20 BANNED Native American Facts So Surprising You’ll Think They’re Fake

PART 2:

organized cities, advanced farming systems, trade routes that cross continents. In less than 150 years, diseases brought by Europeans wiped out about 90% of that population. It was the biggest population  collapse ever recorded in human history. But here’s what few people talk about. For centuries, school books taught that colonizers found lands that were basically empty, ready to be taken.

 The truth is  very different. Explorers described dense villages along rivers, fields under cultivation for miles. Decades later,  other travelers passed through the same places and found only forest, ruins  swallowed up by vegetation. The empty land story didn’t come out of nowhere.

 It was more convenient than admitting what really happened. Number five, the US  government created a system that lasted nearly 100 years to completely erase the identity of indigenous peoples. Beginning in 1879, more than 400 boarding schools were established across the country with a clear mission to turn indigenous children into civilized Americans.

 The official slogan was brutal. Kill the Indian, save the man. Here’s how it worked. Federal agents showed up on reservations and took children away, often by force. Some families never saw their children again. At the schools, boys hair was cut, speaking even a single word in indigenous languages was forbidden, and harsh punishments were used against anyone who disobeyed.

What few people know is that many of these children lost their connection to their roots and communities. Recent investigations are uncovering records that are only now being properly  documented and understood. The last boarding school didn’t close until 1978. That’s right, less than 50 years ago. Number six, the dance that terrified the US government.

In 1890, an indigenous ceremony sent Washington into total  panic. The Lakota practiced the ghost dance, a ritual that promised  something deeply unsettling to settlers. The land would be renewed, the buffalo would return by the millions, and white  men would simply vanish. Not through war, but through  spiritual power.

The movement spread like wildfire among different peoples, and the army didn’t wait to see whether the prophecy would come true. Fear of a coordinated uprising  brought troops to Wounded Knee, resulting in one of the most tragic and welldocumented losses of life of that era  in December of that year.

 This image shows the dancers in a trance captured shortly before the tragic events at Wounded Knee. Authorities confiscated records like this, fearing they would inspire other indigenous peoples to join the movement that promised to wipe white America off the map. Number seven, did you know that in several Native American tribes, the women were the ones who really ran things? Yep, that might surprise a lot of people.

 Among the Cherokee, for example, clans were organized through the mothers. They controlled the land, the homes, and even  made decisions about war and peace. The men fought, of course, but the final word on a lot of issues came from the clan’s older women. And there’s more. Some women weren’t just behind the scenes. Lozen, an Apache warrior, rode alongside Geronimo in battles against  the US Army in the late 1800s.

She was known for her tracking  skills, and people say she could sense enemies coming. Geronimo called her the shield of his people. This female power structure was something  Europeans simply couldn’t understand when they arrived here. Number eight, imagine dozens of tribes speaking  completely different languages, still being able to make deals, organize hunts, and even form military alliances without understanding a single spoken word from each other.

 That’s how it worked on the Great Plains. Native peoples developed a handsign system so effective, it worked better than a lot of written treaties. Traders swapped horses for weapons. Warriors coordinated strategies.  And rival tribes negotiated peace, all in silence. Historians estimate that more than 30 different nations  knew and used this code.

 The wildest part is that when the first white explorers showed up, many of them learned these signs before they learned any spoken native language. It was simply the most practical way to survive and do business across  that huge territory where every valley could have a different language. Number nine, lacrosse among the Irakcoy.

Did you know lacrosse started as something very different from the college sport we know today? The Irakcoy called this game little war and they  had good reason for it. Matches could last for whole days with hundreds of men on each side  on a field that stretched for miles. There were no rules against physical  contact.

Broken bones were common, and deaths sometimes happened. Tribes used these games to settle territorial disputes, train warriors, and even get men ready for real battles. It was violent, yes, but it also had deep spiritual meaning. Native people believed playing pleased the creator.

 When French colonizers saw the game for the first time, they were shocked by how intense it was. The sport we see today on well-kept fields was born as something close to actual combat. Number 10. Long before pharmacies even  existed, Native Americans already knew something science would take centuries  to confirm. They chewed willow bark to ease pain and fevers.

 The secret? A substance we now know as salicylic acid, the basis of aspirin. When colonizers arrived, they noticed  this knowledge and took it back to Europe. In 1897, Byer patented aspirin and made billions. But here’s the detail few people  mention. No credit was given to the peoples who discovered it first. It was shamans and healers who passed this knowledge down from generation to generation.

 They also treated infections  and wounds with plants that modern medicine studies today. Think about it. How many medicines in your cabinet trace back to knowledge  that was basically taken and renamed with scientific labels? Number 11. Before Columbus arrived, slavery already existed here. Long before Europeans set foot on this continent, native tribes were already practicing something that few history books mention.

 When one tribe won a battle against another, the losers didn’t just walk away. Captives became the property of the winners. This happened from Canada all the way down to South America. The Aztecs, for example, kept thousands of enslaved people from neighboring tribes. In the Pacific Northwest, some tribes passed enslaved people down from one generation  to the next.

 It wasn’t the same as the system that came later with Europeans, but it was slavery. Captives worked, had no freedom,  and could be traded like goods. When colonizers arrived, some tribes even sold their enslaved people to them. The full story is more complicated than what we were told in school. Number 12.

 In 1680, something happened in New Mexico  that history books almost forgot. A leader named Poe pulled off what seemed impossible. He united Pueblo tribes that spoke different  languages and had old rivalries. On August 10th, they attacked at the same time on multiple fronts. Around 400 Spanish colonizers were killed and the survivors fled south in desperation.

