1. Native Americans: Cahokia and Iroquois
US History – Libertyville HS

2. Cahokia Mound Builders
City of Cahokia, c AD (artist’s rendition)

3. Who were the Cahokia?
Mississippian people (group of related tribes along Mississippi River)
Mound Builders
Subgroup of Miss. tribes that erected earthen mounds as common public works
Cahokian culture was centered on a big city near modern day St. Louis

4. Cahokia City and “suburbs” of 30,000 +
Rich art work reflected leisure time
Huge trade network
Tech included calendars, walls

5. Cahokian Mounds Purpose of mounds
Burial? Ceremonial?
Living space above flood plain?
Massive building effort requiring mobilization of entire civilization, decades / centuries
French explorers in 1600s discovered mounds, did not build on them (recognized their significance)
Monk’s Mound, Cahokia
“Monk’s Mound” – 1037 feet long, 790 feet
wide base; ten stories tall; over 250,000
square feet

6. Mississippian Trade Network
Centered on Great Lakes region
North to St. Lawrence
Along Atlantic coast
South to Gulf of Mexico
West to Oklahoma
Larger than Europe & Scandinavia!

7. Cahokia Cahokia flourished from 850 to 1500s
Abruptly disappeared; why?
Massive flooding?
Disease?

8. Iroquois Confederacy
Located in upstate New York and Canada; Empire extended into Ohio Valley
Niagara Falls = center of Iroquois culture, religion
Iroquois were major force in early US history – why?

9. Iroquois Confederacy Trading empire
Military empire based on warrior culture
Total population = 25,000
Unified government / people / culture
Union of five tribes
Mohawk
Oneida
Onodagas
Cayugas
Senecas
Mohawk Logo
“Tree of Peace”

10. Iroquois Confederacy
Called selves “Haudenosaunee” = human being (“the people”)
very arrogant people due to their military success
Ohio Valley Indians called them “Irokwek” – rough translation = “snake in the grass”
French translation = Iroquois

11. Lifestyle of the Iroquois
Village dwellers ( persons / village)
Communal living, based on gender
NOT based on equality
Village made up of extended families – cousins, aunts, etc
Families identified matrilineally (through mother’s family)
Child, son / daughter of mother, etc
Iroquois village, c. 1720
(note longhouses, wall)

12. Lifestyle of the Iroquois
Families lived matrilocally (live where mothers are)
Lived in mother’s family lodge
Longhouse = oval shaped, single entrance; sleep to sides, eat, meet in center
Village, longhouse as woman’s domain
Woods, everything else = male’s domain
Male goes to live in wife’s longhouse
Why is this a more practical way of organizing society?
Iroquois longhouse
(interior view here)

13. Lifestyle of the Iroquois
Divorce customs
Raising children
Lack of domestic violence
Child raising
High suicide rate amongst male teens

14. Iroquois Culture VS. Concept of time Examples?
Patience needed to hunt, farm
No concept of minutes, hours
Cycle of seasons, moon basis of “time”
Time concept circular – no beginning or end vs. European linear time: start, end point
Examples?
European view of Indians = lazy
VS.

15. Iroquois Culture Matriarchal society Gender division of labor
Village leadership = clan mother
Gender division of labor
Men = hunter, warrior, political leader
Women = farmers, village leaders
Naming of individuals
Clan mother named kids
Names given when you do something good, bad, funny
Iroquois adopted European names based on what they liked

16. Iroquois Politics Iroquois political system Men discuss, women decide
Iroquois a confederacy of tribes
50 or so male chiefs got together about 1 / year
2 issues to consider
Make war?
Everyone have food?
“Circle of Power”
Inner circle of males
Outer circle of clan mothers
Men discuss, women decide

17. Iroquois Empire Rivals to Iroquois = Ohio Valley Indians
Iroquois defeat them in every conflict
BUT European involvement changed dynamic
Map of Ohio River
System, created by
George Washington
(1754)

18. Iroquois and the Europeans
European rivalries translated to rivalries between Indian tribes
French allied with Ohio Valley Indians
Wanted trade, not land
French fur trappers needed Indian hunters / guides
French traded guns, alcohol for furs
British allied with Iroquois (why?)
Because French allied with Ohio Valley Indians
French trapper and Ohio Indian

19. Conflict between Indians, Europeans
Why is it that EVERY contact between Europeans, Indians resulted in bloodshed?
Pattern to contacts
Initial cooperation
Dispute over resources based on different perspectives towards those resources
European ultimatum: move or die vs. Indians we’re not moving and we’ll kill you