The Native Peoples of America, to 1500

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Chapter 1

• The Native Peoples of America, to 1500

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Introduction

• American History began more than 10,000 pre
  Columbus 1st voyage.
• Native Americans
• Diverse cultures
• Much interaction between groups

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Introduction (cont.)

• How did environmental change shape the transition
  from Paleo-Indian to Archaic ways of life?
• What were the principal differences among the
  Native American cultures that emerged after 2500
  B.C.?
• Despite their diversity, what significant values
  and practices did North American Indians share?

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The First Americans, c. 13,000-2500 B.C.

• Peopling New Worlds
• 2 main theories about the origins of the people
  of the Americas
• During the last Ice Age (10,500 B.C.), bands of
  hunters from Siberia crossed the then-existing
  land bridge into Alaska and from there spread out
  over the Western Hemisphere
• As early as 13,000 B.C. people came by boat,
  settling at various spots along the western coast
  of the Americas

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Peopling New Worlds (cont.)

• Most archaeologists believe both theories are
  correct
• Around 7000 B.C.Athapaskan-speaking people
  arrived in AK and northwestern Canada
• Migrated southwest
• Ancestors of the Apaches and Navajo

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Peopling New Worlds (cont.)

• More recent group
• Non-Indian
• Eskimos, Inuits, Aleuts
• Crossed the Bering Sea to AK
• Collectively called Paleo-Indian

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Peopling New Worlds (cont.)

• Lived in small hunting bands
• Moved constantly
• Pursuit of mammoths, mastodons, other big game
• 9000 B.C. mammoths and mastodons became extinct
  (climatic warming)

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Peopling New Worlds (cont.)

• Groups of Paleo-Indians came together
• Obtained flint for spear points and tools
• Intermarried
• Traded
• Exchanged cultural traits
• http//www.nps.gov/archive/amis/eatlatl.htm

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Archaic Societies

• Archaic peoples
• Native Americans of the period 8000 to 2500 B.C.
• Broadened their diets
• Small mammals, fish, wild plants
• Where there was an abundance of food, permanent
  villages were established

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Archaic Societies (cont.)

• Mens roles
• Hunted and fished
• Womens roles
• Harvested and prepared wild plants
• Early 5000 B.C. some Native Americans began to
  farm

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Archaic Societies (cont.)

• Mexico and Central America
• By 3000 B.C.Indians grew squash, beans, some
  fruit, maize
• By 2500 by B.C.maize cultivation spread as far
  north as New Mexico and as far south as Amazon
  River basin

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Cultural Diversityc. 2500 B.C.-A.D. 1500

• After 2500 B.C. many Native American cultures
  began to change
• Farming
• Religious systems
• Political systems
• Hierarchical states

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Mesoamerica and South America

• Mesoamerica
• Southern Mexico and Central America
• Food production (from farming) greatly increased
• Olmecs
• One of the most productive of these farming
  peoples
• Established large urban centers
• Hereditary rulers imposed their rule on small
  surrounding areas (chiefdoms)

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Olmec Map
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Mesoamerica and South America (cont.)

• 1 and 500 A.D. some chiefdoms grew into
  full-fledged states
• Teotihuacan
• Capital of state
• Over 100,000 people
• Eventually over taken by Aztecs

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Mesoamerica and South America (cont.)

• These states built huge engineering and public
  works projects
• Extensive trade
• Sophisticated calendars
• Writing and number systems
• Aztec and Inca Empires were still expanding when
  the Spanish conquistadores arrived in the 16th
  century

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The Southwest

• Southwestern part of the U.S.A. and northern
  Mexico
• Water was often scarce
• Maize cultivation did not reach the area until
  2500 B.C.
• Full-time farming was common only after 400 B.C.

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The Southwest (cont.)

• With agriculture, new Indian cultures arose
• Hohokam people
• Southern AZ
• Built extensive canal systems for irrigation
• Could harvest 2 crops a year
• Permanent villages of several hundred people

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The Southwest (cont.)

• Anasazi people
• Primarily by farming
• Dominated Southwest for about 600 years
• Confederations of towns
• Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
• 15,000 people

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The Southwest (cont.)

