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Old April 22, 2007   #17
Granny
Tomatovillian™ Honoree
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 507
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The Pacific Northwest tribes were not especially agrarian. If you've read Lewis & Clark's diaries, you might have noted that from about Idaho on they complained mightily because there was nothing to eat but salmon, salmon and more salmon. Also, some of the tribes that lived on the Great Plains were more hunter-gatherers than farmers.

The Apache have been handed a bad deal by "history" - probably mostly thanks to Hollywood. We consider them warlike to great extent because of their refusal to surrender themselves and their lands to the United States Army.

And never make the mistake of thinking that those tribes of American Indians who were "agrarian" were thus less "warlike." The various Iroquois nations were feared - with good reason - throughout most of North America.

BTW, before one of you jumps me for "American Indian" rather than "native American" let me quote R. Carlos Nikai to you, from a performance that he gave at Dartmouth College a couple of years ago:
"We here in this room who were born in America are all native Americans. I am a native American, but I am also an American Indian, a member of the Navajo tribe."
"Native American" may be "politically correct" but most American Indians prefer the older term.
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