The Lives of American
Indians
In the
Nineteenth Century
(1800’s)
Lesson 2(a)
• Despite the belief of
many Americans that
Indians were
uncivilized savages,
the truth was that
prior to European
contact most Indian
Nations had achieved
a great deal of
technological,
agricultural, and
political
sophistication.
To get a better understanding of such
sophistication, let's take a very brief look
at a few of the ancient societies:
• the West Coast Peoples,
• the first buffalo hunters of the Plains,
• the farmers of the Southwest,
• farmers and mound builders of the
Eastern Woodlands,
• town and city dwellers,
• and tribal confederacies.
Feathered Coiled Basket (Tapica) Mary John Posh, Univ. of Penn. c.1905
(250 quail, 223 woodpecker)
http://sorrel.humboldt.edu/~rwj1/POM/pom11ga.html
The West Coast Indian Peoples
The coastal regions of California supported a population
of about 300,000 Indians who were hunter-gatherers and
who lived in permanent communities. While the Indians
cultivated only one crop -- tobacco -- they also harvested
an abundant variety of natural foods.
The West Coast Indian Peoples
Essie Parrish (Kashaya Pomo) cracking and shelling acorns, Sonoma Co.; 1960
Image found: California Indian Food and Culture, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, 2003
• 1) Women gathered acorns and ground them into meal.
The West Coast Indian Peoples
Eastern Pomo sling for killing ducks and mud hens,
with basket and 24 clay balls
Images found: California Indian Food and Culture, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of
Anthropology, 2003
• 2) Men fished the ocean shores and rivers, as well as
hunted deer and smaller mammals.
The West Coast Indian Peoples
The Chumash and Their Neighbors
1. (2.16 min.)
Click on boat to read more
about the Chumash Indians.
http://www.sbnature.org/research/anthro/chumash/study.htm
• 3) The Chumash Indians of the Santa Barbara region
lived from the abundance in the ocean and on land by
following an annual cycle of subsistence. They
harvested and stored marine mammals, fish, shellfish,
acorns, pine nuts, and other wild plants.
The West Coast Indian Peoples
The northwest Pacific Indians were seagoing peoples
who have harvested rich marine resources for at least
5,000 years. Men fished with harpoons and nets from
canoes, and villages accumulated reserves of dried fish
and sea-mammal meat.
Images found: California Indian Food and Culture, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, 2003
Go to: roundvalleyschools.org
to the 8th Grade Video clips for Lesson 2 to learn more
about the Northwest Indian Peoples.
Watch: 1. Native Americans in the Northwest (2:26 min.), and
2. Video Quiz on Native Americans in the Northwest (3:02 min.)
The Plains Indian Peoples
• The first Buffalo Hunters of the Plains.
The stereotypical picture of Indians wearing feathered
headdresses and hunting buffalo from horseback did not
become typical of the Great Plains Nations until the
18th and 19th centuries. Horses didn’t arrive until the
mid-16th Century with the Spanish.
Drawing by
George Catlin
Image round at:
www.artsales.com/ARTistory/
History_of_the_Buffalo/
Catlin_Bo...ffalo.htm
The Plains Indian Peoples
• Thousands of years ago, Indian Peoples hunted on foot on the
Great Plains for big game - bison, mastodons, buffalo, and wooly
mammoths. Over time, they created increasingly lethal projectiles spears that could inflict mortal wounds on animals as large as
African elephants. Bows and arrows were in use throughout the
Plains by A.D. 1000.
Images found at:
www.flickr.com/
photos/liodain/
3246952193/
The Plains Indian Peoples
• As they developed more effective ways to hunt
large game, they also used communal hunting
techniques that required great degrees of social
organization.
Image round at:
www.firstpeople.us site
The Plains Indian Peoples
Go to: roundvalleyschools.org
to the 8th Grade Video Clips
for Lesson 2
to learn more about the
Plains Indian Peoples
Watch:
1. Introduction to Native People
of the Plains (2:15 min.)
and
2. Native People of the Plains:
Teepees and Buffalos (3:09min.)
Image found at:
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/alb
right3/chap7c.htm
The Southwest Indian Peoples
• The ancient inhabitants
of the southwestern US
developed agriculturallybased societies about
3,000 years ago.
Image from two of the Anasazi
(Ancestral Pueblo Indian) sites in
the Four Corners area-Northern NM
and Arizona.
