Native American inventions and discoveries

There are lots of outstanding discoveries that are attributed to the Aztecs, Mayas, Incas, and Olmecs.

• Abacus: The Aztec invented an abacus, called a nepohualtzizin, that used dry corn kernels as counters to calculate transactions in the marketplace. The Inca calculated using a counting board with compartments.



• Camouflage: When Indian hunters throughout the Americas stalked game, they often wore hides of the animals they sought. Frequently they painted their faces. Hunters of California and the Great Basin built blinds in which they could hide when they hunted birds. Using camouflage during hunting and warfare was a practice in North America, Mesoamerica, and South America.



• Astronomical Observatories: Indians of South America and Mesoamerica built structures from which to observe astronomical-events. Archaeologists found that the windows of these buildings were aligned precisely to the rising and setting of the sun and Venus during certain times of the year.



• Chewing Gum: The Aztec chewed chicle, the latex from the sapodilla tree. North American Indians chewed sweet gum and licorice root. They taught New England colonists to chew spruce sap, which became the first commercially sold chewing gum in the United States. Chicle was used as a base for modern chewing gum.



• Books: The Toltec, the first people of the Americas to write books, did so in about A.D. 660. Later, the Mixtec, Aztec, and Maya also created books. Some Mesoamerican books contained histories, genealogies, and financial accounts. Others focused on astronomy and religion.



• Geometry: South American people used their working knowledge of plane and solid geometry to build pyramids in about 3000 B.C., well before the Egyptians built their pyramids. Many North American tribes used geometry to plan buildings and create art.



• Compulsory Education: Young people in the Aztec Empire were required to attend schools, starting when they were ten. Children who were not part of the ruling class learned music and etiquette. Children of nobility also learned how to be leaders.



• Trephination (Brain Surgery): As did ancient healers in other parts of the world, some groups of Indians practiced trephination, drilling holes into patients' skulls to relieve pressure on the brain. Indians were more successful at it than their European counterparts. More than half of their patients survived, according to archaeologists. European trepanners had only a 10 percent success rate.



• Prescriptions: Over the centuries, groups of Indians throughout the Americas developed standard treatments for illnesses. The Anishinabe used pictograms to write prescriptions on strips of bark. Anesthetics: Starting in about 1000 B.C., Native healers used anesthetics from medicinal plants, including coca, peyote, and datura to ease aches and pains. They also used anesthetics to cause patients to lose consciousness during surgery.



• Syringes: Some pre-contact North American Indian healers administered medicine beneath the skin with hypodermic syringes that they made from hollow bird bones and small animal bladders. European physicians did not use hypodermic syringes until 1853.



• Asepsis: Indians cleaned wounds and incisions with water that they had sterilized by boiling it. Operating under sterile conditions and keeping wounds clean and bacteria-free did not become part of Western medicine until the early 1900s.



• Public Health: the Aztec believed that community cleanliness affected health and had street cleaners regularly sweep the streets. The Aztec Empire also established public hospitals, staffed with doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, in their large cities. Quarantine and Isolation: Indians of the Americas often isolated people who were ill with contagious illnesses in a separate dwelling where they would not come in contact with other tribal members. Isolation to prevent the spread of the disease did not become a routine practice in Western hospitals until the 1900s.



• Holistic Medicine: Native healers addressed the psychological and spiritual needs of their patients along with the physical needs. The Iroquois are known for their sophisticated understanding of how the mind can affect the body and cause illness.



• Dental Inlays (tooth fillings): The Maya drilled teeth and filled them with inlays of jade and turquoise as well as gold. Although most inlays were done as a fashion statement, Maya dentists occasionally drilled and filled cavities caused by decay.



• Toothbrushing: To prevent tooth decay, Indians of North Amrica cleaned their teeth with the frayed end of a stick. The Aztec polished their teeth with salt and charcoal.



• Anatomical Knowledge: Aztec physicians understood the structure and functions of the human body, including the circulatory system, long before European doctors possessed this knowledge. Antibiotics: Pre-contact indigenous peoples used plants containing bacteria-killing substances to prevent infections. Makah of the Northwest yused yarrow and tribes of the Northeast used cranberries. The Aztec used sap from the maguey plant and salt.



