Learning from the Past

Before the arrival of European colonists, Native Americans maintained sustainable lifestyles that emphasized coexistence with nature. Native Americans tribes migrated seasonally in order to disperse their impact on the environment around them and maintain the ecological resilience in any one spot.

In the late 15th century, European colonists arrived and forced the Native Americans to shift from their sustainable lifestyles to the ecologically-damaging lifestyle of Europeans. As a result, Native Americans began adopting many of the harmful colonist practices and were forced into sedentary lifestyles. These changes, combined with destructive diseases that the Europeans brought, caused a loss of Native American culture and a betrayal of trust in colonists.

In this concept map, you can expect to learn about the values of Native Americans and how they began to shift once interactions with colonists began.

For more information on the effect of colonialism, click here.

Even though it was several centuries ago, Native Americans maintained a positive relationship with ecology by upholding just practices. Basing their ethics on the rights of both humans and other species allowed Native Americans to achieve a balance that we should strive for once again as a nation.