MILLIKEN PUBLISHING COMPANY, ST. LOUIS,...

MILLIKEN PUBLISHING COMPANY, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURIMILLIKEN PUBLISHING COMPANY, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

MP3469Grades 7-12

Early North America provides a detailed and richly illustrated overview of the lives of the

first Americans from their earliest migrations over the Bering land bridge to their initial encounters

with European explorers. The book traces the settlement of these early nomadic peoples across

North America—the evolution of tools, the establishment of agriculture, and the rise of elaborate

regional cultures. Styles of shelter, modes of travel and transport, and the prevalence of art and

ornamentation suggest remarkable creativity and human ingenuity. Tribal beliefs, habits, practices,

and the unique structures of various tribal societies are discussed. The last third of the book

documents European “discovery” of the New World, the often brutal rivalries among European

colonizers, and the savage treatment of native peoples. Challenging review questions encourage

meaningful reflection and historical analysis. Maps, tests, answer key, and extensive bibliography

included.

About the Author:

TIM MCNEESE is an Associate Professor of History at York College.A teacher of middle school,

high school, and college students for the past 25 years,Tim is the author of over three dozen

books. He and his wife, Beverly, live in York, Nebraska with their daughter, Summer.

MP3469 Early North AmericaWritten by: Tim McNeeseEdited by: Lisa MartyIllustrated by: Art KirchhoffLayout & Design: Jon DavisCover Art: Buffalo Hunt by Carl Wimar

Courtesy of Missouri Historical Society

Copyright © 2002Milliken Publishing Company11643 Lilburn Park DriveSt. Louis, MO 63146www.millikenpub.comPrinted in the USA.All rights reserved.

Permission to reproduce pages extends only to teacher-purchaser for individual classroom use, not to exceed in any event more

than one copy per pupil in a course.The reproduction of any part for an entire school or school system or for commercial use

is strictly prohibited.

Early North America

A Place Called America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1The American Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2America’s Seven Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3The Earliest Americans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4Dating the First Americans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5People of Stone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6Living in a New World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7Paleolithic Hunting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8New Hunting Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9Plano: A New Age of Stone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10First Waves of Immigrants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11Unknown Immigrants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12Early American Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13Test I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14Native American Cultural Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15Southwestern Desert Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16Early Southwestern Peoples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17Ancient Cliff Dwellers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18Pueblo Peoples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19Daily Pueblo Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20The Mound Builders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21The Mississippi Mound Builders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22The Natchez: Last of the Mound Builders . . . . . . . . .23The Haudenosaunee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24The Algonquians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25The Algonquian Lifestyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26The World of the Algonquians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27Peoples of the Plains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28Early Plains Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29Horse and Buffalo Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30The Impact of the Horse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31The Uses of the Buffalo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32The Earthen Lodges of the Mandan . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33Plains Life as Bands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34Plains Indians at War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35Plains Indians’ Spirit World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36Test II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37Early Peoples of the Great Basin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38Early Peoples of the Plateau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39Tribal Differences of the Western Range . . . . . . . . .40Daily Life on the Plateau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41The Northwest Culture Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42Abundance in the Pacific Northwest . . . . . . . . . . . . .43The Northwestern Potlatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44Totem Poles of the Northwest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45Early California Natives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46California Indian Food Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47California Lifestyles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48California Tribal Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49Civilization in Mesoamerica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50

The World of the Aztecs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51The Woman and the Serpent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52The Man Who Became a Deer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53Wak-chung-kaka and Wash-ching-geka . . . . . . . . . . .54The Ghost Bride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55The Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56How Salmon Got into the Klamath River . . . . . . . . .57Katlian and the Iron People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58The Land of the Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59Test III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60The Norsemen Sail the Atlantic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61The Vikings Reach the New World . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62The Travels of Marco Polo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63Marco Polo Ignites a Spark in Europe . . . . . . . . . . .64The Lure of Eastern Spices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65Henry and the Portuguese Lead the Way . . . . . . . . .66Dias Sails the Coast of Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67Da Gama Reaches India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68The New Power of Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69Test IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70Columbus Forms His Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71Columbus Campaigns for Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72Columbus Sails to the West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73Columbus Arrives in the New World . . . . . . . . . . . . .74Exploring the New World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75Columbus Faces Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76Naming the New World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77Balboa’s Discovery of the South Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . .78Magellan Sails Two Seas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79A Voyage Around the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80Test V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81Exploiting the New World Peoples . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82Exchange of Two Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83Cortés and the Aztecs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84March to the Valley of Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85Invasion Against the Aztecs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86The Fight for Tenochtitlan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87Pizarro and the Incas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88The Explorations of Ponce de Leon . . . . . . . . . . . . .89De Soto’s Exploration of North America . . . . . . . . .90Coronado and the American Southwest . . . . . . . . . .91Cabot Sails for England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92Cartier Sails for France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93Test VI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94Map: Migration Paths of Early Indians . . . . . . . . . . .95Map: Culture Areas and Tribal Locations . . . . . . . . .96Map: Discovery of America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97Map: Sixteenth Century Spanish Exploration . . . . .98Answer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111

© Milliken Publishing Company Early North America

Early North AmericaTable of Contents

Just over 500 yearsago, no one in Europe,Africa, or Asia knew ofthe existence of the place we call America.While ancient people,many thousands of years ago, had migrated toNorth, Central, and South America, people on other continents had no direct connection or knowledgeof such a place.They were unaware of its size, thescope of the land, or of the millions of people whohad made their home in the Western Hemisphere.The term Western Hemisphere refers to the landsthat comprise North, Central, and South America, aswell as the islands of the Caribbean Sea.

Part of that land would one day become theUnited States of America.Today, the USA extends,as the song goes,“from sea to shining sea.” It ishome to over 285 million people, many of whom migrated to America from other countriesand continents.

People in the United States today live in a variety of places. Great cities, such as New York,Los Angeles, Houston, Denver, and Chicago, arehome to millions of urban dwellers.Additional millions live in the thousands of smaller cities,towns, and villages that dot the American landscape. Still others live in rural areas, away fromthe hustle and bustle of city life. Many such peoplework as farmers, ranchers, and herders.

Americans have worked hard to make a homefor themselves wherever they live.Today, peoplemay be found everywhere in America. Some livenear the oceans that extend along our western,eastern, and southern coasts. Others enjoy living in the mountains—from the Rockies to theAppalachians—that give shape and majesty to thenation’s landscape. Still others enjoy living indeserts or the frozen reaches of Alaska.The vastprairies and plains are home to others who arelured by a land that is spacious and uninterrupted—the “land of the big sky” as Montana is called.

A key to understanding American history is to first understand the landscape of America, or

the geography of the United States. Not only

does a nation’s geographydetermine where people live, it also explains howthey live.The story of the United States is oneclosely connected to geography.

Geography is more than just a study of theland. It examines the relationship between theland, the people who live on it, and how peopleuse the land’s resources.As a result, geographersoften ask more than one type of question aboutthe places they study.

Naturally, geographers want to know whereplaces are located and what places are called. It isimportant to a geographer who studies the UnitedStates to know where the Mississippi River is. Buthe or she is also interested in how the people wholive along this great waterway use the river.Geographers are interested in understanding whypeople, thousands of years ago, came to live alongthe Mississippi in the first place and ask themselvesquestions such as why a city such as St. Louis cameinto existence along the river.Why there? Whyalong the Mississippi? Why in Missouri? Why not St. Louis,Vermont? Such questions illustrate the powerful interplay between geography and history—between people and place.

As with so many other aspects of life in theUnited States, the American landscape is one ofstunning contrasts and contradictions. It is a vastnation, whose greatness is profoundly tied to itsrich geographical diversity—lakes, swamps, rivers,and streams, as well as mountains, deep gorges,and gently rolling hills.

The United States is divided into seven majorphysical regions: Coastal Plains,AppalachianMountains, Canadian Shield, Interior Plains, RockyMountains, Intermountain Region, and Pacific Coast.

A Place Called America

1Early North America © Milliken Publishing Company

A family vacation to your favorite place in theUnited States can provide a person with specialmemories that last a lifetime.Who can forget theirfirst visit to some of America’s most breathtakingnatural wonders: the roaring cascade of millions ofgallons of water that form Niagara Falls; the snow-capped, jagged peaks of the Rocky Mountains; theyawning chasm, flanked by red and brown rock,called the Grand Canyon; the lush tropical paradiseof Hawaii. Such places stand out as some of themost beautiful in all of America, even the world.

As we have noted, geography has helped determine the scope of the United States today andhow its people live.A look at the seven physicalregions of the United States will help us begin tounderstand how life has unfolded here from thepast to the present. But first, let’s look at the typesof landforms found in these regions.

The landscape of the United States includesfour basic landforms: mountains, hills, plateaus,and plains. Each varies according to elevation andhow the land it includes is shaped. Mountains arethe tallest landform in America. By definition, amountain is a high, rugged region, rising to aheight of at least 5,000 feet above the adjacentland.Typically, mountains are not heavily populated,since they are steep and rocky.

Next in elevation is the landform known ashills. Similar to mountains, hills are less steep, lesshigh, and are typically less abrupt—rounder thanmountains. By definition, they are less than 5,000feet in elevation. Many of America’s hills may havebeen mountains thousands of years ago, but slowlymoving ice sheets, known as glaciers, wore thetops of the mountains down, eroding them intohills. More people live in hilly lands than on mountains, since the hilly country can be farmedand the environment is more hospitable.

Plateaus are defined as high, level lands generally rising to an elevation of 2,000 feet above sea level.Although such places are notexactly “level,” the landscape of plateaus is fairlyeven, often featuring gently rolling prairies.Plateaus can provide good farming lands,depending on the amount of regular rainfall.Some plateaus are located between major mountain ranges, such as the Great Basin region of the West, a region that includes the modern-daystates of Utah and Nevada. Surrounded by mountains, the Great Basin gets little rainfall.

Finally, the plains comprise broad areasenhanced by gently rolling lands.Typically, plainslie at a low elevation, not too much above sealevel. Many people live in these areas, which makeup almost half of the landmass of the UnitedStates. Places such as the Great Plains provide richfarm lands. Since the land of the plains does notrise or fall greatly, it provides ideal landscapes forbuilding farms, roads, and cityscapes.

Mountain ranges dot the landscapes of westernstates from Alaska to California to Colorado andeastern states from the Canadian border to WestVirginia.The Black Hills interrupt the westernplains region of South Dakota, while the heavilywooded Ozark Hills lure tourists into southwestMissouri. From Ohio to Kansas, the Great Plainsdominate the landscape of America’s Midwest.Down south, the plains bordering the Gulf ofMexico help set the course of life for people fromTexas to Florida.

The American Landscape

2© Milliken Publishing Company Early North America

From mountain peaks to the lowlands of theplains, the United States is home to seven physicalregions.These regions comprise the geography notonly of the U.S., but of North America in general,including Mexico to the south and Canada to the north.

The seven regions include the Coastal Plains,the Appalachian Mountains, the Canadian Shield,the Interior Plains, the Rocky Mountains, theIntermountain Region, and the Pacific Coast.Individually, they each hold an attraction to thosewho migrated there, whether a century ago or10,000 years in the past.

The Seven Physical Regions of the U.S.A.

The Coastal Plains. Lying along the easterncoast, this region includes the land between theAtlantic Ocean and the foothills of the AppalachianMountains.The region also includes the land alongthe Gulf of Mexico to the south.This expansiveregion runs from Maine in the northeast to Floridain the southeast then west to Texas. Prehistorically,much of this area was once underwater.Today, it ishome to some of America’s major cities, includingNew York,Atlanta, Boston, and New Orleans.

Appalachian Mountains.This narrow,but lengthy, mountain chain stretches fromNewfoundland, Canada to the southern state of Alabama. It parallels much of the coastal plainregion to the east.These mountains, rising to aheight of 6000 feet or less, are lower than thewestern Rockies.The Appalachian chain of mountains includes several smaller ridges including the Green Mountains of the northeast,the Shenandoahs of Virginia, and the GreatSmokies of Tennessee. Early European settlerssought routes through these mountains into theinterior of North America.

Canadian Shield. Most of the Canadian Shieldlies to the north, in Canada, but a portion of thisregion extends south into the Great Lakes region,including the states of Minnesota,Wisconsin, and

Michigan.The region was once mountainous, butover time glaciers wore away the high places,leaving a land of low plains and lakes. It is a regionrich in minerals.

Interior Plains. Filling in the landscapebetween the Appalachians in the east and theRocky Mountains in the west is the region knownas the Interior Plains.The area includes the CentralPlains to the east and the Great Plains of the west.In prehistoric times, much of the region was covered by a vast inland sea.The Interior Plains arerich farmland. Cities in the region include St. Louis,Chicago, Kansas City, and Dallas.

Rocky Mountains. Extending from Alaska into the American Southwest, this region is thinlypopulated. Home to the highest mountain chain inNorth America—some peaks rise 14,000 feet—theregion was an impediment to western pioneers.

Intermountain Region. Lying between theRockies and the western coastal mountains, theIntermountain Region is rugged, featuring desertbasins, high plateaus, and deep gorges and arroyos.This arid region receives little rainfall and historically has supported a small population.

Pacific Coast. Paralleling the Pacific Ocean,the Pacific Coast region is noted for its inlandmountains, including the Cascades and the SierraNevadas. In the north, dense forests mark the landscape, while in California, farming produces anabundant harvest of vegetables, grains, and fruits.Among the region’s important cities are Seattle,Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

America’s Seven Regions


Today, geographers recognize the seven physical regions that define the United States. Butsuch land formations have not always existed. Inprehistoric times, the landscape was different thanit is today. For example, places that are now hillywere once covered by great sheets of ice calledglaciers.The Great Plains were once part of anancient sea bed. During these ancient eras, nohuman beings lived in the Western Hemisphere.

Prior to the arrival of the first humans in theAmericas, the land experienced repeated ice ages,periods of time during which the ice of the polarnorth extended further south.During such periods,theearth’s climate was in the midst of “global cooling,”causing more of the world’s water supply tobecome locked in the form of ice, rather than liquidor vapor.This caused the level of the planet’s seasand oceans to drop.When the seas were lowered,this exposed more of the earth’s surface land.

All this relates to the process of how anthropologists (people who study ancient cultures) believe the first humans arrived in North America.

Most scientists, including anthropologists andarchaeologists (people who attempt to recover thepast by digging up artifacts left behind), believethe first humans migrated to America during oneor both of the two most recent ice ages. Duringsuch periods, the land normally separating theWestern Hemisphere and Asia was exposed due tothe lowering of the ocean.The most recent iceage—called the Pleistocene—during which thisphenomenon might have occurred took placeabout 25,000 to 30,000 years ago.

During the Pleistocene Era, massive glaciersheld so much water that sea levels may havedropped 300 feet lower than they are today.Theland normally underwater, in what is today knownas the Bering Strait, would have been above sealevel, a large piece of open land extending perhaps750 feet from north to south.The name given thistemporary piece of ancient real estate is Beringia.The land was ice-free, and covered with grasses,

forming a giant meadow or pasture for migratoryanimals.The climate of the region was warm insummer, dry and cold in winter.

Here, great Ice Age animals roamed, includingPleistocene horses, camels, reindeer, and bison.These Ice Age bison were larger than modern-daybison.The horses, however, were smaller than horsestypically are today.The Ice Age camels were theearly descendants of the llamas found in SouthAmerica today. Other animals that travelled acrossBeringia were musk oxen, saber-toothed tigers, andbeavers as big as bears.

Towering over all of these were the mastodons and woolly mammoths. Larger than the modern elephant, woolly mammoths lived until the end of the Pleistocene Era, about 11,000years ago.They stood over 10 feet tall. Mastodonswere equally elephant-like, but were covered witha thick coat of shaggy hair.These large animalssported long, curving tusks. Like the mammothsbefore them, they became extinct in NorthAmerica around 6,000 B.C.

In pursuit of these large creatures, ancienthumans migrated from Asia to the WesternHemisphere without ever realizing they had left one continent and moved onto another.Whenthe last Ice Age ended, about 10,000 years ago,leaving Beringia covered with water, the peoplewho had settled in the Western Hemisphere stayed.In time, as the large animals became extinct, thesefirst “Americans” met the challenges of living in anew environment.

Review and Write

1. What geological circumstances occurred during the Pleistocene Era that allowed for migration of humans and animals to the Western Hemisphere?

2. How did the migration of animals to the Western Hemisphere cause the migration of humans into this vast region?

The Earliest Americans


Today, anthropologists and archaeologistsknow little about the origins of human beings inthe Western Hemisphere.As previously stated,many experts believe the first people in theAmericas arrived during the most recent Ice Age,making their way into North America about 12,000or 13,000 years ago.

However, some scientists believe the first“Americans” arrived earlier than that.While themost recent Ice Age lasted for about 10,000 years,beginning around 20,000 years B.C., another IceAge preceded it. Humans could have wanderedacross Beringia as early as 50,000 years ago duringan Ice Age of that era.That period lasted for severalthousand years.

A few anthropologic sites today give some indication of human occupation in the WesternHemisphere at that time.A site in western Canadacalled “Old Crow,” located in the Yukon, has yieldedfossils and artifacts that may date to 50,000 yearsago.Archaeologists working as far south as Brazilclaim to have discovered a site dating to over40,000 years ago. If the experts are correct, thesediscoveries would indicate even earlier travel ormigration across Beringia, since Brazil is thousandsof miles from Alaska.

But controversy dogs such sites.The problemlies in the evidence itself. Determining whether astone or bone artifact was actually worked by ahuman being tens of thousands of years ago issometimes difficult to establish.Therefore, thesesites in the Yukon and Brazil remain under scrutiny.

It can be said, then, that the safest dating ofhumans in America takes scientists back 20,000 to 25,000 years ago. But what causes the expertsto focus on human occupation dating back thatfar? Further, how do we know America’s earliestinhabitants migrated from Asia? What evidencesupports either or both of these conclusions about the first “Americans”?

To begin with, anthropologists believe the firstinhabitants of the Western Hemisphere came fromAsia because of the teeth structure found in the

oldest human fossils.The dental pattern of the earliest people matches that of the people ofnortheastern Asia.

Another physical indicator of migration toAmerica by 25,000 B.C. is blood type.Today’sNative American population is comprised of primarily two blood types. Most carry type O, anda smaller number carry type A.Almost no modernNative Americans carry type B.

Anthropologists and other scientists believethat type B evolved into existence about 30,000years ago.This means that the first humans in theWestern Hemisphere had to migrate to America by30,000 years ago, before the development of typeB blood. (Modern Asians, incidentally, carry allthree types of blood.)

Additional evidence for a 25,000 B.C.migration is the genetic makeup of Native Americans.Expertsbelieve it may have required 20,000 years of geneticchange to produce the physical characteristicsfound among Native Americans today.

Finally, modern linguists, people who study languages and their origins, estimate that it wouldhave taken 25,000 years for the people of theWestern Hemisphere—nearly all of whom camefrom Asia and probably spoke from the same language family—to develop the multitude of languages spoken in America by the time ofEuropean arrival around A.D. 1500.Those languages number nearly 500. Such divergent languages would have required many millennia todevelop and take root in the Americas.

Review and Write

1. Of the reasons given above for dating the first humans in the Western Hemisphere at 25,000 years ago, which one(s) do you find the most convincing?

2. What evidence is used by scientists to determine when America’s earliest inhabitants migrated from Asia?

Dating the First Americans


What kind of people were these first travelersacross Beringia into the Americas? The problemwith knowing and understanding the nature of thefirst people in the Western Hemisphere is the sameas what makes it difficult to pinpoint a time ordate for their arrival: a simple lack of evidence.

We can know with relative sureness that thosefirst people to wander across the great land bridgecalled Beringia, thousands of years ago, were anadventurous people. But they probably did notthink of themselves as adventurers.They followedthe migratory animals of the Pleistocene Era notbecause they sought excitement in their lives, butfor something much more basic: survival.

These early immigrants to America werenomadic hunters, men and women who lived in aStone Age world.They were dependent on huntingas their primary food source because they did notyet practice an organized, systematic form of agriculture.Anthropologists call these primitivepeople hunter-gatherers.They were meat eaterswho supplemented their diets by gathering wildplants, roots, bulbs, and berries.While the menhunted, the women and children gathered.

Not only did animals provide food, but theirskins and furs provided clothing for the huntersand their families.Animal bones were fashionedinto weapons and tools. Even animal dung wasused as a source of fuel, as people burned driedanimal waste.

These people were nomadic, meaning they did not remain settled in a single place, since they followed in the footsteps of migrating animals.Asanimal herds moved, so did the clans and familiesof ancient people in America.This pattern wasrepeated all around the world during Stone Ageeras, including the Paleolithic Age and the Neolithic period.

The Paleolithic Era lasted for thousands ofyears until it gave way to the Neolithic Age, around10,000 B.C. (The meaning of the term paleolithiccomes from two Greek words: paleo meaning“old,” and lithic meaning “stone.” In other words,

Paleolithic means “Old Stone Age.”) Stone helpsidentify these people, since they fashioned stonesinto tools and weapons.

Life for these early “Americans” was filled withdanger and uncertainty. Life spans were quiteshort, with an average adult living only into his orher 30s. Given their precarious lifestyle, the hunter-gatherer population probably remained low forthousands of years.

People living today in hunter-gatherer societies reproduce at the very low rate of approximately 0.5 percent.At that rate, a societydoubles every 140 years. It would require thousands of years of genetic history to reproducefrom thousands, maybe even hundreds, of peopleto the millions who lived in the WesternHemisphere by the time of European arrival in the “New World” in A.D. 1500.

Review and Write

In what ways would life as a hunter-gatherer be extremely limited, even primitive?

People of Stone


While the date for the earliest human inhabitants of the Americas remains a mystery, onethat will probably be discussed and debated foryears to come, it is clear that people were inAmerica by the end of the most recent Ice Age—about 12,000 or 13,000 years ago.

By that date, the fossil record of early manbecomes clearer.Archaeologists have found evidence of humans living at that time in easternSiberia and in places scattered across westernAlaska. It is assumed that humans also lived inBeringia, but with the end of the Ice Age, Beringiasank beneath the ocean waters as the northernglaciers shrank.

Documenting human occupation of Beringia isnearly impossible, since that land has been under-water for the past 10,000 years. (Anthropologistshave discovered mammoth fossils on the seabedwhere Beringia was once exposed.)

Once the first humans arrived in America, theybegan to scatter about, filling in the landscape.Theprocess of migrating to the four corners of theWestern Hemisphere did not take place overnight.Scientists estimate that several thousand yearspassed before humans reached the furthest southernpoint in South America,Tierra del Fuego. Evidenceexists that humans arrived there and settledaround 6,000 B.C.

People arrived in other parts of the Americaseven earlier. By 14,000 B.C., humans had arrived inthe eastern portion of the United States.At theMeadowcroft site in Pennsylvania, which has beenunder excavation for years, archaeologists haveuncovered human artifacts dating to that period.To the south, in modern Virginia, the Thunderbirdsite, located in the Shenandoah Valley, human relicsdating to 7,000 B.C. have been unearthed.

This migration took many centuries. But thefinal opportunity for people from Asia to migratewest ended with the collapse of Beringia.A warmingtrend during that era brought about a receding ofthe polar ice cap and a gradual altering of theNorth American climate. Over the next several

thousand years, ending around 8,000 B.C., thePleistocene Era came to an end.With its passingwent the huge animals that had lured ancienthunting peoples onto an unknown continent.Archaeologists believe this change in environmentand climate resulted in the extinction of 32 of the

larger animals of the era, including the wooly mammoth and mastodon. Others that fell out ofexistence were the ancient horse and camel, aswell as the saber-toothed tiger.

As the glaciers melted, they left behind manylakes dotting the landscape of North America. Inthe warmer environment, plants and vegetationbegan to spread, providing more food sources.

One ancient animal that did not die out withthe passing of the Pleistocene Era was the bison.Bison were relatively quick, thus able to outrunhumans. Of necessity, early Native Americans beganto prey heavily on bison and learned to adapt theirhunting methods and tools to this fast-moving target.

These early people of America lived in an ageof stone.This means they used stone to create simple tools and weapons. Stone was at the centerof the new hunting technology, just as it had beenthe focus in earlier eras.

Living in a New World


Ancient hunters primarily used one weaponagainst their animal prey—the spear.A spear is asimple weapon consisting of a long wooden shaft,mounted at one end with a stone tip called a projectile point.These points were used for a variety of tools and weapons and were one of thefirst examples of a fashioned tool.