• Cataract Removal: Aztec surgeons were skilled at removing cataracts from patients' eyes. They used scalpels made from obsidian for surgery because they were sharper than metal knives (a process that is being re-adopted in hospitals today).



• Surgery: Indians of the Americas performed complex surgeries. For example, Mesquaki healers drained fluid from between the lungs and the chest by carefully puncturing the chest. To close incisions, many Indian healers used human hair as a suture.



• Hemostats: Indigenous healers throughout the Americas used plant medications, called hemostats, to slow or stop the flow of blood from wounds and incisions. The Chicasaw used alum, which works by constricting blood vessels.



• Beans: Indians of the Valley of Mexico domesticated beans between 5200 and 3400 B.C. South American Indians also domesticated beans. The only beans that American Indian farmers weren't the first to grow are garbanzo adzuki,and mung beans.



• Popcorn: by saving seeds from parent plants with desired characteristics and planting them, Indians developed many varieties of corn, including one that popped when it was heated. One way Indians popped corn was by pushing a stick through a cob of dried corn and holding it in a fire. The Moche of South America invented pottery popcorn poppers.



• Herb Gardens: In addition to planting fields with food crops, Indians planted gardens filled with medicinal plants. By domesticating these herbs, they made certain that these important sources of medicine would be available when they were needed.



• Peppers: Sweet (bell) peppers and chili peppers were some of the first crops Indian farmers in the Valley of Mexico domesticated. These first farmers bred dozens of types of chilies, ranging from mild to fiery hot.



• Corn Syrup: Indians of Mesoamerica and the Northeast sweetened their food with corn syrup that they made from corn stalks. Today corn syrup is made from corn kernels and is an ingredient in many prepared foods. Potato Chips: George Crum, a Mohawk cook at a Saratoga Springs, N.Y. resort, is credited with inventing the potato chip. After railroad mogul Cornelius Vanderbilt sent his fried potatoes back to the kitchen, complaining that they were too thick, Crum retaliated with paper-thin slices.



• Freeze-Drying: The Inca invented freeze-drying. They froze potatoes at high altitudes so that the moisture they contained would vaporize. The freeze-dried potatoes remained edible for several years. Spaniards provisioned their ships with freeze-dried potatoes, and Spanish speculators made fortunes on this commodity.



• Instant Foods: Maya cooks ground parched beans into a powder that they reconstituted with water to make refried beans. The Inca added water to freeze-dried potato flour to make the world's first instant mashed potatoes.



• Peanuts: native to the Caribbean, peanuts were domesticated by the Arawak people sometime before 3000 B.C. Indians living on the northeast coast of South America and the southeastern part of North America also raised peanuts. Spanish explorers refused to eat the nuts because they did not like the way they tasted, but iomported them to West Africa, where they became a dietary staple.



• Maple Syrup: The Anishinabe and other tribes of the Northeast collected sap from sugar maple trees and made it into syrup by dropping red-hot rocks into bark containers filled with sap. They also made maple sugar. Pumpkins: Indigenous peoples started domesticating this variety of squash about 10,000 years ago. english colonists quickly came to appreciate pumpkins and used them to make pumpkin pudding, which eventually became pumpkin pie.



• Tomatoes: Indians in what are now Mexico and Peru first domesticated tomatoes as early as A.D. 700. Later, the Aztec combined them with chilies to make what the Spanish would later call salsa.



• Blue-Green Algae (Spirulina): The Aztec harvested blue-green algae from lakes and dried it. algae, which contains 70 percent protein, was a staple in their diet. Today it is sold in health food stores.



• Chocolate: In about A.D. 1, the Maya were the first to make chocolate from cacao beans, inventing a four-step chemical proces to remove much of the bitterness from the beans.



• Cotton: Cotton was independently domesticated by the people of Meso- and South america between 3500 and 2300 B.C. Much of the cotton that is grown today is a cross between Egyptian cotton and American Indian cotton. Tobacco: Starting in about A.D. 1, Indians of the Americas began growing tobacco. By 1492 it was grown from Canada to the Amazon and in parts of what is now Peru. They did not consider it a recreational drug; for the most part, people smoked tobacco during ceremonies.



