many of these places listed above

I think you and he are underestimating the American populace. As I stated in posts above Indians are taught as part of the history curriculum in public high schools. For instance I mentioned the Indian Village at Waterloo Village this village is widely publicized in NJ with annual class trips there in grade school, and some times High School. Of course there are idiots every where that don't care about things from the past, but to say an entire population doesn't care is preposterous. I'm not even going to get into the part that just specifies that only white European Americans don't care about this, that's a notion that smacks of racial overtones and has no place in this discussion. It is also a common thread in Pinguin's post � that Europeans only care about Europe and that Anglo's are bad people.


P.S. At my university there are a number of white people doing research in the area of Native American History. There is also at least one full faculty member that works primarily in this area (that's more faculty members with primary areas of research then there are in English History, unfortunately well for me at least).

Edited by King John - 28-Dec-2007 at 06:01

Also American history is butchered. When I went to the White House they said an electical fire burnt it down, but there was no electric power back then and it was Canada that brunt it down, also in 1812 America did not in the war, it became a stalemate. When I went to Holland, they rewrote the history that the bloody Yanks liberated the country, in fact it was Canada, so King John, your country's histroy isa rewrote to make you look stronger, thus the ppl think they are stronger, but every person is equal.  You peoples patriotic ideal just make the world shun America.