Native American Contributions

Native American Contributions

abstract art- Abstract art was used by nearly all tribes and civilizations of North and South America. Native American art was believed to be primitive until the 1990s, when it served as inspiration for the modern American abstract art movement.

adobe- Adobe was used by the peoples from South America, Mesoamerica, and up to Southwestern tribes of the U.S. It is estimated that it was developed around the year 3000 BC.

almanacs- Almanacs were invented independently by the Maya. Their culture arose and they began using them around 3,500 years ago, while Europeans are known to have created written almanacs only after 1150 AD. Almanacs are books containing meteorological and astronomical information, which the Maya used in various aspects of their life.

anesthetics- American Indians used coca, peyote, datura and other plants for partial or total loss of sensation or conscious during surgery. Non-Indian doctors had effective anesthetics only after the mid-19th century. Before this, they either had to perform surgery while the patient felt pain or knock the patient out.

aspirin- Native Americans have been using willow tree bark for thousands of years to reduce fever and pain. When chemists analyzed willows in the last century, they discovered salicylic acid, the basis of the modern drug aspirin.

Read more about Native American Contributions:  B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, See Also

Famous quotes containing the words native and/or american:

    We have created an industrial order geared to automatism, where feeble-mindedness, native or acquired, is necessary for docile productivity in the factory; and where a pervasive neurosis is the final gift of the meaningless life that issues forth at the other end.
    Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)

    The moment when she crawled out onto the back of the open limousine in which her husband had been murdered was the first and last time the American people would see Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis crawl.... She was the last great private public figure in this country. In a time of gilt and glitz and perpetual revelation, she was perpetually associated with that thing so difficult to describe yet so simple to recognize, the apotheosis of dignity.
    Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)