1. Pre-historic and Native Societies
Early America
Pre-historic and Native Societies

2. Overview – Big Ideas
By 1600 Europeans had created the world’s first truly global economy The “Age of discovery"
This global expansion resulted in the catastrophe for many people
90% of Amerindians died by 1600
slavery of tens of millions of Africans.
Cultural differences between European and Amerindians were so immense that many major conflicts occurred in the 15th - 17th century.
Summary of relations between the three major colonial powers in America and the Amerindians
Spain sought to Christianize and control the Indians (through the encomienda and mission systems)
France sought to establish strong trade relations with the Amerindians; Jesuits sought to convert them.
English settlers often sought to either move Indians westward or annihilate them

3. Pre Columbian Societies
(America before the arrival of the Europeans)

4. Native Americans (Amerindians)
Population: approximately 100 million c (high estimate); probably more like million
Arrived more than 40,000 years ago via Bering Strait (called Beringia when it was above land) and eventually spread to tip of South America (by 8,000 BCE)
First immigrants hunted animals for meat and furs; probably built small fishing vessels.
New research in origins of Amerindians has led some historians to think this may not be accurate, but this is still just theories.
Old Crow site in Yukon may be 50,000 years old.
French team in northeastern Brazil working on site that might be 48,000 years old.
1992, new archeological research suggests oldest inhabitants may have come from south Asia or even Europe before northern Asians as previously thought.
No evidence exists that humans lived in eastern Siberia (Russia) 30,000 years ago (only 12,000 years ago).

5. Migration By 8,000 BCE, Amerindians reached tip of South America.
Between 4,000 & 1,500 BCE permanent farm villages came to dominate parts of Peru, south-central Mexico, northeastern Mexico, and the southwestern U.S.
 Grew maize, amaranth (a cereal), manioc (tapioca), chili peppers, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, & beans
There were over 2,000 separate cultures in the Americas

6. South America
The Largest and most advanced cultures were found in Central and South America.
(Mayans, Aztec, Inca and others)
(Possibly 25 million when Columbus Arrived)

7. The People of North America
Unlike South America, no major civilization controlled large amounts of land in North America
Variety of people lived with different languages and lifestyles based on location
Stone age cultures with wide trade networks
Religion was a form of animism “Great Spirit”

8. North America
North American Indians were generally less developed : most were "semi-sedentary" by Columbus’ time
Most people lived in small scattered nomadic settlements.
Some agriculture “three sisters:” maize, squash, beans. Among Eastern Woodlands Indians,; much "slash and burn” agriculture
Gender differences in occupations. Men were the hunters ; women the gatherers and women did the farming (except tobacco)
THINK -

9. North America Native Culture
Many ideas in Native American society were very different from European ideas. This would cause conflict and misunderstanding.
When Europeans arrived they sought to turn men into farmers; Indian men saw farming as "women's work“
No individual land ownership (even in sedentary societies)
Clans or families guarded their "use rights" to land allocated by chiefs.
Most societies were matrilineal (trace linage through women) and matrilocal (lived with or near wife’s family): women owned the property (goods) (Iroquois are a good example)
Few cared to acquire more property than could be carried from one site to another. - Europeans saw them as poor consumers
Extensive trade in the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys
Most important man in the tribe was the man who gave the most away
Trade was not like a contract in the European sense ,when trade stopped it was almost like declaring war.
Most societies in North America were far less civilized than those in the South. However, there were some exceptions.

10. South West Building Cultures

11. Problem with learning about Pre-Columbian North American tribes
No Writing system
All we know is based on archeology
We know little about:
Political organization
Social organizations
Religious beliefs

12. The Anasazi (Ancient Pueblo)
Located in what is now the Southwestern U.S. (Four Corners)
Used river water to irrigate crops of maize, beans, squash and sunflowers
Faced periodic drought and famine
By 700 C.E. they were making permanent stone and adobe buildings called pueblos (sometimes multi story in secure locations)
Used ladders they could pull up in times of attack.
Mesa Verde

13. Anasazi – Mesa Verde “ancient Pueblo” – Navajo meaning “ancient enemy”
New Mexico
C 1200 bc - ??? Vanish or modern pueblo? 13