• Aloe Vera: Indians of the Southwest were the first to use the sap of the American aloe to treat chapped lips and skin rashes. Today American aloe is grown commercially to produce aloe vera, a popular remedy. Botanical Gardens: Aztec rulers ordered the planting of elaborate gardens that contained local plants as well as those imported from hundreds of miles away. The gardens served as laboratories for the study of medicinal plants.



• Black Walnuts: Indian cooks of the Northeast used black walnut oil in corn pudding. Plains cooks ground the nuts and used then for soup.



• Strawberries: Indian people of the Northeast gathered strawberries and made a pudding-like bread from cornmeal and berries. European colonists borrowed the idea and turned it into strawberry shortcake.



• Potatoes: Native peoples of the Andes began domesticating the potato in about 8000 B.C. By Pizarro's arrival in A.D. 1531, they had developed approximately 3,000 types, including white potatoes and sweet potatoes.



• Shampoo: Balsam is one of the plants that pre-contact Indians used as shampoo, and it has become an ingredient in commercial shampoos that are sold today. Indigenous people of the Southwest used jojoba as hair conditioner.



• Plumbing: The Olmec built stone channels to bring water to their citries between 1700 and 400 B.C. Much later, the Aztec did the same. The Inca used copper pipes to carry hot and cold water into their bathhouses.



• Latex: The Olmec, called the "Rubber People" by neighboring tribes, gathered latex from trees and used it to make balls and rubber bulb syringes. Some pre-contact people of Mesoamerica applied rubber to clothing to make it repel water, and they waterproofed the soles of their sandals.



• Deodorants: The Aztec used copal and American balsam to neutralize body odor. Indians of the Great Plains stored sweetgrass with their clothing.



• Sunscreens: Northeastern tribes used sunflower oil as protection against sun and windburn. The Zuni of the Southwest used a mixture of western wallflower and water. Other Southwestern tribes protected against sunburn with aloe vera.



• Daily Bathing: American Indians bathed on a daily basis whenever possible. North american and Mesoamerican Indians bathed in sweat baths or lodges. Hot springs and steams wer other favored bathing places. Europeans, who were forbidden by the Church to bathe, did not practice daily bathing until the 1900s.



• Detergents: Indians throughout the Americas used plants that contained saponins, chemicals that lift soil from a surface so that it can be more easily rinsewd away. Natives of the Southwest used roasted yucca roots as a laundry detergent, shampoo, and a body wash.



• Fishhooks: Between 5000 and 4000 B.C., indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes made the first metal fishooks in the Americas and perhaps the world. Other groups of Indian fishers carved hooks from antler, bone, or wood. Early South American fishers made hooks from shells and from plant spines.



• Copper Metallurgy: Paleo-Indians who lived in the northern Great Lakes region first dug shallow pits to mine copper from the south shore of Lake Superior and parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota in about 5000 B.C. They used copper to make awls, knives, needles, fishhooks, and beads.



• Soldering: Indian metallurgists of the Andes discovered how to solder pieces of gold together with copper, salt and resin.



• Annealing: Paleo-Indians of the Great Lakes were the first people in the Americas to discover that heating and slowly cooling metal makes it stronger and easier to shape. Some archaeologiests believe they were the first metal-workers in the world to discover annealing.



• Colanders: Mesoamerican Indians made holes in large gourds. They used them to drain corn that they had soaked in lime water (calcium hydroxide) in order to make hominy.



• Vulcanization: In its raw state, rubber latex is not useful. The Olmec learned that if they held latex over a smoking fire to cure it, the resulting rubgber would retain its shape in hot weather. The process they used is similar to vulcanization, which was independently invented by Charles Goodyear in 1844.



• Mouthwash: North American Indians used mouthwash in order to keep their breath fresh and to treat mouth and gum problems. In the Northeast, many tribes used gold thread, a plant that contains substances that ease mouth pain. Some used it as a teething lotion. The Aztec used salt-water mouth rinses and gargles.



