When it comes to westward expansion, the most common myth prevailing in the minds of common people for decades seems to be the one that Native Americans were the threat that needed to be eradicated. However, a more reasonable perspective on that would be that it is the pioneers who were the threat, not the other way around.
After all, they were invading the territories belonging to other people, which were not roadless wastelands, as the settlers envisioned it, but rather places in which these other people had long lived. It simply appeared so to the people at the time and was later taught in such a way for the generations of Americans.
In fact, the Native Americans of the so-called Northwest Territory were not dangerous savages and actually had an extremely complex and intricate relationship with their landscape. However, seeing how such a relationship was foreign to the invaders, it was mostly unrecognizable to them.
Therefore, the fact of native people’s developed spiritual culture has predominantly been removed from mainstream historical narratives, as has their way of life and many of their achievements before the glorified arrival of the settlers.
They grew plants as food and used them as medicines, as well as for textiles and dyes. They built cities and created magnificent monuments of architecture, domesticated animals, and developed complex approaches to religious beliefs. Native Americans established extensive trading patterns and built a wide range of social and political organizational systems, from kin-based groups and gangs to city-states.
In addition, not only have they adapted to a diverse and challenging environment, but they have altered it to meet their needs. Unfortunately, the arrival of the invaders made it difficult for the Natives to preserve the foundations of their magnificent cultures, which served as the birth of all sorts of myths.