THE FIRST AMERICANS

Apache, Sioux, Chelokee and Comanche are some of the hundreds of tribes of Indians, all with different customs. Some have always lived in houses and grown their own food. Some used to move from place to place and hunt animals.

                 

They all share the same love and respect for nature. 

When the Europeans came, the Indians watched with horror as the forest were cut down, the prairie grasses ploughed up, and the wild animals destroyed. They themselves were slowly driven off the good land.  

                

Indians have been given only poor pieces of land, called "reservations", on which to live. Many Indiands experience a terrible sadness for what they have lost. Forty percent are unemployed, and most are poor. Twice as many young Indians as white people take their own lives. Many have serious alcohol problems. 

White people have been learning a few things. Some feel ashamed of what their people have done to the Indians.


A bit of Indian poetry: 

"With beauty before me, I walk
 With beauty behind me, I walk 
 With beauty below me, I walk 
 With beauty above me, I walk 
 With beauty all around me, I walk."

USA

There are fifty states in the United States of America. The US covers a huge area of the North American continent.Two states are geographically separate from the others. These are Alaska, snowy region to the northwest of Canada, and Hawaii, a group of beautiful tropical islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Black, white, rich, poor, Jew, Christian, Muslim, Irish, Italian, Chinese, Hispanic, Russian, German, Japanese, African-The great American idea has always been that all these people should become something new. They should leave their old lives behind and become American.They share the ideas, experiences, and feelings that make up the American culture. But new questions are now being asked. Some people wonder if too much has been lost. They are becoming more interested in the countries their families once left. They are not sure if new immigrants should try to forget their own languages and cultures so completely.