Indian Givers

The picture the pair paints of Indians and their culture was not pretty. Lewis and Clark frequently suspected Indians of either stealing their belongings or plotting to do so. Gifts in particular, as Thomas P. Slaughter points out in his book Exploring Lewis and Clark: Reflections on Men and Wilderness , frequently created problems for the explorers. Slaughter writes that in one instance, a group of Indians offered Lewis and Clark some roots, which the explorers rejected because they felt that "[the Indians'] expectation for those presents of a few roots is three or four times their real worth.

Author David Wilton argues in his book Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends that the concept of an "Indian gift" arose when white settlers misinterpreted the Native American concept of bartering:. Europeans, upon encountering this practice, misunderstood it, considering it uncouth and impolite. To them, trade was conducted with money and gifts were freely given with nothing expected in return. So this native practice got a bad reputation among the white colonists of North America and the term eventually became a playground insult.

This definition stuck and the phrase "Indian giver" made its first appearance in linguist John Russell Barlett's Dictionary of Americanisms in By the early s, seeing the words "Indian giver" in a newspaper or magazine was commonplace. The phrase seemed to frequently pop up in coverage of divorces and messy breakups.

Many modern vaccines we have come from Native American uses, which was something I'd heard before but Weatherford made it more clear. And the structure of the U. Nov 03, Anam Cara rated it really liked it. I learned a lot. Most interested in the way Indians influenced settlers with agriculture such as clearing areas to plant.

The author did a great job of interweaving Contributions of the peoples of the Americas with the impact worldwide. I did reach a point where I wondered if there was any bias since the author is the descendant of an American Indian. I researched the story a short paragraph of two sentences - almost a throw away section of Ishi, the last of the Yahi tribe. Weatherford states Ishi, " The author makes it sound like he was in a display case for people to stare at - a circus sideshow! The inflammatory way Ishi was presented makes me wonder about some of the other facts the author presented.

Still, a very interesting read. Just remember that there might be an agenda not easily seen. As far as incorrect, he at one time mentions that "most Africans have a natural immunity to malaria. However, when Weatherford sticks to the main focus of the book, he provides a lot of very good information that deserves to be known about how native people of the Americas contributed their resources and knowledge to the world or, most often, had it taken from them. A good primer on the topic, but it really needs a complete update and revision. Growing up in "Iroquoi lands" of upstate NY, I was always intrigued with the names of local towns and lakes, and obviously learned their origins were Native American.

Weatherford's book overwhelmingly opened my eyes to ALL the contributions Native Americans have added to a better life for not only Americans but for the whole world in foods, medicines, industry and government structure. We need to recognize and honor their contributions more! And there is still much more to learn from all North a Growing up in "Iroquoi lands" of upstate NY, I was always intrigued with the names of local towns and lakes, and obviously learned their origins were Native American.

And there is still much more to learn from all North and South America indigenous peoples that we need to share, research and discover before it too is lost. Indian Givers turned out to be an educational and at the same time very sobering read. Because while Jack Weatherford makes a very strong point as to why the subtitle of this book "How Native Americans Transformed The World" is totally appropriate. The sad fact is that for the most part, these contributions have gone totally unrecognized.

The edition I read is a re issue of the book that originally came out in Hopefully this edition will go further in getting out the message of just how vi Indian Givers turned out to be an educational and at the same time very sobering read. Hopefully this edition will go further in getting out the message of just how vital a role Native Americans played in transforming the world.

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Apr 26, David rated it liked it Shelves: Native Americans non-European natives who were in North and South America before Columbus "gave" the world many things: Weatherford's book is well-researched and certainly sensitive to the plight of the natives. Strange book in that Weatherford does not provide an introduction - he just jumps right in. The book is disturbing because the natives really did not "give" these things to the world; the things were taken and the natives were treated very poo Native Americans non-European natives who were in North and South America before Columbus "gave" the world many things: The book is disturbing because the natives really did not "give" these things to the world; the things were taken and the natives were treated very poorly.

Sep 23, Tamara rated it it was ok Shelves: More a focus on how European explorers stole from and exploited the natives when they arrived in the Americas. Jan 01, Deborah Spencer rated it it was amazing.

Jun 11, Cindy rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: An amazing and powerful read. This covered this influence of Native Americans, or Indians as the author referred to them, on almost every aspect of modern life. Indians changed what the rest of the world ate and grew permanently. I knew that, of course.

