“Native Americans are the smallest minority group in the U.S. numbering approximately 1.6 million in 1986 or about 0.7% of the entire U.S. population.”LTSteve said:
Native Americans: The Facts
The 2010 Census data makes it clear that most of the so-called Native Americans are actually mixed race people:
“Of this total, 2.9 million were American Indian and Alaska Native only, and 2.3 million were American Indian and Alaska Native in combination with one or more other races.”
Facts for Features: American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month: November 2011 - Facts for Features & Special Editions - Newsroom - U.S. Census Bureau
How does that compares with many countries that emerged from the Spanish Empire. For example, Mexico (13% are indigenous based on the mother tongue and 30% are indigenous based on self-identity), Peru (39%), and in Bolivia the Natives constitute the majority of the population. In the rest Spanish America the Native blood is found in substantial quantities among most of the population and in the Spanish Caribbean there is more Native blood than was previously thought. Native cultural influences are quite strong through out Spanish America. Even in the Caribbean there is greater Native influence in the Spanish isles than elsewhere with the exception of perhaps Dominica in the Lesser Antilles.
The DR is a small country and so is Cuba and PR, but when you look at the larger countries, by far those that came out of the Spanish empire have considerable more Native blood and cultural aspect than can be found in the US. Much of the Native culture that has survived is part of the mainstream culture of the Spanish countries. The average Dominican is much more Native influence than is the average American, even our dialect of Spanish is filled with Taino words. There is simply no comparison when it comes to this. In American English, aside from the name of various places, I haven’t noticed much if any Native American words. Its pretty much English words from beginning to end. For example. Americans refer to trees as trees, Dominicans refer to ?rboles as matas; Americans refer to frogs as frogs, Dominicans refer to sapos as macos; Americans basically live in homes with clear British/Spanish influences –depending on the region, usually the parts of the US that were of the Spanish empire tend to have more Spanish influence such as the widespread use of tile roofs and stucco/cement walls among other details-, while a significant minority of Dominicans still live in tiny wooden homes that are not too different from their origins, the Taino’s boh?os. As recent as the early 1990s, most of the populated lived in that type of home and not too long before the 80s, most of the homes even had thatched roofs, a relic of Taino “architecture.” No such thing truly exist on a wide scale in the US.LTSteve said:
The same is true with the African influence, which is “purer” and much more widely practiced in Spanish America, even among people that don’t have African ancestry –look at Uruguay where most of the population has even adopted purely African customs despite most descending from Europeans-. The African Americans in the US, a side from a large number are of mixed race, much of their culture has been reinvented. The average Dominican is culturally much more African than the average African-American, despite that Dominicans are genetically less African than the average AA. We even have plenty of African words, although less than the number of Taino words, in our dialect of Spanish. This speaks volumes about the differences between the Spanish and the British ways.
From very early in colonial times the Spanish accepted that the Natives had souls and as a consequence, were people too.LTSteve said:
The US didn’t even thought the Natives were worthy of American citizenship until 1924! This is a legacy of two things; one, the insistent rejection by the British of the Native peoples and two, the fact that even mixed race people with substantial Native blood don't feel fully at ease considering themselves simply as Americans. Such a thing never existed in any of the countries that emerged from the Spanish empire.
Even today the recognized U.S. Native American tribes are basically dual citizens. In Peru, all Peruvians are solely Peruvian citizens, the same in Mexico and everywhere else in Spanish America.
The “Spanish treatment” was not what caused the demise of the Tainos, it was the diseases that no one knew about back then. It doesn’t even makes sense why anyone would want to kill off the source of labor and why does Taino influence and DNA is much more heavily present in the Spanish Caribbean than is Native American influence and DNA in the USA. The fact that the Spanish themselves adopted many more Taino cultural practices as their own also puts into to question what you have implied. Its part of the myths that have been repeated through the generations and recent anthropological and DNA studies are disproving them.LTSteve said:
In the larger Spanish countries its even clearer, as I pointed out further earlier in this post.
Are you sure about that?pelaut said:
Proving Native American Ancestry Can Be Tricky : NPR
