Due to centuries of historical discrimination and the persistent failure of many school systems, indigenous peoples have not been given their due credit in terms of how much they have contributed to our modern, everyday lives. Native populations have been responsible for numerous innovations that impressed early European colonizers so much so, in fact, that they felt the need to make up fictional stories in an effort to explain many of these technologically-advanced indigenous inventions.
Click through to see a few of the many things our modern societies owe to native populations.