What came next is the part few people know. The PBLO ruled their own land for a full 12 years. They burned churches, destroyed colonial documents, and brought back their traditional practices. It was the biggest defeat the Spanish Empire suffered in the Americas at the hands of native peoples. When the Spanish finally returned in 1692, they found a people who had proven they could win. Number 13.

 For decades, diggers went on to tribal lands and just took whatever they found. Ancestors bones, ceremonial items, pieces  tribes had protected for generations. It all ended up in museums and private  collections across the country. It’s estimated that US institutions still hold hundreds of thousands of these items.

 In 1990, Congress passed a law requiring their return, but the process drags on to this day. Many tribes don’t even know exactly what was taken or where it is. Some items have been gone for so long that young  people on reservations have never seen objects their greatgrandparents used in rituals. Museums claim it’s bogged down in red tape, but critics say the slow pace is convenient.

 Meanwhile, whole communities are waiting to get back pieces of their own history that never should have left their hands. Number 14, the gamecher nobody saw coming. For centuries, Native Americans lost pretty much everything, land,  rights, dignity. But in 1988, a federal law literally changed the rules of the game.

 The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act allowed tribes to operate casinos on their reservations, areas where state laws didn’t have authority. The result, a historic turnaround. Today, the native gaming industry  brings in more than $40 billion a year, beating Las Vegas and Atlantic City combined. Some tribes went from extreme poverty to building schools, hospitals, and  giving scholarships to their young people.

 Of course, not everyone benefited equally, and the money came with its own problems. But the irony is impossible to miss. The same government that tried to erase these communities ended up creating the legal loophole for their economic comeback. Number 15. Did you know the United States signed more than 500 treaties with indigenous nations and broke every single one of them? Not some, everyone.

 Since 1778, the federal government promised land protection and  sovereignty to native peoples. In return, tribes peacefully gave up millions  of acres. But every time gold, oil, or railroads showed up, the agreements turned into worthless paper. The most famous case happened in 1868 when the Fort Laram treaty  guaranteed the Black Hills to the Sue forever. It lasted 8 years.

 Gold was discovered and the army moved in. The Supreme Court recognized in 1980 that it was theft. It offered money. The sue refused. They want the land back. Today, the amount is over a billion dollars sitting in an account. This is the story they don’t teach  in schools. Number 16.

 Long before there was any debate about controlled substances,  Native American tribes had been using peyote for thousands of years. And it wasn’t for fun. It was serious religion. Shamans consumed this cactus in sacred rituals to connect with the spiritual world and receive visions that guided the whole tribe.

 Decisions about war, hunting, and even marriages depended on these ceremonies. The interesting part is that the US government tried to ban the practice several times, but in 1994, a federal law finally protected the religious use of peyote by tribes. Scientists today study these substances to treat depression and trauma. What native people knew for centuries,  modern medicine is only rediscovering now.

 Number 17, intertribal wars before white people. A lot  of people think native peoples lived in total peace before Europeans showed up. That’s  not really true. Tribes fought each other over territory, resources, and power long before Columbus was even on the map. The Comanche,  for example, dominated the plains and pushed the Apache to the southwest.

The Irakquoy built an empire in the northeast  through conquest. There were alliances, betrayals, and battles that lasted for generations. That doesn’t lessen the  devastating impact of colonization, of course. But understanding the full history shows they were complex societies with politics, military strategy, and power struggles like any civilization.

The arrival of horses and firearms later on only intensified conflicts that had already existed for centuries. Number 18. Check out this fact most people don’t know. 60% of everything you eat today came from the Americas before Columbus arrived. Corn, potatoes, tomatoes, squash, peanuts. Native peoples had been growing all of that for thousands of years.

 Italy didn’t have tomato sauce. Ireland didn’t know potatoes. Africa didn’t have corn. These foods crossed the ocean and changed the way the whole  planet eats. But here’s the problem. For centuries, history books  gave credit to Europeans who simply took these plants away. The real farmers who developed these methods  over generations were forgotten.

Think about that next time you’re eating corn off the cob at a summer barbecue. This farming knowledge goes back  at least 9,000 years. Number 19. Here’s something that’ll make you think. Scientists studying ancient DNA found something  surprising in Native American genes. They found genetic traces that suggest contact with European populations long before Columbus ever set foot in the Americas.

We’re talking thousands of years ago. How is that possible? Some researchers believe groups from what’s now Iceland or Scandinavia may have crossed the North Atlantic using ice roots during the Ice Age. Others point to the Vikings, who we know reached North America around the year 1000. The fact is, our DNA tells stories that history books are still trying to catch up with.

The truth about who really got to this continent first may be a lot more complicated than what we were taught in school. Number 20. In 1680, a man  named Po Pi did something few people ever managed to do. He kicked the Spanish out of New Mexico  for 12 years. He united Pueblo tribes that didn’t always get along and led  a revolt that caught the colonizers offguard.

 The Spanish only came back after he died. Today, his statue is in the US capital in Washington. He’s the only Native American in the National Statuary Hall. Each state can place two statues there, and New Mexico chose Pope in 2005.  For centuries, history books barely mentioned him. Now he shares space with famous presidents  and generals.

History doesn’t always remember who it should, but sometimes it corrects itself. These facts are real, researched in archives. Hollywood buried them because they don’t sell tickets. Like if you learned something, share if you were shocked. Subscribe if you want to know more about the dirty truth.