From the beginning, ancient peoples usedstone. It is a durable material and some forms of itlend themselves to reshaping. Early humans knewthe value of a rock with a sharpened edge and,over long spans of time, refined their skills in making stone tools, producing such useful items asdrills, awls, choppers, and blades of volcanic glasssharpened to a razor’s edge.

While techniques and methods of reshapingstones varied, Paleolithic peoples in the Americasused two general methods.The earliest forminvolved chipping stones called flints to makeprimitive tools. Using various tools, including stonehammers, antler batons, and smaller antler tips,early toolmakers chiseled away, reducing a flintcore to flakes, then methodically working theflakes into a useful form. Such flakes of flint werechipped, or knapped, into projectile points, hidescrapers, knives, and other tools.

A second method of reworking stone into tools involved pecking and grinding stones.Hard stones such as granite or basalt werereworked into tools by using other stones.Then the ancient toolmaker ground the would-beitems against still other stones to produce smooth,even sharp edges. Using this technique, Paleolithicpeoples in the Western Hemisphere were able toproduce such items as axes, mauls, and metates, orgrinding slabs.

Much of this early stone working was haphazard, with each item produced having itsown distinct style. However, a new stone technology was being produced around 10,000B.C.This new style of working stone produced ahighly stylized, extremely functional weapon, oneof balance and grace. It was a projectile form today

called the Clovis Point. First un-earthed in 1932 by archaeologists working in the vicinity of Clovis,New Mexico, Clovis Points are ancient works of art.

Ranging in size from one inch to six inches inlength, the Clovis Point was a bifacial point.Thismeant it was chipped the same on both faces ofthe stone so that both sides would be identical. Itwas also fluted, meaning the base of the ClovisPoint was flaked to produce a concave trough running about one-third the length of the pointwhich would accommodate the end of a spearshaft.The shaft end was split into two equal halves,and the Clovis Point fit snugly into the split.Ancient hunters then used animal sinew to bindthe point to the shaft, producing the most effective weapon thus far for hunting animals of all kinds, including mammoths, mastodons, andancient camels.

While not a highly technical piece of huntingequipment, the Clovis Point nonetheless representsan advance in Stone Age technology.The point was reproduced all across North America.Archaeologists have unearthed examples of ClovisPoints from New Mexico to Nova Scotia—Manitoba to Montana. Used for approximately2,000 years, its longevity as a tool suggests itspower and enduring effectiveness. Its ubiquity and proliferation are markers for archaeologistsand anthropologists indicating the populousness of ancient America and the wide dispersal of theseearly peoples across the American continent by10,000 B.C.

Review and Write

1. Why did ancient peoples rely on stone as the material for their projectiles?

2. In what two ways did ancient peoples reshape stones for their own use?

3. Describe a typical Clovis Point.


Paleolithic Hunting

In the post-Ice Age world of the Americas, thepeople living in North America began to experienceregional differences in climate.As long as the glaciers dominated the landscape, keeping thenorthern reaches of the New World locked in afrozen grip, ancient Americans lived much thesame regardless of their location.

But as the glaciers retreated, North Americawas transformed. Climates varied from region toregion, with each part of the continent witnessingnew patterns of temperature, seasons, rainfall, evenwind. In the same way that a sameness of climatehad integrated the culture of the continent in earliermillennia, so post-Ice Age America was soon aplace of regional differences tied to differingregional climates.

Those cultural regions are identified by paleontologists and historians as: the Arctic andSubarctic, centered generally in Alaska and northern Canada. Other regions located in southern Canada and the United States include the Northeast, Great Plains, Northwest, Southeast,Southwest,Western Range, and California. Still further south, two additional regions developed:the Caribbean and Mexico.

These distinct regional cultures developed over thousands of years shaped by climate and topography.

In the midst of so many changes, hunting continued to be universally important among thesenow very disparate groups of Native Americans.After the extinction of dozens of Ice AgePleistocene animals, the bison became the primarylarge animal of North America, forcing ancient peoples to alter their hunting techniques. In orderto be successful hunters of bison, early man developed a new type of projectile.

While the Clovis Point had served ancienthunters well as they tracked their Pleistocene prey,hunting bison required something new.Thesehunters needed a weapon they could throw quickly,accurately, and at a higher rate of velocity than theClovis Point allowed.The answer was found in twonew weapons.

One was a new style of projectile point. Calledthe Folsom Point, it was first unearthed by archaeologists in 1927.The site was at Folsom,New Mexico.This spear point is different from theearlier Clovis model in several ways.The Folsom isa refinement of Clovis: smaller, lighter, more delicate,yet deadlier. Like the Clovis, the Folsom is fluted,but the Folsom’s fluting extended nearly the entirelength of the point.The Folsom was also flakedmore finely, giving it a sharper edge than theClovis. Just as the Clovis Point, the Folsom Pointwas mounted on a shaft, but these savvy bisonhunters developed an apparatus for hurling thesenew projectiles. It was a spear-throwing devicecalled an atlatl.The atlatl attached to the end of ashaft could deliver the projectile at a greater speedwith better accuracy than earlier spears thrown by hand.

These new adaptations helped hunters becomemore successful in killing ancient bison. In fact, thefirst Folsom Point uncovered in 1927 was foundembedded in the ribs of an early type of bison,powerfully illustrating the use and effectiveness ofthis new technology.

New Hunting Technologies


Not only did the Folsom Point help ancienthunters in their quest for food, but their discoveryby archaeologists helped to answer questionsabout when these early people arrived in theWestern Hemisphere. Earlier in this century, manyanthropologists believed that people had only livedin North America for, perhaps, two or three thousand years.

But the discovery of a Folsom Point stuckbetween the ribs of a now long-extinct species ofbison provided proof that humans had hunted inAmerica thousands of years earlier.This particulartype of bison has been extinct for about 10,000years, providing clear proof that humans hunted in the Western Hemisphere and lived on the landscape at least as early as that date.

And just as the Folsom Point replaced the earlier Clovis projectile point, a later style was anadaptation of the Folsom.The Folsom Point was inuse across North America for one or two thousandyears until 8,000 B.C. By 7,000 B.C. the Folsom projectile was giving way to a technology calledPlano.This tool-making era lasted longer than boththe Clovis and Folsom periods combined, its earliest forms dating from 8,000 B.C. and lastinguntil about 4,000 B.C.

The Plano technology produced a variety of points and tools. Unlike earlier models, such as Clovis and Folsom, Plano Points were not typically fluted, with a trough in the point’s base to accommodate the end of a spear.WhilePlano Points vary dramatically even from oneanother, typically they were longer, were not fluted, and some models were notched at their bases.

This movement toward notching will ultimately take early Indian weapons technologyinto future eras. Notching refers to the knapping of the stone to create, instead of fluting, a pair ofnotches, or indentations, located at the base of the projectile point. (This is the basic design of nearlyall later styles of arrowheads used by NativeAmerican peoples.) Archaeologists today

recognize several different models of Plano technology.The Plano model called the Eden Point is narrow and long, having what is called a lanceolate shape. It features no fluting and nonotches.This point narrows to a sharp point,resulting in a streamlined, even delicate-lookingtool or weapon.

Another Plano type, the Scottsbluff Point iswider and shorter than the Eden, and featuresslight notching at the base.A similar point, theAlberta, is also notched at the base, but is typicallywider than the Eden.The flaking technique usedon all these points gave a delicate rippled edge tothe projectiles, making them very fragile. In fact,experts believe that a point such as the lengthyand narrow Eden model might have been produced only for ceremonial or artistic reasonsand was rarely used as a weapon.

Plano technology not only changed the designof projectile points, it was also used to create awider range of tools. Plano peoples chipped andpolished stone wedges, saws, scraper knives, adzes(a hand tool designed to cut away the surface ofwood), gravers (a sharp-point engraving tool), andother tools.

Innovations such as the atlatl and Plano technology gave hunters greater advantage againsttheir prey, producing more food for the community.This allowed Native American groupsto become larger in size, thus changing their social structure.

Review and Write

1. How did the discovery of a Folsom Point in the Western Hemisphere help answer questions about when the first people arrived in the Western Hemisphere?

2. What is notching?

3. What are some examples of Plano points? Describe each one.


Plano: A New Age of Stone

First Wave of Immigrants

During the same millennia that stone projectilepoints experienced significant change from Clovisto Folsom to Plano, different groups of Asiansmigrated to the Americas.Anthropologists believethat those who migrated to the WesternHemisphere from Asia and Siberia came in threeseparate and distinct waves.

Those who migrated during the first waveentered the Americas across Beringia prior to12,000 B.C.These Asians came in significant numbersand migrated throughout North and South America.

These earliest migrants to America spoke a language called “Amerind,” which was the linguisticorigin of nearly all of the languages spoken byNative American peoples into modern times.TheAlgonquian, Iroquoian, Muskogean, Siouan, Nahuatl,or Aztec, and Mayan languages can all be tracedback to “Amerind.” Even the languages scatteredthroughout South America today find their roots inthis first New World language.

This first wave of migrants established themselves throughout southern Canada and as farsouth as the island chains of the Caribbean Sea.

The second, or middle wave of migrants to theAmericas arrived in the western regions of Canadaa few thousand years after the arrivals of the earliest wave.These people spoke a different language altogether known as “Na-Dene.”Themajority of these migrants remained in northernand western Canada.Their language stock providedthe source language for various dialects spoken byNative Americans in that region today.Thesedialects are known as the Athapaskan languages ofthe Canadian Northwest.

Yet “Na-Dene” also proved to be the source ofother native languages spoken far to the south.Centered in the American Southwest (Arizona,Utah, southern Colorado, and New Mexico), theApache dialects, as well as Navajo, find their rootsin “Na-Dene.” Just how such a language sourcecould center in two regions so distinctly differentas Arizona and Canada remains a mystery.

The third and final wave of migrants to the

New World arrived late, almost too late.They camearound 5,000 B.C. after much of Beringia wasalready underwater.Until 2,000 B.C., these latecomers,known today as the Inuit, or, as some NativeAmericans refer to them—the Eskimos—settled allacross western Alaska, including the Aleutian Islandchain.They extended their settlements across thefrozen north of Canada, settling on both the eastand west shores of Hudson Bay. In time, these peoplesettled as far east as Greenland. In fact, it would bethe Inuit who would make contact with theNorsemen called Vikings, around A.D. 1,000.TheViking would represent the next significant phaseof migration to America.

Asian migration to the Americas, then, was along process of disparate migrations of differentpeoples from various places to the west.This helpsexplain why Native American populations havesome common and very distinct physical features—straight, black hair and dark eyes—yet skin tonesthat vary dramatically. It is important, for the modernobserver not to think of Native Americans as onehomogeneous people, but as a diverse populationwith a mixed ethnic and geographical heritage.

Review and Write

Why do you think many people today think of Native Americans as being all alike?


Wandering bands of primitive hunters, crossingthe meadowlands of a prehistoric place we callBeringia, populated the Western Hemisphere,beginning as early as 20,000 years ago.

This scenario is today, among most historiansand anthropologists, the explanation of how andwhen the first arrivals to the New World came tosettle and populate the two continents of theWestern Hemisphere.

But is it possible that other people of ancienttimes arrived in America by other means and aretoday not recognized for their contributions?Increasing numbers of historians are givingthoughtful consideration to such possibilities.

One such group of unsung early arrivals mighthave been the Polynesians of the South Pacific. It isa fact that, around 1600 B.C. people living inSoutheast Asia began a slow process of moving outcautiously into the Pacific Ocean, settling theislands of the South Pacific. Beginning then, andover the next 2,000 years, Polynesians settled onhundreds of islands across the Pacific, traveling insturdy, very seaworthy wooden dugouts or largecanoes that sported durable sails.

These Polynesians were skilled sailors andwere able to take their families from island toisland in search of a home. During those two millennia, beginning in 1600 B.C., these seafaringAsians settled on land scattered throughout 30 million square miles of sea.

With the South Sea islands of Fiji serving astheir home base, these people sailed as far to theeast as Hawaii, a distance of 2,500 miles, by the 1stcentury A.D. By A.D. 300, the Polynesians had settledEaster Island.This island group is 4,000 miles fromFiji. But even more intriguing is the fact that EasterIsland is only 200 miles off the coast of westernSouth America. Given this great, and probablyrepeated feat of sailing skill, is it too inconceivableto imagine that sometime in the distant past, longbefore the arrival of Europeans on the easternshores of North America, the Polynesians landed inthe Americas?

While such an arrival might well have happened,there is no clear, undisputed evidence that thePolynesians ever arrived in the Americas at all, noteven once. However, there is one fascinating pieceof the puzzle that must be explained.The sweetpotato appears to be a food found originally in theAmericas.Yet, at sometime in the past, the sweetpotato arrived at Easter Island.Whether it was carriedby a Polynesian who landed in South America orby a Native American who ventured out into thePacific, modern historians may never know.

Equally intriguing is an Indian culture datingfrom around 5,000 B.C. and located along thenortheast coast of North America.These peoplewere also a great seagoing culture, fishing and tradingalong 1,500 miles of Atlantic coastlands from fareastern Canada to modern-day New Jersey.Anthropologists identify them as some of the peopleliving in the Maritime Archaic Era, but they are alsocommonly known as the Red Paint People (sincethey used lots of red paint during their funeralrites.) They were the first in America to build burialmounds; they lived in 300-foot-long, multi-roomhouses; and they erected stone markers that bear astrikingly similar resemblance to those found inthe European lands of Brittany and Norway.However, the mounds and stone piles of the RedPaint People predate the European models by several hundred years. Could these ancient Indiansailors have ridden the waves to Europe thousandof years before the Norsemen sailed to America?Again, we may never know.

Review and Write

1. How and when might Polynesians have first moved to the Americas?

2. What does the sweet potato have to do with Polynesian migration to the Western Hemisphere?

3. Who were the Red Paint People?


Unknown Immigrants

Ancient Americans, the earliest arrivals to theNew World, were nomadic hunters and gatherers.Since they followed the migratory patterns of thebig game animals, they wandered in search of theirfood. Nature determined where food could be found.

This was true not only of the animals whothemselves moved around looking for their ownfood supply, but also of the wild plants that ancientpeople harvested. Since no one planted anything, itsimply grew wherever it developed naturally.

In the New World, the early Native Americansalso fished for food.The streams, rivers, lakes, andcoastal waters were abundant in fish, shellfish,and other exotic marine life.These first fishermenfashioned hooks carved from bone, just as modern-day anglers use metal hooks to catch their prey.

In time, Native Americans developed a completely different method of procuring food forthemselves—one they could rely on more readilythan hunting or fishing.This was the practice offarming or systematic agriculture.

This shift from hunting and gathering food to food production was centered in Mexico butoccurred in three other places around the globestarting around 7,000 B.C. Each of these four farming regions produced a staple crop—wheat inWest Asia, rice in Southeast Asia, potatoes in SouthAmerica, and Indian corn, known as maize, inMexico.These earliest examples of cultivation—thepractice of growing crops by planting seeds in theground—are often referred to collectively as theAgricultural Revolution.

Other crops were also soon under cultivationin each of these four agricultural areas. In Mexico,Native Americans grew not only maize, but a widevariety of foodstuffs including beans, squash,gourds, tomatoes, peppers, and avocados. CentralAmerica, including Mexico, was also the source forcocoa (which is used to make chocolate) and vanillabeans. In more modern times, New World cropssuch as potatoes and corn are staple foods for hundreds of millions of people.

Anthropologists and archaeologists present

evidence indicating that the people living inMexico began producing cultivated crops as earlyas 9,000 years ago. Maize proved very hardy,producing abundant yields.

Not only did such crops produce greater suppliesof food for ancient peoples in America, it alsoallowed for the ultimate settling of such people.Hunting societies, by nature, had been forced toroam, always maintaining a basic society of families,with few possessions, who were constantly on themove.With the advent of systematic agriculture,people could now remain in one place indefinitely.

This allowed people to be better fed, to build morecomplex social systems, and to construct more permanent homes.

The difference is found in the numbers.Theexperts tell us that in the ancient world of America,before the development of farming, a hunter-gatherertribe of 100 people required an equal number ofacres of land to support that population. However,once a culture moved to an organized system ofproductive agriculture, the number of acresrequired to support that same 100 people wasreduced to only 10 acres—one-tenth the amount.

The region of Mexico saw this populationdevelopment first.Archaeologists say that people in Mexico had developed large villages by 1,000 B.C. By A.D. 650, a completely urban culturetook root in central Mexico where Mexico Citystands today.These people, known as the Toltecs,numbered 200,000.

Early American Agriculture


Test I

Part I. Multiple Choice. Match the answers shown below with the statements given above. Place the letters of the correct answers in the spaces below.

1. Term referring to the lands that comprise North, Central, and South America 2. Landform defined as high, level lands rising to an elevation of 2000 feet3. U.S. geographic region including mountains stretching from Canada to Alabama 4. U.S. geographic region lying between the Rockies and coastal mountains 5. Most recent Ice Age that may have occurred between 25,000 to 30,000 years ago6. People who study ancient cultures7. Temporary land bridge between Western Hemisphere and Asia8. Archaeology site in Canada yielding fossils perhaps dating to 50,000 years ago9. Stone Age period spanning thousands of years until around 5000 to 7000 years ago

10. Pleistocene Era creatures that stood 10 feet tall11. Term used by anthropologists to describe nomadic, prehistoric peoples12. Elephant-like beasts that sported long tusks; became extinct around 6,000 B.C.

A. anthropologists B. Western Hemisphere C. mastodons D. BeringiaE. plateau F. Old Crow G. woolly mammoths H. NeolithicI. Intermountain J. Pleistocene K. Appalachian L. hunter-gatherer

1. ____ 2. ____ 3. ____ 4. ____ 5. ____ 6. ____ 7. ____ 8. ____ 9. ____ 10. ____ 11. ____ 12. ____

Part II. Multiple Choice. Match the answers shown below with the statements given above. Place the letters of the correct answers in the spaces below.

1. Early bifacial projectile point fluted at the base to a length of one-third that of the point2. Early projectile point noted for its delicacy and fluting running nearly the entire point’s length3. Hand-held spear throwing device that provided better accuracy and greater speed4. Plano point that was narrow and long, having a lanceolate shape, with no fluting or notches5. Language source which served as the linguistic stock for nearly all early Native Americans6. Name given to Native Americans typically referred to as Eskimos7. Pacific islanders who may have reached the Western Hemisphere hundreds of years ago8. Atlantic coastland people of 5,000 B.C. who were the first to build burial mounds in America9. Native American name for corn

10. Indian culture area extending from maritime provinces of Canada to the Great Lakes11. Native culture region that was home to one out of seven Native American tribes12. The largest Indian culture region, stretching from Canadian Manitoba and Alberta to Texas

A. Eden B. Polynesians C. California D. atlatl E. Folsom F. maize G. Inuit H. Great PlainsI. Northeast J. Clovis K. Amerind’ L. Red Paint People

1. ____ 2. ____ 3. ____ 4. ____ 5. ____ 6. ____ 7. ____ 8. ____ 9. ____ 10. ____ 11. ____ 12. ____


By the time of the arrival of Europeans toAmerica in the 1500s, the Western Hemisphere washome to millions of people. How many cannot besaid with certainty, but experts estimate that 75million lived in North and South America.

If this number is correct, it means that one ofevery seven people living in the world at that timecalled the Western Hemisphere his or her home.Such a population would have been equal to thepopulation of Europe at that time. Of the 75 million inhabitants, about 10 percent lived in NorthAmerica, including the U. S. and Canada.

As we have stated earlier, the native populations begin to develop their own unique,regional cultures about 1,000 years before thearrival of Columbus in 1492.Across what is todaythe United States, extending north into Canada,seven distinct cultural regions can be identified. Onthis page, we will give a brief introduction to theseven cultural regions. More information on eachwill be presented later.

By the year 1500, the people of the culturalgroups found in each region had developed intodistinct tribes.The modern tribal system, then,waslargely in place by the time Europeans begin to arrive.

Seven Native American Cultural Regions

The Northeast Culture Region:This region wascentered in the northeastern portion of modern-dayUnited States. It extended from the maritimeprovinces of Canada across to the west, includingthe Great Lakes.Territory stretching from Michigan toMaine was home to the tribes of the region, whichincluded both Algonquian and Iroquoian tribes.

The Southeast Culture Region:This regionincluded the southeastern part of the United States.It extended along the Atlantic seaboard fromChesapeake Bay south to Florida, then west to theMississippi River. Notable tribes of the regionincluded the Five Civilized nations: Cherokee,Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole, and Creek.

The Great Plains Culture Region:The largest

region of the cultural groups—the Central Plains—extended from the Canadian provinces ofManitoba and Alberta to Texas.The region spannedthe middle region of the U. S. from the MississippiRiver to the Rocky Mountains. Dozens of tribes werescattered across the region, including the Lakota(the Sioux), Cheyenne, Comanche, and Pawnee.

The Southwest Culture Region: Centered inArizona and New Mexico, this region was home tothe Navajo, Pueblo, Zuni, and Apache, among others.Some of their homes were permanent sun-driedbrick complexes named pueblos by the Spanish.

The Western Range Culture Region:This region included the states of Nevada, Utah, andIdaho.The people there were scattered thinly and included the tribes of the Cayuse, Nez Perce,Bannock, and Shoshone.

The Pacific Northwest Culture Region:Thisregion was the most uniquely shaped of them all,stretching from Alaska south to British Columbiaand Washington state. It hugged the Pacific Coastand rarely extended inland more than 100 miles tothe east. It was home to dozens of smaller tribes,such as the Clatsop, Haida, and Chinook.

The California Culture Region:This region alsoborders the Pacific Ocean, but extends further east,covering most of the state of California. It was apopular place for Native American tribes to live,possibly one out of seven, although the region onlyrepresented 5 percent of the land of North America.

Review and Write

1. What population figures are suggested by anthropologists for the Western Hemisphere during the 1500s?

2. If the above figure is correct, how many of the Native Americans of the 16th century lived in just North America?

3. Which one of the seven Native American Cultural Regions was the largest?

Native American Cultural Regions


The Southwest Culture region is a vast land ofdeserts that stretches across the modern-day statesof Arizona and new Mexico, spreading north intothe southern half of Utah, the southwestern thirdof Colorado, a slice of western Texas, southeasternNevada and California.

The landscape of the region is rugged. Painteddeserts, snow-capped mountains, and rockycanyons of yellow, brown and red sandstone

abound. It is the region of great saguaro cacti.Landforms found in the region include the GrandCanyon and the erosive monoliths of Utah’sMonument Valley.This is a land where annual rainfallamounts to less than five inches.

The earliest inhabitants of the region arrivedover 11,000 years ago.They were primitive hunterswho used the Clovis Points and later the Folsomprojectiles. (Both Folsom and Clovis are towns inNew Mexico.)

These first hunter-gatherers tracked the greatPleistocene animals, including horses, bison,camels, mammoths and mastodons.

By 7,000 B.C. the peoples of the prehistoricSouthwest began to develop the Desert Culture.They hunted or trapped smaller game, includingrabbits,deer, lizards,even rodents and insects,gatheredwild plants and bulbs, and gathered seeds for cultivation. Pinion nuts, yucca fruit, berries, andmesquite beans were harvested.They lived in cavesor under rock cliffs. Some built dome-shaped grass

huts called wickiups. For thousands of years, littlechange occurred among the earliest inhabitants ofthe region.

Around 2,500 B.C. the natives of the Southwestbegan to cultivate maize, or an early form of cornthat grew in pods.They were small and did notgreatly add to the available food supply. In time, anew variety of corn, one that was drought-resistant,was introduced to the region from Pre-ColumbianMexico. It thrived well in the region and soonfound its way across the continent, becoming achief source of food among Native Americans. Inaddition, beans and squash were also being developed and harvested. Native Americans sooncalled these three chief crops the “Three Sisters.”Cotton was also planted and harvested.These earlyfarmers used sticks to drill holes, then droppedtheir seeds into the ground.To help these cropsgrow, ancient Southwest peoples built irrigationditches and rerouted floodwaters and rain runofffrom nearby gulleys, washes, and arroyos.

By 300 B.C., the Southwest peoples experiencedeven greater change.They built their homes to last,since these Native American groups were now prac-ticing long-range agriculture and intended to livelonger in one place.These homes were pit houses,built in a circular shape, and dug into the ground.These early houses featured a roof of log beamscovered over with brush and dirt.A fire pit burnedin the center of the house.

