Chapter 1
Life Before Colonization
Up until very recently, and still today in some places, students have been taught that Christopher Columbus, an explorer from Italy, “discovered” America. This is not true. While Columbus was the first European to arrive in the Caribbean, Indigenous people had already been here since time immemorial, or before anyone remembers. According to the creation stories of many Indigenous people, from Alaska to Chile, they have always been here. At places like Cactus Hill in Virginia or Huaca Prieta in Peru, there is evidence of settlement that goes back fifteen thousand to twenty thousand years. Indigenous people have been in the Americas for a very, very long time.
Still, despite the evidence, and the vibrant and rich oral histories from many tribes, a lot of people don’t really think about the story of America as starting before Columbus. This isn’t an accident. It can be hard to accept the scale of the destruction during the initial colonization of the Americas, so many of us are never taught the real history of what happened to Indigenous people.
Prior to the arrival of European colonizers, America wasn’t just an empty land waiting to be stumbled upon. The land we now know as the United States was inhabited by hundreds of tribes of Indigenous peoples. These distinct tribes and nations boasted a diverse array of cultures, languages, traditions, and ways of life.
It would take a lot of paper to tell you what all their lives were like before colonization began. So, in this chapter, I’ll briefly tell you about some of the shared culture, values, and history of many Indigenous people. But as you read, it’s important to remember that all tribes are different.
While this is a chapter about life before colonization, much of it is still true today. Many very, very terrible things have been done to Indigenous people, but we have survived. While we have faced unimaginable losses, our cultures, languages, and the ways that we see the world persist.
We are still here.
It Starts with the Land
Almost all Indigenous cultures, both long ago and today, have a strong connection to our homelands—the lands that we come from and have lived on. From generation to generation, Indigenous elders have passed on important knowledge of the world around us, knowledge that has been shaped by generations of living on the land and interacting with the animals that live on it as well. Indigenous people across the continent skillfully utilized the resources offered by their different environments for food, shelter, tools, and clothing.
Tribes relied on hunting, trapping, and fishing, and used various techniques to harvest an assortment of fruits, nuts, and plants. Many tribes also migrated seasonally, following animals and food where they were abundant at different times of year. Their deep understanding of the land and its offerings, combined with worldviews that often promoted respect of the interconnectedness of all creatures, allowed tribes to thrive. Indigenous people in the Americas were able to maintain a sustainable way of life for tens of thousands of years before Europeans arrived.
Many tribes across the Americas practiced agriculture, growing crops such as local varieties of corn, beans, and squash. For the tribes that farmed, growing food was vital to their survival and allowed for the development of more-permanent settlements. While many of these agricultural practices were nearly lost in the face of land theft, displacement, and genocide, there are growing efforts to restore Indigenous food systems today.
A profound respect for the land and nature and the connections between living things is built into the languages and cultures of many Indigenous peoples. Elders pass on an understanding of the delicate balance of ecosystems, the value of sustainable methods of resource management, and the belief that they are stewards of the land, responsible for its care and preservation for future generations. The connection between Indigenous people and the land is not like a fairy tale but a reality that is shaped by our cultural teachings.
What Is Genocide?
Genocide is a horrifying, tragic thing that one group of people can do to another. It means that one group of people tries to harm or completely kill off another group just because of their race, religion, or something else that makes them who they are. Or maybe because one group wants the resources and land of another.
The United Nations, which is a big group of countries that work together for peace and to help make the world a better place, has a definition of genocide. They say it is when acts are done to “destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.” This could be by killing people in the group, causing them serious harm, making it hard for them to live in a way that would lead to them being gone eventually, stopping babies from being born within the group, or taking the children away from the group so they can’t grow up with their families’ culture and traditions.
Community and Social Structure
Indigenous people have always relied on strong bonds and interdependence (the idea that we all need each other) to meet our needs, ensuring not only survival but also the preservation of cultural traditions and values passed down over generations. Through collective efforts, Indigenous people navigated the challenges of their environments.
Many Indigenous societies have always been organized intricately around kinship relationships and clan systems. That means that the idea of family is usually much bigger than just parents and children, or even aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. Families could extend to include people with shared connections, like clans—a grouping of people based on factors like geography or roles in society.
Depending on the tribe, children might inherit their clans from their mother, their father, or both. These clans can help people understand what their connection to other people in their tribe is, even if they are just meeting for the first time.
Most tribes taught immense respect for elders, seeing them as the most valuable members of the community because of the wealth of knowledge they’d built over a lifetime. Elders, both in the past and today, are the heart of Indigenous communities, playing an important role in raising and teaching children, and providing guidance and leadership for their people.
Just like elders, children were valued for the role they played in their communities. They were seen as a tribe’s most valuable resource, the entire future of their people. Because of this, the responsibility for raising a child wasn’t placed just on their parents but on their entire family and clan, or even the entire tribe. Children were included in all activities, rather than being isolated in school all day.
Copyright © 2026 by Ashley Fairbanks. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
