The American Promise – Lecture Notes
Chapter I - Ancient America, Before 1492
Archaeology and History
1. Differences between Archaeologists and Historians—Both study the past, but
they employ different methods; archaeologists focus on physical objects such as
bones and pots, while historians focus on writing.
2. Writing and Language as Evidence—Writing is defined as a system of symbols
that record spoken language; originated 8,000 years ago in China, Egypt, and
Central America. Ancient Americans invented spoken languages, moved across
the globe, engaged in trade and warfare, worshipped gods, and possessed forms
of symbolic representation, but they did not write; what we know about these
years we learn from archaeologists.
3. Artifacts and Environmental Clues as Evidence—Archaeologists study artifacts
and physical objects; also look at environmental factors: scrutinize soil,
geological strata, pollen, and climate to find out about ancient and pre-contact
Americans; better to abbreviate and oversimplify this history than to ignore it.
The first Americans
A. African and Asian Origins
1. Pangaea and Continental Drift—Before human evolution, continents of North
and South America were detached from the common landmass of Pangaea.
About 240 million years ago, continental drift pushed the landmass apart,
allowing oceans to surround land much like our current geography.
2. Homo Sapiens—Modern humans, Homo sapiens, evolved in Africa at about
400,000 BP; early humans, Homo erectus, appeared in Africa about two million
years ago. Homo sapiens migrated to Africa, Europe, and Asia, but the
geographic separation from North and South America prevented migration there.
3. Migration across Beringia—Two factors made migration possible; first, people
adapted to the frigid climate; second, the Wisconsin glaciation (25,000 BP to
14,000 BP) caused the sea level to drop so that people could cross the land
bridge of Beringia between Siberia and Alaska.
4. Paleo-Indians—Archaeologists call the first migrants Paleo-Indians; they
traveled to North America in small bands looking for wildlife to hunt; probably
arrived after 15,000 BP.
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B. Paleo-Indian Hunters
1. Abundance of Game—The abundance of game animals made hunting easy;
Paleo-Indians traveled along the eastern side of Canada’s Rocky Mountains or
traveled by boat along the Pacific Coast; they migrated to the tip of South
America within one thousand years.
2. Clovis Point—Early Paleo-Indians used a spearhead called a Clovis point,
named for the place in New Mexico where it was excavated; they hunted
mammoths, bison, and smaller animals; shared common ancestry and way of
life.
3. Big-Game Extinction and Changes in Paleo-Indian Way of Life—About 11,000
BP, large mammals became extinct, probably due to warming climates and
perhaps overhunting; to compensate, Paleo-Indian hunters preyed on smaller
animals and dedicated more energy to foraging—collecting bugs, berries, and
fruits; changes produced great cultural diversity.
Archaic Hunters and Gatherers
A. Great Plains Bison Hunters
1. Folsom Points—Some hunters began to focus on the Rocky Mountains in the
Great Plains after the extinction of mammoths. Archaic Indians hunted with
Folsom points, discovered by archaeologists in New Mexico between two ribs of
a giant bison; hunters moved frequently with their prey and developed trapping
techniques to kill large numbers of animals with spears.
2. Advantage of Bows and Arrows—Bows and arrows reached hunters from the
north around AD 500; largely replaced spears; hunters could shoot animals from
farther away; weapons were easier to make and less costly to lose; PaleoIndians did not have access to horses.
B. Great Basin Cultures
1. Varying Zones of Habitation—Great Basin Indians lived between the Rocky
Mountains and Sierra Nevada, an area of environmental diversity that featured
hot deserts, rainy marshes, and cold, treeless mountains.
2. Plants as a Primary Food Source—Wide variety of animal life, but Great Basin
peoples relied on plants as their most important food source; plants were easier
to collect and store to prevent shortages caused by lack of rain; such adaptations
allowed Great Basin peoples to maintain their hunter-gatherer lifestyle for
centuries after Europeans arrived in AD 1492.
C. Pacific Coast Cultures
1. Diversity of California’s Environment—Rich natural environment made this the
most densely settled area in North America; land and ocean offered ample food;
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California peoples were hunter-gatherers; very diverse peoples, with five hundred
tribes speaking some ninety languages.
2. California Peoples: Chumash—Emerged about 5000 BP near Santa Barbara;
had many violent clashes over acorns, their primary food source.
3. Northwest Peoples—Built permanent villages; caught whales and fish for food;
developed sophisticated woodworking skills and made carvings and canoes;
warfare occurred over fishing sites.
D. Eastern Woodland Cultures
1. Forest Environment—Some archaic peoples settled east of the Mississippi
River in a forest environment; Woodland peoples hunted deer as their most
important source of food, clothing (skins), and weapons (bones); settlements
usually had 25 to 150 people; burial sites suggest Woodland people lived about
eighteen years.
2. Agriculture and Pottery—Around 4000 BP, Woodland cultures added
agriculture and pottery; grew gourds, pumpkins, sunflowers, and tobacco; corn
became a significant food crop; still relied on wild plants, seeds, and nuts
primarily; pottery originated in Mexico; heavy pots were not good for nomads, but
for settled Woodland people, pots worked better than fragile, leaky baskets.
Agricultural Settlements and Chiefdoms
A. Southwestern Cultures
1. Agricultural Settlements—Southwestern hunters and gatherers lived in
present-day Arizona, New Mexico, and southern Utah and Colorado;
characterized by agricultural settlements and multi-unit dwellings called pueblos;
adapted agriculture because dry climate and fluctuations in rainfall made the
supply of wild plant food unreliable; began cultivating corn around 3500 BP;
planting corn required Southwestern Indians to restrict migrations to tend to the
crop and to develop irrigation to grow it.
