ANSWERS: 24
  • Take your pick. Nice question lady. With just that lack of subtlety I so admire;)
  • My partner is 1/2 Navajo and 1/2 Comanche. He has taught me a few Navajo words, including "Buffalo", "Otter", "Eagle" and "Tree". I'm still only learning - but either of those languages would be my pick. Really great question, AR.
  • I do understand your point, but, since English is the "official" language of the U.S., it should be learned. It should be (and usually is) the same for anyone immigrating to another country whose language is different from their native one. It would be like my moving to France and expecting everyone to learn English so that I could be better understood, instead of the other way around.
  • Iroquois; These Indians, being mostly along the esat coast (Generaly New York area) would have been the primary language where the origional settelers / Immigrants lived therefore Iroquois is our National Language. That would mean "Yellow Moon " will be our next leader !
  • I like the question and the point you made. It is a very good point. Europeans were late comers to America. For us to have settled on one language and to have forged something we call an American culture has led to a certain level of arrogance. We almost adopted German as our official language. If it were not for the Louisiana purchase, much of this continent might have spoken French. However, we do need a common language for commerce and social discourse, so it probably will need to be the language of money and the one most widely spoken (not only here, but around the world). I hope we never forget that we are all travelers who landed here.
  • You know, technically, the Europeans fought a war with the Indians over this country and won. So while the Indians were the first here, the Europeans reaped the rewards of winning the war. That is what happens in wars.
  • which part of America are you speaking of ? spanish speaking Mexico, english speaking United States French speaking Canada.
  • The new evidence suggests that the first settlers could have been Polynesians or southern Asians who arrived by boat. Some of the recent remains have features more typical of Europeans, scientists say. Instead of the previous idea that people arrived from Northern Asia via a land bridge to Alaska. So Eskimo, Polynesian or Some Asian language may be the native language from the last Ice age. What to do ? What to say? How to say it?
  • English. That is, afterall, the language which those from other countries where U.S. jobs are going are required to be able to speak.
  • let's just develop and learn a universal sign language. then no matter who or where you are, you can communicate.
  • YES! Excellent. Thank you.
  • George Carlin said it best..."English is the language that we have all agreed upon here. if you don't like it, go home."
  • Last time I checked the american government wasn't formed by the native americans, was it?
  • I get the point, but English has been the majority language now for hundreds of years in the US. As such, it is the language that most unites citizens and is the simplest to implement. (An observation -- native Americans, though they arrived before Europeans, are also immigrants to the country, as the origin of humans does not lie in America.)
  • Well, really the Indians are immigrants here too. And if we're going to go that far, nowhere is native for anyone anymore.
  • excellent point your question brings up..I am Native American so its a subject close to my heart! there are many native american languages..and many dialects of these languages..i would love to see more people learning them, and more natives speaking them! for myself i would choose salish...a launguage spoken by spokane and a few other northwestern tribes.
  • Whoever wins the war writes the history books. So the saying goes. I'm not saying it's right, but it is true.
  • War is war, no matter how well equipped one side is versus the other. What is wrong with you, Antagonistic? Want to give your current home back to the Indians and pay rent? To which tribe do we give it all back? Hell, they were so busy fighting among themselves, they even helped the Anglos win (when it was another tribe at stake, not their own.) Visit Mesa Verde and learn how the tribe was destroyed by another tribe long before the whites came to consolidate the landscape. Even if we could pick a tribe, only the Five Nations were developing an alphabet! We couldn’t write here to each other without using the Roman letters anyway. Speaking of another major victory at consolidating landscapes with the technologically advantaged over the undereducate, undeveloped barbarians, look at Roman Europe!! You can sit and play little pity games all day long, but no major transfer will occur. It quite simply is NOT gonna happen, short stuff! Wars always determine the course of history. In fact, if we hadn’t had superior weapons to the Japanese, you’d be opening all your emails with Kinichiwa. Or, if Hitler had won WWII, German would be the language of choice. Look at other major defeats in history—Napoleon, the Persians with Sparta. Then look at who swept over whom and realize what the Romans really did for civilization! It’s what the English repeated worldwide. So, don’t play ignorant just to get a response. What’s happened, for better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health is HISTORY. And as the saying goes, those who don’t know history are condemned to repeat it!!!
  • They're all pretty much the same, as long as you limit yourself to hunting buffalo, chipping arrowheads and making teepees. Get real. A highly technological society like ours needs an enormous vocabulary, and any language that you mention would either have to use English words, or describe a microscope, for instance, as "standing hollow looking-reed that makes the sands of the sea look great as the sequoias of California."
  • Just a second AR. No disrespect, but EVERY Indian I have ever seen spoke nothing but English and better than I do. Heck even the ancient indian ritual songs were in english---> see: * * * * * As I awoke this evening with the smell of wood smoke clinging Like a gentle cobweb hanging upon a painted tepee Oh I went to see my chieftain with my warlance and my woman For he told us that the yellow moon would very soon be leaving This I can't believe I said, I can't believe our warlord's dead Oh he would not leave the chosen ones to the buzzards and the soldiers guns Oh great father of the Iroquois ever since I was young I've read the writing of the smoke and breast fed on the sound of drums I've learned to hurl the tomahawk and ride a painted pony wild To run the gauntlet of the Sioux, to make a chieftain's daughter mine And now you ask that I should watch The red man's race be slowly crushed What kind of words are these to hear From Yellow Dog whom white man fears I take only what is mine Lord, my pony, my squaw, and my child I can't stay to see you die along with my tribe's pride I go to search for the yellow moon and the fathers of our sons Where the red sun sinks in the hills of gold and the healing waters run Trampling down the prairie rose leaving hoof tracks in the sand Those who wish to follow me I welcome with my hands I heard from passing renegades Geronimo was dead He'd been laying down his weapons when they filled him full of lead Now there seems no reason why I should carry on In this land that once was my land I can't find a home It's lonely and it's quiet and the horse soldiers are coming And I think it's time I strung my bow and ceased my senseless running For soon I'll find the yellow moon along with my loved ones Where the buffalos graze in clover fields without the sound of guns And the red sun sinks at last into the hills of gold And peace to this young warrior comes with a bullet hole * * * well did I at least make you SMILE >)
  • Good question. Good answer. Plus points all around! . (Ooops! This was supposed to be a comment to Writer4u's answer.)
  • The question assumes something which cannot be quantified. The wrong assumption is that the natives who were here when the Europeans arrived did not themselves arrive from without and displace those before them. This all happened in prehistoric times and as such is not documented, however given that the ever evolving history of mankind has this ONE thing in common, I.E; No society on earth has ever been able to hold it's social static formation indefinitely, it is likely that the natives are themselves not natives. ALL societies either evolve (which might mean supplanting another by conquest) or they die, either by conquest or assimilation. The problem with the American "Natives" is an attitudinal failure to assimilate.
  • Actually the aboriginals are not originally from the area either the migrated following food sources. So maybe immigrants should learn to speak buffalo or bison!
  • Vikings were probably first to north america.

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