Lies About Native Americans That Are Finally Being Debunked
They all lived in teepees. They had one homogenous culture. All their warriors were men. These are just three examples of pernicious myths about Native Americans. We’ve taken a close look at these and other misconceptions about First Nations peoples and roundly debunked them. Read on to learn the truth about who the Native Americans really were and how they lived...
20. Native American warriors were all men
If you get your history from TV and films — not a good idea, admittedly — you’re liable to have a very skewed idea of Native American life. For example, one thing popular culture has almost entirely failed to portray is the true role of women in Native American societies. Usually, they’re seen in the background, huddled in teepees while the men do the fighting.
Buffalo Calf Road Woman
But the truth is that there certainly were Native American women who took up arms in defense of their way of life. One prime example is Buffalo Calf Road Woman of the Cheyenne. Her people were being pushed off their ancestral lands by settlers and she was one of the resisters. She saw combat in various conflicts including the Battle of Little Big Horn. Arapaho women also fought there.
19. Native Americans all lived in teepees
Where did Native Americans live? In teepees, of course! That, in fact, is utter nonsense. For sure, some Native Americans lived in those conical tents at least some of the time, the tribes of the Great Plains and the prairies of Canada in particular. But very many Native Americans did not habitually use teepees.
Longhouses and cliffside sites
The Iroquois people, for example, lived in longhouses. These structures could be anything from 30 to hundreds of feet long and were built with wooden frameworks covered in bark. Extended families would live together in these dwellings. Then there were the Native Americans who lived in the Mesa Verde who built stone structures on cliffside sites. Not a teepee in sight.
