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VOA慢速英语2013 美洲原住民和美国历史

时间:2013-10-09 13:33:24

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Native Americans and the History of the United States - Program No. 4 美洲原住民和美国历史

Welcome to the Making of a Nation – American history in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.  This week in our series, we look at the history of early American Indians.

The native peoples of North and South America came from Siberia thousands of years ago. There was a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska before the end of the last ice age. As the groups settled different parts of the land, they developed their own cultures and religions. Each group's story is important in the history of the Americas. But our story today will focus on the tribes2 in what became the central part of the United States.  

In 1804, Merriwether Lewis and William Clark led a group of explorers to the Pacific Ocean. They met the tribes of the Great Plains. The explorers were perhaps the first white people these Native Americans had ever seen.

When the group of explorers neared the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, they encountered3 the Shoshone tribe1. Merriwether Lewis was the first to see them. Imagine for a moment that we are with Merriwether Lewis near the Rocky Mountains. Across a small hill, a group of sixty Shoshone men are riding toward4 us.

The first thing we see is that these men are ready for war. Each is armed with a bow and arrow. Some carry long poles with a sharp knife on the end.

They are riding very fast. Some of the horses look like they do not have riders. But as they get closer we see that the riders are hanging off the sides of the horses, or under the neck. They are using the horses' bodies for protection.

The horses are painted with many different designs in blue, black, red and other colors. Later we learn that each design has a special meaning for the man who owns the horse.  Each one tells a story.  For example, the rider of one of the horses is a leader in battle. Another has killed an enemy.

As they come nearer, the Shoshone group sees that we are not ready for war. They slow their horses but are still very careful. Merriwether Lewis holds up an open hand as a sign of peace. The leader of the Shoshone does the same. They come closer.

The Shoshone are dressed in clothes made from animal skins. Most of these skins are from deer or buffalo5. The skins also have designs, and tell stories like the designs on the horses. One design shows that someone has fought in a battle. Another shows that the person has been in many raids6 to capture7 horses. Still another shows that someone saved the life of a friend.

Merriwether Lewis smiles at these men. He and the Shoshone chief cannot speak each other's language. The explorer again makes a sign of peace, and the sign is again returned.

One young Shoshone comes near. He gets off his horse. He is tall and looks strong. His hair is long and black. He wears one long bird feather in the back of his hair. His arms have been painted with long lines. We learn that each line represents a battle. There are many lines on his arms. Fortunately we are able to continue our travels without a need for him to add another line.

Many tribes, including the Shoshone, populated the area known as the Great Plains. The land they lived on influenced the lives and cultures of these Indian nations.

The plains stretch across the central part of the country and north into Canada and south to Mexico. Even in a car traveling at 100 kilometers an hour, it can take two long days of driving to cross the Great Plains. 

In the East, the plains begin near the Mississippi River and go west to the huge Rocky Mountains. There are big rivers here, and deserts. Some areas are so flat that a person can see for hundreds of kilometers. Huge areas of this land were once covered by thick grasses.

Those grasses provided8 food for an animal that made possible the culture of the Indians of the Great Plains.

The grass fed the buffalo, or bison, that were the center of native culture in the Great Plains.  The huge animals provided meat for the Indians -- and much more. They were an important part of the religion of most of the native people in the Great Plains.

The Lakota tribe, sometimes called the Sioux, believed that everything necessary for life could be found in the buffalo.

The back of the animal provided the thick skins that the Plains Indians used to make their homes. Other parts of the buffalo hide were made into clothing and warm blankets. The bones were made into tools. No part of the animal was wasted.

No one knows how many buffalo were in North America when Merriwether Lewis first met the Shoshone. But experts believe there were probably between 60 million and 75 million.

Another animal also played an important part in the Indian cultures of the Great Plains. When Native Americans first saw these animals, they called them big dogs or “mystery dogs.” They had no word for this kind of animal in their languages. 

We know it as the horse.

The horse had long been extinct9 in North America. 

“You have to understand, there were horse species10 here, millions of years ago, but they died out 10,000 years ago, and so no one had seen a horse.”

Until the arrival of Christoper Columbus, and other Spanish explorers.

Emil Her Many Horses, curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, describes the at first frightening sight to the native Americans.

“So what comes back with the Spaniards, with Christopher Columbus on his second voyage, are horses as we know them today, the large animals. And so, you can understand that people who had never seen these before, then to see a rider on top of it, dressed in armor, it must have looked like this tank coming at you, that you did not know what it was.

“So, of course, it struck fear – the Spaniards, the conquistadors, capitalized on that, realizing that it was causing fear and confusion11, they actually put bells on there, adding that extra level of noise to frighten the natives, who’d never encountered the horse.”

