Native Americans

Native Americans

First Americans
1. Land bridge from Asia-Alaska
  1. shared genetic marker proves this
  2. melted, created Bering Strait
    1. Navajos and Apaches 8,000 years ago
    2. Aleut and Inuit 5,000 years ago
2. Hunting and gathering: economic basis
  1. hunted animals to extinction
    1. adopted new weapons
  2. 6,000 BC: raising domesticated crops
    1. maize, beans, squash
  3. good diet and fertile soil--population growth--wealthy societies
3. Kin-based groupings--complex structure
  1. rituals, founding myths, crafts
Mayas
1. Location: Yucatan and Guatemala
  1. big urban centers based on irrigation
2. Population: 20,000 in Tikai, 300 AD
  1. farmers built large temples
3. elite class "descending from gods"
4. Culture from Olmecs
  1. astronomers
  2. hieroglyphics
  3. complex and prosperous
5. Demise from long drought, 800-900 AD
  1. few tribes to stop Spanish invaders in 1520's
Aztecs
1. took over city of Teotihuacan, 800 AD
2. Location: on island in Lake Texcoco, 1325
  1. Tenochtitlan: main big city
  2. ruled most of Central Mexico
  3. merchants forged trading routes from Rio Grande to Panama
3. Culture: priests, warrior-nobles over farmers
  1. irrigation
  2. human and economical tributes
  3. strong politics and military: challenge to Spanish invaders
4. Population: 200,000, 1500
Hopewell (North)
1. Location: Ohio
2. Culture: large villages and burial mounds
  1. less great than Southern NAs
3. Economy: had domesticated crops, 100 AD
  1. trading network: Lousiana-Wisconsin
    1. trading networks demised, 400 AD
Hohokam (Southwest), 600 AD
1. Location: Arizona and New Mexico
2. Culture: worshipped on platforms
  1. red pottery
  2. built pueblos: stone, mud-brick (multi-story/room)
3. Economy: irrigation
Mogollon
1. Location: New Mexico
2. Culture: black and white pottery
3. Demise: droughts and soil exhaustion
  1. Descendants (Hopi, Zuni, Acomas) adapted
Anasazi (900 AD)
1. Culture: master architects
  1. built roads (400 mi)
Mississippi (800 AD)
1. Economy: crops
  1. imported maize from Mesoamerica
  2. agricultural surplus
2. Culture: strong religion
  1. small, fortified temple cities
  2. elite class of nobles and priests
    1. "descended from sun god"
    2. over farmers
  3. required tributes and waged war (less powerful than Aztecs)
  4. Chief died, his wives would be sacrificed
3. Location: Cahokia (main city), now St. Louis, 1150
  1. 15-20,000 people
4. Demise: crops, diseases, over-burdened environment, after 1300
  1. When de Soto invaded, he found Calusa, Apalachee, and Timucua people, 1539
Eastern Woodland Peoples
1. Location: (east of Miss)
2. Culture: self-governing tribes
  1. clans: trace back to common ancestors
  2. elders and chiefs conducted ceremonies, resolved feuds, made war policy and banned marriage within clan
  3. relied on kin ties to govern
  4. share everything
Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws
1. Location: Alabama and Miss
2. Culture: once chiefdoms before De Soto, now small communities
  1. De Soto brought disease
Iroquois
1. Culture: Muskogean and Algonquian-speaking
  1. matrilineal rights to land
  2. no emotional intimacy between spouses
  3. religion centered around agriculture
2. Economy: men hunted and fished, women raised crops
3. Uncertain life: could only give invaders furs and land

Next up

Description

Resource summary

Similar

	Created by carolinechurney about 10 years ago