2. Mogollan Culture—Emerged around AD 200; small farming settlements, each
included a dozen pit houses; Mogollon culture began to decline around AD 900
for reasons that remain obscure.
3. Hohokam Culture—Established in southern Arizona around AD 500; used
sophisticated grids of irrigation canals to plant and harvest crops twice a year;
built ball courts reminiscent of Mexican cultures; declined about AD 1400,
perhaps because rising soil salinity hurt crop yields.
4. Anasazi Culture—Began to flourish around AD 100 to the north in southern
Utah and Colorado and northern Arizona and New Mexico. Beginning around AD
1000, some began to move to large, multi-story cliff dwellings; others built huge,
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stone-walled pueblos; a drought that began in AD 1130 caused the
disappearance of the Anasazi culture.
B. Woodland Burial Mounds and Chiefdoms
1. Adena Culture—Built hundreds of burial mounds in central Idaho between
2500 BP and 2100 BP; usually buried people with grave goods such as spear
points and stone pipes.
2. Hopewell Culture—Evolved from Adena in 2100 BP; extended through
drainage areas of Ohio and Mississippi Rivers; built larger mounds; burial
restricted to highest ranking members of society; declined about AD 400;
reasons are obscure, but archaeologists speculate bows and arrows and
agriculture allowed for smaller settlements away from the central authority of the
chiefdom.
3. Mississippian Culture—Existed from AD 800 until about AD 1500; also built
mounds, in the floodplains of southeastern river systems; at Cahokia, huge
mounds had platforms for ceremonies and housed great chiefs; created
woodhenges, likely used for celestial observations.
Native Americans in the 1490s
A. Eastern and Great Plains Peoples
1. Algonquian Tribes—Inhabited Atlantic seaboard, Great Lakes region, and
upper Midwest; Atlantic seaboard tribes grew corn and crops and hunted and
fished; Great Lakes and New England had a cool climate that made agriculture
impractical.
2. Iroquoian Tribes—Lived in Pennsylvania and upstate New York, as well as
hilly upland regions of the Carolinas and Georgia; three distinguishing features:
success in cultivating corn and other crops allowed them to build permanent
settlements; societies adhered to matrilineal rules of descent; and an Iroquoian
confederation formed the League of Five Nations for war and diplomacy; five
tribes were Seneca, Onondaga, Mohawk, Oneida, and Cayuga.
3. Muskogean Peoples—Inhabited woodlands of the Southeast; included Creek,
Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez tribes; bountiful environment allowed hunting,
gathering, and agriculture to thrive; old Mississippian culture lived on in practices
like building temple mounds and worshipping the sun.
B. Southwestern and Western Peoples
1. Large Population—Included about a quarter of all native North Americans;
descended from Mogollan, Hohokam, and Anasazi; lived in settled agricultural
communities, many of them pueblos.
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2. Threatened by Athapascans—Athapascans, principally Apache and Navajo
who preyed upon predatory pueblo Indians, invaded the Southwest beginning
around AD 1300.
3. Delayed Development of Agriculture—Agriculture delayed in California due to
access to acorns and marine life; Northwest people had access to abundant
salmon; The Dalles on the Columbia River was the largest trading center in
ancient North America.
C. Cultural Similarities
1. Gathering Techniques and Agriculture—All native North Americans depended
on hunting and gathering for a major portion of food; most also practiced
agriculture; some used agriculture to supplement hunting and gathering, for
others it was the other way around.
2. Bows, Arrows, Weapons for Hunting and Warfare—All native North Americans
used these items.
3. Absence of Writing; Other Forms of Human Expression—None used writing,
but Native Americans still expressed themselves through drawings, basket
weaving, pottery, beadwork, songs, dances, religious ceremonies, and burial
rites.
4. Adaptation to Natural and Social Environments—Adapted to natural
environment without European conventions like wheels, sailing ships, or
domesticated animals; did not live in complete peace, however; conflict occurred
between and among tribes; some Native Americans, such as those who lived at
Cahokia, practiced human sacrifice.
5. Manipulation of the Environment to Meet Needs—Dwellings altered landscape;
gathering techniques shifted the balance of local plants toward useful varieties;
used fire to clear land for planting corn.
6. Fire as a Hunting Tool—Fires forced buffalo together and deer to race out from
burning underbrush, which made them easier to slaughter; Indians also used fire
to clear entangling underbrush from forests, which encouraged the growth of
tender young plants; attracting deer and other game.
The Mexica: A Mesoamerican Culture
1. Large, Diverse Population—Mexican (Europeans called them Aztecs) Empire
stretched from coast to coast across central Mexico; population between 8 million
and 25 million people; built enormous monuments; we know more about them
because of the notes of Spanish conquistadors; by the 1490s, the Mexica ruled
an empire that covered more land than Spain and Portugal combined and
contained almost three times as many people.
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2. Culture Based on War—Mexica worshipped the war god Huitzilopochtli;
warriors held the highest positions in social hierarchy; young men hoped to rise
in social class by fighting; capturing prisoners was considered the ultimate act of
bravery; Mexican priests sacrificed prisoners by cutting out their hearts, believing
it fed the sun’s craving for blood.
3. Power and Wealth in Mexican Empire—Collected tribute from subjected
people; tribute paid in goods, not money; tribute collection reflected the fact that
the relatively small nobility of Mexican warriors and the even smaller priesthood
commanded the obedience of millions of people; Mexican elite redistributed
wealth from the poor to the rich; led to the incredible achievements of the
Mexicans, such as huge cities and temples.
4. Conquered Peoples Not Assimilated—Focus on tribute and conquest caused
resentment among people who did not feel Mexican rule was legitimate or
equitable; Spanish manipulated this resentment after AD 1492 to conquer the
Mexica.
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