Georgia
and the American Experience
Chapter 3:
The Land And Its Early
People
Study Presentation
Georgia
and the American Experience
Section 1: How Did We
Learn About the
Earliest Peoples?
Section 2: Indian
Nations in Georgia
Section 1: How Did We
Learn About the
Earliest Peoples?
• Essential Question
– How did Georgia’s prehistoric Indian
tribes live?
Section 1: What is
Geography?
• What words do I need to know?
– archeologist
– anthropologist
– shale
– artifact
– culture
– tribe
– antiquities
Understanding Ancient
Peoples Through Artifacts
• Oral Tradition: Elders repeated
narratives of events often until the
younger generations memorized them
• Archeologists dig into earth to find
artifacts (items made by people) that tell
us about early inhabitants
• Shale: Layered rock that can encase
ancient animals or birds
Understanding Ancient
Peoples Through Culture
• Anthropologists use artifacts,
cave drawings, well-traveled
pathways, and oral history to study
a group’s culture
• Culture: shared beliefs, traditions,
music, art, and social institutions of
a group of people
Cultural Periods in
Georgia History: Paleo
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Paleo (from Greek, “Very Old”)
Also called Old Stone Age
Lasted about 10,000 years
Nomadic (roaming) hunters
Most tools and spear points made of
stone
• Used an “atlatl”: stone sling-like
implement that threw darts from a longer
distance
Cultural Periods in Georgia
History: Early Archaic
• Archaic (means “Old”)
• Three time spans: Early, Middle, Late
• Early Archaic period: 8,000 B.C. to
5,000 B.C.
• Hunted large animals and small game
• Invented tools from deer antlers
• Moved with each season to find best
food resources
Cultural Periods in Georgia
History: Middle Archaic
• Began around 5,000 B.C.
• Water levels moved back along rivers
and coastal areas
• People began making hooks from
animal bones
• Shellfish was a more common food
• Food was easier to find; people moved
around less
Cultural Periods in Georgia
History: Late Archaic
• 4,000 B.C. to 1,000 B.C.
• Created grooved axes to clear trees and
bushes
• Began saving and planting seeds for
plants and seeds for growing seasons
(horticulture)
• Made and used pottery for storing,
cooking, and serving food
Cultural Periods in Georgia
History: Woodland
• 1,000 B.C. to 1,000 A.D.
• Tribe: group of people sharing common
ancestry, name, and way of living
• Hundreds of families formed tribes
• Built domed-shaped huts with trees
• Used bow and arrows to hunt
• Held religious ceremonies
• Improved pottery-making techniques
Cultural Periods in Georgia
History: Mississippian
• Also called the Temple Mound period
• Farmed with homemade tools and grew
most of their food
• Thousands might live in a single
settlement, protected by fences and
moats
• Very religious; used jewelry and body
art
Archeological Finds
• Ancient middens (garbage piles) show what
people ate, how they used fire, what they
used for cooking
• Ocmulgee National Monument near Macon
reveals a large ceremonial area with benches
and platforms
• There are large temple mounds in Early,
Bartow, and Bibb counties
• Stallings Island near Augusta is a large shell
midden
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Section 2:
Indian Nations in
Georgia
• ESSENTIAL QUESTION
– Which Indian nations lived in Georgia
and how did they live?
Section 2:
Indian Nations in
Georgia
• What peoples do I need to know?
– Creek (Muscogee)
– Cherokee
The Creeks (Muscogee)
• Originally from American southwest
• Spoke Muskogean
• Discovered by early European explorers who
called them Creeks
• Lived along Ocheese Creek (today’s
Ocmulgee River)
• Lived in italwa and talofa (large villages
surrounded by smaller villages) similar to
today’s large city and surrounding suburbs
Creek (Muscogee) Lifestyle
• Village center featured a plaza and
rotunda
• Games and ceremonies held in plaza
• Rotunda was used for council meetings
• Wooden huts or log cabins with
chimneys surrounded the plaza
• Villages, split from larger villages,
helped form a confederacy
• Raised livestock and successful farmers
The Cherokee
• Lived in northwestern mountain region
of the state
• Called themselves Awi-yum-wija, which
meant “real people” or “principal people”
• Tribal Clans: groups of Cherokee who
believed themselves related by blood
• Two tribal chiefs: one for making war
and one for making peacetime
decisions
• Clans governed on the local level
The Cherokee Family
• Family lines were traced through the
mother, not the father
• The mother’s brothers took
responsibility for raising her children
• Mothers handled most domestic chores;
fathers often left home to hunt or trade
• Children played games that prepared
them for adulthood
Cherokee Lifestyle
• Built homes on high banks or hills along
rivers and streams
• Shelters were built from available
materials, often plastered on the
exterior to keep out rain and cold
• Log cabins built for winter living
• Fishing and raising crops including
maize (corn)
• Barter: trading goods and services
without use of money was an economic
system
Cherokee Religious Beliefs
• Believed Earth was large island resting
on water
• “This World”: tribe was at center of the
earth
• “Upper World”: above This World; clean
and pure world; Sun and Moon chief
gods
• “Under World”: in waters below This
World; disorder and change
• Deer and birds were honored; bears
were not
Other Cherokee Lifestyle
Practices
• Drank ginseng potion to shop bleeding or
shortness of breath
• Smoked tobacco on ceremonial occasions
when seeking the gods’ blessings
• Green Corn Ceremony held to give thanks for
corn, the most important food source
• Followed “Law of Retaliation,” avenging a
wrong by getting even; this law helped
prevent feuds within a tribe
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