"Indians" was the name Christopher Columbus gave the people he found on the other side of the Atlantic. Believing that the Earth was flat, the seafarer was looking for India, but instead landed on those other unfamiliar shores.
The habits, traditions, outer appearance and language of the original inhabitants of America completely differed from anything known at the time. In the past, 8 completely different Indian languages were spoken from one end of the Mississippi River to the other, but 4 of them have already disappeared.
There is a scientific theory explaining the origins of the first American inhabitants. It states that they came from large Asian families - Mongolian tribes.
The physical identity of the representatives of that race is identical for the entire continent. Indians have red-brown skin, black, straight hair and dark eyes.
In the historical records, they are described as proud, restrained and uncommunicative, hardy, clever, persistent, brave and furious in battle, cruel to their enemies and loyal to their friends, noble and sympathetic, hospitable and kind.
Even today, many Indian tribes from the American Northeast and Southwest speak of legends of red-haired giants, with which their ancestors fought terrible and long wars when they first encountered them thousands of years ago in North America.
During one of these battles, the retreating giants hid in a cave. To force them out, the Indian tribe lit a fire at the entrance to the cave and thus caused some of the giants to suffocate and die.
For so many years, these stories were thought to be completely made up, until during excavations in that same cave, located in the state of Nevada, they discovered 2 huge skulls - of a man and a woman. It is estimated that one of the skeletons was 8.5 ft (2.6 m) tall in life.
The Navajo Indian tribe is known for a curious ceremony, which is still practiced today. The Navajo celebrate the first period of every woman as a symbol of her transformation.
On the first morning after the change, the young girl needs to lie down on the ground and point her face toward her home, with threads and deerskins tied to her hair.
Then the girl goes inside the homes where there are little children, grabs them by the throat and lifts them, so that they grow faster. At the end of the ceremony, she needs to run a mile from east to west and then back.
