The First Americans, Part 1
On Monday a homeschooling mother sent a list of great questions. She wanted to know the political perspective of our American history for students in middle school and junior high. Most of her questions were about American history in and before 1492. She wanted to know what I say about Columbus, if I mention Leif Erickson, what I say about indigenous people, who I say is the primary discoverer of America, if the curriculum is a balanced and fair representation. Because her questions address current hot topics about American history that we hear and read about in media, I thought you might also have some similar questions about American history and that you might also be interested in how I handle some of the issues she addressed. I plan to cover this topic in the rest of my posts for this week.
Writing Respectfully
In a recent conversation, I told someone that I had felt like I was walking on a razor blade when I was writing America the Beautiful. Some mamas’ questions make me feel a bit like I am on a razor blade again, but these questions did not because I had thought long and hard about them while I was writing. I often wondered: “How do I say what is true in the most respectful way possible so as to honor any person who reads it?”
I pray that I answered that question well. It was certainly my intention. I wrote the following two paragraphs in the curriculum introduction to explain how I had attempted to answer that question. Here are those paragraphs:
I love America and everyone who calls America home. Each American has grown up in unique circumstances, but we are all people God made, people He loves, people He sent Jesus to save. It is often hard for us to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. Sometimes it is hard to know what will make another person feel respected. If I have failed to do that in any way, I am sorry and hope that you will contact me and help me do a better job in the future.
I have researched and consulted with others to help me make good decisions. I have used the term African American to describe people whose ancestors were enslaved here. When talking about native nations, I have tried whenever possible to use the name of the specific nation. However, some native nations use the term Indian, as do some government agencies. When searching for a literature title to honor native nations, I decided to edit one that a Dakota man wrote about his own childhood. In America the Beautiful, I have used the traditional spelling of Hawai‘i and of many other words in native languages. If you have concerns about any terms I used, please feel free to contact me. I want to learn how to love and respect every person better.
Indigenous People
The following paragraphs come directly from Lesson 2 of America the Beautiful. The lesson title is “The First People Come to America.”
In the beginning, God created Adam. He took one of Adam’s ribs and made a wife for him. Adam named his wife Eve. The Bible says that Eve means “the mother of all the living” (see Genesis 3:20). Adam and Eve had children. Their children had children. This continued generation after generation until many descendants had been born to this family.
The people became evil, and God was sorry that He had made them. God sent a great flood to destroy the wicked people; but He saved one righteous man named Noah, along with Noah’s family. You can learn about this in chapters 6 through 9 of Genesis.
After the flood, Noah’s sons and their wives had children. Those children also had children, generation after generation. Noah’s descendants decided to build the Tower of Babel. God was not pleased with this, so He confused mankind’s language. People scattered over the earth. You can learn about this in Genesis 11.
We don’t know exactly how or when people got to each place, but eventually people spread out to every continent except Antarctica. People have different ideas about how some of Noah’s descendants came to North America and South America. Many historians believe that they crossed from Russia to Alaska on a land bridge across the Bering Sea and then spread south and east from there.
There is no land bridge between Russia and Alaska now. However, many people who study ancient history believe that a land bridge existed there in the past.
Although we do not know exactly how or when they came, we do know that long before 1492, millions of people lived across North America and South America and on islands nearby.
God created all people in His own image. Because of this, we can think for ourselves. Families and individuals make decisions about how they want to live. People around the world also use their God-given abilities to figure out ways to live and work together.
Our daily lives depend on where we live. The geography God created, the weather He sends, and the plants and animals He placed in our surroundings influence how people live in each part of the world. Daily life in the mountains is different from life on a prairie. Life in cold climates is different from life in hot climates. Life in a city is different from life in the country. The place where we live influences what kinds of homes we build, what kinds of foods we eat, and what kinds of clothes we wear.
In time people lived in hundreds of distinct nations across the land that is now the United States of America. They spoke hundreds of languages. Just as the daily lives of people in other parts of the world depended on where a person lived, the same was true in America.
The people of America loved and cared for their families. They created games, music, and art. They held festivals. They had religious beliefs and customs.
Many nations traded goods with other nations. Some traded with nations hundreds of miles away. Meeting people from different nations taught them new ways of doing things. Sometimes people from two or more nations joined together to form a new nation and share their customs. Like people living on other continents, the people living in America did right sometimes and wrong sometimes. At times nations lived in peace with their neighbors; at other times, they fought wars.
The rest of Lesson 2 tells about the Mound Builder culture and its great urban center, Cahokia, in present-day Illinois. This is how the lesson ends:
The Mound Builders and everyone who has ever lived around the world are descendants of Adam and Eve, and God created each of them in His image.
And He made from one man
every nation of mankind
to live on all the face of the earth,
having determined their appointed times
and the boundaries of their habitation.
Acts 17:26