Native American

People had already been living in the Americas for thousands of years before the Europeans "discovered" the Americas. When the Europeans invaded this land they brought with them diseases such as smallpox, malaria, yellow fever, plague, typhus, and influenza contagions that repeatedly spread through the Native American peoples, killing them in high numbers. At the time the United States was settled by Europeans, it was abundantly populated by dozens of separate nations with diverse civilizations and cultures. Despite their initial confusion to their situation after the arrival of Europeans, the Native Americans did not take their disenfranchisement from their own land lying down. Native Americans have a long history of "fighting back" against invaders encroaching on the land that they had lived on for as long as they could remember. Before the arrival of white people to the continent, Native Americans still engaged in war between the various different tribes. Their reasons for fighting each other were drastically different than the reasons they had when fighting non-Native Americans. Some Native American battles were fought for revenge. The most common cause of war between Native American groups was probably to defend or enlarge tribal territory. Later, their conflicts with white people were fought for trying to prevent the theft of their land, or in raids for food and supplies they were denied. When the Europeans invaded this country the native American people went from living just amongst themselves to living with the Europeans then onto reservations, then some to rural areas, and some on to urbanizing and so forth. With such diversity of the Native American people in terms of tribes, location, and differences of mixed ancestry, it is easy to understand why such a diverse people respond to their unique position in a number of ways. Some Native Americans who live on a reservation are so used to being just among their own people it like culture shock when they are sent out into a world they really don't understand or were properly prepared to go out into. They are never given the social skills to