Enduring Vision

Chapter 1 Native Americans Precolumbus to Pocahontas 1500 CE

Peopling the Americas: 54M-75M by

Latest evidence: arrived by

1492

13,000 BC

• Theory 1—Siberian hunters followed animals by land bridge between Siberia and Alaska around 10,500 B.C.

• Theory 2—arrived much earlier by boat; Many agreed on BOTH • Natives think they originated in W. Hemisphere – Iroquois story of Hiawatha

Your turn

• Summarize some Indian myths (religion) • identify similar themes that are found in some of the major religions currently practiced in the United States.

Corn spread fr Mexico across

• Farmed way before Europe, by 5000 BC: squash, gourds, beans, chili peppers, fruits, teosinte, MAIZE

Americas

Beans, squash, maize sisters

• MAIZE farming spread fr. Tehuacan through all Mesoamerica • Aztecs, Maya, Incan • The Southwest (Northern Mexico & Southwest of USA): despite scarcity of water,MAIZE came by 2500 BC but full-time farming only by 400BC – Peublo peoples (Hohokam, Anasazi) • The Eastern Woodlands: Miss. Valley to Atlantic, large villages, complex confederations before maize based farming – Poverty Point (LA) 1200BC: Olmec influence – Cahokia: St. Louis, Mississippian settlement

= three

Goddess from Moche culture (Peru)

What is history?

• Cap. J Smith was kidnapped by Powhatan • Mock execution • Pocahontas = intermediary • Preserve peace & provide foodstuff • Married J. Rolf, went to England but died there • Mrs. W. Wilson (2 nd ) = descendant from her son

• • 1616 De La Warr introduced “Irish tactics” on Powhatans • 1 st Anglo-Powhatan War peace sealed by Poca’s marriage to J Rolf, who died in Indian attacks in 1622 • 2 nd Anglo-Powhatan War treaty 1644 banished Indians from ancestral lands & originates reservation system Extinct by 1685: disease, disorganization, disposability

When & how did they get to America?

HOME 1 Peopling the Americas ASSESSMENT Civilization

Olmec Maya 1. List the early civilizations of the Americas. Include the approximate dates they flourished and their locations.

Dates

1200 B.C.

to 400 B.C.

A.D.

250 to 900

Location

along the Gulf of Mexico Guatemala and Yucatan Peninsula Aztec Inca Hohokam and Anasazi A.D.

1200s to 1500s A.D.

1200 300 B.C.

to A.D.

1400 Valley of Mexico western coast of South America Southwest Adena and Hopewell Mississipian 500 B.C.

to A.D.

400 A.D.

600 to 1500 east of Mississippi River east of Mississippi River

continued . . .

Map 1.3: Major Andean Cultures, 900 b.c.–a.d. 1432

Discuss diversity of the Native Americans

Choose one to answer with a partner

1. Evaluate the achievements of the ancient cultures of the Americas. Which single accomplishment do you find most remarkable and why?

Map 1.4: Locations of Selected Native American Peoples, a.d. 1500

American Indian cultures of N. America at the time of European contact

• Small settlements less than 300 • Women grew corn, beans, tobacco • Great Plains: Sioux & Pawnee followed buffalo herds larger societies • Mississippian, Adena, Hopewell in Ohio Valley were mound builders • Cahokia had 30,000 inhabitants • Iroquois (NY) formed federal conf. called League of Iroquois

Describe archaic societies’ ways of life

(Chapter 1) Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

One of the most important sources of evidence on the peoples and cultures of America before the advent of written documents is archaeology. But whereas writing directly conveys concrete information as well as human thoughts or emotions, archaeological evidence is less easy to “read.” The task of “translating” it requires, first, the application of scientific procedures to excavating and analyzing the evidence, and second, an understanding of the historical and cultural context within which the evidence originated.

Although this aerial photograph provides just a glimpse of one site, it offers a few basic suggestions about the Anasazi people who built and used Pueblo Bonito. Most striking, perhaps, are the scale and design of the complex. Most images of Native American communities feature groupings of up to a few dozen separate teepees, wigwams, or other impermanent structures. But the foundations and walls of Pueblo Bonito, constructed in several sequences from the tenth to twelfth centuries, were clearly built to last. We can see that the complex is enclosed and consists of many small rooms, numerous circular areas of varying sizes, and large open spaces. A closer look would reveal that Pueblo Bonito was a multi-story complex which archaeologists estimate contained about 800 rooms, some used as residences and others for storage. The circular enclosures are the walls of kivas where Anasazi people, like their Pueblo descendants, conducted religious ceremonies.

1.

2.

Think about what the photo suggests about social organization at Pueblo Bonito. How would the building of so massive a complex have been coordinated? Would you expect the inhabitants to have been highly individualistic or intensely communal? How do they compare in this respect with other Native American peoples discussed in this chapter?

Choose one to answer with a partner 1. Describe how each of the following Native American societies adapted to their environment: Northwest Coast, Southwest, and Eastern Woodlands.

(Chapter 1) Guale Indians Planting Crops, 1564

Besides archaeological evidence, scholars studying Native Americans are sometimes able to rely on European written and visual records produced during the earliest phases of contact between the two peoples. This drawing was made by one of the French Huguenots who attempted to colonize a portion of Spanish-claimed Florida in 1564 (see Chapter 2). It portrays the onset of the planting season among the local Guale Indians, but in most respects it depicts a process that was common throughout the Eastern Woodlands. Most notable is the gendered division of labor in which the men at the right prepare the soil while the two women on the left drop seeds into holes dug by a third woman in the center rear. The scene underscores the particularly close association of eastern Indian women with plants and plant products. It also conveys information about the technology and material culture of the Guales. Their tools, baskets, and clothing are all made of local materials and in accord with time-honored practices. Although the Guales had had intermittent contact with Europeans prior to the drawing of this picture, they had not yet incorporated European materials or influences into their daily lives. For many eastern Native Americans, this would not be the case until a century later (see Technology and Culture, Chapter 3: Native American Baskets and Textiles in New England).

1.

No matter how reliable the information they convey, European depictions of Native Americans also convey the values and attitudes of the writers and artists who produced them. Is there anything about this picture that reflects the artist’s attitude toward Native Americans? What message about Florida or the Guales might the artist have been trying to communicate to other Europeans who would see the picture?

(Chapter 1)

Guale Indians Planting Crops, 1564

Describe the Americas in 1492

Were the differences between Native American groups greater than their similarities

Choose one to answer with a partner

1. In your opinion, were the differences between Native American groups greater than their similarities?

Think About:

adaptation to physical settings, the role of tradition, and the variety of goods and languages encountered in trading

• Indian groups & location • Reciprocity • Chiefdoms vs state • Nuclear vs. extended families • Wampun • manitou, orenda, waken • Paleo-Indians Archaic peoples (Native Indians) • Corn (teosinte, maize) evolution, agricultural shift