Enduring Vision
Chapter 1
Native Americans
Precolumbus to Pocahontas 1500 CE
Peopling the Americas: 54M-75M by
1492
Latest evidence: arrived by
13,000 BC
• Theory 1—Siberian hunters
followed animals by land
bridge between Siberia and
Alaska around 10,500 B.C.
• Theory 2—arrived much
earlier by boat; Many
agreed on BOTH
• Natives think they
originated in W.
Hemisphere
– Iroquois story of Hiawatha
Your turn
• Summarize some Indian
myths (religion)
• identify similar themes that
are found in some of the
major religions currently
practiced in the United
States.
Corn spread fr Mexico across
Americas
•
Farmed way before Europe, by 5000 BC:
squash, gourds, beans, chili peppers, fruits,
teosinte, MAIZE
•
MAIZE farming spread fr. Tehuacan
through all Mesoamerica
•
•
Aztecs, Maya, Incan
The Southwest (Northern Mexico &
Southwest of USA): despite scarcity
of water,MAIZE came by 2500 BC
but full-time farming only by 400BC
–
•
Beans, squash, maize = three
sisters
Peublo peoples (Hohokam, Anasazi)
The Eastern Woodlands: Miss. Valley
to Atlantic, large villages, complex
confederations before maize based
farming
–
–
Poverty Point (LA) 1200BC: Olmec
influence
Cahokia: St. Louis, Mississippian
settlement
Goddess from Moche culture (Peru)
What is history?
•
Cap. J Smith was kidnapped by
Powhatan
• Mock execution
• Pocahontas = intermediary
• Preserve peace & provide
foodstuff
• Married J. Rolf, went to England
but died there
• Mrs. W. Wilson (2nd) =
descendant from her son
• 1616 De La Warr
introduced “Irish tactics” on
Powhatans
• 1st Anglo-Powhatan
War peace sealed by
Poca’s marriage to J
Rolf, who died in
Indian attacks in 1622
• 2nd Anglo-Powhatan
War treaty 1644
banished Indians from
ancestral lands &
originates reservation
system
• Extinct by 1685: disease,
disorganization, disposability
When & how did they get to America?
HOME
1
Peopling the Americas
ASSESSMENT
1. List the early civilizations of the Americas. Include the
approximate dates they flourished and their locations.
Location
Civilization
Dates
Olmec
1200
Maya
A.D.
250 to 900
Guatemala and Yucatan Peninsula
Aztec
A.D.
1200s to 1500s
Valley of Mexico
Inca
A.D.
1200
western coast of South America
Hohokam and Anasazi
300
B.C.
to
A.D.
1400
Southwest
Adena and Hopewell
500
B.C.
to
A.D.
400
east of Mississippi River
Mississipian
A.D.
B.C.
to 400
600 to 1500
B.C.
along the Gulf of Mexico
east of Mississippi River
continued . . .
Map 1.3:
Major Andean
Cultures,
900 b.c.–a.d. 1432
Discuss diversity of the Native
Americans
Choose one to answer with a
partner
1. Evaluate the achievements of the
ancient cultures of the Americas.
Which single accomplishment do you
find most remarkable and why?
Map 1.4:
Locations of
Selected
Native
American
Peoples, a.d.
1500
American Indian cultures of N. America at
the time of European contact
• Small settlements less than 300
• Women grew corn, beans, tobacco
• Great Plains: Sioux & Pawnee followed buffalo herds
larger societies
• Mississippian, Adena, Hopewell in Ohio Valley were
mound builders
• Cahokia had 30,000 inhabitants
• Iroquois (NY) formed federal conf. called League of
Iroquois
Describe archaic societies’ ways
of life
(Chapter 1) Pueblo Bonito, Chaco
Canyon, New Mexico
One of the most important sources of
evidence on the peoples and cultures of America
before the advent of written documents is
archaeology. But whereas writing directly conveys
concrete information as well as human thoughts or
emotions, archaeological evidence is less easy to
“read.” The task of “translating” it requires, first, the
application of scientific procedures to excavating and
analyzing the evidence, and second, an
understanding of the historical and cultural context
within which the evidence originated.
Although this aerial photograph provides just
a glimpse of one site, it offers a few basic
suggestions about the Anasazi people who built and
used Pueblo Bonito. Most striking, perhaps, are the
scale and design of the complex. Most images of
Native American communities feature groupings of up
to a few dozen separate teepees, wigwams, or other
impermanent structures. But the foundations and
walls of Pueblo Bonito, constructed in several
sequences from the tenth to twelfth centuries, were
clearly built to last. We can see that the complex is
enclosed and consists of many small rooms,
numerous circular areas of varying sizes, and large
open spaces. A closer look would reveal that Pueblo
Bonito was a multi-story complex which
archaeologists estimate contained about 800 rooms,
some used as residences and others for storage. The
circular enclosures are the walls of kivas where
Anasazi people, like their Pueblo descendants,
conducted religious ceremonies.
1.
Think about what the photo suggests about
social organization at Pueblo Bonito. How
would the building of so massive a complex
have been coordinated? Would you expect the
inhabitants to have been highly individualistic
or intensely communal?
2.
How do they compare in this respect with other
Native American peoples discussed in this
chapter?
Choose one to answer with a
partner
1. Describe how each of the
following Native American
societies adapted to their
environment: Northwest Coast,
Southwest, and Eastern
Woodlands.
(Chapter 1) Guale Indians Planting Crops,
1564
Besides archaeological evidence, scholars
studying Native Americans are sometimes able to
rely on European written and visual records
produced during the earliest phases of contact
between the two peoples. This drawing was made
by one of the French Huguenots who attempted to
colonize a portion of Spanish-claimed Florida in
1564 (see Chapter 2). It portrays the onset of the
planting season among the local Guale Indians, but
in most respects it depicts a process that was
common throughout the Eastern Woodlands. Most
notable is the gendered division of labor in which the
men at the right prepare the soil while the two
women on the left drop seeds into holes dug by a
third woman in the center rear. The scene
underscores the particularly close association of
eastern Indian women with plants and plant
products. It also conveys information about the
technology and material culture of the Guales. Their
tools, baskets, and clothing are all made of local
materials and in accord with time-honored practices.
Although the Guales had had intermittent contact
with Europeans prior to the drawing of this picture,
they had not yet incorporated European materials or
influences into their daily lives. For many eastern
Native Americans, this would not be the case until a
century later (see Technology and Culture, Chapter
3: Native American Baskets and Textiles in New
England).
1.
No matter how reliable the information they
convey, European depictions of Native Americans
also convey the values and attitudes of the writers
and artists who produced them. Is there anything
about this picture that reflects the artist’s attitude
toward Native Americans? What message about
Florida or the Guales might the artist have been
trying to communicate to other Europeans who
would see the picture?
(Chapter 1)
Guale Indians Planting Crops, 1564
Describe the Americas in 1492 Were the
differences between Native
American groups greater than their similarities
Choose one to answer with a
partner
1. In your opinion, were the differences
between Native American groups
greater than their similarities? Think
About: adaptation to physical settings,
the role of tradition, and the variety of
goods and languages encountered in
trading
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Indian groups & location
Reciprocity
Chiefdoms vs state
Nuclear vs. extended families
Wampun
manitou, orenda, waken
Paleo-Indians
Archaic peoples (Native
Indians)
• Corn (teosinte, maize) evolution, agricultural
shift