By 100 B.C., these Southwestern people werebusy making early forms of pottery, an art formwhich continues to be practiced among NativeAmerican cultures today.A new culture of theSouthwest was underway by that date, known asthe Mogollon Culture.

Review and Write

From your reading, how did the early residents of the Southwest Culture region adapt to their environment? How did their environment help to shape their culture?


Southwestern Desert Culture

Prior to the development of the modern tribalsystem of the American Southwest,prehistoric peoplesworked hard to tame the region as they developedunique cultures to fit the land and its climate.

As the people of the ancient Southwest developed,they produced a series of three dominant cultures.We know them today as the Mogollons, theHohokam, and the Anasazi. Each made a uniquecontribution to the culture of the Southwest region.

The Mogollon (pronounced muggy- OWN)were the first of the three to develop.This culturegroup was located in the southern half of NewMexico and southeastern Arizona. Mogollon peoplecould also be found in the northern Mexicanprovinces of Chihuahua and Sonora.

Named for a twisted range of short mountainson the southern border between Arizona and NewMexico, the Mogollons were the first Southwesternpeople to adopt a culture which included systematicagriculture, the building of permanent housing andthe making of pottery.Their farming included the“three sisters,” as well as cotton for clothing andtobacco for ceremonial purposes.

Like the prehistoric people who settled theSouthwest before them, the Mogollon built permanentencampments featuring sunken, circular homes,including larger structures called “kivas.” Kivasbecame places of religious, social, and ceremonialrituals and practices.

By A.D. 1100, the Mogollon began constructingadobe structures above ground. Such buildingsresembled, to later Spanish explorers, apartmentbuildings in Spain, so they named the homes of theMogollon, pueblos. (The word in Spanish referredto multi-apartment buildings.) Some of theseMogollon villages were home to as many as 20 or30 pueblos.

Since these ancient people grew cotton, theyeventually developed into skilled weavers, creatingelaborate blankets and clothing complete withfeathers and animal furs for adornment.Their pottery was originally a simple style, involving layingcoils or ropes of brown clay on top of one anotherand then smoothing them out and firing them todry and harden. One group of Mogollon people,the Mimbres, developed a highly-stylized type ofpainted pottery which featured black paint onwhite clay.

By A.D. 1400 the Mogollon culture was givingway to another, more advanced civilization, knownas the Anasazi.We will look closer at the Anasazi onthe next page.

At the same time the Mogollons were flourishing,the Southwest witnessed the rise of another culturegroup—this one to the west—called the Hohokam.The name comes from the Pima tribe of later centuries, who referred to these early people as“hohokam”—”the vanished ones.”

The Hohokam lived in south-central Arizona, inthe valleys of the San Pedro, Salt, and Gila rivers.They practiced a systematic agriculture, builtsunken houses and practiced pottery making.Theiragriculture was so extensive, it provided nearlytheir entire diet.Their fields thrived because theHohokam were extremely skilled at irrigation.Theybuilt water canals and ditches to divert waterrunoff, and also erected dams on neighboring rivers.

The center of Hohokam culture was located in acommunity called Snaketown, where the Hohokamlived for 1,500 years.The site lies south of modern-day Phoenix, and it featured 100 underground pitdwellings, larger then those built by the Mogollon.

Early Southwestern Peoples


The third cultural group to develop in theregion of the ancient Southwest was the Anasazi.The name means “ancient ones” in the Navajo language.Anasazi culture began taking shapearound 100 B.C. and was centered in the “four corners” plateau, where four states—Colorado,Utah,Arizona, and New Mexico—meet.

The Anasazi culture developed through a seriesof stages.The earliest stage is known as the BasketMaker.This era spans approximately 500 years, lastinguntil around A.D. 400.Archaeologists haveunearthed finely woven baskets and sandals fromthis era that were made from rushes, yucca, orstraw.As did the other Southwest cultures of theera, the Anasazi lived in pit houses.They werehunter-gatherers, yet they also practiced a basic agriculture.They hunted with spears and snares,and used the atlatl to help give their darts andspears greater accuracy and power.

The second phase of Anasazi culture was theModified Basket Maker Culture (c.A.D. 400–700).The people lived in pit homes lined with flatstones, covered with wooden timbers and brush.By this era, they had use of the bow and arrow.They had also domesticated the turkey, and theircrops included the “three sisters” of corn, beans,and squash. In the decorative arts, these people produced turquoise bracelets, shell jewelry,and clay effigies, (symbolic figures of humans).

The third stage of Anasazi development iscalled the Developmental Pueblo Period (c.A.D. 700–1100).This stage witnessed the buildingof elaborate pueblo systems that were multi-storied,with dozens of rooms connected together, providingsmall apartments for living space.The upper storieswere reached by using wooden-pole ladders.

One of the most elaborate of the pueblos builtduring this period is found in the desert of northwestern New Mexico, a site called PuebloBonito. Centered in Chaco Canyon, Pueblo Bonitowas an intricate complex of 800 rooms built in theshape of a half-circle.The pueblo rose from thedesert floor to a height of five stories. Other

structures at Pueblo Bonito include large kivasused for ceremonial purposes.The site may havebeen home to as many as 1,000 people.

This pueblo building process continued intothe next Anasazi phase, the Great Pueblo Phase (c.A.D. 1100–1300). By this time, the Anasazi haddeveloped into culture groups that includedweavers, farmers, potters, and other craftsmen.Weavers produced cotton fabrics which were dyedin bright colors and decorated with feathers.During this period, sites such as Pueblo Bonitowere abandoned, probably because of a droughtand lack of rainfall. Other sites came into use, suchas Mesa Verde, located in southwestern Colorado,and Canyon de Chelly in northeastern Arizona.

From the Spanish for “green table,” Mesa Verdewas built into rock cliffs of the Colorado Plateau.The cliff-side village reached its zenith around A.D.1200 when it was home to approximately 18,000Native Americans.

By the end of the 13th century, the Anasazi ofthe cliff dwellings began to abandon their homes,the environment proving ultimately too hostile.Examination of tree rings reveals the years1276–99 as part of a drought cycle in the region.The threat of hostile neighboring peoples, such asthe Athapascans (the ancient relatives of theNavajos and the Apache) also drove the Anasazifrom their homes.

The final era of the Anasazi, the RegressivePueblo Period (1300–1550) was one of transition,as the Anasazi developed into the Native Americansknown as the Pueblo.

Review and Write

1. Where and when did the Anasazi culture flourish?

2. Describe the pueblo system of Pueblo Bonito.

3. What evidence from the 13th century may explain why the residents of the Mesa Verde site abandoned their homes and moved away?


Ancient Cliff Dwellers

When the Spanish explorers arrived in theAmerican Southwest in 1540, the written record ofthe Indians of the Southwest began.The Spanishwho ventured into what is today Arizona and NewMexico made contact with Native Americans theycalled the Pueblo after the Spanish word for “village.”This name is still used today by the Pueblo people.

The term is a general one that refers to thetribes known as the Hopi and Zuni of the ColoradoPlateau region.The Hopis lived in what is now thestate of Arizona, and the Zunis made New Mexicotheir home.Additional ‘Pueblo’ peoples live along a100-mile stretch of the Rio Grande.They areknown as the Tiwa (of Tigua), the Tewa, the Towa(or Jemez) and the Keres.While they all speak adifferent language, they are all the descendants ofthe Anasazi and Mogollon peoples.

Additional Southwestern tribes are theHaulapai, Havasupai, and Yavapai groups, desertfarmers of central and northern Arizona, as well asthe Pimas and Papagos, the Navajos and theChiricahua, Mimbreno and Mescalero Apache.

The permanent communities of the Puebloswere the homes of a close-knit group of NativeAmericans, considered to have been peaceful andnon-aggressive. In fact, the name Hopi means“peaceful ones.”The apartment-like pueblos provided the inhabitants of the villages with theirhomes, but the real centers of life in the pueblowere the kivas.

The Pueblo peoples were not historically ledby warrior bands and societies as other regionalculture groups were, but instead relied on variousreligious societies. Each society had a kiva in thevillage and had responsibility for a specific task,such as hunting, military defense, political leadership,or medicinal cures for tribal diseases. Each societywas led by its own priests, who could hand downdecisions affecting the entire tribe.

Perhaps the most important religious society ofthe Pueblos was the Kachina cult.All its memberswere male members of the tribe, which was splitinto six divisions, representing north, south, east,

west, up, and down. Each division had its own kivain which to carry out ceremonies and secret rituals.

Kachina priests were responsible for everythingrelated to the tribal masked dances. In most tribes,each Kachina kiva group sponsored three dancesannually.These Kachina priests were thought to berepresentations or symbols of either the tribe’s godsor the spirits of the dead.They wore masks andelaborate costumes for use during tribal ceremonies.

Most masks were ornate, elaborate, and madefrom leather. Feathers adorned the masks and eachcovered the head of its wearer.While wearing sucha mask, the wearer was considered to embody thespirit or deity he represented.The Kachina maskwas thought to be so powerful that each one wasburned after the death of its wearer.

Kachina priests often roamed within the village,making their presence known to everyone in thetribe.They were well respected and were thoughtto have the power to bring rain, cause crops togrow, and to provide fertility to tribal women. EachKachina had his own songs, poems, and distinctivecry.Yet Kachinas did much of their work inside thekivas, out of the public eye.

Pueblo Peoples


Life among the Pueblo was generally peaceful,secure, creative. Both men and women were skilledin handicrafts, producing a variety of goods includingbaskets, pottery, and textiles.

Textile production was an art form among thePueblo, and it was considered men’s work.Themen wove cotton products,preparing the raw cottonby carding (combing it to align the fibers in thesame direction) and spinning it into thread.

They worked the thread on large looms whichwere set up in either their apartments or in a kiva.The Pueblo men dyed their cloth in bright anddesert colors: red, yellow, brown, green, orange, andblack. Such colors produced a rainbow of threads,resulting in brilliantly colored blankets, shirts, kilts,and sashes.Women who worked looms usuallyonly wove rabbit skin blankets.

Pottery and basketry were considered women’swork among the Pueblos. Basket styles varied fromtribe to tribe.Their baskets were often woven intoshallow containers and colored with vegetabledyes of yellow, purple, green, blue, and black, oftendecorated with geometric patterns. Some potterywas made to use in work, but other pieces wereproduced for ceremonial use or for their aestheticbeauty. Local clay deposits were used, and the potswere made by coiling, smoothing out the coils,then firing them.

Cooking was also considered women’s work.The Southwestern tribes practiced systematicagriculture and relied heavily on maize as theirchief food crop.They grew other crops, as well:kidney beans, squash, gourds, sunflowers, and Aztecbeans.The Spanish introduced the Southwesterninhabitants to wheat, onions, peaches, watermelons,and the ever-popular chili pepper.The Hopi produced three types of corn: flint, flour, andsweet.The flint variety had a tough grain, but keptwell in storage. Small amounts of sweet corn weregrown.The most popular type was the flour variety, which grew in several strains such as whiteand blue, although 20 different varieties of flourexisted among the Southwestern tribes. Corn was

used to make dozens of dishes. Corn flour wasmade into gruel, bread, corn soup and dumplings.The Pueblos also made hominy. Corn-on-the-coband popcorn were both popular foods.

Another corn-based food was piki, a breadmade by soaking corn kernels in salt water andcooking them in heated sand.The bread was cookedon a specially prepared stone slab over a fire.

Pueblo men engaged in hunting to supplementthe tribal diet.They stalked deer, antelope, rabbits,and even coyotes.Although the bow and arrowwas used, they also utilized clubs and boomerangs.

Pueblo women wore simple cotton dresses,brush sandals or boots, and deerskin and rabbitskin clothing, as well.Their hairstyle might indicatetheir marriage status. Girls wore their hair long andunbraided until they reached puberty, after whichthey went through the Girls’Adolescent Ceremony.Then, unmarried Hopi and Zuni women wove theirhair into large coils located just above their ears.They called this style squash blossoms or butterflywings. Once married, women normally let theirhair hang down in braids behind the shoulders.

Pueblo men wore cotton kilts over a loinclothand leather sandals.They also wore “shirts,” madeby cutting a head hole in the middle of a piece ofrectangular cotton cloth.They wore their hair longand kept it tied up at the back in a knot.They alsokept their bangs long in front, letting the hair fallover their foreheads.

Review and Write

1. The Pueblo were highly specialized in theirnative handicrafts, allowing them to produce awide variety of labor-intensive products suchas baskets, pottery, and textiles. Give someexamples of each and describe the responsibili-ties of production shared by men and women.

2. Southwestern tribes practiced systematic agriculture.What crops were most commonly grown by the Pueblo peoples?


Daily Pueblo Life

The early inhabitants of the Northeast Cultureregion lived in a temperate climate with distinctseasons.The summers were hot and the winterscould be bitterly cold.Yet these early people adopted their culture to fit their environment.

The Northeast region stretched from Canada’seasternmost provinces to the coast of New Englandand south to the Chesapeake Bay. Settlement in theregion ran to the west where the Great Lakes provided an extensive water system for thesenatives and their canoes.

The land was originally covered with trees—thick forests of oak, chestnut, maple, and hickory.These early hunter-gatherers used Clovis spear-points to hunt the abundant wildlife.Around 7,000B.C. the region developed a warmer climate, and anew culture developed: the Archaic.The people ofthis region became more dependent on deer, nuts,and wild grains for their food, as the last of thelarge ancient animals died out.

Around 3,000 B.C., the Native Americans of the Northeast achieved a new level of culture.They planted seeds, developing a systematic, butcrude, agriculture.They grew squash and, outtoward the Great Lakes, they farmed sunflowersand marsh elder. Sunflowers were ground intoflour for bread.The people of this era expandedtheir fishing and shellfish gathering activities,including catching swordfish off the coast of Maine.

In the area of the Great Lakes, these stone-basedpeople began to work with metals, especially copper,which was abundant.They fashioned it into tools,blades, spear heads, and ornaments.

During this Early Woodland Stage, which lastedfrom 1,000 B.C. to A.D. 500, the Indians of theNortheast were noted for the building of earthenmounds.The most important mound-building culture was the Adena culture, which eventuallydeveloped a highly structured social order.TheAdena culture was named for an archaeologicalsite located on the Ohio River in the modern-daystate of Ohio.They built permanent villages andelaborate burial mounds, such as the Great Serpent

Mound of southern Ohio.The Serpent Mound is500 feet in length.

A new culture developed in time called theMiddle Woodland Stage.Beginning about 100 B.C.and lasting until about A.D. 500 to 700, the periodwitnessed another phase of mound building,called the Hopewellian Era. During this era, thepeoples of the Northeast began planting and harvesting new crops, including maize, beans,and tobacco.They were busy making stone,wood, and metal tools and weapons and constructed large burial sites, burying their deadwith their belongings. One Hopewellian gravemound was uncovered by archaeologists and discovered to contain 60,000 pearls.

The people of this era lived in wigwams—ovalstructures with curved, dome-like roofs.Thesehouses were covered with bark or animal skins.

Hopewellian women fashioned elaborately dec-orated clay pots.The men carved wooden tobaccopipes in the shapes of animals and human heads,and musical instruments including cedar pipes andflutes, drums, and animal rattles.

In the Northeast, from A.D. 1,000 to the 1400s,the people of the region began to develop into themodern tribal system.These tribes include theDelaware, Micmac, Illinois, Shawnee, Narragansett,and the Haudenosaunee, otherwise known by theirenemies as the Iroquois.

Review and Write

1. Around 7,000 B.C. a new culture developed inthe Northeast.Describe it.

2. How did the mound building culture, Adena,get its name?

3. Is it evident from the artifacts of these earlyAdena and Hopewellian peoples that the makingof art is a fundamental human compulsion? If so,why? Also,what might the building of moundssignify about human nature?

The Mound Builders


The SoutheasternCulture region of theUnited States was thehomeland of a wide varietyof Indian tribes prior to thecoming of Europeans tothe New World.This vastregion, extending westfrom the Atlantic Ocean tothe Mississippi River, andfrom the Gulf of Mexico north to the Ohio River,has provided a home to dozens of Native Americangroups for thousands of years.

While the Native Americans found in theSoutheast speak languages derived from several different linguistic stocks, the majority speak aMuskogean-based tongue. One of the significantexceptions is the Cherokee, who speak a languageof Iroquoian base.

While little is known about the origins of peoplein the Southeast, archaeologists do know they wereproducing pottery in the region as early as 1,000B.C.Around A.D. 700, a dominant culture rose inthe region, which modern archaeologists refer to asthe Mississippian Culture or the Middle Mississippian.

This culture was centered along several keysoutheastern river systems, including the Illinois,Tennessee, the lower Ohio, and the middleMississippi. How or why the culture developed is notknown. But it is thought to be the third in a seriesof mound-building peoples of the ancient world,preceded by the Adena and the Hopewell Cultures.

This era of mound-builders lasted from A.D. 700until the time of the arrival of Europeans along theMississippi River in the 1500s.When compared to theAdena and Hopewell Cultures, the striking differenceabout the mounds built in the Mississippian period isthat these Native Americans built mounds of earthenpyramids.While earlier mounds were apparentlyconstructed as burial sites, the Mississippian pyramids served as temples and, occasionally, asthe base for a powerful chieftain’s house.

During the Mississippian phase, corn was

introduced to the regionfrom Mexico and theIndians of the Southeastbegan practicing systematic agriculture.Once they began to livea sedentary lifestyle, theMississippians began todevelop more

permanent villages.One such site was the great Southeastern city

of Cahokia (kah-HO-kee-ah), located in the regionwhere the Mississippi and Missouri rivers join oneanother. Cahokia was situated on the eastern bankof the Mississippi River opposite modern-day St.Louis, Missouri.

Cahokia was home to approximately 25,000people, while an additional 25,000 lived in villageswhich surrounded the ancient city. It was a city-state ruled by a Native American ruler called theGreat Sun, who demanded full allegiance. He wasso honored that common people in the city neverturned their backs to him.

Archaeologists have unearthed at least 85mounds at Cahokia. Some were as high as a 10-story building.The mounds were built by slavelabor, workers who carried basket loads of earth tothese sites to build up the ancient mounds.Thelargest—Monk’s Mound— was erected in 14stages, from A.D. 900 to 1150.The mound covers 16acres and stands 100 feet high.

Mississippian Culture reached its height of significance somewhere between the 11th and12th centuries A.D. By the early 1600s, the ancientMississippian centers had been abandoned, thepopulation perhaps killed off by starvation, drought,or destruction by an enemy.

Review and Write

How were the mounds constructed by the Mississippians different from those erected by the Aden or Hopewellian peoples?


The Mississippi Mound Builders

Although most of the ancient mound-buildingcultures had disappeared by the arrival of theEuropeans in the 1500s, one Mississippian culturedid survive until then—the Natchez.

When the Spanish explorer Ferdinand DeSotoarrived on the banks of the Mississippi River in the1540s, the Natchez numbered about 4,000 nativesliving in at least nine town settlements scatteredalong the great American river.

This last of the mound-building culturesremained relatively intact well into the 1600s.Theculture was ruled by a powerful chief called theGreat Sun, who lived in the largest of the Natchezsettlements, the Great Village, located near modern-dayNatchez, Mississippi.The belief within the tribewas that the Great Sun had descended from thesun, which was considered all-powerful.As a result,the people worshiped the Great Sun, just as otherNative American cultures in Mexico (Aztec) andSouth America (Inca) worshiped their exalted rulers.

In fact, the Great Sun was so divine to his people that, when he died, his wives, servants, andlodging guards were killed so they could followhim and serve him in the next life. Natchez societywas divided into two classes—the nobility (including the Great Sun), and the commoners(meaning everybody else).This lower class of people were called by French explorers and missionaries of the 1600s,“Stinkards.”

Although the two classes were distinctlydrawn, it was possible for people from differentcastes to marry one another. But their childrenbecame either aristocracy or “stinkard” dependingon whom their mother was.A noble woman whomarried a stinkard man would produce noble children. But if a noble man married a stinkardwoman, their children were considered stinkards.The Natchez were a matrilineal society, as wereother Native American tribes.This meant the children were identified through the mother.

Daily life among the Natchez centered arounda sedentary world that practiced systematic agriculture.They produced crops, and the most

important among them was maize. In addition,they harvested wild rice and gathered edible seedsand plants.

When the Natchez made first contact withEuropeans, they were introduced to a variety ofnew foods which became important enough tothem that they named their lunar months afterthem.The 13 lunar months of the Natchez were:

Deer, Strawberries, Little Corn,Watermelons,Peaches, Mulberries, Great Corn,Turkeys, Bison,Bears, Cold Meal, Chestnuts, and Nuts.At leasttwo—watermelons and peaches—were brought toAmerica by Europeans.

Natchez houses were rectangular with benttree saplings used to provide a curving roof.Theroofs were covered with grasses.The sides werecovered with mud and whitewashed.They weredark because there were no windows.

By the 1700s, Natchez relations with Frenchtraders had deteriorated into war. In 1729, theNatchez Indians revolted against the French whowere preparing to destroy the Great Village to makeway for a French governor’s plantation.Althoughthe Natchez killed several hundred Frenchmen,they were ultimately defeated. Surviving Natchezwere scattered among neighboring tribes.Withtheir destruction, the last of the mound-buildingcultures ended.

The Natchez: Last of the Mound Builders


In time, the Northeast was home to many different tribal groups and the Natives had scattered along the coasts, lake country, and rivervalleys.While the tribal system was distinctly inplace by the time of the arrival of the Europeanexplorers after A.D. 1500, there were many differentcultural groups, some of whom were bitter enemies.

The Haudenosaunee, the people also known asthe Iroquois, lived in present-day Ontario, Canada,and in upstate New York.This tribal group has livedin this region for over 4,000 years.They wereamong the first of the Northeastern tribal groupsto adopt agriculture, shifting away from a relianceon fishing and hunting.The Haudenosaunee raisedcorn, beans, squash, and sunflowers.

The name “Haudenosaunee” refers to thehomes they built.“The People of the Long House”constructed wooden, bark-covered homes thatwere, indeed, quite long. On average, theHaudenosaunee longhouses were 60 feet long andabout 18 to 20 feet wide.The roof was barrel-shaped, supported by a line of ridge poles runningthe length of the house.The peak of the house wasabout 20 feet high. Some longhouses were muchlarger, measuring even 300 feet in length!

Other Northeastern people lived in differenthousing.The Algonquians built wigwams, whichhoused fewer people and thus fewer families.Theywere much smaller then the longhouses, anddesigned as bark-covered domes with a center rising to a height slightly taller than an adult malestanding erect.The wigwam might measure 14 by20 feet.Another difference between the longhouseand the wigwam lay in who built each. Iroquoismen built the longhouses, while Algonquian

women built their wigwams.All Northeastern tribes had a diet that was a

varied one, supplied through farming, gathering,fishing, and hunting. Farming among theHaudenosaunee was considered women’s work,while the men hunted, caught fish, and harvestedshellfish. Farming was not easy for these peoplesince the growing season of the Northeast is short.

Hunting was easy in the Northeast, since gamewas plentiful.The Algonquians hunted deer,caribou, moose, elk, and bear.They also huntedsmaller animals, including raccoons, muskrats,porcupines, woodchucks, and beaver, as well asducks, geese, and grouse.

The Haudenosaunee raised the “three sisters” ingreat variety.They produced 60 types of beans,eight varieties of squash, and many different kindsof corn, including a popping variety, which theymixed with maple syrup, creating an early form ofthe snack food “Cracker Jacks.” In time, NortheastIndians raised potatoes, pumpkins and berries,including cranberries and blackberries.

The Iroquois created a matrilineal society (mat-truh-LIN-ee-ul).This meant that women provided the basis for the family and children wereborn into their mother’s clan. Iroquois women alsoserved as clan leaders.

The Iroquois also formed another unique socialand political structure among themselves. Duringthe 1500s, the Haudenosaunee formed a confederacyof five tribes—the Onondaga, Seneca, Oneida,Mohawk, and Cayuga. (A sixth tribe, the Tuscarorajoined in 1721.) This confederacy was a democrat-ic league in which every tribe had an equal voice.The League of the Six Nations would serve as anexample of New World cooperation among Native Americans.

Research and Write

Research the subject of the longhouse and write 50 words describing the insides of these Native American homes.


