America before Columbus

Introduction

1492 - the great year in which Cristopher Columbus "discovers" the American continent. Explorers follow, trying to get acquinted to the land and, eventually, people. The Europeans setle in, their "civilization" is brought onto the continent, where it flourishes. This is the history he all know, the history we, as Europeans, are so proud of. What we don't know or we do, but try to ignore and forget is that our civilization has decimated the ancestral homeland and distinctive culture of the people who lived in "the New Found Land" ever since. And yet, their heritage and idetity survived, we know the Native Americans (as we now call them) still exist, they home overcome all the obstacles in their way and they lived to talk about how life in America was before the arrival of Europeans, up to the year 1491. This is their story, as only they can tell it.

1.Origins / Different Perspectives

The question of the origin of Native American Peoples has found several answers along the years. The most common theory is that, at least 12,000 years ago, they came from Asia, crossing the Bering land bridge, then spreading over the 2 American continents. This is what the archaelogists have discovered, seeking to prove or disprove a hypothesis or date.

However, this is not the "truth" the Native Americans recognize as "theirs", it is not how they know things have happened. They are interested in their own story of their origin, not in the data the archaelogists have come up with due to their research. Their story defines their society, it tells who there are, where they came from, the boundaries of their wold, what they belive in, what order thet have to follow, since it holds all that they need to know about themselves.

TEWA

One of the 300 Native American tribes, the Tewas, has always known one story about their origin. This is the story:

"Yonder in the north there is singing on the lake. Cloud maidens dance on the shore. There we take our being.

Yonder in the north cloud begins to rise. They ascend onto cloud blossoms. There we our being.

Yonder in the north rain stands over the land Yonder in the north stands forth at twilight the arc of a rainbow. There we our being."

They belive that their ancestors have come from the north. Their journey cannot be measured in centuries, for it was a journey of the spirit, just as it was a migration of people. They do not know when this migration began or when it ended, but it is known where it began, how it proceeded and where it ended. The historical dimensions are not the Tewa's concern, but they do care about every detail of the 12 places where their ancestors stopped.

As the Tewa explain, at the beginning of all beginnings, their ancestors had to come out onto the land, since they were living beneath Sandy Place Lake in the deep north. People, spirits and animals lived all there, together; their world under the lake was just like ours, only dark. Death was unknown.

The 2 most important spirits were the first mothers of all Tewa, Blue Corn Woman Near to Summer and White Corn Maiden Near to Ice. These mothers, when they thought it was time for them to leave the lake, send a messanger to explore the outer surroundings. When this explorer returned, he brought news about the upper world. He returned as Hunt Chief, anonuncing that they may go outside.

When the Tewa came onto land, the Hunt Chief chose two men and handid them two ears of corn, one blue and the other white. The one who got the blue corn became in carge of all the people during the summer, while the one who received the white one was to care and lead the people during the winter. This is how the Summer and Winter Chiefs were instituted. Then, all people were divided between the two. As they travelled south down the Rio Grande, the Summer People took the westside of the river, while the Winter People travelled on the eastside.

From that time, the Tewa have been divided into two groups, "moieties", as they called them: Winter People and the Summer People. Still today a Summer Chief guides them seven months of the year, during the agricultural cycle, while the Winter Chief leads them during the five remaining months of hunting.

It is said that, along the way, during their long journey, they stopped 12th times. At the 12th stop, the groups merged to found the Pueblo of Posi. So, the Tewa are, in fact, the ancestors of the Pueblo people, one of the most well known Native American tribes.

This is but one of the stories on the Native American's origins. There are many others and, although they slightly differ, they do have one thing