Native american Essay -- essays research papers

People had already been living in the Americas for thousands of years before the Europeans â€Å"discovered† the Americas. When the Europeans invaded this land they brought with them diseases such as smallpox, malaria, yellow fever, plague, typhus, and influenza contagions that repeatedly spread through the Native American peoples, killing them in high numbers. At the time the United States was settled by Europeans, it was abundantly populated by dozens of separate nations with diverse civilizations and cultures. Despite their initial confusion to their situation after the arrival of Europeans, the Native Americans did not take their disenfranchisement from their own land lying down. Native Americans have a long history of "fighting back" against invaders encroaching on the land that they had lived on for as long as they could remember. Before the arrival of white people to the continent, Native Americans still engaged in war between the various different tribes. Their reasons for fighting each other were drastically different than the reasons they had when fighting non-Native Americans. Some Native American battles were fought for revenge. The most common cause of war between Native American groups was probably to defend or enlarge tribal territory. Later, their conflicts with white people were fought for trying to prevent the theft of their land, or in raids for food and supplies they were denied. When the Europeans invaded this country the native American people we...