The Haudenosaunee

The western portionof the Northeast CultureRegion was dominated bya variety of tribes, many ofwhich were Algonquian.This word refers to thosetribes of the Great Lakesand the Ohio River country to the southwhose languages camefrom the same Algonquian language stock.

That language produced several words thatremain in contemporary use. Even non-Indians use these words and they have become woveninto usage in the English language, including suchwords as hickory, moccasin, moose, papoose,powwow, squash, squaw, tomahawk, totem,and wigwam.

The tribes among the Algonquian groups locatedin the western portion of the Northeast CultureRegion include those of the Great Lakes: Ojibwa(also known as the Chippewa),Algonkin,Menominee, Ottawa, and Potawatomi.These tribeshugged the shores of the lakes, with many of themliving in what is today Michigan. South of the GreatLakes, the people are called the PrairieAlgonquians: Fox, Kickapoo, Sac, Illinois, Miami, andShawnee.This group of Algonquians were found inmodern-day Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana.

These and other Algonquians were among thefirst Indians to make contact with the British andFrench explorers and settlers of the 1600s and1700s.Through these early contacts, trade relationswere often established and, sometimes, alliances.Traditionally, the Algonquians would ally themselveswith the French in Canada, while their neighborsin the Northeast, especially the Iroquois, allied withthe British. But by the 1700s, the Algonquians werebeing pushed westward by the advance of whites.

Algonquian social structure was similar tomany other tribes.As with the Haudenosaunee, theAlgonquians formed intertribal confederacies. Butunlike the Iroquois, whose alliances were political

and permanent,Algonquian, intertribalconfederacies werealmost always mili-tary in nature.Thismeant that suchagreements broughtloosely connected

Algonquians togetherto fight side by side.

Once the immediate conflict was finished,however, the alliances were ended.

Such Algonquian confederacies were led by aGrand Sachem, a chief of notable wisdom andauthority.The power of such sachems varied fromtribe to tribe. Many of the Algonquian tribes werenot led by sachems, but rather by a pair of chiefs,one a war chief and the other a peace chief.Warchiefs were chosen by the tribe’s members, whilepeace chiefs were often inherited positions. Someof the Great Lakes Algonquians had a third chief, ashaman, or holy medicine man, who organized andled the tribe’s religious ceremonies.

Tribal organization among the Algonquiansoften included bands with members living inextended families who hunted and lived togetherthroughout the year, coming together as a tribeonly once during each summer to participate collectively in ceremonies and celebrations. Buteven when the band structure was in place amonga tribe’s members, an important part of tribal socialorganization were the moieties.

Moieties resulted in the dividing of clans intotwo groups. (Moiety is from a Latin word meaning“middle.”) Such moieties were each responsible forvarious functions within a tribe.They also served asopposing teams during a tribe’s sporting games.

Men and women usually married within theirown clan.The clans often identified themselvesthrough symbols, such as animals or elements.These symbols were known as totems.Thus,Algonquians might be, for example, members ofthe turtle, bear, hawk, or snipe clan.

The Algonquians


The daily lifestyles of the Algonquians varied slightly from tribe to tribe, but overall they lived similarly.While their Iroquois neighbors to the east lived in longhouses, theAlgonquians developed a different type of house.Known as the wigwam (from an Algonquian word,wigwassaigamig), the Algonquians built rounded,bark-covered dwellings.

Generally, there were three types of wigwams:the domed, which consisted of bending treesaplings to create a dome which was then coveredwith bark strips; the conical, which resembled theGreat Plains tipis, but it was covered with barkrather than with buffalo hides; and the extendedconical, so-called because it was shaped liked anelongated conical wigwam. It, too, was covered inbark. (The conical wigwam was built by the NewEngland Algonquians.)

The Algonquians supported their diets throughhunting, fishing, agriculture, and gathering wildplants. Hunters and fishermen provided fresh meat,especially in non-winter months. Deer, bear, moose,and elk were among the larger animals hunted, butsmaller creatures, including rabbit, squirrel, beaver,and game birds—ducks, turkeys, geese—were alsosignificant sources of food.

To capture animals and fish, the Algonquiansbuilt several different kinds of traps, snares, anddeadfalls. Fishermen used nets, spears, even harpoons to bring in the catch.The Great Lakesteemed with fish, and the sturgeon was the largest,weighing hundreds of pounds.Algonquians evenengaged in annual eel round-ups, as the men drovethe eels through narrow chutes built in the waterwhile others waited in canoes to spear them.

The crops grown by the Algonquian were typical of those grown by other Native Americans:corn, beans, squash, and pumpkins.They wouldgrow them side by side, causing bean vines to clingto corn stalks, snaking their way ever upward.TheAlgonquians made corn into hominy, a food madeby cooking whole ears of corn with wood ash orlye.They also collected wild berries, such as

cranberries and blueberries, as well as roots, andother edible plants.

Algonquians sweetened their meals by tappingmaple trees for their sap, producing both maplesyrup and sugar.This work was done by the womenand children of the bands.The Indian women thenboiled the sap until it produced syrup, or they heated it until it crystallized, creating maple sugar.Many Algonquians used water to dilute maplesyrup, producing a sweet drink. Sometimes the liquid was fermented, making an alcohol, but thiscustom was not common.

Living so close to lakes and rivers, theAlgonquians built birch-bark canoes.These boats allowed them to travel great distances.Indian canoes did not come in a standard size ordesign.A typical canoe was built to accommodatetwo people at best, while longer designs resultedin a canoe that could hold as many as ten people.Northeast and Great Lakes Indian canoes variedfrom 10 to 12 feet in length to 50 to 60 feet.

Native American canoes were built from several different kinds of wood—spruce, elm, andespecially birch. Bark was peeled directly fromtrees in lengthy strips and then fitted around awooden frame of white cedar.The pieces werelaced together with strips of split roots of blackspruce. Black spruce gum was heated until it hadthe consistency of a thick syrup, and the sprucegoo was spread over the canoe’s seams and cracks,which made them watertight. Paddles were carvedout of maple.

Canoe building was very time consuming,requiring at least two men, or four women, workingfrom two to three weeks.

Review and Write

1. How did the Algonquians capture animals and fish?

2. Why did the Algonquians tap maple trees for their sap?


The Algonquian Lifestyle

Algonquians lived in an environment whichrequired them to continually adapt. For exampletheir clothing varied from season to season.Typically,Algonquians wore as many clothes asthey needed to match the weather. In warm andhumid summer months, most Indians wore less,while the children wore no clothing until theyreached the age of ten.

The women of the Ohio Country and GreatLakes tribes wore dresses of deerskin, hemmedbelow the knee. Such dresses were wrappedaround a woman and held in place by a belt. Inwinter, women wore leather leggings and woremoccasins year round. In cool weather, womenwore pairs of cape sleeves which were joined atthe back of the neck. Often such clothing—dresses,skirts, capes—were fringed.

Most Algonquian men wore less than thewomen, regardless of weather.A typical summertimecostume was a breechcloth and moccasins.Theymight wear leggings, but such an article of clothingwas not the same as pants, for they typically onlycame up to the wearer’s knees or maybe the thighs.

In winter, the men wore fur skins for warmth,including robes of fur draped over the shoulders.They wore boots—sometimes over moccasins—tohelp them walk in the snow. Snowshoes were alsoworn in winter.These “shoes” were attached toone’s moccasins or fur boots and were sometimesup to three feet in length.

Men and women decorated their clothing withpaints, feathers, freshwater shells, and porcupine

quills.They might dye their feathers in vegetable orwood root shades to give them a more colorfulappearance. Contact with white traders later allowedthem to replace quills and shells with glass beads.

Hair was worn in a variety of styles.Typically,Algonquian women wore their hair in braids,topped with a smallish cap or headband of decorated shells. Men’s hairstyles varied from bandto band. Some wore their hair long, while otherswore a roach cut, which required Algonquian mento pluck out their hair except for a wide strip leftrunning down the middle of the scalp.

In winter, both men and women wore a varietyof fur caps. Sometimes, they might wear an entirefur skin, complete with the head of the animal,such as a fox or otter.This type of headgear mayhave been the source of the raccoon cap whichwas worn by American pioneers and frontiersmenof the 18th and 19th centuries.

When Algonquians went to war, they organizedtheir efforts in specific ways.War was organized byone’s tribal leaders. It did not usually involve largewarring parties, but rather the warriors operated asraiding parties. Raids against a neighboring tribewere led by a war chief and carried out by a specificband. Raids were typically conducted far fromone’s encampment, making enemy retaliation difficult. During a raid, captives might be takenback and kept as slaves. Killing one’s enemy usually involved scalping. Bows and arrows, as wellas war clubs, were used during such raids.

Living constantly in the midst of nature, theAlgonquians always linked the physical and spiritualworlds together. Everything in nature, even the sunand the stars, had a spirit, called a manitou.Thisconcept was considered highly sacred, and manitous could determine the direction and success of one’s daily life.

Review and Write

In what ways did the Algonquians adapt to their world on a daily basis?

The World of the Algonquians


For many people, their mental picture ofNative Americans includes Indians wearing warpaint, riding ponies, living in tepees, hunting buffalo, smoking peace pipes and wearing feathered headdresses.While such images are notnecessarily wrong, they create a limited view ofthe rich differences found between traditionalNative American culture groups.

The source of such stilted images is the moviesand television.The Native Americans shown insuch films as Dances With Wolves and Little BigMan, and on TV programs are often Plains Indians.More often than not, the Plains tribe being depictedin the media is the Dakota. Most people call themthe Sioux.

While many tribes of the Great Plains regionlived in tepees and hunted buffalo with their horsesgalloping at full speed, this view of all NativeAmericans is a stereotype, even of tribes living onthe Plains. Native Americans lived on the GreatPlains for hundreds, even thousands of years,before the arrival of the horse.They did not live intepees covered with the hides of buffalo. Severaltribes, in fact, even after the arrival of the horse onthe Plains, never lived in tepees at all.

The final frontier era of the Plains tribes, lastingfrom the mid-18th century until the latter decadesof the 19th century was one dominated by the“horse and buffalo” culture we often imagine today.

But that century and a half only represents a smallportion of the history of Native Americans whomade their home on the Great Plains.

The region of the Great Plains is gigantic. Itsweeps across the borders of two nations today,the United States and Canada. Extending from thearea of the Mississippi River to the foothills of theRocky Mountains, the Great Plains are vast, oftenempty grasslands, today broken up by thousands offarms and ten thousand cities, towns, and villages.From north to south, the Great Plains include threeCanadian provinces—Alberta, Manitoba, andSaskatchewan—as well as all or part of over adozen states.The Plains form a steppe that risesfrom east to west, from the Mississippi to theRockies. Much of the landscape is flat or rolling atbest.There are a few interruptions in the rise ofthe land, such as the Ozark Mountains of southernMissouri and northern Arkansas, the WichitaMountains of Oklahoma, and the Black Hills ofSouth Dakota.With little land formation variation,the Plains are divided into two sections, based onthe amount of average rainfall.The two sub-regionsare divided by the 100th meridian, which runsnorth and south, bisecting the Dakotas andNebraska and separating the western thirds ofKansas, Oklahoma and Texas from their easternparts. On average, the western portion of the Plainsreceives half as much rainfall annually as does theeastern half (20 to 40 in the east compared to 10to 20 in the west.)

The history of the Native Americans of thePlains predates the arrival of Europeans (whointroduced the horse to the Western Hemisphere)by several thousand years. During those centuries,eastern Plains peoples lived in relatively permanentvillages and practiced a simple agriculture. Huntingprovided an additional source of food.

Until recently, historians assumed that beforethe introduction of the horse, Native Americantribes did not occupy the Plains, especially in thedrier half. But it is now known that the Plains hasbeen occupied for the past 11,000 years.


Peoples of the Plains

The earliest residents of the Great Plainsregion were nomadic hunters who lived on theland between 11,000 and 7,000 years ago.Theseearly Neolithic peoples hunted the great woollymammoths and ancient bison. Between 5,000 and2,500 B.C., the Plains peoples nearly abandonedthe region completely, driven both east and westby a warming trend that rendered the Plains inhospitable.The great animals of the PleistoceneEra left the region, some becoming extinct, leavingthose living on the Plains with only small animalsto hunt.

Around 2,500 B.C., people began to return tothe Great Plains in increasing numbers. Many cameto the Plains from the lands they occupied in theEastern Woodlands.A new culture developed, thePlains Woodland Period which was firmly in placebetween the years 500 B.C. and A.D. 1000.

In the midst of that period, sometime betweenA.D. 200 and 400, the people of the Plains haddeveloped a stable, semi-permanent village life inwhat is today eastern Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado,northeastern Oklahoma and along the course ofthe Missouri River from Missouri to the Dakotas.

These Native Americans were planting cornand beans for food, while still depending on hunting and gathering wild plants.The use of pottery was in place during these centuries, andtools and weapons were fashioned from stone andbone.A few artifacts were hammered out of copper.

By A.D. 800, a new migration of NativeAmericans from the Eastern Woodlands found their way out onto the Plains, bringing new settlements and villages to the vast expanses of the Eastern Plains. Just as the old villages had been,these new Indian settlements were built along themajor rivers of the region.These new arrivals introduced new crops to the region, such assquash and sunflowers.

These Plains village bands constructed squareor rectangular earthen lodges or mud-covered huts,which were surrounded by a wooden fence or palisade, as was the custom of many tribes of the

Eastern Woodlands.These Plains Indians huntedbison, driving them over cliffs.Without the use ofthe horse for hunting bison, these Plains Indiansfaced greater danger when hunting the great shaggybeasts on foot.The women practiced the farming,using digging sticks to plant seed and hoeing theirsmall fields using hoes fashioned from bison scapula.

By 1500, a drought on the Plains caused NativeAmericans to abandon many of their settlements inthe western half of the region.About this sametime, Plains cultural groups began to make greatercontact with one another, although they might beseparated by hundreds of miles of treeless prairie.

New Indian cultures developed which featuredlarger villages and a greater reliance on agriculture.Villages also became more permanent. Earthenlodges became larger and were now circular ratherthan rectangular.

Below are the tribal groups found on the Plainswhen the first Europeans began to make their wayinto the region. Several of the tribes were alreadyestablished by this time. Along the lower MissouriRiver Basin were the Iowas, Kansas, Missouris,Omahas, Osages, Otos, and Poncas.The middlecourse of the Missouri River was home to theArikaras, Hidatsas, and Mandans.To the south,across the modern-day state of Missouri were thePawnees and to their south, the Wichitas.

Review and Write

1. What natural occurrence(s) found on the Plains determined when and where people lived in the region?

2. Why did early residents of the Great Plains leave the region between 5000 and 2500 B.C.?

3. Between A.D. 200 and 400, where did Plains dwellers settle?

4. Why did the Plains Indians abandon the region around 1500?

Early Plains Life


Anthropologists today recognize 26 tribal groupsas the nations of the Plains. In addition to thoselocated along the Missouri River (as listed on theprevious page), Great Plains tribes include: Sarcee,Blackfoot, Cree, Ojibway, Gros Ventre,Assiniboine,Crow, Shoshone,Arapaho, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache, Comanche, and the wide-ranging groupcalled the Sioux, also known as the Dakota or Lakota.

These 26 tribes collectively reveal just how theNative Americans of the Great Plains region havemanaged to create separate identities for themselvesthrough the centuries.Tribal differences make for arich diversity of Indian identities that render theGreat Plains region one of the most colorful of theculture regions.

But Indian culture was always in a stage ofadaptation.When the peoples of the Plains madetheir first contacts with Europeans—who arrived inthe North American heartland as explorers, trappers,traders, and missionaries during the 17th and 18thcenturies—the tribes began to reinvent their cultures. No other tribal culture region waschanged more dramatically by European contactthen that of the Great Plains.

And the best example of how Europeans alteredthe culture of the Plains lies in the introduction ofthe horse.The horse only existed, prior to thearrival of Europeans, in the Americas prehistorically.But these Pleistocene horses were smaller, dog-sized animals. Even these ancient four-legged creatures had long died out in the Americas.

Horses were introduced to the WesternHemisphere by the Spanish who brought them totheir colonies in the Caribbean, Mexico, and hercolonies in the American Southwest.Those horsesin the Southwest sometimes escaped, finding theirway into the hands of an Indian tribe. Sometimes,they were stolen by Native Americans. Southwesterntribes were using the horse by the 1680s and 1690s.

By 1750, most Plains tribes had horses.Thisadaptation brought major change to the Plains cultures.The horse provided mobility to tribes,allowing them to move about with fewer restraints.

With the incorporation of the horse, Plains Indiansbecame less reliant on systematic agriculture fortheir primary sources of food.

Before the end of the 18th century, Plainstribes were developing the horse and buffalo culturefor which they are recognized today.The horseprovided hunters with the ability to keep pace witha rushing buffalo herd and to ride close to theirprey with less risk than when they hunted on foot.The horse also gave them the ability to range greaterdistances from their villages in search of buffaloherds.With the capacity to kill buffalo in greaternumbers and with greater frequency, some Plainstribes made the buffalo the mainstay of their diets,causing them to abandon most of their farming efforts.

Once again, just as their ancient ancestorsbefore them, the horse caused the tribes of thePlains to become nomadic.With this new, mobileculture, Plains tribes began to take on the use ofthe tepee, a shelter consisting of lodge poles placedin a conical shape, then covered with buffalo hides.Such a dwelling could be taken down, moved, and reconstructed by the women of a tribe with ease.

Review and Write

What changes did the introduction of the horse bring to the cultures of many of the Plains tribes?


Horse and Buffalo Culture

Without a doubt, the adoption of the horseby Native Americans of the Plains changed theirculture and lifestyle dramatically.The horse notonly became the chief means of transportation, butalso became the basis of the tribal economies of theregion.The value of an item for trade was commonlyset in terms of the number of horses it was worth,or the number of items one horse was worth.

The names given the horse help explain howimportant this animal became to Great Plainstribes. Some tribes called it the Sacred Dog, whileothers referred to it as the Medicine Dog. Still otherscalled it the Spirit Dog.

The horse came to be used in a variety of ways by the Plains Indians tribes. It providedmobility for distant buffalo hunts. Until now, thedog was the only beast of burden in NorthAmerica. Before the arrival of the horse, Plainstribes would attach two small poles, lashed together in a V-shape, to the dog’s back, thenstretch an animal hide between the poles to provide a carrier for the tribe’s material goods.

This device, called a travois,was small and limited by the dog’s capacity to pull the deadweight behind it. (There was no use of the wheelamong most of the Native American tribes prior tothe arrival of whites.) With the horse, the travoiscould be enlarged, allowing it to carry greaterweights, including a sick or wounded adult.

The men of the Great Plains soon became veryaccomplished horsemen.Typically, they rode bareback, meaning they used no saddle.Theymight, however, use a saddle fashioned from a buffalo hide, or they might make wooden saddlessheathed in deer or antelope skin, decorating themwith intricate patterns of beadwork.They mightjust utilize only a single leather strap as a bridle.Warriors rode into battle against neighboringtribes, learning how to cling to the horse’s flanks,protecting themselves from arrows and rifle balls.Sometimes they might fire their arrows frombeneath their horse’s neck.

Horses became important symbols for thePlains dwellers.The more horses one owned, thewealthier he was thought to be, thus raising his status within the tribe. Most male tribal membersowned fewer than ten horses, but some warriors,typically chiefs, might own hundreds, or even thou-sands of horses.

Horses became a common medium ofexchange, generally having a value relative to buffalorobes, guns, steel knives, or other trade goods.When a man took a bride, he might pay her familyfor her with horses. Horse stealing was commonbetween tribes, and a warrior who was adept atstealing horses from an enemy was consideredbrave and cunning.

Tribesmen decorated their horses in variousways, using paint, feathers, and beadwork.Theypainted their ponies with their own personal symbols. Some decorated their steeds by dippingthe ponies’ tails in paint.

Warriors took their small yet powerfully swiftponies into battle on more than one occasion againsteach other and against units of the U.S.Army, wherethey usually outmaneuvered the larger army mounts.

Review and Write

In what ways did the adoption of the horse to Plains culture change the lifestyle, values, and customs of Native Americans?

The Impact of the Horse


With the adoption of the horse, Great Plainstribes soon utilized the animal’s power and speedto aid them in their buffalo hunts.As a result, thebuffalo became their primary source of meat andother necessities.

Before the arrival of the horse, tribes couldonly hunt buffalo that were found near a tribe’s village.Warriors usually attempted to run a buffaloherd off a nearby cliff or into a ravine, where theirquarry would either die from the fall or betrapped, allowing hunters to kill them with theirarrows or rifles. Running a herd off a cliff usuallyresulted in great waste, as more buffalo died thanthe band of hunters and their families could butcherand consume before the meat rotted.

Once they began to rely on the horse formobility and speed in hunting, Plains tribes became equally dependent on the buffalo for food,clothing, and shelter.Almost every part of the animal was used.They developed nearly a hundreduses for the parts of a buffalo, including robes,tepee coverings, shields, and leather pouches,called parfleches.

The most important value of the buffalo,however, was as a food source.Typically, the meatwas cut into strips, then roasted.The buffalo humpwas considered the most tender. Meat was alsoeaten raw. Indians drank the blood which tastedlike warm milk.They ate the organs, including theintestines. Native Americans even ate unborn calffetus. Other meat was dried into jerky or ground to a powder, then mixed with animal fat andberries, into a food called pemmican, which wouldlast all winter.

Women worked buffalo hides by scraping awaythe flesh and softening the animal covering intoleather by applying ashes, animal fat, and brains.The buffalo’s bones were fashioned into tools.Thread for sewing clothing, as well as for stringingbows, was made from buffalo sinew. Ceremonialrattles were made from buffalo hoofs and horns.Skulls were used in Indian rituals as well. Even thedung of the buffalo,“buffalo chips,” was used as

fuel for campfires.Some of the buffalo hides produced by the

women of the tribes on the Plains were used ascoverings for their tepees.The word tepee is from aDakota word meaning “the Place where one lives.”It was the men’s responsibility to gather the materials required to build a tepee. But it was considered women’s work to build the tepee,maintain the materials used, and to dismantle andtransport it when the tribe moved to another site.Most tepees followed the same basic constructiondesign.Three or four poles about 25 feet in lengthwere lashed together near their ends to form thebasic support structure of the tepee.Then additionalpoles were added, approximately 16 in number, toform the circle of the tepee on the ground.

Women sewed buffalo hides together to makethe covering.The number of hides requireddepended on the size of the tepee. Small tepeesmight only require six or seven hides, but largerones needed 20 or 30 buffalo robes to cover theentire structure.The size of a tepee was anotherway by which someone demonstrated wealth tohis tribal brothers.

Once the hides were stretched around thelodge pole framework, the women used woodenstakes, or lodge pins, to secure the hide all aroundthe base. Large poles placed inside the tepee wereused to open and close flaps located at the top ofthe structure.These flaps allowed smoke to escapeor were closed to block out rain or snow.

The tepee had a single entrance, a door usuallyincluded on the side of the tepee facing out to theeast, since the winds of the Plains often blow fromthe west.Plains tepees could be both cool in summerand warm in winter.

Review and Write

1. How did Native Americans hunt buffalo before the arrival of the horse?

2. Describe the design of a typical Plains tepee.


The Uses of Buffalo

While most people picture the Plains Indiansliving in tepees, several tribes with historical roots inthis region did not.One such tribe was the Mandan.

These people migrated onto the Great Plainsaround 1400 from the region of the Great Lakesand settled in the territory of what is today NorthDakota, along the banks of the Missouri River.When the first whites arrived in the vicinity of theMandan, the tribe was living in the Big Bend regionof the river.The great American explorers, Lewis andClark, wintered with the Mandan here in 1804–05.

The Mandan lived in permanent settlementsand practiced an extensive agriculture, whichincluded the raising of corn, beans, squash,sunflowers, and tobacco for ceremonial purposes.As sedentary people, they made pottery for storageand cooking, rather than relying on the use of animal skin bags, as was the custom with most ofthe more nomadic Great Plains tribes.

They built their homes in the form of earthenmounds rather than relying on the tepee design.Tobuild a typical Mandan dwelling involved digging apit measuring one to four feet in depth.This providedthe floor for the lodge.A wooden frame was built upfrom the pit floor, and poles were lashed together,then covered with several layers of willow branches.