Before the introduction of horses to North America, Indians mostly traveled by foot. Traveling long distances was difficult. So was hunting buffalo.

The horse greatly changed life for the tribes of the Great Plains. It gave them a new way to travel and to carry food and equipment. It made it easier, and safer, for them to follow and hunt the buffalo.

“Originally, you may have killed one or two buffalo, where, if you’re on horseback, you’d be able to kill more buffalo.”

The Smithsonian’s Emil Her Many Horses, who is a member of the Oglala Lakota.

“And, with killing13 more buffalo, you had more meat, you had more resources to make clothing from the hides And also to make teepees. So things became more and bigger. So you might see a bigger teepee because you had more hides. You were able to kill more buffalo and process it, and so, more abundance14.” 

The horse made it possible to attack an enemy far away and return safely. The measure of a tribe's wealth became the number of horses it owned. Spanish settlers rode horses to the small town of Santa Fe in what is now the southwestern state of New Mexico. They arrived there in about 1609.

How Native Americans got their first horses is not known. Perhaps they traded for them. Perhaps they captured15 them. Soon, many tribes were doing both. By the 1750s, all the tribes of the Great Plains had horses. They had become experts at raising, training and riding them. And they became experts at horse medicine.

Indians of the Great Plains could ride a horse by the age of five. As an adult, a man would have one horse for work. Another would be specially16 trained for hunting.

A horse would be trained to ride into the herd17. And buffalos, although they’re huge in their size, they can turn very quickly. So, a horse had to be ready and be able to anticipate18 that, so you did have hunting horses that were trained to ride into a herd of buffalo.

And a third would be trained for war.  An Indian warrior's success depended on how closely19 he and his horse worked together.

“You wanted to train this horse. I mean, you were one in battle with the horse. When you went into battle, you were a brother, an ally12, a comrade20. So the horse was trained to fight in close skirmishes.”

George Catlin was an artist who traveled in the early American West. He painted many pictures of the Indians and their horses. Catlin said the Plains Indian was the greatest rider the world had ever known. He said the moment an Indian laid a hand on his horse he became part of the animal.

Both the buffalo and the horse were extremely important to the Plains Indians. Because the horse made hunting easier, more time could be spent on other activities, including art. The Plains Indians began to make designs on their clothing, and on blankets for their horses. 

The arrival of white settlers on the Great Plains marked the beginning of the end for the horse and buffalo culture of the Indians. Settlers did not want buffalo destroying their crops. Great numbers of buffalo were killed. By1885, the Indians of the Great Plains were mostly restricted21 to areas called reservations22.

America's westward23 expansion24 led to violent clashes25 between white settlers and Native Americans. That will be our story next week. 