• Needles: Paleo-Indians living in what is now Washington State invented the first bone needle with an eye in about 8000 B.C. Indigenous people of the Andes made copper needles with eyes between A.D. 800 and 1100 for a type of knitting that they did with one needle. Suspension Bridges: The Inca built suspension bridges hung from thick ropes in the A.D. 1300s. The largest ones were about 150 feet long. The entire Inca road system had over 40 large bridges and more than 100 smaller ones.



• Oil Wells (Petroleum): Indians were the first people to discover oil in what is now Pennsylvania. They did so long before William Drake, who is often credited with digging the first U.S. oil well). Indian people dug 15- to 20-foot deep pits and used the oil that collected there for skin lotion and to fuel ceremonial fires.



• Ecology: The understanding that all living organisms and their environment are related is anciet in the Americas. Unlike Europeans, who believed they had a religous mandate to dominate the earth and its creatures, American Indians generally believe that humans were in equal partnership with land, water, sky, plants, and animals.



• Cedar Shingles and Siding: Native builders of the Northwest used moisture-resistant western red cedar to roof and side their homes. Modern builders continue to use cedar for the same reason.



• Adobe: Throughout the Americas, Indians used adobe, a mixture of clay and water, as a building material. ancient builders of the Southwest used it to create adobe aparment complexes. Today adobe remains an important part of Southwestern architectural style.



• Gold Plating: ancient metalworkers of South America invented gold electroplating that used chemicals between 200 B.C. and A.D. 600. Europeans did not independently invent electroplating until the early 1800s.



• Metal Foil: ancient metalworkers of the Andes Mountains were the first peoples in the Western Hemisphere to make gold foil, between 1900 B.C. and 1400 B.C. Knowledge of the process was lost unti about 200 B.C., when the Chauvin, who lived on the northern coast of what is now Peru, began making copper foil and electoplating it with gold.



• Concrete: Between 300 B.C. and A.D. 300, the Maya discoverted how to make concrete. They used a mixture of lime (calcium oxide), clay, water, sand, and crushed rock to surface roads and buildings.



• Asphalt: The Chumash of California used asphalt, which they collected from what are now the La Brea tar pits, to waterproof baskets and to caulk their boats. They also traded it. Soil Rotation: Native farmers kew that nutrients in the soil were depleted with constant use. After a field had been planted with crops for a few growing seasons, they abandoned it and cleared land for another field. Allowing land to lie fallow would later be encouraged by the U.S. Department of Agricuture, beginning with the Soil Bank Program in 1956.



• Fertilizer: Northeastern Indians used fish to fertilize their crops, which they planted in hills rather than in rows as Europeans did. The Inca transported bird droppings from islands off their coastline to enrich their fields. Guano, which is high in nitrogen and phosphorous, is used by organic farmers today.



• Irrigation: Before A.D. 300, Hohokam farmers of the Southwest began to establish a network of irrigation canals in the Arizona desert that eventually extended to more than 150 miles. Some of these canals are 30 feet wide and 10 feet deep. The city of Phoenix still uses some sncient Hohokam canals for irrigation today.



• Carpentry Techniques: Northwest indians, who wer master carpenters, began building wooden homes at least 5,000 years ago. Their toolboxes contained mussel-shell knives, stone drills, grinding stones, and fine shark-skin "sandpaper." The Haida used mortise and tenon joints to join the beams of their wooden homes.



• Forest Management: North American Indians regularly burned underbrush from the forests where they hunted. This created parklike areas with large trees. The U.S. Forest Service has adopted controlled burning to reduce the risk of large forest fires.



• Stonemasonary Techniques: The Inca are considered to be the most skilled stoneworkers of the pre-contact Americas. They carved huge stone blocks into polygons and set them so precisely that it is impossible to push a razor blade into the space between the blocks today.



• Sunflowers: American Indians domesticated and raised sunflowers for the high nutritional content of the seeds. After the Hidatsa of the Plains harvested the seeds, they parched them, ground them, and shaped them into balls. Sunflower seeds are a popular snack today.