On top of this wooden framework, the Mandanplaced a layer of prairie grass to provide a roofcovering and much needed insulation against thehot summers and frigid winters. Sod was thenplaced on top of the willow branches and grassesto provide the final roofing layer for the dwelling.

These earthen houses had to provide warmthfor the Mandan during the long winter months in aregion where temperatures fell far below freezing.The average Mandan village might feature from tento a hundred lodges.

These rounded, sunken lodges served as hometo several families who lived together and oftennumbered as many as forty or fifty, if not more. Eachfamily provided its own beds, which were placedaround the wall of the lodge circle.The lodges alsoprovided shelter for the tribe’s dogs, and, in cases

of severely cold temperatures, even their horsesmight be housed inside. In the center of thedwelling a fire burned, providing additionalwarmth for the families living there, as well as heatfor cooking. In the center of the roof, the Mandanleft a hole for the fire’s smoke to escape.

These lodges were built to withstand an accumulation of heavy snow on their roofs.Theywere so well built that many people could standon the domed roofs simultaneously without fear ofcollapsing the structure.Typically, the members ofthe tribe used the roofs as gathering places, playgames, to do their daily chores, or to just take anap in the afternoon sun.The Mandan also storedtheir possessions on the roofs of their homes.

The Mandans were not the only northern Plainstribes to use the earthen lodge model as their typicalhome. In all, eight Great Plains tribal groups livedfor at least a majority of the year in such dwellings.In addition to the Mandan, these tribes includedthe Arikaras, the Hidatsas, the Pawnees, theOmahas, the Caddos, the Wichitas, and the Osages.

Review and Write

Why do you think the Mandan and other tribes relied on earthen lodges for shelter instead of using the tepee which was so popular with other nomadic tribes on the Great Plains?

The Earthen Lodges of the Mandan


Most Plains tribes had political structures that did not require many leaders to govern theconduct of the tribe or its bands. In fact, many of these tribes did not live on a daily basis as awhole tribe, with all members of the group livingin close proximity to one another or even in thesame village.

Many of the Native Americans living on theGreat Plains spent most of their year living in atribal band, a division of the tribe based on families,marriages, and other social structures. Each bandoperated independently of one another, and eachselected their own chiefs.These leaders were chosen on the basis of their military prowess andreputation, their leadership qualities, and their wisdom.Technically, their job was to serve as anadvisor to the band, not to give orders or makedemands on their people.

At certain times of the year, a tribe’s bands would congregate—usually in the summertime.Each band would set up camp by erecting a circle of tepees. During such times, the membersof the bands would take part in competitions and games, such as foot or horse races or gambling activities. It was also a time for ceremonies and councils.

Otherwise, the bands remained independent,moving through their years in a regular pattern ofevents. Plains Indians usually called their years“winters,” indicating their awareness of seasonal differences. Just as the first snows began to fall, thePlains tribes often carried out one last hunt, hopingto add to their stores of meat from the spring andsummer expeditions.As the temperature droppedand winter set in, the bands became sedentary.Awinter camp typically lasted from November untilApril or May.

During the winter, people remained close tocamp.A Plains winter could be ferocious, withsnows drifting to several feet in height, and thetemperature dropping to 60 degrees Fahrenheitbelow freezing.

In the comfort of their tepees or earthen

lodges, Plains Indians slept under heaps of buffalorobes for warmth.The men worked at repairingtheir hunting equipment, shaping new arrows.Women cooked and tended the children, as well asdecorated hides and clothing with beadwork andporcupine quills.

In the evenings, families came together toshare stories and meals.Around a crackling fire,men spun tales of heroic adventures and talkinganimals.Young men and women paired off withone another, and children drifted off to sleep underheavy buffalo robes.

In spring, the bands emerged from their winterencampment, ready to hunt. New chiefs might beselected and a plan was laid out to determine eachband’s new campsite.

Through the late spring and summer, the bandsmoved about, scattering in all directions, becominglargely responsible for themselves.They carried outtheir own pattern of hunting, warring, and horse-stealing. By midsummer, the separated bandscame together for the annual Sun Dance, the most significant series of annual ceremonies in whicheach tribe participated. Following the Sun Dance rituals, most Plains tribes engaged in a great buffalo hunt.

By autumn, the sedentary tribes began to reap the harvest of their agricultural endeavors.More nomadic bands continued to hunt,bartering with one another and dealing with whitetraders, as well as working on their domestic and decorative crafts.

Review and Write

1. What aspect of Plains Indian life do you think you might have enjoyed the most? What would you have enjoyed the least?

2. Define a tribal band.

3. When might the bands of a Plains tribe come together?


Plains Life as Bands

Warfare on the Great Plains was commonbetween the two dozen tribes living across thisvast expanse of territory. But Plains Indian fightingwas quite unique.

The basic organization of warfare were militarysocieties. Indian males belonged to such groups,typically entering them when they reached theirearly teen years.These societies imposed a specificcode of behavior on their members, requiringthem to learn special songs and dances, and wearspecial insignia, indicating the military society towhich they belonged.

While some societies were intertribal, allowingmembers from different tribes, most were not.Some societies were extremely “closed,” allowingonly warriors who were invited to join the group.An invitation might be based on a warrior’s personal record of exploits and deeds in battle.

A tribe typically boasted several military societies.The Kiowa had six such societies, including onefor young boys, ages ten to twelve, who receivedearly training to become warriors. Originally, theCheyenne had five societies: the Fox, Elk (or HoofRattle), Shield, Bowstring, and the fiercest of all, theDog Soldiers.

Among the Lakota (Sioux), warriors vied formembership in the elite society known as theStrong Hearts.Within this society, the fighters wereknown as the sash-wearers.

Heralded for their bravery, sash-wearers wouldadvance in the face of an enemy, dismount fromtheir ponies, and stack their sashes on the ground,using a lance.The other end of the sash was tiedaround their necks.They then fought in this spot,pinned to the ground, refusing to move, until theywere either killed or a fellow warrior releasedthem.These warriors were found in other Plainstribes as well, including the Cheyenne.

One of the greatest acts of courage a Plainswarrior could carry out was the curious practiceof “counting coup.”While most cultures whoengage in war expect to kill their enemy, the PlainsIndians considered it more honorable to humiliate

an enemy by merely touching him and perhapsallowing him to live. (The word coup is French,meaning “blow.”)

This practice was carried out with a coupstick, which a warrior carried into battle.The stickwas not a real weapon, but was used to strike or hitan enemy.A warrior could “count coup”on anenemy using a true weapon, such as a bow, a lance,a club, or even just a hand.The purpose of thecoup was to show its victim that an enemy wasbrave enough to come within range of being killed,sometimes armed with nothing but a stick, and thatthat warrior was able to touch his victim withouthimself being wounded or struck down.

A coup might stand alone as a feat of battle,but a victim might then be killed, and thenscalped.A warrior usually received an eagle featherfor each successful coup. If all three acts—count-ing coup, killing, and scalping—were accomplished,the warrior received three eagle feathers. Suchbrave deeds of war were retold by successful war-riors around tribal fires. If a warrior strayed fromthe truth by exaggerating his deeds, he might facethe permanent shame of his fellow tribesmen.

Review and Write

1. Why was “counting coup” considered such a significant act of bravery?

2. Why would exaggerating one’s successes in battle be considered such a shameful act with-in a warrior society?

Plains Indians at War


As with all tribes of Native Americans, the spiritworld was an important aspect of Indian religion.All things—plants, animals, even the stars, water,inanimate objects such as rocks—contained a spiritthat could be passed on to warriors who performedcertain deeds.

The most frequently pursued avenue for achievingaccess to the spirit world among Native Americanson the Plains was a ritual called the vision quest.Warriors sought visions through an involved seriesof rituals.The first attempt at a vision quest wasmade when the would-be warrior was a teenager.

The quest typically began with the erection of a sweat lodge from tree saplings, similar to asauna, with the visionary sitting inside. Heatedstones produced steam when water was poured on them.This caused a purification of the manseeking a vision.

Next, the young man stripped himself of hisclothing, painted his body with white clay and leftthe camp of his people. He also fasted for severaldays.After exposure to the elements and havinggone without food or water, the warrior mightreceive a vision, or an induced hallucination.

These visions were considered an access to thespirit world. If a vision did not come after fasting,the warrior might take a knife and cut himselfrepeatedly.The loss of blood could render the warriorsemi-consciousness, thus creating a trance-like state.

The sought-after vision would then take on avariety of possible forms.The hallucinating bravemight be visited by a deceased ancestor or share aconversation with a talking animal. He might visitan unknown place. In the end, he hoped to learnsacred songs and prayers, and receive instructionon how to behave in his tribe or band.

After having such a vision, the warrior wouldtell the story to a tribal medicine man who wouldinterpret the dream.Whatever stood out in thedream—an animal, a tree, a lightning bolt—wouldbe thought of as that warrior’s guardian spirit. Hewould then begin collecting objects that herecalled from his vision to serve as charms.These

he would place in his sacred leather pouch, called amedicine bundle.They were considered sacred itemsthat possessed the power of magic.They broughtgood fortune to their owners and their families.Such a bundle might include a sacred pipe.

Pipes were thought to be holy and spirituallypowerful.Most pipes were made of wood, some ofantler or steatite (soapstone).Others were fashionedout of a soft, reddish rock called catlinite.The mostfamous catlinite quarry, located in Minnesota, wasitself considered sacred, and warriors from manytribes journeyed there. No fighting could takeplace in the sacred quarry.

The most sacred ritual of the Plains was theSun Dance. Known by other names, such as theCheyenne New Life Lodge, the Sun Dance was anannual attempt by the tribe to connect with thespirit world.The rituals were intended to bringgood fortune to the tribe—keeping the buffalo abun-dant,blessing marriages, and healing the sick.Lastingeight to twelve days. among the dance’s rituals wasself-mutilation, which included warriors slicingtheir chests, inserting wooden skewers into thecuts, then dragging buffalo skulls behind them asthey danced around the sacred Sun Dance pole.

Review and Write

How did Plains religion reflect the Native Americans’ connection to nature?


Plains Indians Spirit World

Part I.Multiple Choice. Match the answers shown below with the statements given above. Place the letters of the correct answers in the spaces below.

1. Dome-shaped grass huts built in the Southwest 2. Name given the Native American crops: maize, beans, and squash3. A sunken, circular room of the Southwest Culture Region, often used for ceremonies4. Anasazi site located in Chaco Canyon; it included 800 rooms built in the shape of a half-circle5. Southwestern Pueblo religious cult which featured the wearing of elaborate masks6. Hairstyle worn by unmarried Pueblo women7. Southwestern bread made by soaking corn kernels in salt and cooking them in hot sand8. Name given the Haudenosaunee Indians by their enemies9. Mound-building phase of the Northeastern Indians

10. Mound city located near present-day St. Louis; it was ruled by the “Great Sun”11. Lower class of Natchez people12. Natchez community located near modern-day Natchez, Mississippi

A. squash blossoms B. Great Village C. Three Sisters D. stinkardsE. kiva F. Cahokia G. Pueblo Bonito H. AdenaI. piki J. Iroquois K. Kachina L. wickiups

1. ____ 2. ____ 3. ____ 4. ____ 5. ____ 6. ____ 7. ____ 8. ____ 9. ____ 10. ____ 11. ____ 12. ____

Part II.Multiple Choice. Match the answers shown below with the statements given above. Place the letters of the correct answers in the spaces below.

1. Native American tribal group whose name translates “The People of the Longhouse”2. Bark-covered dome houses erected by Northeastern tribes3. One of the tribes of the League of the Six Nations4. Name given Algonquian confederacy chief of notable wisdom and authority5. Tribal clan division responsible for various functions within a tribe6. Algonquian name for the spirits found in everything in nature 7. Plains shelter consisting of lodge poles placed in a conical shape and covered with hides8. Name given the horse by some Plains Indians tribes9. Device attached behind a horse or dog to pull a dead weight behind it

10. Leather pouch used by Plains Indians for storage11. Food mixture of animal fat, pulverized jerky, and berries12. Most fierce of the Plains Indians military societies

A. Dog Soldiers B. Haudenosaunee C. pemmican D. wigwamsE. travois F. Oneida G. parfleche H. Grand SachemI. Medicine Dog J. moiety K. tepee L. manitou

1. ____ 2. ____ 3. ____ 4. ____ 5. ____ 6. ____ 7. ____ 8. ____ 9. ____ 10. ____ 11. ____ 12. ____

Test II


West of the RockyMountains and east ofCalifornia’s Sierra Nevadarange lies a Native Americancultural region called theGreat Basin.The region issurrounded by vast mountains, including variouslower ranges. Since the areais at a lower elevation thanits surroundings, it forms a natural “basin” for theregion’s rainfall.Water has nonatural outlet by which to flow out of the GreatBasin, so it has historically collected in many lakeswithin the mountain-locked system.

Since rivers and streams drain from the snow-capped mountains into these lakes, the lakewater evaporates and then falls as rain once more.This cycle produces lakes of a higher than normalsalt content, such as the Great Salt Lake of Utah.

Those Native Americans living in the GreatBasin have always faced an environment that washostile and arid. Plant types are few and sparse.The region is dominated by juniper trees, sagebrush, and pinion trees, which have always beenhighly prized by the region’s Indians for their pinenuts which have a nutty flavor.Animal life in theregion is typically poor, forcing the native occupants of the Great Basin to forage for berries,roots, pine nuts, seeds, rodents, snakes, lizards,and grubworms.

Despite its arid and inhospitable surroundings, theGreat Basin has been occupied by Indians for thou-sands of years.Archaeologists trace human occupa-tion of the region back to perhaps 11,500 yearsago.These early Stone-Age residents used Cascade,Folsom and Clovis styles.

About 9,000 years ago, the region was home tothe Desert Culture, which relied on small-gamehunting. By that time the large Pleistocene animalshad died out.The Indians of this period lived incaves and beneath rock shelters to protect

themselves from the hot climate.Artifacts uncoveredfrom this era include stoneand wooden tools, such asdigging sticks, wooden clubs,milling stones, and stonescrapping tools.

The first evidence of basket weaving has beenunearthed in Danger Cave in Western Utah, dating from around 7,000 to 5,000B.C.Around 6,000 years

ago, early Shoshonean-speaking arrivals entered the Great Basin and their descendants haveremained there.

Between 2,000 B.C. and A.D. 1, the Basin popu-lation had developed into villages which were typi-cally established near the region’s lakes.Adaptingfurther to the surrounding environment, theseearly villagers engaged in fishing using fish hooksand fishing nets.They also created duck decoys,woven out of local grasses. Hunting was still com-mon, and acorns and pine nuts had become animportant part of the local diet.

Agriculture was virtually non-existent for theseNative Americans.They remained a gathering people,sending out regular parties of foragers into thegreener lower valleys near their villages, collectingseeds, berries, and nuts.They used digging sticks todig up edible roots.White men who entered theregion in more recent centuries called the NativeAmericans in the Great Basin “Digger Indians.”

Just as groups of foragers were formed, theGreat Basin tribes practiced regular roundups ofrabbits, antelopes, and even grasshoppers for eating.Food remained nearly a constant problem in thearid, bleak environment of the Great Basin.

Review and Write

Why was food such a problem among the Great Basin peoples?


Early Peoples of the Great Basin

North of the Great Basin lies the region calledthe Plateau, a sub-region of the Western Range.ThePlateau lies between the Rocky Mountains and theCascade Mountains of Oregon and Washingtonstates. It extends north into Canada. Other smallerchains give the Plateau an uneven landscapemarked by peaks and valleys.

The region is also drained by two vast river systems, the Fraser and the Columbia.The greatnorthern bend of the Fraser system, located in theCanadian province of British Columbia, forms thenorthern boundary of the Plateau.

It is here that a sub-culture of the WesternRange lived. Unlike the Great Basin, the Plateau isan incredibly rich one. It comprises portions ofeastern Washington and Oregon, as well as theentire state of Idaho, a sliver of northern California,and much of Canadian British Columbia.

The Plateau is thick with forests that have, forthousands of years, been home to all kinds of fur-bearing animals from great grizzly bears to beavers,as well as antler-bearing animals, including deer,elk, antelope, and moose.The rivers, which fingertheir way through every corner of the region, teemwith fish, including trout and sturgeon. But theprize fish of the Native Americans was salmon, theprimary food source for the Indians of the Plateaufor thousands of years.

This natural abundance has always been a magnetfor Native Americans who include approximatelytwo dozen tribes. In the southern part of theregion are the Klamath, Modoc, Chinook, NezPerce,Wishram, Cayuse, and Palouse.To the north,the tribes of the Flathead, Kalispel, Spokane, Coeurd’Alene, Shuswap, and Ntylakyapamuk live beyondthe Columbia river.

The arrivals to this region entered in the southern part of the Plateau, around 4,000 B.C.Thenorthern portion of the region saw its earliestinhabitants around 1,500 B.C.

While the tribal groups of the region find theirroots in those two dates, a few peoples arrived earlierthan either time frame.Archaeologists have found

evidence of Stone Age people dating to the OldCordilleran Culture, who used Cascade Points,around 7,500 to 9,500 years ago. By 5,000 B.C. anew phase of life developed, the Desert Culture.With the large Pleistocene animals then extinct,including the mastodons, the Wishram people ofthe Plateau hunted Wooden Statue smaller animals.Basketry came into practice, and milling stoneswere used to grind food.

Around 2,000 B.C. the region experienced ashift in temperature patterns, which brought anend to the warm Desert Culture. Cooler climatesbrought great snow masses, and greater flow ofrivers in the region, as well as increased annualrainfall. Now Native Americans began to settle permanently along rivers, and fishing developed asa chief means of sustenance.

The Northern Forest Culture took root by1,000 B.C.This Neolithic culture introduced theregion to highly polished, or smoothed, stone toolsand weapons, as well as copper artifacts. By A.D. 1,the Plateau people had developed the PlateauCulture, which varied slightly between groupsfound within the region. During these years, themodern tribal system was developing and, by A.D.500, the tribes of the interior were seriously tradingwith the nations of the Pacific Coast and with theGreat Plains tribes to the east.

Review and Write

How was the environment of the Plateau more suitable than that of the Great Basin for human occupation?

Early Peoples of the Plateau


Because of their location in the interior portionof what is today the United States, the PlateauIndians did not make contact with Europeans untilthe 1700s. Even then, the contact was only occa-sional, consisting of bartering with French andBritish fur trappers and traders.

By the early 19th century, the Plateau peopleswere making more permanent contact withwhites.These contacts introduced non-Indians tothe Native Americans who lived in fishing villagesalong major river systems and their tributaries.Their villages were each independent of oneanother, with each directed by chiefs who wereboth civil and military leaders.

The Plateau Indians had, by the time ofEuropean contact, developed an elaborate systemof contacts with one another.They were also makingtrade connections regularly with tribes living outsidetheir region. Sometimes those outside contactschanged the culture of the Plateaus.

For example, the Pacific coast tribe, theClatsop, practiced the tradition of head-flattening,which involved the flattening of the foreheads oftheir infants in specially designed cradle boards.Through contact, some of the Plateau tribes beganpracticing the same tradition. Other Pacific tribestraditions, such as nose-piercing were picked up byPlateau Indians known as the Nez Perce (the namecame from the French term for “pierced noses”).

Other Pacific tribal traditions of the Plateautribes were the wearing of cedar-slat protectivegear for fighting, a sort of primitive, wooden armor,and the wearing of shredded wood clothing.

By the 1700s, the Native Americans of thePlateau had been introduced to the horse, whichhad migrated north from Spanish settlements inmodern-day New Mexico.The lush grasslands ofthe Plateau highlands provided superb pastures for horse herds.The tribes known as the Cayuse,Nez Perce and Yakima gained access to the horsefirst, while other tribes followed suit not long after. Just as with the Plains Indians, the horsealtered the lifestyles of the Plateau tribes.They

gained new mobility and hunted buffalo withgreater success.The horse increased the areaswhere Plateau tribes roamed, encouraging them tomake contact with the French, the British, and theAmericans.Through such contacts, the Plateau peo-ples gained more trade opportunities.

In the Great Basin, the Shoshone gained accessto their first horses from the herds of the Spanishto the south, and soon traded for their first riflesfrom American fur-trappers.All these steps gavethem a new mobility.

After 1700, they were able to carry out horse-back bison hunts on the High Plains of easternWyoming. Other Great Basin tribes were using thehorse to ride into modern-day Idaho, to the north,to fish for salmon and hunt for buffalo.With all thisincreased mobility, Great Basin and Plateau tribesmade greater contact and, in the case of theShoshone and the Northern Paiutes, they even unit-ed into a single tribal unit.

Review and Write

1. In what ways did contact between Plateau tribes and Pacific Coastal tribes result in changes in Plateau culture?

2. How did the introduction of the horse to the Plateau region change the culture and lifestyles of Plateau Indians?


Tribal Differences of the Western Range

Although daily village life varied somewhatfrom tribe to tribe, the Native Americans of thePlateau shared many common domestic elements.The typical Plateau village might feature a peopleliving together throughout the winter in circularearthen lodges, just as the Mandan and Pawnee didon the Great Plains.

Some tribes built housing that had the appearance of the Haudenosaunee longhouses inthe Northeast.These Plateau models were bark-covered and might extend to 100 feet in length.Such homes were multi-family dwellings and theoccupants slept along the outer walls, while a fireburned in the center of the house.

In the summer season, the villagers might livein open-air houses, built of wooden poles and covered with bark, reeds, or rushes. Such homeswere usually smaller, single-family structures. Stillanother summer model of housing used on thePlateau involved a style that used wooden planks.These were copied from models found on thePacific Coast. Such houses were occupied in fishingcamps located along rivers and lakes during thesummer months. Sometimes such “lake cabins”were built in rows, along the waterfront.At thebacks of the these Indian houses, the catch of theday, trout and other fish, was hung on racks to dry.

Food was found in abundance, and the Plateaupeoples found a bountiful harvest everywhere theyturned.They caught fish by spearing and trappingthem. Such traps might include a weir, which wereplaced at the mouth of a narrow river or streamwhere salmon spawned.The weir featured a barrierbuilt in the stream, much like a fence, whichallowed the fish to pass through breaks in thefence, only to find themselves being guided intospecially set traps located along a second fence.Fishing was considered a man’s job.

By early winter, usually October, the fishing season was over, and the men often went out onhunting expeditions, while the women and chil-dren stayed behind, gathering fall berries, plantsand seeds.

Each organized hunt required a leader, with hisspirit bearing the responsibility of giving directionto the hunt itself. Before the hunt, each member ofthe party underwent a “sweat” in a lodge to purifyhimself. Hunters tracked different animals, fromdeer to bear, using their bows and arrows. In thecase of bears, the hunting party might search nearberry patches, a lure for bears. Once an animal waskilled, the hunting party carried out ceremonies,including songs and blessings.

Gathering brought an abundant harvest.ThePlateau yielded foods that included currants,elderberries, buffalo berries, choke cherries, andservice berries.The Washo people gathered wildstrawberries along the banks of Lake Tahoe, andpulverized them into a sweet berry drink. Bulbs,roots, watercress, clover, even thistle were part ofthe Indian diet. In the Great Basin, cactus was harvested for both their fruit and spines. Some cactus fruit was considered sweet and delectable.Cactus needles were roasted.

One of the most important natural productsgathered by Western Range tribes were the pinionnut.The Washoes called the annual harvest,Gumbasbai, which meant “big time.”The hunt wasso important that women first took sacred baths topurify themselves.To gather the crop, women usedlong poles with hooked tips to shake the treebranches, collecting the nuts in baskets.A group ofwomen and children might gather 1,000 pounds ofpinion nuts in just a few days. Pinion nuts wereeaten raw, roasted, or ground into flour for baking.In winter, a mixture of water and pinion flour wasset outside the lodge and eaten as a NativeAmerican version of ice cream.

Daily Life on the Plateau


The Pacific Northwest Culture group occupiesthe smallest region of all the tribes of NorthAmerica.The region includes an elongated strip ofland stretching from the border between modern-day Oregon and California north to the Alaskancoast.This long expanse of land is never widerthan 100 miles from east to west, hugging thePacific Coast from beginning to end.

Over the centuries, the tribes found in thisregion have adapted their culture to fit their environment. Due to the region’s high rainfall—typically 100 inches annually—life in the PacificNorthwest is different from that of any other cultureregion. It is a land of great forests, coastal waters,and rivers abundant with fish.