14. Hohokam – Casa Grande & Canals
Phoenix,

15. Pueblo
Pueblo Indians are descendants of the Anasazi. They were located in the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico, Arizona, southwest Colorado
Corn planting, elaborate irrigation systems, multi-storied and terraced dwellings
Some Pueblo villages are still among the oldest in North America

16. The Mound Builders

17. The Mound Builders

18. Mound Builder civilizations in the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys
Mississippian culture (e.g. Cahokia near E. St. Louis) perhaps rivaled Egyptian architecture; home to as many as 40,000 people (c CE)
Central mound, 100 ft. high, world’s largest earthen work.
Largest city north of Mexico
Iron tools, wore woven fabrics, buried dead in collective graves
Trade spanned from Appalachians to Rockies; Great Lakes to Gulf of Mexico.

19. Cahokia (A Mound Builder Society)
Large-scale agricultural societies also formed in the eastern woodlands which had abundant trees and rain
The largest and most important Mound-builder settlement was Cahokia, located near modern-day East St. Lewis
Woodhenge for marking solstice and Equinox

20. Cahokia (A Mound Builder Society)
Cultivated maize and beans
Mounds were used for stages for ceremonies, platforms for dwellings and burial sites.
This society probably built other settlements but Cahokia was most impressive
80 mounds of different sizes
Site was abandoned in 1300, but we don’t know why

21. Cahokia (A Mound Builder Society)

22. The Adena (Mound Builder) – Story Mound

23. The Hopewell (Mound Builder) – Mound City

24. Fort Ancient (Mound Builder) –Serpent Mound
Atop a plateau overlooking the Brush Creek Valley, Serpent Mound is the largest and finest serpent effigy in the United States. Nearly a quarter of a mile long, Serpent Mound apparently represents an uncoiling serpent. In the late nineteenth-century Harvard University archaeologist Frederic Ward Putnam excavated Serpent Mound and attributed the creation of the effigy to the builders of the two nearby burial mounds, which he also excavated. We now refer to this culture as the Adena (800 BC-AD 100). A third burial mound at the park and a village site near the effigy's tail belong to the Fort Ancient culture (AD ). A more recent excavation of Serpent Mound revealed wood charcoal that could be radiocarbon dated. Test results show that the charcoal dates to the Fort Ancient culture. This new evidence of the serpent's creators links the effigy to the elliptical mound and the village rather than the conical burial mounds. The head of the serpent is aligned to the summer solstice sunset and the coils also may point to the winter solstice sunrise and the equinox sunrise. Today, visitors may walk along a footpath surrounding the serpent and experience the mystery and power of this monumental effigy. A public park for more than a century, Serpent Mound attracts visitors from all over the world. The museum contains exhibits on the effigy mound and the geology of the surrounding area.

25. Native American Societies on the Eve of Colonization

26. Homework #3
Choose a native American Tribe from the 1500 map in the notes and answer the following questions:
Name of your tribe / Where did they live in the current US?
Describe the types of food, clothing and housing they used.
Explain the daily life for your tribe.
What were the different roles for men women and children?
What happened to your culture after the colonists arrived?

27. *Use this map for your assignment.

28. Eastern Woodlands
Atlantic seaboard tribes began growing maize, beans, & squash (c.1000 CE)
Creeks practiced democratic style government
Choctaw and Cherokee were also prominent
Iroquois in eastern woodlands built a strong military confederacy (led by Hiawatha, late 16th c.)
Mohawk Valley of what is today New York State
The "longhouse" was the foundation of Iroquois culture: 8 to 200 ft in length.

29. Iroquois Confederation
Formed in 1570
First 5, later 6*, Iroquois nations located in central and western NY.
Helped hold land against Europeans for nearly 2 centuries.
Iroquois, the confederation of Iroquoian tribes known to history as the Five Nations (the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida , Onondaga, and Seneca) or (after 1722, when the Tuscarora joined the league) as the Six Nations.
Formed in 1570
First 5, later 6, Iroquois nations located in central and western NY.
Helped hold land against Europeans for nearly 2 centuries.
(*the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida , Onondaga, and Seneca, after 1722, the Tuscarora joined )

30. Essay Practice - Brainstorm
Question: Are Native Americans stereotyped by movies, TV and sports teams?
Yes it is opinion but we must back it by facts. How would we develop a thesis for a question like this? What facts have you learned can you use?