Found at:http://www.digital-images.
net/Gallery/Scenic/Southwest/Pueblo/
pueblo.html
The Southwest Indian Peoples
• About 2,000 years ago, the Mogollon people in the
highlands of the Arizona-New Mexico border grew corn
and squash. They first lived in pit houses, and then later
built multi-apartment structures above ground.
Images found at:
http://www.desertusa.com/ind1/du_peo_mog.html
The Southwest Indian Peoples
• Southwestern peoples began making clay
pots around A.D. 200 and pottery was
widespread by 500.
Images found at: http://www.firstpeople.us/
The Southwest Indian Peoples
• The Hohokam
people who lived in
the Sonoran Desert
and are ancestors of
the Pimas and
Papagos, built
sophisticated
irrigation systems.
Photograph 1. Archaeologist Emil Haury standing in an excavated
Hohokam canal. (Source: Southwest Parks and Monuments Association)
Image found at:http://www.waterhistory.org/histories/hohokam2/
The Southwest Indian Peoples
Go to: roundvalleyschools.org
to the 8th Grade Video Clips
for Lesson 2
to learn more about the
Plains Indian Peoples
Watch:
1. Native Americans in the
Southwest (1:41 min.)
and
2. Video Quiz on Native
Americans in the Southwest
(2:48 min.)
The Eastern Woodland Indians
THE THREE SISTERS Diorama
AN IROQUOIS AGRICULTURAL FIELD at the NEW
YORK STATE MUSEUM
• About 4,000 years ago, Indian women in the floodplains
region began domesticating indigenous seed plants such
as sunflowers, squash, and marsh elder. Some Indians
in Illinois were crossbreeding wild grasses and created
corn about 7,000 years ago. Indian farmers for
thousands of years have selected the seeds of plans that
did best in their environments and developed new strains
for particular soils, climates, and growing seasons.
The Eastern Woodland Indians
• In the Eastern Woodlands, over a period of about 4,000 years,
Indian peoples constructed tens of thousands of earthen mounds.
The Eastern Woodland Indians
• The Adena people of the Ohio River Valley built mounds
to honor their dead over 2,000 years ago. The
Hopewellian culture that emerged from the Adena about
the first century built more elaborate burial mounds and
earthen architecture.
A 35-foot (11 m) high and 175-foot (53 m)-diameter conical
mound, is the second largest of its type in West Virginia. It is
located in South Charleston, West Virginia. P. W. Norris of the
Smithsonian Institution oversaw the excavation. His team
discovered numerous skeletons along with weapons and
jewelry.
Once serving as an ancient burial site, the Mound is the most recognizable
landmark in Miamisburg. It is the largest conical burial mound in Ohio, and
remains virtually intact. Located in a city park at 900 Mound Avenue, it is an
Ohio historical site and serves as a popular attraction and picnic destination for
area families. Visitors can climb to the top of the mound, via stone-masonry
steps Information/images found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adena_culture
The Eastern Woodland Indians
• The culture spread through extensive exchange
networks, and they obtained valuable raw
materials from vast distances - grizzly bear teeth
from the Rocky Mountains; obsidian volcanic
stone for spear points and blades from
Yellowstone; silver from Ontario; copper from the
Great Lakes; mica and copper from the
Appalachians; quartz from Arkansas; pottery,
marine shells, turtle shells, shark, and alligator
teeth from the Gulf of Mexico.
The Eastern Woodland Indians
• The Hopewell tradition was
not a single culture or
society, but a widely
dispersed set of related
populations, which were
connected by a common
network of trade routes,
known as the Hopewell
Exchange System.
• The Hopewellian culture
began a decline about 300
A.D. an seems to have
disappeared around 550.
Hopewell Interaction Area and
local expressions of the Hopewell
tradition
Image/Information found
at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopewell_
tradition
The Eastern Woodland Indians
• Around 700,
Mississippian cultures
arose that began in the
lower Mississippi River
Valley and spread north
to the Great Lakes and
east to Florida and the
Carolinas. They were
stable, agriculturallybased settlements
close to floodplains
with large populations
and complex
ceremonial and political
structures.
The Kincaid Site, a Mississippian settlement
in southern Illinois.
Image found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mound_builder_(people)
The Eastern Woodland Indians
Go to: roundvalleyschools.org
to the 8th Grade Video Clips
for Lesson 2
to learn more about the
Eastern Woodland Indians
Watch:
1. Native Americans in the
Woodlands (2:16 min.)
and
2. Video Quiz on Native
Americans in the Woodlands
(3:28 min.)
Oneida Portraits
Image found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oneida_portraits.jpg