MN 1: Native American Cultures

What were Southwest tribes like by the time the Spanish arrived?

Extreme drought took its toll on these groups by the time the Spanish arrived. The Spanish simply encountered the descendants of the Chaco Canyon community, and dubbed them the Pueblo people. They had diverged by then into several different identities, including the Hopis, Aacomas, Zunis, Tewas.

What were the main tribes living in the southwest? (3)

Hohokam, Anasazi, Pueblos

Who were the Incas?

o Meanwhile, the Incas developed a highly sophisticated empire in South America, based in Peru, with Cuzco as its capital city. POtatoes were their main crop.

What was the main food staple of Great Plains settlements like?

• The people of the plains either hunted buffalo or farmed. Nomadic tribes survived on buffalo, which supplied food, decorations, tools, knives, and clothing.

What was the main food staple of Southwest tribes?

Maize (Probably the first in North America were the Anasazi)

What were the three main native american civilizations before Columbus? What were they like?

Mayas, Aztecs, Incas • All three had socially, culturally, and scientifically advanced civilizations - especially noteworthy was their agricultural knowledge, their astronomical knowledge, and the complex calendars they created.

What were the major food staples of the Midwest tribes?

Supported by hunting, fishing, and agriculture

What was the main food staple of Pacific Coast tribes?

They had a rich diet based on hunting, fishing, and gathering nuts, (especially acorns) berries, and roots. • Due to reliance on fishing, they developed impressive 60-foot-long canoes made from cedar that could handle the ocean.

What were the settlements of Great Plains nomadic tribes like?

They lived in tepees, tall, frames of poles covered in animal skins, which were easily disassembled and transported.

What were the Midwest settlements like?

many permanent settlements developed in the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys and elsewhere. The still mysterious Adena and Hopewell culture, centered in what is now Ohio, is famous for their large earthen mounds and effigies, some as much as a ¼ of a mile long. They go back as far as 1000 BC and lasted till about 800 AD. • The serpent mound is one of the more famous. • One of the largest of the so-called Moundbuilders was Cahokia (near St. Louis today), which had as many as 30,000 inhabitants and had trade contacts stretching most of the United States. Cahokia benefitted from the spread of maize into the region about 1000 AD.

Who were the Mayas?

o Between A.D. 300 and 800, the Mayas built remarkable cities in the rain forests of the Yucatan Peninsula. Maize was their main crop

Who were the Aztecs?

o Several centuries after the Mayas' decline, the Aztecs developed a powerful Empire in Central Mexico. The Aztec Capital, Tenochtitlan, (established in 1325) had a population of about 250,000. (more than some of the largest cities in Europe at the time). Maize was their main crop

What were Pacific Coast settlements like?

• Along the Pacific coast from what is today Alaska to northern California, people lived in permanent longhouses. • They encoded their stories, legends, and myths, in large totem poles

Who were the tribes of the Great Lakes region?

• Many tribes occupied the Great lakes region, including Miami, (centered in Fort Wayne) Wea, Piankashaw, and the Illinois (a confederation of tribes. The Ottawas, Ojibwas and Pottawattamie called themselves the Anishinabek. • Most Great Lakes tribes shared a common root language - Algonquian.

How did the introduction of Spanish horses change the way of life of the Great Plains tribes?

• Not until the 17th century did the Plains Indians encounter horses. They got them from the Spanish, who introduced them to the "new world" when Columbus first arrived. Some of these horses escaped and went native. • Horses transformed the Plains tribes, making them highly mobile. Tribes such as the Lakota Sioux, for example, moved away from farming to hunting and easily followed the buffalo across the plains.

What were Native American languages like?

• The languages (and culture) of American Indians were very diverse. While English, Spanish, and nearly all other Europeans languages share a common root (Indo-European), American Indian languages constituted more than 20 language families. • Among the largest of these were Algonquian in the Northeast, Siouan on the Great Plains, and Athabaskan in the Southwest. • Together, these 20 families included more than 400 distinct languages.

What were the cultures of native americans like in general? How was it different in South America v. North? What was the division of labor?

• The population of the area north of Mexico (The U.S. and Canada today), circa the 1490s, may have been between 1-10 million, possibly even more. • In general, the native societies in this region were smaller and less complex than those in Mexico and South America. The slowness of the northward spread of corn is often cited as one reason for this. • Also, some of the most populous and complex societies in North America had disappeared by the arrival of Europeans, for reasons still not well understood. (intense bouts of drought may be one reason) • Thus by the time of Columbus, most Native Americans north of Mexico lived in semi-permanent settlements of around 300-1000 people. • There was usually a division of labor, whereby men made tools and hunted for game, while woman were in charge of agriculture.

What were the main food sources for the Eastern Woodlands tribes?

• Their summer villages were surrounded by fields of corn, beans, and squash. But like many in the region, they split up into smaller units to survive the winter months when resources were scarce. • Known for their timber and bark lodging along the rivers. The rivers and the Atlantic Ocean provided a rich source of food. Due to rocky soil, corn never became a staple out east.

What were the biggest Eastern Woodlands tribes?

• When the English arrived, they encountered the eastern Woodland cultures. Among the most famous in this region was the Iroquois Confederation, a political union of five independent tribes who lived in the Mohawk Valley of New York. • The five tribes were the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk. • They use to be separate and warred against each other, until they were united by the legendary Hiawatha.

What were the settlements of Great PLains farming tribes like?

• While the farming tribes in the region also hunted, they lived in earthen lodges often along rivers and raised corn, beans, and squash.

What were food staples of teh Great Lakes tribes like?

• Farming and fishing was the norm, but further north, such as in Wisconsin, the Ojibwe supplemented their diets with wild rice, which grew plentifully in the many lakes and swamps. • Canoes made from birchbark (which is waterproof) turned the region into a superhighway.

What were the Eastern Woodlands tribes like when Europeans arrived?

• From the 16th century to the American Revolution, the Iroquois were a powerful force, battling rival Indian nations as well as Europeans.

What was the native population like when Columbus arrived?

• In 1492, when Columbus arrived in the New World. As many as 60 million people are estimated to have already lived here. • The native population was concentrated in three highly developed civilizations.

What were the Eastern Woodlands settlements like?

• Multiple families related through a mother lived in longhouses, up to 200 feet long. • From Massachusetts to Florida lived Atlantic Seaboard Settlements.

What were Midwest tribes called?

• Prior to the arrival of the Europeans, Native cultures thrived throughout the eastern half of North America, and have collectively come to be known as the Moundbuilders. • They were actually three (maybe 4) separate cultures sometimes overlapping in time.

What were Midwest tribes like by the time the Spanish arrived?

• Spaniards encountered some remnants of the Moundbuilders still alive further south in the 1500s, but they had collapsed for unknown reasons by the time the English arrived.

What was Iroquois government like?

• The Iroquois governed themselves via a council, and developed an interesting political system. Women could not serve on the council, only men could. And men couldn't vote for who sat on the council, only women could.

What was culture of class like in Pacific Coast settlements?

• They had stratified societies ruled by a wealthy elite. It was typically the norm for elites to give much of it back to the people. In the northwest, this generosity was encoded in the so-called potlatch ritual, whereby a wealthy elite maintained his status by giving away his wealth in a giant party.

How did they farm the desert?

Developed sophisticated irrigation systems

What were Southwest settlements like?

In large numbers, they lived in multi-storied buildings in towns built from adobe and rock (often molded into the canyon walls). Chaco Canyon in New Mexico is one of the more well-known sites today. This Anasazi site supported several large towns.