Early Native Americans

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Early Native Americans

• Origins and early
• Native Peoples

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Land Bridge Origins Asia to America

• A priest named Jose de Acost (1539-1600), was the
  first to propose the possibility of a temporary
  land bridge called Beringia by which early
  peoples crossed from Asia to the Americas. Later
  scientists also believe that during the
  Pleistocene era (approximately 20,000 years ago)
  large areas of the land were exposed and sea
  levels dropped because water was locked up in
  glaciers. This created a landmass ( land bridge
  or isthmus ) across the Bering Strait, between
  Siberia and Alaska.

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• The Beringia land bridge is widely accepted as
  the most probable migratory route of humans into
  the Americas.
• These Stone Age hunters followed the herd
  migrations across the Beringia plain to North
  America. But evidence also suggests they ate sea
  mammals, fish, and vegetation. Peoples then moved
  south into North America by following possible
  unglaciated routes along the pacific coastline or
  an Alberta corridor. ( a long valley located
  between ice mountains )

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Adapting to new environments

• The large animals that the Natives hunted died
  out. The wandering hunters (nomads) had to find
  new kinds of food, so they hunted smaller
  animals, fished, and gathered fruits. They
  stopped moving from place to place and built
  small, permanent homes. After a while many began
  to plant their own food and became farmers. The
  groups they formed spoke different languages and
  had different ways of life.

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Some Vocabulary

• Glacier - A huge mass of ice slowly flowing over
  a land mass, formed from compacted snow in an
  area where snow accumulation is heavy and doesnt
  melt away..
• Artifact - An object produced or shaped by human
  craft, especially a tool, weapon, or ornament of
  archaeological or historical interest.
• Archaeology - The study of past human life and
  culture by the recovery and examination of
  remaining material evidence, such as graves,
  buildings, tools, and pottery.
• Culture - the daily common beliefs, social forms,
  and material traits of a group.
• Adobe - a brick or building material of sun-dried
  earth and straw
• Pueblo - the group dwelling of an Indian village
  of Arizona, New Mexico, and nearby areas
  consisting of connected flat-roofed stone or
  adobe houses in groups sometimes several stories
  high
• Drought - a long period of dryness ( no rain )
  that causes extensive damage to crops or prevents
  their successful growth

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Mound Builders

• Native Americans who lived along the Mississippi
  River and its tributaries were developing their
  own unique culture. These prehistoric Native
  Americans, who are called Mississippian Indians
  by archaeologists, lived in permanent towns which
  were built on a fairly standard pattern.
  Ceremonial buildings on large four sided
  flat-topped mounds faced a plaza. The villagers
  gathered in the plaza for important events,
  ceremonies, and to watch various games such as
  stickball and chunkey.

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• The earthen mounds were built over a period of
  years. Perhaps they began as a slight rise with
  an important building on it. After a time, the
  building burned. Whatever the cause of the fire,
  the people brought basketful after basketful of
  dirt to make a mound. When they were satisfied,
  they built a new building on top. Archeologists
  do not know what purpose these buildings
  fulfilled. The most widely accepted ideas are
  that these buildings were either religious
  structures, or the homes of chiefs or other
  important families.

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• The Hopewell Culture
• Most of the Hopewell mounds were big and round.
  The biggest mound was about 20 feet high. There
  was also a perimeter mound, a long skinny mound
  around the outside of the other mounds. The
  Hopewell people made these mounds out of dirt
  which they got out of "borrow pits" nearby. They
  carried the dirt in baskets.

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• Each mound covered the remains of a charnel
  house, a wooden building used for meetings. The
  Hopewell people cremated the dead, burned the
  charnel house, and built a mound over the
  remains. They also placed artifacts, such as
  copper figures, mica, arrowheads, shells, and
  pipes in the mounds.
• Most of the artifacts that have been found came
  from far away places. The Hopewell people traded
  with other Indians.

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• The grandest of the mounds is the depiction of an
  writhing snake, perhaps a stylized rattlesnake,
  in Adams County, Ohio, known as the Great Serpent
  Mound. Over 1,300 feet long, with an average
  height of four to five feet and a width of 20 to
  25 feet

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• The Cahokia Mounds were bigger. The base of the
  biggest mound, Monk's Mound, covers 14 acres. and
  is 100 feet high. Monk's Mound is a platform
  mound and is flat on top. There was a large house
  on the top that the king and his servants lived
  in. Other mounds were conical. They were used for
  burials. There were also ridgetop mounds used to
  mark the borders of the mound area. There were
  over 120 mounds in this area.

• The Mississippian Culture's Cahokia in Modern
  day Illinois

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• Like the Hopewells, the Mississippians traded for
  many things.
• The Indians at Cahokia grew corn. Because of
  corn, many people could live in one place. As
  many as 20,000 people lived at Cahokia. They
  lived in houses made of wood, mud daub, and
  thatch.
• A two-mile long stockade surrounded the city. It
  was made of 20,000 logs which were stripped of
  bark and burned at both ends to keep out insects.
• There were sun calendars made out of logs in a
  circle, called Woodhenges. The Indians used these
  circles to tell what season it was, and when to
  plant and harvest corn.
• Both Hopewell Mound City and Cahokia are still
  sacred sites to Native Americans.

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Southwest Native Cultures

• The Hohokam and the Anasazi were peoples who
  settled in the American Southwest.
• The Hohokam Indians settled in the Gila and Salt
  River valleys of southern Arizona.
• They built rectangular pit houses from earth,
  rather than stone, and lived in small villages.
  They cremated their dead and placed the ashes in
  a specially prepared pit.
• Although the Hohokam relied a great deal on
  hunting and gathering, they also were skilled
  farmers and excellent engineers. They were a
  peaceful people who built large irrigation canal
  networks. Some were over ten miles long and used
  gravity to control water flow to their corn crops
  and homes.

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• The Anasazi settled on a mile-high plateau, an
  area much different from the rest of the
  Southwest.
• The early Anasazi lived in pit houses, which were
  shallow depressions in the ground covered by a
  canopy of brush and mud. Fire was always a
  threat, as the roof was only about six feet above
  the fire pit. The Anasazi did not have pottery.
  They used vessels of fine basketry instead, some
  woven so tightly that they could have held water.
  
• The Anasazi later formed villages of multi-room
  one story buildings, which were surrounded by
  large cultivated fields. Evidence shows that by
  400 AD the Anasazi had learned to grow two crops
  a year of cotton, beans, or maize.

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• Around 900 AD the Anasazi began to control their
  water supply by building shallow channels to
  divert run-off into small fields. They also built
  very small dams to hold water and to retain
  eroding soil.
• Just after 900 AD the Anasazi started to build
  multi-story pueblos using techniques imported
  from the Aztecs of Central Mexico. The pueblos
  were made out of sandstone blocks covered with
  mud. Roof beams supported the ceilings.
• Some pueblos were five stories high, although
  usually they were only two stories high. Some
  dwellings housed as many as 350 people in 220
  rooms.

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• Life was short and hard for the Anasazi pueblo
  people.
• A third of the Anasazi children died by the age
  of five. By the age of 40 people were old, many
  suffered from arthritis and their teeth were worn
  to the gums. Few saw the age of 50.
• An interesting aspect of the Anasazi is that they
  built 200 miles of perfectly straight roads, 30
  feet wide. These roads go up and over any hills,
  ignoring the land's natural contours.

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Where are the Anasazi?

• Suddenly, 650 years ago, their entire
  civilization vanished, leaving behind a few
  mumified bodies, all of their earthly possessions
  and a mystery.