The Native Americans.

The Native Americans

Work Group 4

Anna Maria Caianiello, Domenico Gargiulo, Giuliano Iorio, Alessia Vallefuoco.

THE NATIVE AMERICANS TODAY.

President Obama visits the Natives

Today there are more than half a million Indians in the United States and millions more elsewhere in the Americas. In the United States, they still speak more than 100 different languages. Economically they range from pauperism to affluence. A few have made money from oil and other natural sources found on their lands, but many thousands live at near-starvation levels. Some are educated and completely assimilated in white society; many live in nearly complete isolation from non-Indian Americans. Relocation programs have taken hundreds of Indians to work in cities;  thousands of others cling to the security of their reservations, hoping to gain education and assistance necessary to develop the resources of their lands and become self-sustaining. But Indians generally also recognize that their standards of living must be raised. Without giving up their unique cultural heritage, they have organized into tribal councils to try to help the federal government settle on long-range programs of education, health services, vocational training, resource planning, and financial credit that will assist them to solutions of the problems that have beset them for so many sad decades.

Today exist about 300 federal reservations in the United States and There are also 21 state reservations, most of these in the East but Indians are free to live anywhere. (It is estimated that one-third to one-half of the Indian population in the United States now lives in cities.) Some reservation land is owned, rented and occupied by non-Indians. The largest reservation is held by the Navajo tribe.

Today in Mexico Indians are called indígenas, direct descendants of the Aztec, Maya and other ancient civilizations. In Peru about half of the population is Indian, descendants of the Incas.

On the positive side of the Native North American situation, Indian art is enjoying a renaissance. First in the realm of Indian arts and crafts, where many Indians, using traditional techniques and forms, have found reliable markets among both tourists and serious collectors; and second, in the realm of fine arts, where Indian painters and sculptors, in a burst of new esthetics that blend the traditional with the modern, have developed international reputations. Native North American culture in both the United States and Canada is a national treasure.

Indians everywhere represent heroic and romantic historical figures who held out, through skill and courage, against overwhelming forces. For societies alarmed by ecological damage from modern technologies, Indian coexistence with the natural environment serves as a model for survival.

In 2004, a museum was opened in Washington, D.C. paying tribute to their heritage. The museum is called the In 2004, a museum was opened in Washington, D.C. paying tribute to their heritage. The museum is called the National Museum of the American Indian.