The Lives of American
Indians
In the
Nineteenth Century
(1800’s)
Lesson 2(b)

Town and City Dwellers
•
Indian towns and cities were never haphazardly constructed. They were carefully planned to meet the social, political, economic, and ceremonial needs of their people.

Town and City Dwellers
Artists rendition of how Cohokia would have looked at it’s peak.
Cahokia Mounds
State Historic Park, courtesy of State of
Illinois
• Cohokia was a thriving urban market center that was established about 700
A.D. and covered 2,000 acres. Close to the confluence of the Missouri,
Mississippi, and Illinois rivers, it flourished for about 700 years with its population ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 at its height - about equal to the population of medieval London. It was the largest settlement north of the
Rio Grande before the end of the 18th Century when it was surpassed by
New York and Philadelphia (its population was only 23,000 as late as
1763). We'll learn more about Cahokia later in our class.

Town and City Dwellers
• Pueblo Bonito (Beautiful
Town) was the largest of the towns built in Chaco
Canyon and was home to about 1,200 people between 919 and 1085.
• It was a planned, multistoried community of between 650-800 rooms laid out as a giant Dshaped amphitheater around a central plaza covering three acres. The wall were constructed of stones and filled with rubble; thousands of wooden roof beams were made from logs carried from almost 50 miles away.
Images found at: http://www.jqjacobs.net/southwest/pueblo_bonito.html

Town and City Dwellers
•
Mesa Verde in southeastern Colorado had people living in many small villages on top of the mesa as early as A.D. 700.
•
By 1150, most of the inhabitants were living in large cliff houses constructed within the huge caves in the canyon alls, which provided security against attack.
• As many as 7,000 people may have lived in the area. Cliff
Palace was the largest cliff dwelling in the area with 200 rooms and 20 kivas.
Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MesaVerdeNationalParkCliffPalace.jpg

Tribal Confederacies
• Some nations worked together to form alliances prior to European contact. The most well-known is the Iroquois confederacy.
Flag of the Iroquois Confederacy

Tribal Confederacies
Iroquois, in Buffalo, New York, 1914.
Image found at: http://www.nativewiki.org/Iroquois
• No one knows exactly when the confederacy or league was formed, but a committee of Six Nations chiefs in
1900 estimated that to occurred around 1390.
• Some Iroquois assert that it was earlier, while some archeologists claim it was not formed until
1450. Regardless, it was in existence prior to European contact.

Tribal Confederacies
• Before its formation, tradition claims that the people lived in a constant state of warfare.
• One Onondaga chief known as Hayenwatha or
Hiawatha, lost three daughters. While mourning his loss and preparing to assuage his grief by taking the life of an enemy,
Hayenwatha decided to break the cycle of violence and vengeance and thus composed the laws of a great peace that would restore order and preserve harmony in Iroquois country.
Click here for
Peacemaker Video Clip
(1 min.)
Image found at: www.pleasancepages.co.uk/node1836
Tree of Peace
Click here to learn about The
Legend of the Peace maker.

Tribal Confederacies
• Five nations accepted the teaching of peace - the
Onondaga, Mohawks, Cayugas, Senecas, and
Oneidas.
• In 1722, the Tuscaroras joined the league so that they became known as the League of Six Nations. They agreed to stop fighting among themselves and unite in common defense.
Images found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois_confederacy

Tribal Confederacies
1) The individual tribes retained control of their own affairs at the local level, but acted through the Grand
Council in matters of common concern.
2) Fifty council chiefs or sachems were selected by clan mothers from the member tribes. The names of the original chiefs passed as titled from generation to generation.
Click here
Great Law
3) Matters were discussed back and forth between the five tribes until consensus was reached or the subject was dropped. The sachems possessed no power of coercion: the chiefs had to be “of one mind.” People who could not abide by general to view The consensus were free to go their own way as long as their actions did not threaten the league as a whole. of Peace

Tribal Confederacies
The Great Law of the League was preserved for generations through oral tradition and was not written down until 1851. However, it was well known among Indian peoples, as well as among Euro-Americans.
1) Some believe the Great Law served as a model for the US Constitution. Benjamin
Franklin did ask, if the Six Nations could create “such a Union,” why couldn’t the colonies do likewise.
2) Whether it was used as a model is not known for certain. But in 1987, the US
Senate passed a resolution acknowledging
“the historical debt” which the US owed to the Iroquois “for their demonstration of enlightened, democratic principles of government and their example of a free association of independent Indian nations.”
Go to: 8 th grade Handouts at roundvalleyschools.org
to find Handout for
“Iroquois Confederacy
Influence on Democracy.
Use this handout to learn more.

Discussion a. What commonalities do we see in these various Indian nations prior to European contact?
• A great deal of political, social, economic, and spiritual sophistication. Rather than the Indian Peoples being uncivilized savages, it is clear that they were quite civilized. b.
What does it mean when a society is civilized?
c. What specific words describe the lives of Indian peoples prior to
European contact? How do these words contrast with those that are usually used in history books?
d. Why is it that for almost 400 years, our history lessons on American
Indians have portrayed them as savages, heathens, filthy, bloodthirsty?
• To justify the manner in which Euro-Americans dealt with them and still deal with them

Summary of Part 1 of
The Lives of American Indians in the 1800’s
• 1. At the time of European contact in the early 1600s, the North American continent was populated by hundreds of Indian tribes that were culturally spiritually, and politically diverse. Additionally, the Indian people were quite civilized, even by
European terms, and had achieved a great deal of technological, agricultural, and political sophistication.

Summary of Part 1 of
The Lives of American Indians in the 1800’s
• 2. Each of the tribes were inherently sovereign at the time of European contact. Such sovereignty was reinforced when colonial governments signed government-to-government treaties with various Indian nations. Indian sovereignty was further reinforced when the US government was established, especially through the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution which created two sovereign entities: the federal governments and tribal governments.

Summary of Part 1 of
The Lives of American Indians in the 1800’s
• 3. Despite Indian diversity and tribal sovereignty, most European settlers had little understanding of the cultural, spiritual, and political beliefs and sophistication of
Indians. Thus, they believed the Indians were "uncivilized heathens" and "savages" who needed to be civilized and
Christianized.

Summary of Part 1 of
The Lives of American Indians in the 1800’s
• 4. Although some Indian tribes became culturally, spiritually, and politically assimilated into Nineteenth Century
American society, they were never accepted as equals within the Euro-
American population.