Yet the tribes of the Northwest were never acohesive group.They spoke different languagesand dialects. Dozens of tribes occupied the regionsince ancient times.Among those native nationsrecognized were the Haida and Tlingit, who settledin British Columbia; the Clatskanie,Tututni,Chinook, Clatsop, Coos, Kalapuya, Siuslaw,Takelmaand Tsimshian who lived in coastal Oregon andWashington; and the Cowlitz, Duwamish, Clallam,Skagit, and Lumni, who found their homes furtherinland in Washington and British Columbia, settlingalong various rivers.

Dating the earliest arrivals of Native Americansto the northwest region is difficult. Since the earlyIndians to the region did not use pottery, a traditional means of dating ancient people,archaeologists have traditionally relied on variousprojectile points instead.The earliest occupation inthe region, a period called the Coastal LandHunting period, dates from around 6,000 B.C.Hunters used flaked stone-tipped implements ofthe Clovis variety.

Surprisingly,a 5,000-year gap in the archaeologicalrecord leaves little evidence of a culture in theNorthwest. It isn’t until 1,000 B.C. that anthropolo-gists and archaeologists again pick up the trail.Thatculture is known as the Early Maritime, and it wascoastal-based, and sea-oriented.

Inhabitants of the Northwest used harpoons tohunt sea mammals, and slate to make their stoneprojectile points and tools.These practices were simi-lar to those of the Inuit, or Eskimo, who lived fur-ther north in modern-day Canada.

Following the Early Maritime Period,anthropologists and archaeologists identify eras ofcultural advancement that included new huntingpractices both on land and sea. By A.D.1, theNorthwestern cultural practices and values werebased on hunting, fishing, and gathering wildplants.There was still no systematic agricultureamong these unique peoples.

Over the past seven centuries, NorthwesternNative Americans have developed their intricatesocial systems and have become extraordinarycraftsmen, hewing the various woods of the regioninto a variety of art forms, tools, and huntingobjects—everything from fancy wooden bowls togigantic canoes measuring 60 feet in length to tallfir poles, called totem poles.

By the time of the arrival of the first Europeansin the Pacific Northwest, the tribes of the regionwere densely populated and their social orderswere highly complex. Due to the abundance offood, trees, animal and sea life, the Indians of theNorthwest became some of the wealthiest found inNorth America.They developed rich economiesthat caused these Native Americans to becomeobsessed with property and the social prestige thatwealth brings.

Review and Write

1. Identify the location of the Northwest Culture Group.

2. Why is dating the earliest arrivals of Native Americans to the Northwest Region difficult?

3. Why were the Pacific Northwest Indians among the most wealthy Native Americans by the time of the arrival of the first Europeans?


The Northwest Culture Group

How did the Native Americans of the PacificNorthwest become so obsessed with wealth? Whatallowed them to accumulate so many material goodswhile other Indian regional groups lived basic livesof subsistence? The answer lies in their environment.

Nature was abundant in the Pacific Northwestregion.The forests were homes to gigantic trees;lakes and rivers were full of fish; living along theocean coast gave the people there access to a richharvest of marine life, including whales.The resultwas a lifestyle that reflected this abundance.TheNorthwest tribes hunted, fished, and gathered somuch food that it was rarely a problem. Huntersstalked elk, bear, deer, caribou, and other woodlandanimals for food, fur, sinew, and bone.There wasalways plenty, giving the tribes of the Northwest arich diet and the opportunity for great wealth.

And the chief source of food for the region’sNative Americans was salmon.This great fish couldbe found by the millions in the icy waters of theNorthwest. Because it was, and still is, a creature ofhabit and instinct, the fish was an easy one tocatch. Each year, during the summer, salmon madespawning runs up every available water source inthe Northwest.When the salmon were “running”upstream, whole tribes would abandon their villages and fish through this annual season.

Native fishermen caught salmon through a varietyof methods.They used the hook and line, fishingthe way most people do today. But other methodswere even more successful.They developed netsystems that might allow one fisherman to catch100 salmon a day. Other methods involved longbasket traps and elaborate weirs. One personmight be able to catch enough salmon in just a fewweeks to feed his whole family for an entire year.

While salmon were an important freshwaterfood source, the Pacific Ocean provided another:whales.These great beasts of the ocean providedthe Indians with blubber and whale oil. NativeAmerican whale hunts involved great whalingcanoes, often carved from a single giant red cedartree, a process that might take two or three years

to complete. Such whaling canoes might hold acrew of eight or nine men.They used harpoons tospear their prey.

Once they killed a whale, it was towed toshore where the entire village participated in theremoval of whale blubber from the carcass.Ceremonies and prayers were performed to payrespects to the whale’s spirit.This ritual typicallylasted for four days, ending in a great feast with thevillagers gorging themselves on whale blubber.

Another source of bounty for theNorthwestern tribes was the immense red cedartrees found in the region. Because of the heavyrainfall, these cedars grew to great heights, providingthe raw material for many of the material goods ofthe Northwest. Indians made their homes out of

cedar planks.These were some of the most elaborate,roomiest homes built by Native Americans.

Cedar is a finely grained wood, which providedthe Indians of the region an easy carving wood.They fashioned elaborate cedar canoes, tools,weapons, baskets, and domestic items such aswooden dishes, bowls, and great cedar chests.These chests held the abundance of blankets accumulated by a wealthy chief.

Review and Write

How did nature provide the basis of wealth for Pacific Northwest tribes?

Abundance in the Pacific Northwest


Within the cultures of many Northwesterntribes, power was signified in the accumulation ofgoods and wealth made possible by the regionsnatural abundance. Prestige did not come from skillat war, or wisdom, or through brave deeds, butrather in the collecting of material possessions.

Many Northwest tribes simply accumulated forthe sake of possession.A wealthy native man mightown thousands of blankets woven from dog hair ormountain goat wool, which he would store incedar chests.These he might loan out at interest.Although the Northwestern peoples did not usegold or silver coins, they instead had strings of rareseashell called dentalium, which served as money.A wealthy man might own large copper plates, likegold bars, each one worth three or four thousandblankets. One might also accumulate slaves, anothersign of wealth. But the oddest form of wealth wasin the Indian accumulation of names, which tookplace in a series of designated ways.

Accumulation of names meant that a rich per-son could buy a name of honor. In other words,someone wanting to marry into the family of anIndian nobleman was expected to “pay” for theprivilege of using that name.The man would pay ahigh price for his noble bride and the use of hername. Even after they were married, he continuedto pay annually for the use of the name, as long ashe remained married to her.

The result of all this buying and selling ofnames allowed one to accumulate wealth and status.Sometimes, a person bought a name that indicatedhow wealthy he was.A rich person might buy thename “Too-Rich,” or “Throwing-Away-Property,” or“Always-Giving-Away-Blankets-While-Talking.”Thispeculiar practice caused Northwestern society tobe divided into classes or ranks, including chiefs,nobles, commoners, and slaves.The names one purchased might indicate how little regard a personhad for personal possessions, because he had somuch.This point of giving away wealth to indicatehow rich one was became common among theNorthwest tribes.The best means of showing off

your wealth was to host a potlatch.The word potlatch comes from the Chinook

word meaning “to give.” It consisted of a highly ritualized event designed to celebrate the raising ofa house or of a totem pole, another sign of wealth.Through a potlatch, a person might be able toadvance his rank among his peers.

A great potlatch could take years to plan.A chief or other significant person with titlearranged for his relatives to make personal contributions to the potlatch.The invitations weredelivered to those who were to attend the event.The host of a potlatch would even invite his rivals and enemies. Guests who attended the potlatch were forced to listen to the host bragabout his wealth.

Then, following dances and a banquet, the host proceeded to give gifts to his guests. But hewould give those he hated the most the greaternumber of gifts. In reality, the “gifts” were not gifts.The point of a potlatch was to brag as host and to obligate others to give to you more than yougave to them.Within one year, the guests wereexpected to pay the host back for his gifts to themat a rate of 100 percent interest! This meant thatfor every blanket you were given, you were torepay with two.

Guests could not refuse to attend a potlatchwhen invited and to fail to repay double after a yearwas a complete disgrace. Failure to pay might causethe guest to sell himself into slavery.

Review and Write

1. What types of items did Northwest tribesmen collect as signs of wealth?

2. What types of names might a wealthy Indian take on to indicate his wealth?

3. What would happen to someone who refused to attend a potlatch or who did not pay his debts after a potlatch?


The Northwestern Potlatch

The Northwest Indians were sowrapped up in the accumulation ofwealth, they were willing to force thebankruptcy of others just to elevate theirown status in the community or tribe.Forthis reason, the potlatch was a destructivepart of the Pacific Northwest culture. Inthe name of showing off one’s wealth, arich man might destroy the wealth ofother’s and would even destroy his ownmaterial goods just to show others that hecould afford to lose much and still retain his wealth and status.

For example, during a potlatch, a hostchief might not only give away his goodsto others, he might make them useless tothem and himself.A chief sometimesthrew some of his goods in the ocean orpoured out hundreds of gallons of whaleoil onto a fire. During a potlatch, the hosttore up blankets, punched holes in hiscanoes, or killed his own slaves.He mighteven burn down his own house.

To further show off his wealth, theNorthwest Indian created a unique artform which has come to be known as thetotem pole.These poles were typicallycarved from cedar and served several purposes for their owner, depending onthe type of pole.

The most common totem pole was the memorialpole, which Native Americans erected along theshore of their village’s river or ocean inlet.Thepoles were placed to note the rise in power of afamily member to chief status.Another pole variety,the mortuary pole, was often placed near the graveof a deceased tribal leader.At the top of suchpoles, a container holding the ashes of a crematedchief was placed.

Another type of totem pole was the potlatchpole, carved to further the prestige of a family afterthey had hosted a potlatch ceremony.A final polevariety was the ridicule pole that was carved and

erected to shame someone for a lack ofhonor, such as not repaying a potlatch.

But the most common totem pole wascalled the house pole.These highly sym-bolic poles were raised either outside thefront door or inside the home and proclaimed the family’s status to all whopassed by or entered.The point of such apole was to brag or to show off.

Totem poles featured a variety of animal-spirit creatures, or totems, thatwere stacked on top of one another. Suchpoles might depict Eagle, Killer Whale,Wolf, Raven, the mythical beast,Thunderbird, or the monstrous bird,Hokhokw, whose long beak was powerfulenough to crush a warrior’s skull.Including a particular animal in a totem-pole was a way for a wealthy person topay his respects to the spirit of the animal.

While totem poles were erected forspecific purposes, some good and somequestionable, once they were erected, theywere not maintained.They were ignored.This was another way for the wealthy toshow off their disregard for material pos-sessions. It was a way of showing that awealthy person had so much, he could payfor a pole to be carved and placed, butthen allow it to deteriorate. If a pole fell

into disrepair or began to lean, it was simply leftthat way.As a result, since few totem poles havebeen raised over the past century, historical totem poles are extremely rare, found only in museums and national monuments.

Review and Write

1. For what purpose(s) do you think totem poleswere admirable?

2. For what purpose(s) do you think totem poleswere questionable?

Totem Poles of the Northwest


Long before the arrival of Europeans in theWestern Hemisphere,great numbers of native peopleslived along the Pacific coastal lands as well as fur-ther inland in a region known today as the state ofCalifornia. From the coast to the Sierra Nevadamountain chain to the east, this temperate environ-ment was a welcome place for hundreds of thou-sands of Indians and scores of independent tribes.

But the California Culture Region is a place ofgreat extremes in topography and, to a lesserextent, climate. It included a northern region withgreater rainfall and cooler temperatures yearround. But to the south, the California Indians livedin a warmer environ, a region consisting of scrubbydesert lands, similar to the Great Basin.Yet NativeAmericans lived there in great numbers.

By the time of the arrival of whites to the NewWorld, California tribespeople may have numberedbetween 150,000 and 350,000. Nearly 100 tribeslived in the expansive region of California. In thenorth, lived the Tolowas, Mattoles, Hoopas,Wiyots,and Yuroks.These tribes sometimes borrowed culturally from the natives of the Pacific Northwest.

In central California, lived the Yukis, Karoks,Shastas, and Yanas.These tribes were similar to thoseof the Plateau region. Other central Californiantribes included the Patwins, Miwoks, Maidus,Yokuts and Wintuns.They lived closer to the ocean.

To the south, additional tribes filled in the landscape, including Cahuillas, Fernandenos,Gabrielinos, Juanenos, Luisenos, Nicolenos, Serranos,and Tubatulabals. Many of these tribes becameknown as the Mission Indians, once the Spanisharrived in the region, bringing with them theCatholic-supported mission system of the late 1700s.

The earliest Indian occupants of the Californiaregion date as early as 30,000 years ago.These pre-projectile stage natives were big game hunterswho were nomadic. In time, Clovis and FolsomPoints were used in hunting. By 7,000 B.C., onebig-game hunting culture, the San Dieguito Culture,was using chipped-stone tools and weapons, andstone-tipped spears.

By 5,000 B.C. the population of California wasalready extensive.The dominant culture was theDesert Culture.With the large animals now extinct,the people gathered seeds and wild plants, andused milling stones to grind food.They also huntedand fished.

Between 2,000 B.C. and A.D. 500,AncientCalifornia experienced the Middle Period culture,which featured the use of small canoes and boatsto hunt dolphins.These Indians were more seden-tary, building simple villages, while remaining non-agricultural.As with other groups, they harvestedacorns as a staple food.

During the millennium before the arrival ofEuropeans (A.D. 500-1500), the region experiencedgreater population growth and greater variations oftribal units. Many tribes borrowed culture from thePacific Northwest, Great Basin, and Plateau tribes.Pottery was becoming common among Californiatribes, and clay utensils were used to gather acorns.

Most of the modern tribes were in place by1300.They were already occupying land theywould still be living on when Europeans arrivedtwo centuries later.Throughout centuries of livingin close proximity in California, these tribes didnot typically war with one another.They appear tohave been peace-loving, not coveting the lands ofthe tribes next door.


Early California Natives

The California region is rich in naturalresources. Native Americans living in this area hadaccess to food in abundance. The type of foodsavailable varied from tribe to tribe depending on atribe’s location within the region. Tribes in northern California, for example, relied heavily onfish, especially salmon. Just as the PacificNorthwestern tribes, Californians used nets, spears,diverting traps, and fishhooks to catch the greatfish. Fishermen would build platforms extendingout over rivers, spearing the salmon as they leapedout of the water on their way to summer spawning.

In addition to salmon, northern CaliforniaIndians caught steelhead, trout, and sturgeon.They also harvested lamprey eels during the spring.

Along the shoreline of the Pacific Ocean, theNative Americans gathered clams, oysters,mussels, and scallops. It was considered women’swork to cut open, clean, and dry the fish caught by men, including the salmon, which was typicallysmoked on large, wooden racks placed over a fire.

Another significant food among Californianswas acorns—the smallish nut produced by the tall,sprawling oak trees of the region. Just as the oakleaves turned a crisp brown, the Indians began harvesting the nuts.This was also done by thewomen, but some tribes allowed men and boys tohelp out, usually by climbing the great oaks andshaking the limbs and branches, causing the acornsto tumble to the ground.Acorns were stored inlarge granaries—storage facilities large enough tohold a dozen bushels.

Acorns were dried and the shells wereremoved.Women then pounded the dried nutswith stone mortars and pestles, making a fine nutmeal.The nut meal was baked into unleavenedloaves of acorn bread. Indians gathered other wildplants to eat such as herbs, roots, tubers, and wildbulbs. Some tribes gathered as many as 60 varietiesof plants and seeds to eat, including chia seeds,sunflowers, clover, Indian lettuce, watercress, sage,and pepper grass.

Fruits were also gathered by California Indians.

Some tapped the fruit from the prickly pear cactus,using tongs to remove the pulp from cactusbristling with sharp needles. Other collected fruitswere wild grapes, choke-cherries and a host ofberry varieties.

Hunting was also an important practice ofCalifornia Indians, adding further to their food supply.Using bows and arrows, and sometimes accompaniedby dogs, Native Americans stalked deer and elk, aswell as smaller game, such as squirrels, rabbits, andquail. Some tribes, such as the Pomo of centralCalifornia, hunted deer by herding them toward ahunter skilled with a bow. Hunters often woredeerhead masks.

Indians in the more inhospitable regions ofCalifornia relied on insect harvests for food.Central California peoples gathered small,smooth-skinned caterpillars called army wormswhich they either roasted or boiled. If the caterpillar harvest was abundant, the extra caterpillars were dried in the sun and stored forwinter eating.

Other insects eaten included grasshoppers,which the Indians herded into nets as the insectsfled fires set by the natives.Angleworms and hornetgrubs were also consumed.While some tribes atesuch uncommon foods, the California cultureIndians generally avoided eating snakes, lizards, andother reptiles.

Review and Write

1. Why do you think the California Indians didnot rely on agriculture to any extent prior tothe arrival of the Europeans?

2. How did California Indians catch salmon?

3. How did California Indians prepare acorns forhuman consumption?

4. What types of insects were consumed byCalifornia Indians?

California Indian Food Sources


The lifestyle of the California Indians was onewhich was responsive to the environment in whichthey lived. Living in a temperate climate, CaliforniaNative Americans wore few articles of clothing.Most men spent their days naked, although theymight wear loincloths. In the northern part of theregion, men might wear a two-piece deerskin outfit.

Women wore little more than the men. Insouthern California, the common clothing consistedof an apron, cut smaller at the front than at theback, covering the woman’s midsection. In thenorth, they wore buckskin skirts that only covered

them from the waist to the knee. In cooler weather,both men and women wore rabbit skin robes orcoats fashioned from sea otter skins.

Headgear among the Californians was rare formen, but women wore a cone-shaped hat made ofcoiled strips of bark. Both men and women woresandals, styled out of fibrous strips of the yuccaplant. Many people did not wear sandals at all,however.The Indians of the region were notknown for outer decoration, such as jewelry, intri-cate tattooing, or exotic hairstyles.

Tattooing was done on both men and women,however, with the women sporting more suchmarkings than the men.Women tattooed their chinlines, wrists and chest area. Some tribes piercedtheir noses, wearing bone shafts that ran throughtheir nasal septa. During special celebrations anddances, men and women did paint their bodies and

faces with red, white, or black paint.They alsowore necklaces of shell and bone.

The houses of the California Indians variedfrom one part of the region to another. In thesouth, tribes lived in simple, thatched, cone-shapedhouses.These homes were built over a pre-dug pitabout two feet deep. In central California, houseswere of cedar wood slabs, laid upright in a circlemeasuring 12 to 15 feet in diameter and proppedagainst a center pole, then fastened in place.

In northern California, the tribes of theNorthwest Pacific culture group influenced thehousing of these Indians. Here they mimicked thecedar plank homes of their northern neighbors.These houses were large, often measuring 18 by 20feet and covered with a cedar plank roof.

California tribes practiced a wide variety ofcrafts.They created elaborate baskets, each designedfor a specific purpose. Such baskets might be usedfor collecting plants (there were perhaps eight different baskets used in collecting and processingacorns), food storage, and even fishing. Basketswere fashioned from hazel, willow, and wicker.

The Californians made other practical handicrafts.The men worked with stone, bone, antler, andother materials, making bows and other weapons,arrowpoints, and tools.They made stone knives forskinning animals. Elk-horn was worked intospoons, which only the men used in eating.(Women scooped their food with shells.)

One popular craft used in trade was the makingof shell beads and necklaces.Men formed disc-shapedbeads from clam shells, a prized item that might beused as money. Clam-shell beads were strungtogether in units as large as 10,000 and used to paydebts or provide a dowry in marriage.

Another unique art form of the Californianswas the making of colorful, glass-like beads frompieces of magnesite.This whitish, carbonite materialwas placed in a fire, heated until red or yellow,then shaped into cylinders, which were then cut anddrilled into bead shapes.These beads were so prizedthat a necklace might include only one such bead.


California Lifestyles

The basic tribal structure of California tribeswas similar to that of nearly every other tribe inNorth America—an extended family, consisting ofsix to eight people.These social units typicallyincluded a married couple, their children, and anunmarried relative or two, such as the wife’s brother or a widowed aunt.

Several family units formed a clan.These familieswere connected by either blood or marriage.Theclan (another name for it was kinship group) was acommon societal element among NativeAmericans. Usually, clans banded together to form avillage structure. Unlike the families from othertribal culture regions, the lineage of California groupswas counted through the male, not the female.

Such villages were called tribelets, formedaround a single settlement site and several smaller,outlying, or satellite, villages. Each tribelet occupieddesignated lands,using its forests, streams or coasts forgathering, hunting, and fishing for the village’s food.

Tribelets commonly had a headman or chief,which was a hereditary position.The chiefcoordinated the social and civil activities of thegroup. He did not, however, have extraordinarypower, as did chiefs in other regions. Leaders werenot usually war leaders, since warfare was not com-monly practiced among the tribes of California.

California tribelet families had close personalrelationships.Their children were raised with greatfreedom, passing time playing games, swimming,and other “fun” activities.They were not givenresponsibility.They were taught important skills,but their education was basic and occasional.

When a young girl reached puberty, she underwent a rite of purification. For a period often days, she was isolated from the tribe, duringwhich time she was forbidden to eat meat. Sometribes practiced a puberty ritual for boys, as well.Apuberty rite practiced by the Luiseno tribe, forexample, featured the taking of a hallucinatorydrink which caused the boys to go into a strangedreamlike state for days at a time. During their stu-por, the boys were supposed to see visions during

which they acquired guardian spirits.Their dreamsoften took the character of visits by animal spiritsfrom whom the boys obtained supernatural power.

Most boys and girls were married by the age of15 or 16, maybe 18.An acceptable spouse was onewho came from a family of equal or better socialrank and was related by blood (but not a close relative). Such marriages brought the members of atribelet or clan closer together.While most Californiamen had only one wife, the more wealthy membersof a tribe might have several. Divorce was easy toobtain, as well.

California Indians, like those of many tribesacross North America, did not live into old age.They might live into their 50s or 60s, but eventhose ages were considered “old.”At death, a person’sbody was prepared for burial by wrapping it in adeerskin which was tied to a slab of wood onwhich the deceased lay.A shallow grave was dugand lined with planks of wood, creating a coffin-likebox for the remains. Unlike other tribes, CaliforniaIndians were not usually buried with their bestbelongings, but rather with older items, perhapsbroken and useless.After death, the name of thedeparted one was never to be spoken again withinthe hearing of one of his or her family members.

Review and Write

1. In what ways did California Indians foster someunique approaches to tribal structure, childrearing, leadership, and burial practices?

2. What tribal structure of California tribes wasthe basic unit of their social system and whowere included in this group?

3. When a girl from a California tribe reachedpuberty, what type of ritual might she undergo?

4. What type of ritual might a boy undergo at thetime of puberty? What value do you think theserites had for the tribe?

California Tribal Structures


While most of the Native American culturegroups of North America created limited cultures,the region of Mesoamerica witnessed the rise ofextraordinary cultures prior to the arrival ofChristopher Columbus and other Europeans.

Mesoamerica is the Indian culture region thatincludes most of Mexico and all of Central America(Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala,Honduras, and Nicaragua).

One of the extraordinary cultures that flourishedin this region was that of the Maya (MY-uh).Theywere a unique people who built elaborate stonetemples and created a written language.Whilethere are still many mysteries about the Mayaremaining today, these people were creative,intellectual, scientific, and violent.

The Maya lived in the part of Mexico, Belize,and Guatemala today known as the YucatanPeninsula. Some Maya communities were situatedin western Honduras and El Salvador.This culturewas heavily influenced by the Olmec people—acivilization located in Central America.The Olmeccreated a world dominated by complex social sys-tems, as well as number and writing systems.

The Maya, in fact, may be the direct ancestorsof the Olmec. Mayan culture began to take shapeprior to A.D. 300. For most of a millennium, theMayas dominated Central America.The peak periodfor Mayan culture took place between A.D. 300 and900. Elaborate cities, such as Tikal, located in modern-day Guatemala, dotted the jungle landscapes of theregion.Tikal featured 3,000 buildings, including sixtemple pyramids, located within the same squaremile and was home to at least 20,000 people.

