Native Americans

1
Native Americans
Theodore de Bry engraving
2
New World Beginnings

• Migration from Asia
• 15,000-10,000 B.C.-8,000 B.C.
• Bering Strait land bridge is impassable, which
  results in Native Americans isolation

3
Nomadic, Semi-nomadic lifestyles
4
Mammoths and Other Animals of the New World

• Waco Mammoth Site
• http//www.wacomammoth.com/
• Fish
• Birds
• Reptiles
• Other winged creatures

5
Farming and Crop Cultivation

• 7,000 B.C.advent of farming in Mesoamerica
• Olmecs, Mayans, Aztecs (Mesoamerica)
• Incas (South America)

6
(No Transcript)
7
(No Transcript)
8
Complex societies in North America

• The Anasazi (cultural height 900-1200 a.d.)

Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park
9
Mississippian Tradition

• Settled along rivers such as the Mississippi,
  Ohio, etc.
• 700 A.D.European settlement
• Main food crops eastern flint maize and pole
  beans
• Importance of the sun, corn, and temple mounds in
  religion
• Womens roles

10
(No Transcript)
11

• Located in what is now Southern Illinois, just
  outside of downtown St.Louis, MO
• The Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois Rivers
  intersect forming a fertile landscape
• Existed at the center of the Mississippian
  civilization
• Largest city built before Europeans arrived in
  America (20,000-30,000 people in the 1100s)
• At least 109 mounds

12
Earthen Mounds
13
Monks Mound

• 100-feet high
• Named in 1700s by French Monks
• Most likely the mound where the principal ruler
  built his house or where a temple existed
• Contains 14 million baskets of soil and its base
  stretches 14 acres long

14
Birdman Tablet

• Birdman Tablet symbolized the union between
  heaven and earth
• Birdman symbolism figured prominently in Cahokian
  religion.
• Found during excavation of Monks Mound
• Has become logo of Cahokia Mounds
• Actual use of tablet is still a mystery
• The birdman was represented by the king, who
  could have been believed to be the incarnation or
  earthly representative of the Birdman

15
Diversity of Native American Culture

• Farming, fishing, hunter-gatherers, nomadic,
  semi-nomadic, sedentary
• Up to 1,000 different languages among Native
  Americans in North America by 1492

16
Native Americans v. Europeans A Clash of Ideas

• 1. Attitudes toward the natural world
• 2. Attitudes toward land ownership
• 3. Attitudes about women
• 4. Attitudes about religion

17
The Columbian Exchange
18
Disease