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1 tribe XJ2zS     
n.部落,种族,一伙人
参考例句:
  • This is a subject tribe.这是个受他人统治的部落。
  • Many of the tribe's customs and rituals are as old as the hills.这部落的许多风俗、仪式都极其古老。
2 tribes f3d6790faa976a2695d01a08f7b2ba64     
n.部落( tribe的名词复数 );(动、植物的)族;(一)帮;大群
参考例句:
  • tribes living in remote areas of the Amazonian rainforest 居住在亚马孙河雨林偏远地区的部落
  • In Africa the snake is still sacred with many tribes. 非洲许多部落仍认为蛇是不可冒犯的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 encountered c60857c504f1eb49ba0b715b621670f6     
adj. 遇到的,遭遇的 动词encounter的过去式和过去分词
参考例句:
  • We encountered a number of difficulties in the first week. 我们在第一周遇到了一些困难。
  • The army encountered stiff resistance from rebels in the hills. 部队在山里遭到叛乱者顽强的抵抗。
4 toward on6we     
prep.对于,关于,接近,将近,向,朝
参考例句:
  • Suddenly I saw a tall figure approaching toward the policeman.突然间我看到一个高大的身影朝警察靠近。
  • Upon seeing her,I smiled and ran toward her. 看到她我笑了,并跑了过去。
5 buffalo 1Sby4     
n.(北美)野牛;(亚洲)水牛
参考例句:
  • Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
  • The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。
6 raids 3c60fcb5fa809c4ad2264d34534d60db     
突然袭击( raid的名词复数 ); 劫掠,劫夺; 突然查抄[搜捕]
参考例句:
  • At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后,至少有300名平民下落不明。
  • We can annoy the enemy by raids. 我们可以用空袭骚扰敌人。
7 capture xTny1     
vt.捕获,俘获;占领,夺得;n.抓住,捕获
参考例句:
  • The company is out to capture the European market.这家公司希望占据欧洲市场。
  • With the capture of the escaped tiger,everyone felt relieved.逃出来的老虎被捕获后,大家都松了一口气。
8 provided PkNzng     
conj.假如,若是;adj.预备好的,由...供给的
参考例句:
  • Provided it's fine we will have a pleasant holiday.如果天气良好,我们的假日将过得非常愉快。
  • I will come provided that it's not raining tomorrow.如果明天不下雨,我就来。
9 extinct CPAzO     
adj.灭绝的,不再活跃的,熄灭了的,已废弃的
参考例句:
  • All hopes were extinct.所有希望都破灭了。
  • Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years.恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。
10 species FTizN     
n.物种,种群
参考例句:
  • Are we the only thinking species in the whole of creation?我们是万物中惟一有思想的物种吗?
  • This species of bird now exists only in Africa.这种鸟现在只存在于非洲。
11 confusion 3pbz7     
n.困惑,迷乱,混淆,混乱,骚乱
参考例句:
  • His answers to my questions have only added to my confusion.他对我的问题的回答只是使我更加困惑不解。
  • His unexpected arrival threw us into total confusion.他的突然来访使我们完全不知所措。
12 ally yLryo     
n.同盟者,同盟国;vt.使结盟,与...有关联
参考例句:
  • In that war England was not an ally,she was neutral.在那场战争中,英国不同任何一国结盟,保持中立。
  • She felt she needed an ally so badly.她感到她极需一个支持者。
13 killing kpBziQ     
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财
参考例句:
  • Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
  • Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。
14 abundance wybz1     
n.大量,丰富,充足
参考例句:
  • At the feast there was food and drink in abundance.宴会上有丰富的饮食。
  • There is an abundance of commodity supplies on the markets.商品供应充足。
15 captured 2f77656f4c6180990cee5ce65bdefe74     
俘获( capture的过去式和过去分词 ); 夺取; 夺得; 引起(注意、想像、兴趣)
参考例句:
  • Allied troops captured over 300 enemy soldiers. 盟军俘虏了300多名敌方士兵。
  • Most of the rebels were captured and disarmed. 大部分叛乱分子被俘获并解除了武装。
16 specially Hviwq     
adv.特定地;特殊地;明确地
参考例句:
  • They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
  • The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。
17 herd Pd8zb     
n.兽群,牧群;vt.使集中,把…赶在一起
参考例句:
  • She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
  • He had no opinions of his own but simply follow the herd.他从无主见,只是人云亦云。
18 anticipate 2VczF     
vt.预期(料),期望;提前使用,先行动
参考例句:
  • I anticipate his arrival at four o'clock.我期待他4点钟到达。
  • He tried to anticipate all my needs.他设法将我需要的东西预先准备好。
19 closely XwNzIh     
adv.紧密地;严密地,密切地
参考例句:
  • We shall follow closely the development of the situation.我们将密切注意形势的发展。
  • The two companies are closely tied up with each other.这两家公司之间有密切联系。
20 comrade tprzt     
n.同志,同事,同伴,朋友
参考例句:
  • We can't remain indifferent when any comrade is in difficulty.同志们有困难我们不能不闻不问。
  • Whenever a comrade needs help,he is ready to give it.但凡同志们有困难,他没有不热情帮助的。
21 restricted njezzw     
adj.有限的;受约束的
参考例句:
  • Speed is restricted to 30 mph in towns. 在城里车速不得超过每小时30英里。
  • a restricted range of foods 有限的食物种类
22 reservations 6208da147b2e01d2daf532f07477c08b     
n.[法律](权益等的)保留( reservation的名词复数 );预订;保留地;保留意见
参考例句:
  • Most of these workers are American Indians living on reservations. 这些工人中的大多数是住在居留地的美洲印第安人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Have you made the reservations for our holiday yet? 你为我们度假做好预订安排了吗? 来自《简明英汉词典》
23 westward XIvyz     
n.西方,西部;adj.西方的,向西的;adv.向西
参考例句:
  • We live on the westward slope of the hill.我们住在这座山的西山坡。
  • Explore westward or wherever.向西或到什么别的地方去勘探。
24 expansion hmZx9     
n.扩张,扩充;扩大;扩充物;扩展部
参考例句:
  • The company has promised wide consultation on its expansion plans.该公司允诺就其扩展计划广泛征求意见。
  • The plan will give an impulse to industrial expansion.这个计划将促进工业的扩展。
25 clashes 0506c9e0513cc61cbf5f4a9982036f1e     
冲突( clash的名词复数 ); 不协调; (两群人之间的)打斗
参考例句:
  • Clashes broke out between police and demonstrators. 警方与示威者发生了冲突。
  • Several policemen were injured in the clashes. 几名警察在冲突中受伤。

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