Important Concepts from Lectures on Native American Culture & History -- Part I

Source: Mary Magoulick (not Takaki)

 

Find the following sections within this document

 Prehistory  Early Historical Period
 Mounds  Tour of the Major Regions / Cultures

PREHISTORY Remember that in archeology, scientists are making their best guesses based on fossil evidence. There are very few written records from before European settlement here. There is no way to be certain or to construct an exact picture of daily life in a community just based on archeology. But scientists can make reasonably accurate predictions of what life may have been like based on arrangements of houses, burials, artifacts, eating and disease patterns, and so on. Based on such work, many archeologists, historians, and anthropologists have contributed the following information of the prehistory of human habitation of the continents we now call America.

See -- archeology links or archeology in Am. -- for more information about archeology.

See -- ancient people of America or Center for Study of First Peoples -- for more information about early Native Americans.

 

~ The indigenous people of "America" have been here for at least 12,000 years

~ Some believe that people first started living here much earlier than that. Summary of theories about the people of the Americas: Uof Calgary

~ Many Native American people believe they were created here (as told in their creation myths) and that the scientific explanation of migration over a "land bridge" is a myth. For more on the Kennewick man controversy, see: Yahoo or Nova

~ Most scientists and archeologists look at evidence that suggests people came to this continent in various waves:

FOSSIL EVIDENCE Projectile Points from 10,000 years ago -- folsom points; some (controversial) evidence of tools and fires 40,000 years ago; linguistic evidence (variation and number of languages and dialects) suggests presence here for at least 50,000 years.

 

Domesticable animals: dogs, turkey (camels, guinea pigs in S.Am.)

Cultivated Plants

Gathered: seeds, berries, nuts, roots, vegetables (every usable plant was used at some point for food, medicine, etc.)

Hunted: 

paleo: large game (giant bison, mammoths, moose, etc.)

archaic and woodlands: deer & many smaller animals; also fished extensively (including shellfish)

More Information on food in the Mid South region.

 

Language: Some linguists have identified 6 distinct language families in North America, 100's of languages and 100's more dialects. For more information about Native American languages: UCDavis or Teaching Indigenous Languages

Culture Areas (designation by scientists to classify groups according to common characteristics such as language families, lifestyles, and some cultural connections like styles of housing, clothing, hunting, etc.): Arctic, Sub-artic, Northeast (Woodlands), Southeast, Plateau, Plains, Southwest, California, Northwest Coast, Great Basin. See also: Survery of historical maps of culture areas from Columbia

 

Mounds 

"Indian Mounds" are earthen hills, in various distinctive shapes, built by human labor--typically basket-loads of dirt piled up--arranged in various patterns, sometimes aligning with solstices, sometimes containing burials or artifacts, sometimes supporting buildings, sometimes in complex patterns of many mounds together, sometimes isolated. Mounds are found throughout the Eastern U.S., especially in the Mississippi & Ohio River valleys. Some mounds were still actively in use during the early explorations of Spanish and French explorers in the Southeastern U.S., and are described in their travel accounts--like De Soto.

 

During the 18th and 19th centuries many Americans were fascinated by mounds and believed they were the work of a lost race (perhaps killed by the Indians). Their discriminatory fantasies were eventually proved wrong by scientific evidence that the mound builders were the ancestors of contemporary Native Americans (many different tribes in many regions built mounds).

3 types of mounds (scientists have identified 3 distinct kinds or eras of mounds):

Chunkey: name of popular disc game played throughout N.Am. (ball games also popular); probably played on central plazas evident at most Mississippian Mounds sites. These squares were probably also used for markets and ceremonies.

 

EARLY HISTORICAL PERIOD (when written records begin)

Early Explorers

Continuous exploration / settlement  à cultural clash (ethnocentrism) à hostilities

Virgin Soil Epidemics (no immunities to Europeans diseases) most devastating = smallpox; killed up to 90% of indigenous population

 

Cultural exchange (metal, cloth, beads sought by Indians)

Indian/White relations involved cooperation & abuse / misunderstanding

 

DETAILS: 

One very early explorer, Cabeza de Vaca, was marooned in Texas and spent 7 years, 1528-1535, wandering through the Southwest, becoming friends with many different tribes of Indians. He writes of his travels (see your reading from The Relation of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca). He offers interesting, though tantalizingly short, descriptions of Native people and their customs and lives.

 

The first few centuries of encounters between Indians and Whites were distinguished by disease, as in the virgin soil epidemics that spread rapidly through the population, killing up to 90% of Native people before they every even met any Whites. There were also periods of friendly relations, trade, intermingling and cooperation between Indians and Whites. See one Georgian woman's example, for instance, or the legend of Squanto, who is mentioned in your reading by Bradford. But these were usually punctuated and always ended in the demise of Native people and the dominance of Whtie, Euro-Americans 

 

One case in point of Native people who co-existed peacefully and successfully adapted to the new culture of America are the tribes of the Southeast, known as the "five civilized tribes.

 

The Five Civilized Tribes are Cherokees, Chocktaws, Chickasaws, Creeks and Seminoles. These five tribes made every effort to co-exist peacefully but were nonetheless "removed." Removal -- Andrew Jackson – 1820 à “Trail of Tears” (forced march to Oklahoma). Accounts gives first hand accounts of those who marched on the trail. For historical information: Georgia info (see Native American part II for more details)

 

Sequoyah is a famous Cherokee who developed a syllabary that provided for writing in Cherokee. 

 

 

TOUR OF THE MAJOR REGIONS / CULTURES 

NORTHEAST  (abundant forests, rivers, lakes, cold climate; hunting/gathering & agriculture)

Algonquians

Iroquois

 

SOUTHEAST (abundant forests, well-watered by streams, creeks, rivers; agriculture & hunting/gathering

 

PLAINS (vast prairies; few trees, abundance of buffalo/bison; rivers and streams)

 

SOUTHWEST (desert landscape featuring mesas—flat topped mountains)

PUEBLO PEOPLE

NAVAJO (the Dine)

NORTHWEST COAST (Vast woodlands of immense trees; shoreline of Pacific; abundant fish)

CALIFORNIA (dry grasslands, warm climate)

Back to Lectures for 2315

Back to Syllabus for 2315

Back to Main Page