• Zucchini: Although zucchini, a type of summer squash, has an Italian name, it was domesticated by Indian farmers along with other squash in the Valley of Mexico. Indigenous farmers of the Northeast considered squash one of the "three sisters," along with corn and beans. They planted these three crops together in small hills. Together, the three sisters provide a balanced diet. Vanilla: Vanilla was first developed by indigenous people of what is now Vera Cruz, Mexico. They developed a complex process for turning the pods of the vanilla orchid into the flavoring that is popular throughout the world today. They kept the process a secret for hundreds of years after the Spanish arrived.



• Avocados: Native farmers in the Valley of Mexico first domesticated avocados between 3400 and 2300 B.C. Much later, Spanish priests banned the trees from mission gardens because they thought, based on the fruit's appearance, that avocados were an aphrodisiac.



• Pineapples: Ancient farmers in what is now Brazil domesticated pineapples. The fruit was eventually cultivated by Native peoples in other parts of South America and in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean.



• Blueberries: North American Indians ate fresh and dried blueberries. Most blueberries sold in grocery stores today were domesticated from North American wild blueberries - the same type of blueberries that North American Indians gathered.



• Cashews: Rainforest Indians used cashews for food and medicine. They built houses from cashew wood, which contains natural insect repellent. Today cashews are eaten throughout the world.



• Straight Pins: Indians who lived in what is now Florida betwen 5000 and 3000 B.C. made straight pins from bone. Chauvin metalworkers of South America made silver straight pins with golden heads between 900 and 200 B.C.



• Parkas: The Inuit invented the hooded parka as an outer garment made from animal skins. Today people throughout the world wear parkas made from many materials. Hammocks: Indians of the Circum-Caribbean and Amazon Basin knottred hammocks from cotton twine. Europeans borrowed the idea for their naval and merchant ships. Ponchos: The Mapuche of what are now Chile and Argentina invented the poncho, a simple jacket with unsewn sides. Spaniards adopted this garment. Because the poncho was practical for an equestrian lifestyle, the gauchos of the Pampas wore it to herd cattle. Today ponchos are popular casual wear in many countries.



• Weaving Techniques: The Anasazi people of the Southwest wove blankets on large upright looms. Pueblo people continued this tradition. When some Pueblo people lived among the Navajo to escape the Spaniards, they taught the Navajo how to weave blankets. Navajo rugs and blankets are collected throughout the world today.



• Briquettes: From about 600 B.C. to A.D. 200, indigenous cooks in what is now Louisiana and florida cooked with dried clay briquettes. They placed as many as 200 into a fire until they were red hot and then transferred them to a roasting pit.



• Umbrellas: The Maya invented unmbrellas - made from feathers - to protect themselves from the sun.



• Calendars: Mesoamerican astronomers used their observational skills to calculate a year's length with an accuracy of 19 minutes. They did this without telescopes or fractions. The Inca of South America developed a calendar as well.



• Disability Rights: The Inca had formal laws to ensure that the needs of people with disabilities would be met. They were given food, clothing, and shelter as well as jobs, such as shelling corn by the blind.



• Flotation Devices (Wet Suits): Inuit whale hunters wore waterproof clothing made from sealskin. They made these special suits with hooded shirts sewn to trousers. The hood was tightened with a drawstring, and the wrist and ankle openings were tied to trap air inside the suit. The suits allowed hunters to float in the water when butchering whales.



• Basketball: The Olmec invented the first game played by throwing a rubber ball through hoops on either end of a court. The game spread throughout Mesoamerica to the Southwest, where evidence of about 200 Hohokam ball courts has been found in Arizona.



• Lacrosse: Indians throughout North America played lacrosse. Teams could number in the hundreds, and playing fields were from 500 yards to half a mile long. French colonist were the first non-Indians to adopt the game that half a million people play today. It is the national sport (not hockey) of Canada.



• Hockey (Shinny): The modern game of hockey owes its existence to North American Indians. Non-Indians based both ice and field hockey on shinny, a stickball game that Indians of the Great Plains, Plateau, Southwest, and Northeast cultures played.