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Some of them lived nomadic lives and followed the seasons and the animals.

Others preferred to stay in one place and work the land, growing crops like sunflowers, corn, pumpkin, and more.

Nomadic or agricultural, indigenous people relied on their hunting skills to provide food.

No part of the animal went unused, as we've always heard. The meat fed them, and the pelts

clothed and sheltered them. Even the bones could be used, both for weapons and tools.

Although cultures sometimes varied, they shared similar rituals. Some followed leaders instead of rulers,

and above all a sense of community was stronger than individualism. The people marked the seasons

and celebrated their triumphs and losses together.

In their mind, the land and the animals that roamed it were sacred and life-giving.

Across North America, some 18 million indigenous people lived in harmony with nature.

Earth and sky, water and animals.

The Native Americans believed that they were at one

with all of it. Others, though, felt that they were above it. To them, nature was something to conquer.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus arrived in the Caribbean. A little over a century later, Europeans

landed on the shores of North America in droves,

bringing their own cultures.

And they also brought disease.

You have to remember, the native populations had no prior exposure to things like smallpox,

chickenpox, typhoid, leptospirosis, influenza, or bubonic plague.

Those were European illnesses, not global things,

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