• By 13th century, Anasazi and Hohokam cultures
  declined
• Long drought
• People abandoned large settlements
• Apaches and Navajo started arrive in Southwest

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The Eastern Woodlands

• Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic coast
• Village life and political centralization
• Poverty Point
• 1200 B.C.
• 5,000 people
• Shore of Mississippi River in LA

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The Eastern Woodlands (cont.)

• Adena
• Ohio Valley
• Mound-building
• Mounds often contained graves
• 2nd century B.C. evolved into Hopewell
  civilization
• More complex
• More elaborate mounds

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The Eastern Woodlands (cont.)
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The Eastern Woodlands (cont.)

• Agriculture
• Not important until 7th century A.D.
• 1st full-time farmers lived on flood plains of
  Mississippi River
• Evolved into more sophisticated Mississippian
  civilization
• Towns had thousands of inhabitants
• Largest was Cahokia (near St. Louis)

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The Eastern Woodlands (cont.)

• Mississippian artists
• Clay, stone, shell, copper
• Religion was based on sun worship
• Political system
• Centralized and hierarchical

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The Eastern Woodlands (cont.)
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The Eastern Woodlands (cont.)

• 13th century A.D.Mississippian culture had
  declined
• Most Eastern Woodlands Indians had abandoned
  large settlements and centralized political power
• Continued to engage in agriculture
• Slash-and-burn method of land clearing
• Grew corn and beans

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Nonfarming Societies

• Pacific coast
• Southern Alaska to northern Calf.
• Fished for salmon
• Dry and store their catch year-round
• Permanent villages
• Several hundred people

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Nonfarming Societies (cont.)

• Further south Calf. Indians
• Lived in permanent villages
• Collect and grind acorns for meals
• Both groups engaged in trade and warfare
• United under the leadership of chiefs

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Nonfarming Societies (cont.)

• Great Plains and Great Basin
• Uncertain rainfall
• Did not have permanent settlements
• Roamed over large areas
• Hunted variety of animals (mostly bison)
• Wild seeds and nuts

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Nonfarming Societies (cont.)

• Eskimos and Aleuts
• Arrived in western AK from Siberia
• Advanced hunting tools
• Harpoons and spears
• Hunted sea mammals and caribou
• Spread across northern Canada
• 980-1100limited contact with Noresmen trying to
  colonize in Greenland and Newfoundland

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Nonfarming Societies (cont.)

• Mostly the peoples of the Americas developed in
  isolation form those on other continents
• Evolution of the American cultures paralleled
  those in Europe, Asia, and Africa

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North American Peoples on the Eve of Contact

• By 1500about 75 million people lived in the
  Western Hemisphere
• 7-10 million inhabited land north of Mesoamerica
• Divided into several hundred nations and tribes
• Spoke diverse languages

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North American Peoples on the Eve of Contact
(cont.)

• Common characteristics
• Bows and arrows
• Ceramic pottery
• Some common religious beliefs, practices, and
  rituals
• Living in kinship-based communities
• Agreeing to communal control of resources

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Kinship and Gender

• Kinshipextended family
• Held Indian society together
• More important than nuclear family (husband,
  wife, children)

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Kinship and Gender (cont.)

• Gender
• Women did the farming (except among the tribes of
  the Southwest, where both sexes were cultivators)
• Fighting among kinship groups and tribes over
  scarce resources and other conflicts
• Rarely did they try to kill large numbers of the
  enemy

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Spiritual and Social Values

• All nature, including humanity, was interrelated
  and had spiritual powers (manitou)
• Wanted to be in tune with these spiritual forces
• Dreaming
• Altering their state of consciousness by acts of
  physical endurance and self-torture (Sun Dance of
  the Plains Indians)
• Medicine men and women

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Spiritual and Social Values (cont.)

• To smooth relations between persons of unequal
  status and power and to hold their societies
  together, Indians relied on reciprocity.
• Giving of gifts and trading of goods in return
  for receiving prestige, submission, and authority

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Spiritual and Social Values (cont.)

• Indian communities generally demanded conformity
  and close cooperation of their members

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Conclusion

• Human history in the Western Hemisphere did not
  begin with the arrival of Columbus
• Thousands of years before 1492, Native Americans
  hunted gathered farmed built communities,
  roads, and trails and created complex societies

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Conclusion (cont.)

• Not always good conservationists, Indians did,
  for the most part, respect the land and used it
  in ways that allowed natural resources to renew
  themselves.
• Europeans arriving in North America after 1500
  showed no self-restraint