I had read elsewhere about how much of what modern people eat today came from the Americas. Imagine your daily diet without any tomatoes, potatoes, chocolate, chilis, corn, beans, and much, much more. Just corn and potatoes by themselves had revo An amazing and powerful read. Just corn and potatoes by themselves had revolutionized agriculture forever.

The author cited a comparison of European agriculture based on before potatoes and after. Compared to the wheat that was the most common staple and potatoes, the wheat was inferior in the amount of work it took to grow it, its susceptibility to weather and predators, and most especially, to the amount of calories produced versus the amount taken to work the field.

Potatoes gave over three times as much return. And then the population exploded, as Europeans finally had enough to eat and to trade. And how about modern government. Think we got that from the Greeks and Romans? The US Constitution, which became the model for many other countries, was based not on the ancients but on the Iroquis. The whole idea of a balance of powers, of electing representatives, of governing by consensus, that all came from the Indians.

The movies have this example of the Great Indian Chief, but in real life, most tribes were ruled by a council of elders, not by one guy who was in charge of everything. So why did the Europeans manage to defeat the Native Americans? The main reason, the author felt, is not that the Indians were less advanced. It was just that they had chosen to focus on different things. Europeans used animal power, which the Indians couldn't use. The largest animal on the Americas was the llama, and it's not a beast you can plow with.

The Europeans also invented machines and devices to make their work easier. But Indians had life pretty easy in some ways. Plenty of food, less trouble with fitting the environment. They had focused not on machinery or animal husbandry but on medicine, agriculture, transportation. Trouble was, none of these areas of expertise helped them stand up to an enemy that had them outmanned and outgunned.

My favorite example out of this book, the one that staggered my kids when I shared with them, is about the Incan highway system.

The Incans built roads and bridges all up and down South America. In fact, some of those roads were transformed into the modern roads used there today. So when a village needed to send a message, they chose one of them who had trained for this purpose. He took the message, either in written or verbal form, and ran it up to the next stop - miles away!

That feat was not duplicated until the US came up with the Pony Express, but the Incans had managed to do with - without the pony. That dude from Marathon that delivered some message about a battle - what a wimp! I really, really wish that I could read an updated edition of this one. In the last chapter, Weatherford talks about how native cultures are under attack, and with every death of an elder, society is losing that store of wisdom that may not be replaceable.

Now that 25 years have passed, how much more have we lost? The secrets to curing more diseases with plants? The knowledge of food that will grow under adverse conditions - maybe even in space? The ability to calculate even more complicated mathematics, like the Aztecs had? But I am glad that I read this book. It reminded me that the history of America did not start on Plymouth Rock or Jamestown or anywhere like that. America, under one name or another, has been here for thousands of years. This book made me proud to be an American--and even more aware that my family's migration from Europe to America may have stemmed from the dramatic innovations of Native Americans!

How Native Americans Transformed the World

There are so many fascinating wrinkles to history this book brings out, I can't recommend it highly enough. I think I learned more about my European roots through Weatherford's reflections on Native American advancements than I could have from any history of Europe. From metals to agriculture to medicine, Native Americ This book made me proud to be an American--and even more aware that my family's migration from Europe to America may have stemmed from the dramatic innovations of Native Americans!

From metals to agriculture to medicine, Native Americans revolutionized the world and paved the way for the Industrial Revolution. I was particularly taken with Weatherford's insights into the influence of the Iroquois Nation on the U. I had always wondered about the unique form of federalized democracy we had here, which I had previously ascribed to the genius of the Founding Fathers. My own family's flight from Germany to the United States in may have had its seeds sown in the Andes Mountains, where Native Americans developed various forms of potato.

From family history, I know that my ancestors were millers at one point, although the family slipped into more working-class jobs right around the time of Frederick the Great who, by the way, didn't rule the Badener region where we lived. Either way, this is a fascinating book. It is a little dated, with references to the Soviet Union and marxist revolutionary movements, but it's insights are still important today. Jun 11, Will Crim rated it really liked it. The most recent book I read was a short one but it offered a new perspective which I just noticed seemed to be what I look for in a book.

By the supply of precious metals had increased approximately eightfold. A revolutionary idea if you ask me. Later in the book he also concludes that "Most democratic and egalitarian reforms of the past two hundred years in America originated on the frontier and not in the settled cities of the east. The frontier states dropped property and religous requirements for voters. The term could just as easily have come from the fact that white settlers and the government designated land for the Indians and then took it back after it was discovered to be valuable.

Like the Black Hills, which were given to the Oglala Lakota then were taken back after gold was discovered. Considering there is merit to this claim, it is not necessarily proven in print and thus must remain a strong speculation.

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