This ties into the primary source document given in class, basically giving Christopher Columbus the power to do whatever he wanted when he discovered new territory and new people. Columbus and his entourage thought of themselves as the all mighty, and sociologically above the people he called "gentle" and that "no better people" in the world existed than them. He then decimated their culture and their people in the hunt for wealth, while exploiting to no return the land they called home. The entitlement he reserved as a result of the King and Queen's blessing ravaged many innocent lives during his search for power.

The Native Americans had been isolated from the outside world for so long after Beringia that they had exposure to only their select few diseases, no new ones. The Europeans came and brought these new deadly plagues that the Natives had no immunity to. I also found it interesting that the diseases mentioned here (smallpox, measles, hepatitis) are ones that we now have mandatory vaccines for, that are given to our children to participate in public schools.

I had no idea sugar was such a challenging crop to grow. Are these the same parameters required to grow sugar now?

This is a new term that I hadn't come across before - upon further research I came to learn that it is another term for sailor.

These are all current strains on the US (on a larger scale) that are contributing to the cracking in our foundation as a country.

This is ironic seeing as how these gender roles were completely flipped after the arrival of the European settlers.

Why? Were the crops being grown and animals they were domesticating for consumption less nutritious? Were they leaving behind a more balanced diet when transitioning to agriculture?

This technique is called slash and burn agriculture, and is still implemented today!

There are significant similarities between the Salinan creation story and the Christian creation story.