Indigenous America

 Settlement of the Americas

 Native American Cultures

 Mound Builders
 Cahokia
 Southwest
 Pacific Northwest
 The Great Plains
 Eastern Woodlands
 Iroquois

 Cultural Commonalities

 European Views of Native Americans

 How do we study
Indigenous History?

 No written records before European contact in North America

 Physical evidence
 Art, photos, objects, human and animal remains, buildings, modified
landscapes, etc.
 This evidence can be gathered from other disciplines

 Oral evidence
 Music, songs/chants, oral stories, interviews, etc.

 Important for studying cultures without writing systems

 Settlement of the Americas

 Earliest arrival estimated

15,000 – 13,000 BCE

 Dates/methods contested
 Bering land bridge?
 Coastal migration?
Competing Theories
 Societies in North America

 Huge variety of cultures

 Lack of densely-populated
urban centers like in
Mesoamerica

 No large domesticated
animals or the wheel

 Adaptations to different
environments
“What can you observe
looking at this map?”
 Mound Builders

 Centered around
Mississippi and Ohio
Rivers

 Settlements composed of
large mounds
 Poverty Point
(Louisiana), 1500 BCE

 Extensive trade
 Cahokia (peak 900 – 1250 CE)

 Largest surviving earthen

mound
 3rd largest structure in
Western Hemisphere at
European contact

 Abundant evidence for

long-distance trade
 The Southwest

 The Hopi and Zuni

 Large settlements
 Pueblo Bonita, Chaco
Canyon

 The Pueblo
 Desert irrigation
 The Pacific Coast

 Settlements

 Abundant resources

 The Columbia River

 The Great Plains

 Hunting
 Buffalo

 The Sioux

 More migratory than

indigenous groups in other
areas
 Eastern Woodlands

 Settlements and agriculture

 Inter-group diplomacy and

trade

 Formal political alliances,

1400s
 Choctaw, Cherokee, and
Chickasaw
 The Iroquois
 Indigenous Religion

 Animism

 Rituals determined
community membership
and rank

 Single creator god

 Ideas about Land & Property

 Land as a community
resource

 Little accumulation of
wealth

 Generosity and gift-giving

 Gender Relations

 Matrilineal societies

 More equality between the

sexes

 Role of women in politics

Indigenous Land
 Next Class:
The Arrival of Empires: Spanish
Settlement of the Americas