taken in its entirety by request of website: http://www.nativecircle.com/iicsurprisingfacts.html27 state names are indian words how many indians were here when christopher columbus was discovered? most early non-indian historians, affected by the social climate of their time, in which indigenous people were greatly misunderstood, placed the total populations of american indian people much lower than it actually was in reality. the lowest calculation i have heard from educated indigenous sources is 10 million. the highest i have heard (which appears may be more accurate) is 53 million. surprised? indian food? over 62% of all the food the people of the world eat today was originally developed by american indian people. ever had popcorn? indian food! the back of the dollar bill did you know that the eagle seal on the back of the dollar bill is actually taken from a centuries old seal of the 6-nations of the iroquois? yep! except the 6-nations seal didn't have the e pluribus unum banner, and it was holding 6 arrows in its talon instead of the current 13. surprised? indians in the military did you know that a far greater percentage of indian people per capita serve in the united states military than any other race or ethnic group? indian trails did you know that indians invented asphalt? true! suprised? indian math did you know that the mayan indian people taught the world the concept of 'zero'? true! it was known to the mayan people over 1,000 years before being introduced to europe by arabs in a.d. 800. surprised yet? indian earth did you know that indian people were the first to show the world a new way of looking at the environment? thus came the term 'ecology'! indian books did you know that the oldest published book on the planet is a hopi indian book entitled 'popov'? it's true! surprised? miscellaneous indian facts one out of every 100 people or so is an american indian just 190 years ago, less than 8,000 non-indians lived in michigan pine sap is a great ointment to heal cuts raspberry-leaf tea will relieve menstrual symptoms tobacco is an indian original (it was not abused as today) indians invented the rubber ball lacrosse is an old indian game written by john two-hawks