American Indian Crops example essay topic

President Bush " The strength of our Nation comes from its people. As the early inhabitants of this great land, the native peoples of North America played a unique role in the shaping of our Nation's history and culture. During the month when we celebrate Thanksgiving, we especially celebrate their heritage and the contributions of American Indian and Alaska Native peoples to this Nation". The contribution of the American Indian to the English language is something that is often overlooked. These words range from such common English words as 'raccoon,' 'moose,' 'quahog' and 'mackinaw' to literally thousands of place names: 'Chicago,' 'Tallahassee,' 'Cheyenne,' 'Hackensack,' 'Keokuk,' 'Rockaway,' and many others.

Historians point out that the first settlers on American shores discovered many things they had never seen before and which appeared nowhere else in the world. To get the English words for an Indian objects the settlers simply spelled out as best they could in English their impression of the Indian sounds. Understandably there were often various spellings. An early spelling for skunk was 'squuncke,' a persimmon was first spelled 'putchamins' and the Niagara was the 'ongniaahra. ' One political word widely used today, 'caucus,' appeared in several of the Indian languages. A case can be made that contact with American Indians actually served as one of the catalysts for the Scientific Revolution in Europe.

In 1571 King Philip II of Spain commissioned physician Francisco Hernandez to document the medicinal seeds, plants, and herbs that the Aztec used. Spanish physicians exploring indigenous American cures soon published three textbooks based on this information including one on surgery. Although more than 200 of the plants that American Indians (from North, Meso-, and South America) used as remedies became part of the U.S. Pharmacopoeia, an official listing of all effective medicines, the originators of these remedies often remain unacknowledged. Freeze-dried food, syringes, root beer, rubberized clothing, beef jerky, and many of the tenets of the United States Constitution are only a few of the independent inventions and original discoveries that American Indian people gave to the world. American Indian agriculture has had a significant effect on worldwide agriculture and economy.

Jack Weatherford, in his book Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World, pointed out that Indians cultivated over 300 food crops, and contributed to the world three- fifths of the crops now in cultivation. The Indian farmers of North and South America gave the world corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, beans, pumpkins, squash, chocolate, vanilla, papayas, persimmons, jica ma, pecans, chilies, hickory nuts, peanuts, cassava, sunflower seeds, maple syrup, tapioca, and avocados. American Indian agricultural crops have spread from American farmers to farmers in other parts of the world. Today farmers grow corn over a larger area of the world than any other cultivated food. The white potato spread from Bolivia and Peru to Ireland across Europe to Russia, and provided more calories and nutrition per acre than any grain. Corn and cassava contributed to the increase in Africa's population in the last century and throughout this century.

Sweet potato and corn were cultivated in areas in Asia where rice did not grow. Farmers grew corn, sweet potatoes, peanuts, tomatoes, and chilies in new areas of China. Today many countries are economically dependent on these American Indian crops.