The largest of these stone pyramids was 145feet high and included a flight of steep stone stepsleading to a multi-room temple at its summit.Thisfour-sided pyramid was a technical wonder in theNew World. Other buildings found in Mayan citieswere temples, shrines, baths, ballcourts, bridges,paved roads, palaces, monasteries, reservoirs,aqueducts, vaulted tombs, and astronomical observatories.The Maya tracked the movements of

the stars and heavenly bodies and had an extremely accurate calendar.

Within each of the Mayan cities, the peoplelived in a structured society. Several classes ofMayas are known to have existed.The upper classwas the priesthood who were the keepers ofknowledge. Below them were the Sun Childrenwho were responsible for the society’s trade, com-merce, taxation, civil justice, and other civic affairs.Another class among the Mayas were the crafts-men, who produced jewelry, pottery, clothing, andother items.This class included stone masons andcutters. Finally, the farmers were those who livedoutside the cities in pole-and-thatch houses.

Archaeologists have unearthed many Mayanartifacts over the years, including jade carvings andmasks; elaborately painted pottery; ceramic figuresof gods and people; plus other beautiful works ofart fashioned from pearl, alabaster, and shells.

Although the Maya were some of the mostadvanced people in the Western Hemisphere, creat-ing involved mathematics, calendrical systems, andastronomical studies, cultural experts are stymiedeven today by the fact that the Mayan languageremains largely undeciphered.Their writing is acombination of hieroglyphics (picture writing) andglyphs, each representing a word or a sound.

Although Mayan civilization died out withoutexplanation, it probably served as a source of latercivilizations in Mesoamerica, especially the Aztec(AZ-tec).

Review and Write

1. What present-day countries comprise the set-ting of Mesoamerican civilization?

2. In what present-day country was Tikal locatedand what do archaeological findings suggestabout the nature of life in this CentralAmerican city?

3. Who were the Sun Children?


Civilization in Mesoamerica

Like the Mayas who came before them, andwho influenced their culture, the Aztecs (AZ-tec)of Mesoamerica created a civilization built on greatcities, a manipulative priesthood, and elaboratestone architecture. But while the Mayas were sometimes compared to the creative, ancientGreeks, the Aztecs are compared to ancient Rome.They were a warrior people who conquered theirneighbors, creating a great New World empire longbefore the permanent arrival of Europeans.

Just as the Mayas were influenced by the earlierculture of the Olmecs, the Aztecs were influencedby the Mayas, as well as another civilization in theregion, the Toltecs. (The Toltecs overlapped the Mayasin time, dominating their part of Mesoamericabetween A.D. 900 and 1200.) The Aztecs rose togreat heights as a culture around A.D. 1200 untilthe 1500s, when Spanish soldiers arrived under thecommand of Hernando Cortés.

The centers of Aztec culture were the ancientcities of Tenochtitlan (today the site of MexicoCity) and Tlatelolco. Eventually the inhabitants ofthese two cities warred and Tenochtitlan took con-trol of Tlatelolco.These ‘Tenochas’ expanded theirlands and even created new farming and urbanlands by sinking wicker baskets in the bottom ofLake Texcoco, followed by the piling of silt andplant materials on top of the baskets, creating arti-ficial islands. It was during this period that theTenochas took the name Aztecs.The name camefrom the legendary god,Aztlan.

As the Aztecs fought to gain dominance over allthe other inhabitants of the Valley of Mexico, theybuilt their capital city,Tenochtitlan, into a city featuring hundreds of buildings, all interconnectedby man-made canals. In all, the city covered an areaof five square miles.Tenochtitlan became home to300,000 people.The Aztec empire was to governthe lives of over 5 million subjects.

The military campaigns of the Aztecs had dualpurposes. One goal was to create a vast tradeempire. Conquered peoples were required to buyfrom and sell to the Aztecs.This practice helped

expand the agricultural base of the region, wheregreat crops of corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, cacao(for making chocolate), cotton, avocados, papayas,and mangoes were grown.Trade goods includedvaluable metals, such as gold and silver, as well aspearls, jade, turquoise, copper, and obsidian.Thesewere often crafted into ornamental, decorative goods.

The second cause for military aggression onthe part of the Aztecs was to gain captives forhuman sacrifice.The Aztec religion was built on it.The Aztec priests regularly sacrificed captives totheir gods, including Quetzalcoatl, symbolized bythe Great Plumed Serpent and Huitzilopochtli,their god of war. Such sacrifices were made by thethousands, often done during elaborate rituals atoptheir stone pyramids.The greatest was the TemploMayor (named by the Spanish, meaning “great temple”).At the top of the pyramid were twoshrines, dedicated to these two powerful Aztecgods.The Aztecs were ruled by an emperor,known asthe Chief of Men. He was selected from among othernoblemen.Aztec social structure also recognizedthe priesthood, war chiefs, wealthy merchants,commoners, unskilled workers, and, finally, slaves.

Like the Mayas before them, the Aztecs developed hieroglyphic writing, using pictures ofthe objects they wanted to represent. But theirwriting was not as advanced as the Mayas.Thisgreat, advanced culture would face destruction atthe hands of European invaders in the 16th century.

The World of the Aztecs


A long time ago, there was a very beautifulwoman. She turned the heads of all the men. Shemarried, and her husband died very soon after, butshe immediately married again. In fact, within ayear, she had five husbands, and they all mysteriouslydied.They had been some of most clever, handsome,and brave men in the tribe.After her fifth husbanddied, she married still again.

This sixth husband was a quiet man. In fact, hewas so quiet, that many in his tribe thought he wasjust a fool. But he was wiser than his tribespeoplethought. He came to believe, considering his wifehad had so many husbands die, that this womanhad some strange secret; that she knew how herhusbands had died. He decided to find out whatthe secret was. So he watched her all the time. Hekept his eye on her by night and by day.

Summer came, and the man’s wife suggestedthat the two of them go into the woods and pickberries. She also wanted them to camp there. Byand by, when they reached the forest, the womansuggested that her husband should go on to thespot where they were to camp and build a wigwam. He agreed to do so. But he went a littleway into the woods and turned to watch what hiswife did next.

As soon as she believed that he was gone, thewoman walked quickly in another direction. Herhusband, hiding in the trees, followed her, unseen.She went on until she came to a deep, wild placeamong the rocks where she found a pond. She satdown and sang a song.

Suddenly, out in the pond, a great foam beganto bubble, rising to the surface of the water. In thebillowing foam, the tail of a serpent appeared.Thebeast was gigantic.The woman waited on the bankas the serpent approached her.The serpent thenwrapped itself around the woman, closing aroundher arms and legs.All the time, the husbandwatched from his hiding place. He knew then thatthe venom of the snake was entering his wife. Herealized that the husbands before him had all beenpoisoned by the snake’s venom.To keep herself

from dying, the woman had given the poison toher husbands.He hurried on to the campingground and built a wigwam. Inside it, he made twobeds and built a fire. Later, his wife arrived.Whenshe saw the two beds, she became upset. She askedhim to make only one bed, but he refused.Thewise husband harshly ordered her to lay in her bedby herself. Since she was afraid of her husband’stone, she laid down and went to sleep alone in herbed.To make certain his wife stayed in her ownbed, the husband got up three times during thenight to rebuild the fire to keep her warm. Eachtime he arose, he called out her name. But eachtime he called, she gave no answer.

The next morning when the husband awoke, hewent to his wife and shook her, trying to wake herup. But she was dead. She had died from the poisonshe had taken from the great serpent in the pond.

Later, the husband and the people of the villagetook the woman’s lifeless body and put it in thepond where the great serpent lived.

—From Charles G. Leland, The Algonquin Legendsof New England. (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, andCompany, 1884) pp. 273-5. Reprinted and abridgedin The Illustrated Myths of Native America,VolumeI. by Tim McNeese. (London: Cassell Books, 1998)

Review and Write

1. Give the background of the woman in thestory, including her married history.

2. How was her sixth husband described at thebeginning of the story?

3. Describe the encounter of the woman and theserpent.

4. Why was the woman unable to poison hersixth husband?


A Woman and the Serpent

One night, a deer hunter killed a doe.Afterward, because he was tired from his hunting,he fell asleep near the deer’s carcass.The nextmorning, just at sunrise, the hunter was surprisedand startled as he awoke.The doe next to himraised her head and began to speak. She asked himto go with her to her home.

At first the hunter was so surprised that he did not know what to say.The doe asked him a second time wither he would go with her.Thehunter then answered, saying he would go alongwith the doe, although he had no idea where shewould lead him.

So they started out together, the doe leadingthe hunter through forests and over high moun-tains, until at last they reached a large hole under arock, which they entered. Here the hunter foundhimself face to face with the king of all the deer, animmense buck, with huge antlers and a large blackspot on his back.

Tired from their journey, the hunter becamedrowsy and finally fell asleep. Now all around thecave were piles of deer’s feet, antlers, and skins.While the hunter was asleep, the deer began to fitdeer’s feet onto his hands and his feet.After several

unsuccessful attempts, the fourth set proved to bejust the right size.The deer fastened them firmlyonto the hunter’s hands and feet.Then a skin wasfound that covered him properly, and finally antlerswere fitted to his head.All the while, the huntercontinued to sleep.When they were finished, thehunter became a deer.When he awoke, he walkedon four feet for he was now a deer.

Many days passed since the hunter had left hisvillage.The hunter’s mother and all his friendsthought he had been killed.Then, one day, whenthey were in the forest, they found his bow andarrows hanging on a branch of the tree where hehad slept beside the body of the doe.All gatheredaround the spot and began to chant and sing.

Suddenly, they saw a herd of deer boundingtowards them through the forest.The deer then circled around the singers. One large buckapproached closer than the others and the singers,rushing forward, caught it.To the great astonish-ment of all, it spoke to them. Everyone recognizedthe voice of the deer—it was the voice of theirfriend, the lost hunter.

Greatly distressed, the hunter’s mother beggedher companions to help her remove the deer skin,antlers, and feet from her son. But they told her hewould surely die if they did so. She insisted, however,saying she would rather bury her son than havehim remain a deer.

So her friends began tearing away the skin,which had already grown to the hunter’s body.Asthey worked to remove it from him, the deer beginto bleed. It was the hunter’s blood, and soon thehunter died.Then his body was taken back to thevillage where it was buried with the ceremony of agreat dance.

—from David Bushnell,‘The Choctaw of BayouLacomb, St.Tammany Parish, LA’. Bureau ofAmerican Ethnology Bulletin, 48 (1909), p. 32.Reprinted and abridged in The Illustrated Myths ofNative America,Volume I by Tim McNeese.(London: Cassell Books, 1998

The Man Who Became a Deer


Ma-o-na, the EarthMaker, made the earth andeverything on it. He made a man, but the man wasnot good.This man became an evil spirit. He wasknown as Wa-cho-pi-ni-shi-shik. He tried to copyeverything Ma-o-na did. But, while Ma-o-na’s workswere all good, those of Wa-cho-pi-ni-shi-shik werealways evil. Ma-o-na made the deer, elk, and buffalo.Wa-cho-pi-ni-shi-shik made the monsters thatdevour men.All bad things, including other evilspirits, were the work of Wa-cho-pi-ni-shi-shik.

Ma-o-na did not want the evil spirits and mon-sters to always be a threat to humans. So he senthis son,Wak-chung-kaka, the Foolish One, to killthe monsters and make the earth fit for man. ButWak-chung-kaka could not destroy all the works ofthe evil spirit.Then Ma-o-na sent another son,Ke-chung-geka, the Tortoise, but he was too fond ofwar. So, too, was a third son,Wuh-te-huk. Last of allMa-o-na sent his youngest son,Wash-ching-geka, theLittle Hare.These are the stories of Wak-chung-kakaand Wash-ching-geka.

Of Wak-chung-kaka, the Foolish One

One day Wak-chung-kaka was walking over ahill and he looked down into a hollow wherereeds grew tall.There he thought he saw a groupof people with feathers on their heads.As the windblew through the reeds,Wak-chung-kaka thoughthe saw the people dance and shout,“Wu-wu-wu!”

So he put a feather on his head and wentamong the people and danced and shouted, aswell. He danced all day long, until that evening.Then the wind went silent, causing the reeds tostand still.

It was then that Wak-chung-kaka looked aroundand realized he was all alone among the reeds,which he had mistaken all day for dancing people.

Of Wash-ching-geka, the Little Hare

In the early days there was a great hill thatused to open and shut like a pair of jaws and

devour men and animals.The hill would open inthe middle and the sides would fall back until theylay flat upon the ground, and all the land lookedlike good, smooth prairie.

Then herds of elk, deer, and buffalo wouldcome to graze, and, just when the pasture wasfilled with wildlife, the jaws of the hill would closeand—crack!—all the animals would be crushedand killed.This hill killed so much game that Ma-o-na,the EarthMaker, feared that all the people wouldstarve. So he sent his son,Wash-ching-geka, todestroy the evil spirit of the hill.

When the Little Hare came to the place, the hillwas opened and all the ground was smooth.Wash-ching-geka formed himself into the shape ofa small stone and lay very still on the prairie.

Then the elk, deer, and buffalo came to graze,but as soon as the mouth of the evil spirit began toclose on them,Wash-ching-geka moved quickly. Hesuddenly made himself into a very large stone.When the hill shut its jaws down on him, the jawswere broken to pieces.

The hill lay shattered and never could devourmen or animals any more.

—from Natalie Curtis Burlin. The Indians’ Book.New York: Harper and Brothers, 1923, pp. 244-50.Reprinted and abridged in The Illustrated Myths ofNative America, Volume I by Tim McNeese.(London: Cassell Books, 1998.)


Wak-chung-kaka and Wash-ching-geka

In a place where the Pawnee used to have avillage, a young woman died just before the tribestarted on the hunt.When she died they dressed upin her finest clothes and buried her, and soon afterthis, the tribe started on the hunt.

A party of young men had gone off to visitanother tribe, and they did not get back until afterthis girl had died, and the tribe had left the village.Most of this party did not go back to the village butmet the tribe and went with them on the hunt.

Among the young men who had been awaywas one who had loved this girl who had died. Hewent back alone to the village. It was empty andsilent, but before he reached it, he could see, fromfar away, someone sitting on top of a lodge.Whenhe came near, he saw that it was the girl he loved.(He did not know that she had died,and he wonderedwhy she was there all alone.)

“Why are you here alone in the village?” heasked her.

She answered him,“They have gone off on thehunt. I was rude to my relatives, and they went offand left me behind.”

Since the young man and the maiden were tobe married, he was glad to spend time with heralone. But as they talked, she warned him:“Youmust not be afraid.Tonight there will be ghostswho will come to this village and dance.”

Indeed, the ghosts did begin to arrive shortlyafter this.They came because the village wasdeserted, and they felt free to come into the unoccupied camp.The young man could hear themcoming along the empty paths, going from lodge tolodge.Then they came into the lodge where he wasand danced about, whooping and singing.Sometimes they almost touched him.The youngman became frightened at the sight of the ghosts.

The next day, the young man persuaded themaiden to go on with him and follow the tribe, tojoin in on the hunt.They started out together, andshe promised him that she would soon be his wife.They soon overtook the tribe, seeing them in thedistance. But as they approached their people, the

girl stopped.“Now we have arrived,” she said.“But you must

go first to the village, and prepare a place for me.Where I sleep, put a curtain in front of me. Forfour days and four nights I must remain behind thiscurtain. Do not speak to me. Do not mention myname to anyone.”

The young man left her there and went intothe camp. He found one of his female relatives andtold her to go out and bring back a woman whowas waiting outside the camp.

His relative asked,curiously:“Who is the woman?”Since the young man could not say the maiden’s

name, he said, instead, the names of the maiden’sfather and mother.

“It cannot be that girl,” said his relative.“Shedied some days before we started on the hunt.”

When the woman went to look for the girl, shecould not find her.The girl had disappeared, sincethe young man had disobeyed her and told whoshe was. If he had obeyed the girl, she would havelived a second time upon the earth. But, becauseshe was a ghost, she disappeared.

That same night the young man died in his sleep.Then the people were convinced that there

must be a life after this one.

—from George Bird Grinnell, Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales. New York: Forest andStream Publishing Company, 1889, pp.143–6.Reprinted and abridged in The Illustrated Myths of Native America,Volume I. by Tim McNeese. (London: Cassell Books, 1998.)

Review and Write

1. What had happened to the young woman atthe beginning of the story?

2. When the young woman appeared to one ofthe tribe’s hunters, why was he not frightenedby her presence?

The Ghost Bride


When the First People emerged from theearth during Creation, there was always a cloud. Inthis cloud there was a light like a lot of rainbowstied up together.The First People had a man whowas their scout, and they sent him to see whatcaused the cloud. He came back and told themthere was a big pool of water under the cloud withbeautiful flowers all around it, and the mud of theshore was formed of sacred corn pollen. Once theybelieved him, the people held a council and decidedto make something which should be perfect andeternal, something which would rule over themand tell them what to do; something they couldpray to and sing to.

So they went out and ran down 12 big deerwhich they killed with their bare hands.They thentanned the 12 perfect skins.Then they laid themdown, and all the people gathered together tomake ‘The Something.”The right leg was madefirst. Its bone was made of white shell, the commonwhite beads that the Indians wear.The flesh wasmade of the sacred corn pollen, but it had no toes.

Then the heat lightning said,“I will make thetoes.”Then, with a flash he split out one toe afterthe other. But the foot and the leg up to the kneestill had no joint.Then the Sun’s rays that shine sobright at midday said,“I will make the joints.”So withthe rays he broke the leg and made all the joints,but they came apart and would not stay together.

Then the Dawn took its long rays and boundthe joints together tight, but the foot could notmove. So the Eternal Wind said,“I will go down intothe leg. I will tell it which way to go.” Now TheSomething was formed as far up as the knee, butthere was no blood.Then the Red Corn said,“I will gointo the leg.”And it formed the veins and the blood.

Now the body was built up as far as the waistand they had a big Council whether to make TheSomething a man or a woman.At last they decidedto make it a woman.The Striped Corn went downinto the body and made the big arteries around thewoman’s middle.The intestines were made fromthe long rays of the Sun, the ribs were made from

abalone shells, the heart was made from solidturquoise, the liver from ground corn and the lungsfrom ground corn, which is why they are so white.Now the body was formed up to the neck, and theymade the two arms the same way they made thetwo legs.When it came to the windpipe, the EternalWind said “I will go down; I will make it right.”

On it went, as the collarbone was made fromthe little half-rainbows one sees in the clouds, andthe jaw was made from another.The teeth andbones were made from white shell, the noseformed by the Wind and the eyes were made bythe Moon and the Sun.

Now the Goddess was all made but her hair,which was formed by Night and Dark Cloudtogether.That is why the Indians’ hair is so black.Now the Goddess was all formed, but she couldnot move or talk.The Wind said,“I will go into herand I will make her walk.”Then, she could stand upand walk.

Now the Goddess was all formed, but she didnot talk, and the Dark Cloud said,“I will go downinto her and make her talk.” So he went down intoher mouth and she talked.

First, she was very small, only about three feethigh, but they put her on the 12 medicine buckskinsand in four days, she grew up to be a woman.When the Goddess was finished, the people said,“Everybody has helped to make her except theEarth and the Blue Sky.

“I will be under her feet and support her,” saidthe Earth.“I will feed and care for her.”

“I will look down on the Earth and make herfertile,” said the Blue Sky.“I will send the rain tomake things grow.”

So they all had a part in the Creation.

—Mary Roberts Coolidge, The Rain-Makers:Indians of Arizona and New Mexico. Boston:Houghton Mifflin Co., 1929. pp. 182-85. Reprintedand abridged in The Illustrated Myths of NativeAmerica, Volume II by Tim McNeese. (London:Cassell Books, 1999)


The Creation

One time, long ago, all the salmon were in thesea.The Klamath river had a great big rock acrossit, and no salmon could get into the river.

The Klamath Indians could not go down to thesea. Moreover, nobody could catch the salmon inthe sea. So, the Indians lived on nuts, roots, andgrass seeds.They pounded the seeds fine betweenstones and made cakes. But in the springtime,when the winter stock was eaten up, and beforenew roots and seeds had produced, the Indiansbecame very hungry.

The little children cried very much for food.This made everyone terribly sorry.The Coyote wasa good friend to one of the Indians, because theywere cousins, and the Indian at one time was agood friend to the Coyote.So the Coyote, seeing thesorrow among the people, said to him,“Why don’tyou go unlock the rock gate and let the salmoncome up the river? Then you can eat until youburst!”

The Indian said,“How can I unlock the greatrock? You know the key is kept by the two sistersof the devil.”

“Well,” said the Coyote,“you do your part, andI’ll fill the river forever with salmon.”

“What must we do?” asked the Indian man.“Come with me,” said the Coyote,“to the lodge

of the witches. I will get close to the lodge hole.Then you make a noise, and when they rush out atyou, you run away.That is all you need to do.”So the man and the Coyote journeyed alongtogether, until they came to the sea.There they sawthe great rock wall across the river. Nearby was thelodge of the witch sisters.

The Coyote crept close to the lodge hole, sosilently that not even the moon could hear him.Then the man came up and shook the lodge a little.Out rushed the two sisters, snapping their jaws likehuge owls.The man ran like an antelope, and inbetween the witches rushed the Coyote, bitingtheir legs and tripping them up. Before they knewwhat to do about the coyote’s attacking them, theCoyote had carried off the key of the dam.

When the old-devil women saw this, theyturned and ran after the Coyote again. But by thistime, he was far ahead of them.The key was heavyand he was soon panting and nearly tired out whenhe reached the great dam. Quickly he got the keyinto its place, and pulled with all his strength.

The old women were almost upon him, whenjust then the key turned, and the rock dam openedto the sea.The waters rushed together, and thesalmon crowded from the sea up the river.

The old women, when they saw this, changedinto two white-headed fish eagles, and followedthe salmon, screaming and calling. But it was toolate.The salmon were running up the river.

Ever since then, the Indians, even in the springtime, had plenty of food.

—from Charles Erskine Scott Wood, A Book ofTales: Being Some Myths of the North AmericanIndians. (New York:Vanguard Press, 1929), pp. 87-90. Reprinted and abridged in The IllustratedMyths of Native America, Volume II by TimMcNeese (London: Cassell Books, 1999).

How Salmon Got into the Klamoth River


When the Iron People, the Russians, came toAlaska in vessels much larger than canoes, they hadweapons that smoked and made noises like thunder.On their vessels they had larger weapons thathurled balls of iron that would smash trees intopieces. Faced with this great power, Katlian, thechief of the Tlingits at Sitka, gave the Russians allthe furs and skins they demanded.

Although the Iron People would not leave theland of the Tlingits, there was peace for a timebetween them and the bearded strangers.TheTlingits traded furs for the weapons that thundered,and for cartridges.They learned to kill animals withthese weapons brought by the Iron People.

After a while, the Iron People built a village ofhouses across the inlet and brought their familiesfrom their land beyond where the sun sets. Oneday Katlian’s nephew visited the village and sawthe daughter of one of the Iron People. He fell inlove with her. But when he tried to buy her withfurs, the girl’s father angrily sent him away.WhenKatlian’s nephew tried to steal the girl, the IronPeople killed him.

This nephew was like a son to Katlian, and athis first opportunity the chief killed the son of oneof the Iron People. Baranoff, the Iron People’sleader, sent a message to Katlian to surrender himself, or all the Tlingits at Sitka would be killedby the weapons that smoked and hurled pieces ofmetal. Katlian called his people together, and theybegan building walls out of cedar.They built housesinside these walls. Soon afterwards, the Iron Peoplecame in a vessel to destroy them.Ten times theyfired their large weapons that hurled balls of ironagainst the wall of cedar and rocks. Baranoff calledfrom the ship, insisting Katlian surrender himself.But Katlian refused.The Iron People fired moreshots at the cedar and rock walls.

After they had done this for awhile, the IronPeople came off the ship in three small boats.Theylanded on the beach, carrying guns with bayonets.Katlian led his people out to meet them, and, whilethe Iron People were firing by command, the

Tlingits shot into them many times.The Tlingitsthrew out their empty cartridges and quicklyfired again.They killed may Iron People. Onlythose who had charge of the boats got back totheir ship.Then the war vessel sailed away.

For two moons, the Tlingits worked tostrengthen their little fort.Then the Iron Peoplecame again in two war vessels.This time theyfired at the cedar and rocks from two directions.

Baranoff then shouted,“Katlian,are you stillalive?”

“Yes,” replied the chief.“I am not afraid ofthe cannon you use against me.”

