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Long before there was a United States, the Americas were populated by tens of millions of people with rich societies and cultures. The fate of these nations after the arrival of European settlers makes for a worthy of much more than a single email.

Instead, in recognition of Native American Heritage Month, we're highlighting some of the surprising ways that you can spot Native American influence within the narrative of history.

So Many Names

From Wisconsin to Wyoming, Alabama to Arizona, the names of no less than 21 U.S. states are derived from indigenous words. Similarly, many important battles in American history take their names from places with a Native American origin:Saratoga (“hillside country of the quiet river”) Ticonderoga (“land between the waters”), Oriskany (“n��ٳٱ����”), Waxhaws (“people of the cane”), Tippicanoe (“buffalo-fish place”) Chickamauga ( “river of death” OR “dwelling place of chiefs”), Antietam (“swift-flowing stream”) and many more. from the Tomahawk missile to the Apache, Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters.

French and/or Indian Wars

Native Americans have served in the military since before the country was officially founded. Through the 1760s, tribes fought alongside British colonists in ,” in that the forces they were opposing consisted of both of those groups. In the past, fought in the Western Hemisphere, but each can also be seen as a theater for a broader European or worldwide conflict: within the Nine Years' War (1688-97), within the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-13), King George's War within the War of the Austrian Succession (1744-48) and the French and Indian War within the Seven Years' War (1754-63). For some tribes, allegiances were fluid, but generally speaking the Iroquois, Catawba, and Cherokee fought with the English and the Algonquin, Lenape, Ojibwa, Ottawa and Shawnee sided with the French

The Food They Ate

There are good reasons why we associate Thanksgiving with Native Americans – but beyond that one-day celebration. In fact, scholars estimate that . To name a few: corn, potatoes, peanuts, chocolate, 14 varieties of beans, wild rice, turkey, squash, cranberries, and sunflower seeds.And since armies march on their stomachs, foodstuffs like cornmeal were the hallmarks of soldier rations in the 19th century. Other native crops, like the tomatoes that helped relieve the monotony of flavor.

Indispensable Warriors

In recent decades, Native Americans have served in the military relative to their population. These men and women follow in a proud tradition of warriors, including a smaller number whose connection to their native culture helped bring about victory on a worldwide stage. During both of the World Wars, the American , notably Choctaw and Navajo, and recruited them to serve as “code talkers.” Until it was declassified in the late 1960s, the code developed by the Navajo code talkers in WWII was . Members of 33 tribes who served in this capacity have been , although it is believed that only five of the are still alive in late 2019.

Conservation

Let's be clear: Native Americans represent such cultural, political and geographical diversity that it would be impossible to attribute any particular ethic or practice to all tribes and nations. But we can observe that, across a range of landscapes and facing a range of ecological challenges, a number of nations developed philosophies and practices with The deep and abiding respect for land and nature implicit in Native American conservation practices should feel familiar to those of us who are passionate about saving hallowed ground.

Over the years, the Trust has preserved land associated with Native American history in many places. You can learn more about those projects here. To learn more about the contributions of Native Americans to the United States, .