1. Georgia and the American Experience
Chapter 3:
The Land And Its Early People
Study Presentation

2. Georgia and the American Experience
Section 1: How Did We Learn About the Earliest Peoples?
Section 2: Indian Nations in Georgia

3. Section 1: How Did We Learn About the Earliest Peoples?
Essential Question
How did Georgia’s prehistoric Indian tribes live?

4. Section 1: What is Geography?
What words do I need to know?
archeologist
anthropologist
shale
artifact
culture
tribe
antiquities

5. Understanding Ancient Peoples Through Artifacts
Oral Tradition: Elders repeated narratives of events often until the younger generations memorized them
Archeologists dig into earth to find artifacts (items made by people) that tell us about early inhabitants
Shale: Layered rock that can encase ancient animals or birds

6. Understanding Ancient Peoples Through Culture
Anthropologists use artifacts, cave drawings, well-traveled pathways, and oral history to study a group’s culture
Culture: shared beliefs, traditions, music, art, and social institutions of a group of people

7. Cultural Periods in Georgia History: Paleo
Paleo (from Greek, “Very Old”)
Also called Old Stone Age
Lasted about 10,000 years
Nomadic (roaming) hunters
Most tools and spear points made of stone
Used an “atlatl”: stone sling-like implement that threw darts from a longer distance

8. Cultural Periods in Georgia History: Early Archaic
Archaic (means “Old”)
Three time spans: Early, Middle, Late
Early Archaic period: 8,000 B.C. to 5,000 B.C.
Hunted large animals and small game
Invented tools from deer antlers
Moved with each season to find best food resources

9. Cultural Periods in Georgia History: Middle Archaic
Began around 5,000 B.C.
Water levels moved back along rivers and coastal areas
People began making hooks from animal bones
Shellfish was a more common food
Food was easier to find; people moved around less

10. Cultural Periods in Georgia History: Late Archaic
4,000 B.C. to 1,000 B.C.
Created grooved axes to clear trees and bushes
Began saving and planting seeds for plants and seeds for growing seasons (horticulture)
Made and used pottery for storing, cooking, and serving food

11. Cultural Periods in Georgia History: Woodland
1,000 B.C. to 1,000 A.D.
Tribe: group of people sharing common ancestry, name, and way of living
Hundreds of families formed tribes
Built domed-shaped huts with trees
Used bow and arrows to hunt
Held religious ceremonies
Improved pottery-making techniques

12. Cultural Periods in Georgia History: Mississippian
Also called the Temple Mound period
Farmed with homemade tools and grew most of their food
Thousands might live in a single settlement, protected by fences and moats
Very religious; used jewelry and body art

13. Archeological Finds
Ancient middens (garbage piles) show what people ate, how they used fire, what they used for cooking
Ocmulgee National Monument near Macon reveals a large ceremonial area with benches and platforms
There are large temple mounds in Early, Bartow, and Bibb counties
Stallings Island near Augusta is a large shell midden
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14. Section 2: Indian Nations in Georgia
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
Which Indian nations lived in Georgia and how did they live?

15. Section 2: Indian Nations in Georgia
What peoples do I need to know?
Creek (Muscogee)
Cherokee

16. The Creeks (Muscogee) Originally from American southwest
Spoke Muskogean
Discovered by early European explorers who called them Creeks
Lived along Ocheese Creek (today’s Ocmulgee River)
Lived in italwa and talofa (large villages surrounded by smaller villages) similar to today’s large city and surrounding suburbs

17. Creek (Muscogee) Lifestyle
Village center featured a plaza and rotunda
Games and ceremonies held in plaza
Rotunda was used for council meetings
Wooden huts or log cabins with chimneys surrounded the plaza
Villages, split from larger villages, helped form a confederacy
Raised livestock and successful farmers

18. The Cherokee Lived in northwestern mountain region of the state
Called themselves Awi-yum-wija, which meant “real people” or “principal people”
Tribal Clans: groups of Cherokee who believed themselves related by blood
Two tribal chiefs: one for making war and one for making peacetime decisions
Clans governed on the local level

19. The Cherokee Family
Family lines were traced through the mother, not the father
The mother’s brothers took responsibility for raising her children
Mothers handled most domestic chores; fathers often left home to hunt or trade
Children played games that prepared them for adulthood

20. Cherokee Lifestyle
Built homes on high banks or hills along rivers and streams
Shelters were built from available materials, often plastered on the exterior to keep out rain and cold
Log cabins built for winter living
Fishing and raising crops including maize (corn)
Barter: trading goods and services without use of money was an economic system

21. Cherokee Religious Beliefs
Believed Earth was large island resting on water
“This World”: tribe was at center of the earth
“Upper World”: above This World; clean and pure world; Sun and Moon chief gods
“Under World”: in waters below This World; disorder and change
Deer and birds were honored; bears were not

22. Other Cherokee Lifestyle Practices
Drank ginseng potion to shop bleeding or shortness of breath
Smoked tobacco on ceremonial occasions when seeking the gods’ blessings
Green Corn Ceremony held to give thanks for corn, the most important food source
Followed “Law of Retaliation,” avenging a wrong by getting even; this law helped prevent feuds within a tribe
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