Again the cannon roared, and the IronPeople came ashore in boats. Once more,Katlian led the Tlingits against theirinvaders, killing them and takingtheir guns, coats, hats, and swords.Again, the two ships sailed away.

After some time had passed, theIron People returned in a small shipflying white flags of truce.Themen on the ship wereunarmed, includingBaranoff, who came ashore.

“Katlian,” he called,“areyou still alive?”

Katlian walked out of thefort, unarmed.

“Yes,” he replied,“I am stillalive. I won. Now it is all rightfor you to kill me.”

“I bring you presents,”Baranoff said. He gave Katlian clothing,food, rum, and cartridges.After that the Iron Peopledid not bother the Sitka Tlingits again.

—from John R. Swanton,‘Haida Texts and Myths’. US Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin,29 (1905). pp. 108-09. Reprinted and abridged from The Illustrated Myths of Native America,Volume II by Tim McNeese (London: Cassell Books, 1999).


Katlian and the Iron People

Long ago, a woman died. Her husband buriedher, but he could not bear the thought of herdeath. He wanted to get her back. He knew thatvery soon she would leave the grave and go to theIsland of the Dead. So he dug a hole near her graveand stayed there, watching.

On the second night, he saw his wife comingup out of the ground, brush the earth off and startoff to the Island of the Dead. He tried to grab her,but he could not hold her. She slid out of his handsand went on. Once when he had overtaken her,she turned to him and asked,“Why are you followingme? I am nothing now. Do you think you can getmy body back?

“I think so,” he replied.“I think not,” she answered.“I am going to a

different kind of a place, now.The woman thenwent on her way, saying nothing further to herhusband, who continued following her.

Soon they arrived at a bridge. On the other sideof the bridge was the Island of the Dead.The deadhad to pass over this bridge in order to arrive atthe island.The dead wife passed over the bridgeand entered the island.The chief of the islandapproach her.

“You have a companion?” asked the chief.“Yes, my husband,” she replied.“Is he coming here?” he asked.“I do not know,” she answered.“He is alive.”

Then the chief sent his men to the husband on theother side of the bridge.

“Do you want to come to this country?” theyasked him.

“Yes,” he said.They replied,“Wait.We will see the chief.” So

the men went back to their chief.“He says that he wants to come to this country,”

they told the chief.“We think he does not tell thetruth. He intends to get his wife back.”

“Well, let him come across,” the chief answered.The chief then sent a bird to the bridge to

frighten the man as he crossed, hoping to causehim to fall into the river. But the bird was not able

to scare the man, and so he soon arrived on theother side and entered the Island of the Dead.Thechief did not want him to stay, however.

“This is bad country,” he told the husband.“Youshould not have come.We have only your wife’ssoul, and we cannot give her back to you.”

But the man stayed on the island for six daysand watched the dead people dancing all the time.Then the chief sent him home.

“When you arrive home, hide yourself,” said thechief.“Then, after six days, come out and make adance.”

So the man returned to his parents.He told them that he would stay in his house

for six days and then come out and dance. But theman was in such a hurry tell the people what hehad seen on the Island of the Dead that he came outon the fifth day. He danced and told them abouthis adventure.The man told how the Island of theDead is filled every two days.The chief then tells thedead they must swim in the river.Then, they turninto fish or ducks. In this way, the chief made roomfor the new dead who were continuously arriving.

Early in the morning the man stopped dancing,and went to bathe.There a rattlesnake bit him andhe died. So he went back to the Island of the Dead,and he is there now.

It is through him that we now know about theisland where the dead go.

—from Edward W. Gifford. Californian IndianNights Entertainments. (Glendale, CA:Arthur H.Clark Co., 1930) pp. 185-87. Reprinted andabridged in The Illustrated Myths of NativeAmerica, Volume II by Tim McNeese (London:Cassell Books, 1998)

Review and Write

1. What was the significance of the bridge?

2. Why were some of the dead turned into ducksand fish?

The Land of the Dead



1. Fence barrier trap built in a stream or river to catch fish2. Ritual practiced among the Western Range tribes when collecting pinon nuts3. Pacific coastal tribe that practiced the a head-flattening ritual on their infants4. Utah site where archaeologists have unearthed earliest Great Basin baskets5. Sub-region of the Western Range lying between the Rockies and the Cascades6. Celebration practiced among Pacific Northwest tribes; translates as “to give”7. Name of monstrous bird that was often included in Pacific Northwest totem poles8. Plateau tribe whose name is derived from French term for “pierced noses”9. Prehistoric Plateau culture of 1000 B.C. noted for polished stone tools and weapons

10. Name of Pacific Northwest tribe11. Type of totem pole designed to note the rise to power of a family member to chief status12. Type of totem pole designed to further the prestige of a family after hosting a special banquet

A. potlatch pole B. weir C. Tlingit D. potlatchE. Gumbasbai F. Nez Perce G. Northern Forest H. Danger CaveI. Plateau J. Hokhokw K. Clatsop L. memorial pole

1. ____ 2. ____ 3. ____ 4. ____ 5. ____ 6. ____ 7. ____ 8. ____ 9. ____ 10. ____ 11. ____ 12. ____


1. Dominant culture found in California by 5000 B.C.2. Native American tribe located in the California culture region3. Name given Indians living in southern California who were influenced by Spanish Catholicism4. Smooth-skinned worms harvested and eaten by California Indians5. Name for Indian culture region that includes Mexico and Central America6. A civilization of Native Americans who lived in Central America between 1000 and 300 B.C.7. Elaborate Mayan city located in modern-day Guatemala; it featured 3000 buildings8. Mayan people responsible for the society’s trade, commerce, taxation, and civil justice9. Legendary Aztec god

10. Name given the Aztec emperor11. Tribe credited with the story “The Man Who Became a Deer”12. Son of Ma-o-na who was known as the “Little Hare”

A. Wash-ching-geka B. Mission C. Aztlan D. DesertE. Olmec F. Chief of Men G. Army H. Sun ChildrenI. Mesoamerica J. Shastas K. Tikal L. Choctaw

1. ____ 2. ____ 3. ____ 4. ____ 5. ____ 6. ____ 7. ____ 8. ____ 9. ____ 10. ____ 11. ____ 12. ____

Test III


Without a doubt, the first peoples to inhabitthe Western Hemisphere were those who migratedto the continents of North and South Americathousands of years ago. No evidence exists todayindicating these earliest of inhabitants were notthe original occupants of the New World.

But what about those who came to theAmericas from continents other than Europe? Whendid the first peoples come to America from ancientAfrica? To date, there is little or no informationconcerning anyone arriving from Africa before thearrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere.

The question of the first Europeans to reachthe Americas is a little more complicated, however.Generally, many people think of ChristopherColumbus as the European “discoverer” of thelands of the Western Hemisphere. But whileColumbus’ voyages of discovery in the late 1400sand early 1500s are significant in the history of theworld, Columbus was not the first from Europe toland in the Americas.

Most experts today concede that the earliestEuropeans to reach the Americas were probablythe Norsemen of Scandinavia.Typically, they werecalled “Vikings.” But this term comes from anancient Norse word, vik, meaning “bay” or “inlet.”For many medieval Europeans, however, the nameviking came to mean “sea raider” or “pirate.”

These Europeans were Germanic peoples whospoke a language similar to that spoken in Englandat that time.They were to be the ancestors of theNordic people known today as the Norwegians,Swedes, and Danes.The Norsemen were a seagoingpeople who, by the A.D. 800s, had become well-known for their navigational skills.They wereamong the best sailors in all of Europe.

They sailed the seas and rivers of Europe, raidingtowns, castles, monasteries, and harbors, taking thespoils and killing anyone who opposed them.

The typical Viking ship was approximately 60feet long, carved from a single tree trunk, andincluded a keel.The ship’s hull was ribbed and asingle mast was set mid-ship. Called a drakken, the

Norse word for “dragon,” the bow of these sleek,swift ships often had a carved dragon’s head tofrighten enemies.

These great, fearsome, sea-going people raidedfrom one corner of Europe to the other.They evensailed out into the Atlantic Ocean, out into thewatery unknown, and established colonies inIceland and Greenland during the 870s.When theNorsemen arrived in Iceland in 874, they found acommunity of Irish monks who had been livingthere since the turn of the century.They removedthe monks and established their own colony.

Iceland was not a barren wasteland of ice andsnow when the Vikings arrived. It was well-woodedwith birch trees and home to many types of fishand birds.The land was also a source of rich suppliesof bog iron ore, which the Norsemen harvested tosupply their own iron forges, allowing them to produce their own iron tools and weapons.

During the 800s and 900s, Iceland becamehome to a flood of immigrants from Scandinavia,and a community of fishermen and farmers thrivedthere for several centuries. In Iceland, the Norsemenestablished an assembly called the Althing, to govern the colonies. In this body, all free men hadthe right to speak and vote.This provided theVikings with a simple form of democracy unlikeany other in the world. But the Norsemen andwomen, now in Iceland, were not finished exploringthe icy waters of the North Atlantic.

The Norsemen Sail the Atlantic


As the Norse Vikings carried their daring raidsand braved wild, northern seas to establish far-awaycolonies, they created stories about their exploits.Such stories were often not written down, butwere passed from generation to generationthrough storytellers. Such tales of heroic deeds andexciting adventures were called sagas.

One such collection of Viking stories came tobe known as the Vinland Sagas.These stories relatedsome of the adventures of such Vikings as Eric theRed, Leif Eriksson, and Bjarni Herjolfsson (bee-YAR-nee HUR-yolf-sun), great Norse seamen. Once thesestories were finally written down, they were toremain a permanent part of Norse literature, butmany people over the centuries saw the sagas asjust fiction; stories created only to entertain andstir the adventurous spirit in others.

But today, modern historians know these storiesto be based on facts. Norse tales about Viking sailingships “discovering” new lands to the east of Icelandand Greenland have been found to be true.Thus,the Vinland Sagas weave an exciting series ofadventures about the Vikings in early America.

The stories begin with a Viking leader namedBjarni Herjolfsson who was caught in a violentstorm off the coast of Greenland, perhaps in theyear 986.When the storm cleared, Herjolfsson’sship lay off a land of flat coasts and thick forests.But he neither stayed nor went ashore, but rathersailed back to Greenland, telling others what hehad seen.

One of those who heard Herjolfsson’s accountwas Leif Eriksson. He was the son of one of thefirst Vikings to settle in Greenland, Erik the Red.(As a younger man, Erik had killed someone inNorway and been banished to Iceland.When hegot into trouble there as well,he and a group of hisfollowers fled to the west, discovering Greenland.)

Once the adventurous son of Erik, known byhis friends as “Leif the Lucky” heard the story ofthe west, he was eager to see this strange land.

Several years passed before he set sail, but inA.D. 1001, Eriksson and a crew of 35 men set sail

for North America. In fact, he made three separatevoyages, the last one in 1014. During this final trip,he established a colony along the northern coast ofNewfoundland,Canada.He called his colony “Vinland.”The site—known today as L’Anse aux Meadows—was uncovered in 1961 by a Norwegian archaeolo-gist named Helge Ingstad.

While some historians believe the name Vinlandreferred to either “grapevines”or “berry bushes”found by the Vikings, it may, instead,have referred toa different Norse word,meaning “Land of Pasture.”

The Vinland Sagas tell of other family memberswho ventured to North America.On Leif’s last voyage,he encountered Native Americans whom theVikings called Skrellings, meaning “barbarians” or“weaklings.” During one fight with these natives,Leif’s half-sister Freydis bared her breasts andslapped them with a sword, frightening theSkrellings away. In another engagement,ThorvaldEriksson, brother to Leif, was killed by a Skrellingarrow, making him the first European killed byNew World Indians.Another Norse explorer,Thorfin (TOR-fin) Karlsefni and his wife Gudrid(whose first husband had been another Erikssonbrother) lived in Vinland.They had a child, namedSnorri, who was the first European child born inNorth America.

The Nordic people colonized in North Americafor a few hundred years, but in time abandonedtheir New World settlements. But this early contactbetween Europeans and America came 500 yearsbefore Columbus set sail!

Review and Write

1. Why are the Viking stories—called the VinlandSagas—important as historical records?

2. What circumstances led to the discovery ofGreenland by Leif Eriksson?

3. What did the word Vinlandi mean when usedby the Vikings?


The Vikings Reach the New World

When the Norsemen were venturing out intothe Atlantic, colonizing in Iceland, Greenland and,eventually, North America, they were only able todo so by taking great risks.Their boats were smalland vulnerable to the sometimes violent waters ofthe North Atlantic.They traveled without the aid ofany sophisticated devices. In fact, they did not evenhave use of the compass.

During those same centuries—the 11th, 12th,and 13th—most of the rest of the people ofEurope were intent on remaining at home.Theywere not people who ventured out into uncharteredwaters.They busied themselves with other activities, including building the great cathedralsand medieval castles.

Most Europeans, however, were not adventurous,or even creative.Their world offered few opportunities for schooling or formal education.The great majority of the people living in the HighMiddle Ages in Europe were illiterate, unable toread.They were typically ignorant, even superstitiouspeople. Most people were born, lived, and died,never having travelled more then 10 miles fromtheir place of birth.

However, some of the Europeans of the 1100sand 1200s did not remain at home, nor did theyremain ignorant of the world beyond their own.One man, an Italian from the great trading port ofVenice, traveled as far away as China. His name wasMarco Polo, a merchant who lived during the 1200s.Through his travels, Europeans came to know moreabout the faraway Eastern kingdoms of Asia.

Polo was born in Venice in 1254, the son of amerchant named Nicolo Polo. Marco was raised tobecome a merchant, as well. He was taught to readand write, and to do arithmetic. His family memberstaught him trading, and how to manage ships andforeign money.

While Marco was still very young, his father,had traveled to China and met with the Far Easternleader known as Kublai Khan.When Nicoloreturned to China on a second trip, he took Marcowith him.At age 17, Marco Polo, his father, and anuncle named Maffeo, sailed to Palestine, then rodecamels to the Persian port of Hormuz. For the nextthree years, they traveled by camel caravan untilthey arrived in the Chinese city of Shang-tu, site ofKublai Khan’s palace.

Now in his early 20s, Marco was a skilled traderwho spoke four languages. He became a favorite ofthe Khan, who dispatched the young Italian onofficial trips across the Khan’s kingdom. During histravels, Marco Polo took detailed notes, writingconstantly in journals.The Polos remained in Chinafor nearly the next 20 years. Finally, they left in1292.This time, instead of traveling by camel caravanacross the deserts of Asia, they sailed home onChinese ships called junks.They arrived in Venicein 1295. In all, the Polos had traveled over 15,000miles and been gone for 24 years!

The Polos returned to Italy with vast cargoes ofvaluable trade items from the East: ivory, jewels,porcelain, silks, jade, and spices. Now in his early40s, Marco Polo decided to write a book about hisFar Eastern adventures. Called Description of theWorld, Polo recounted tales of the lavish courts ofKublai Khan. He told of strange customs, and of theriches of the Orient. He wrote about the Chineseuse of coal for heat—not yet practiced in Europe—calling coal black stones.

Marco Polo’s book became extremely popular inEurope. It served as a source of inspiration for thedreams of later generations of Europeans to discoverthe riches of the East for themselves, includinganother Italian adventurer, Christopher Columbus.

The Travels of Marco Polo


Although Marco Polo’s book about his adventures in the Orient, including tales of the fabulous wealth of Kublai Khan, was written in theearly 1300s, it did not become a widely read textuntil 150 years later. During the decades between,Europe experienced extraordinary changes thathelped prepare its people for discoveries in theNew World.

When Polo wrote his book about the East,there was no technology in Europe for mass printing—no printing press.Texts were painstakinglycopied by hand, giving Marco Polo’s and everyoneelse’s written works a limited audience.

But around 1450, a German printer living inMainz named Johannes Gutenberg, revolutionizedhow books and other paper materials were printed.Gutenberg perfected movable type.This meant thateach letter of a printed page was created as a separate piece of type.A printer could thenarrange the individual fonts, or letters, in a specificpattern, producing a page of printed material. Forthe first time, European books could be producedin limitless numbers.

Within a generation of Gutenberg’s technologicaladvance, the first printed edition of Marco Polo’sbook of his travels appeared.The year was 1477.Eager merchants, traders, ship captains, would-beexplorers, and cartographers, or mapmakers, readthe work that in turn inspired them to access therich markets of the Far East. One of those whoread Polo’s book was an Italian from Genoa, a mapmaker by trade, Christopher Columbus.

At the same time Gutenberg’s printing presswas beginning to make printed materials availablein Europe, other changes were taking place. Muchof the continent was experiencing a new educa-tional, philosophical, and artistic movement thatwould later be called the Renaissance.This greattidal wave of change was brought about by a newlevel of wealth that was spreading across Europe.Merchants, especially Italian traders and buyers,were expanding into foreign markets, gainingaccess to the exotic trade goods of Africa, the

Middle East, and even China. Oriental goods couldbe purchased in European trading houses fromFrance to Russia.

All this expanded buying and selling creatednew levels of wealth across Europe.And this led tothe movement known today as the Renaissance.Many of the newly wealthy did not only reinvesttheir profits into greater business efforts or even inthe new art of the day, but also underwrote a newemphasis in learning. Schools were established.Agreat search for the knowledge of the past began,and the works of ancient philosophers, scientists,and essayists came to light in Europe once more.Greek, Roman, Persian, and Egyptian writers wereonce again read, many of these works having beenlost for hundreds, even thousands of years.

The newly educated in Europe now began tolook at their world differently.They read the worksof the Hellenistic writer, Eratosthenes, who estimatedthe size of the earth. Others declared it to be alarge ball, not flat as some believed. By 1492, aGerman geographer, Martin Behaim, built one ofthe first round globes in the history of the world.

Ancient maps of the world were rediscoveredand new ones drawn.With these new views of theworld,Europeans began to give serious considerationto expanding their markets directly overseas,spurring on a new generation of discoverers and explorers.

Review and Write

1. How did the Renaissance help give Europeans a different view of their world?

2. Why did Marco Polo’s book about his travelsoriginally have a limited audience?

3. How did Marco Polo directly impact the life ofChristopher Columbus?

4. What contributions did the German geographer,Martin Behaim, make to his field of study?


Marco Polo Ignites a Spark in Europe

By the 1400s, Europeans were gaining moreand more incentives for expanding their horizonsto the East.Traders and merchants understood that great profits lay in the Orient. Exotic goodscould be purchased directly from Eastern traders,giving Europeans greater access to gold, silver,ivory, silk, and spices. Philosophers and learnedmen believed there was much the West could learn from the East by accessing the wisdom and literature of Oriental peoples.

But while such motives as these provided greatincentives to Europeans to search for new, directroutes to the Orient, another incentive may havebeen more important than all of them—food.

All across Europe, people daily ate food thatwas less than appealing.This age was one in whichthere was no refrigeration.There was no way ofkeeping food fresh for lengthy periods of time.Ananimal slaughtered for its meat had to be consumedwithin a few days or the meat of the beast wouldsurely spoil. In addition, Europeans had little, directaccess to spices that might help preserve the “shelflife” of foods or that might help foods to at leasttaste better.Although they did not like to admit it,the people of Europe were accustomed to foodcoming to their tables in a semi-rancid state,frequently on the verge of spoiling.

For centuries prior to the 1400s, Europeansknew that the East was a great treasure house ofexotic, taste-altering spices. Such places as Persia,China, India, and a small island chain in the SouthPacific called the Moluccas, produced these spices.In fact, traders called the Moluccas, the Spice Islands.

Marco Polo had written about such places inhis famous book.For example,he wrote the followingabout the spices available on the South Pacificisland of Java, which is today a part of Indonesia:

The country abounds with rich commodities.Pepper, nutmegs, spikenard . . . cubebs [a type of pepper], cloves and all other valuable spices anddrugs, and the produce of the island which occasionit to be visited by many ships laden with

merchandise, that yields to the owner considerableprofit.

The quantity of gold collected there exceeds all calculation and belief. From thence . . . isobtained the greatest part of the spices that aredistributed throughout the world.

During the Late Middle Ages,WesternEuropeans gained access to spices through tradewith Venetian merchants in Italy, who bought andtraded with merchants in Alexandria, Egypt, or inConstantinople, the capital of the ByzantineEmpire.The cost of doing business with foreignsources of Eastern goods typically made such itemsvery expensive. But what were Europeans to do?

How could they gain more direct access to theSpice Islands?

By the 1400s, the answer seemed to lie inestablishing direct sea trade with the East.A revolu-tion in sailing ship design helped to spur the possi-bility toward reality. Europeans developed larger,more sea-worthy, three-masted vessels that allowedsailors to take advantage of winds from manydirections.A heavy sternpost rudder gave greatermaneuverability.During the 15th century,magnetizediron needle compasses were placed on ships tohelp their captains navigate.Adventurous menbegan to consider the possibilities of sailing to theEast directly from European ports.

The Lure of Eastern Spices


As Europeans developed a taste—literally—for spices in their food and gained more and moreinformation about the riches of the Orient, theylonged to make more direct connections withEastern merchants and traders.They understoodthat Europe represented a vast, largely untappedmarket for such commodities. But as long as spicesremained so high-priced, the average person inEurope would never experience such things as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, or even pepper.

One of the leading Europeans who attempted,in an organized fashion,to find a new way to connect with traders in the East was not an explor-er or sea captain himself. Instead, he was a nationalmonarch who sponsored others to search for alternate routes to India, the Spice Islands (theMolluccas), and the exotic lands of China andJapan, that Marco Polo had written about.

His name was Henry, he ruled over Portugal,and history knows him typically as Prince Henrythe Navigator. Despite his name, Henry was notone to go off and explore distant lands. In fact, herarely ever left Portugal during his entire life.Instead, he crated a school to train ship captainsand would-be explorers.

Henry was born the third son of King John I ofPortugal in 1394. Never much interested in courtlife, he settled perhaps at Sagres on Cape SaintVincent in the southwest region of Portugal. Sagreswas a traditional seaport for generations of intrepidPortuguese sailors. Others say he lived near Lagos.

Wherever Henry lived, he brought men whostudied maps and created charts for sailors to follow in their travels. Henry was extremely interested in matters of the sea, but he was alsointerested in gaining greater wealth and power forhis nation.To accomplish this goal, he encouragedteachers, scholars, mapmakers, geographers, seacaptains, scientists, and mathematicians to come tohis court-school and pool their knowledge.Theschool became a laboratory for sea-going studies. Itwas also a training ground for seamen. Henry sponsored several exploratory expeditions during

his life. Some of the more successful ones resultedin the “discovery” of the Madeiras, the Azores, andthe Cape Verde Islands.These Atlantic island groupshelped provide bases for ships’ captains and theircrews to operate from and served as supply depotsto restock the food and water supplies of many asailing vessel.

A significant goal of Prince Henry’s school was the exploration of the West African coast.Although sailors in ancient times had probablysailed completely around the entire continent ofAfrica thousands of years earlier, no one had anyknowledge of such a feat in Henry’s time. In fact,some explorations along the western coast ofAfrica had occurred in the early 1300s, but eventhe knowledge gained at that time had been lost.No one in Europe knew how large the African continent was. Henry and his fellow seamen wereinterested in determining whether a ship could sailaround the continent, then make its way to theEast, with its riches and spices.

Cautiously, Portuguese ships sailed along thewest coast, establishing trading connections andmapping their findings. By 1460, the year of Henrythe Navigator’s death, his explorers had mappedthe African coast as far south as Sierra Leone. Butmuch work lay ahead.

Review and Write

1. Why do you think the Portuguese sailors moved so slowly in exploring the African coast in search of a sea-route to Asia?

2. Although Europeans had developed a strongdesire for spices, they were not able to gaineasy access to these Eastern commodities forseveral centuries.What circumstances restrict-ed European access to Oriental goods?

3. How did the exploration of the west coast ofAfrica lead to the establishment of an all-watertrade route from Europe to the Orient?


Henry and the Portuguese Lead the Way

Although Prince Henry the Navigator died in1460, the work of exploring the western coast ofAfrica continued as intrepid Portuguese sea captainscontinued to inch their way further south, makingnew discoveries and establishing new trade connections with Africans.

One such seaman was Bartolomeu Dias. Bornin the year 1457, Dias served as a cavalier at theroyal court of the Portuguese. He was appointedfor a time as the superintendent of the royal ware-houses and as sailing-master on a naval vessel, aman-of-war named San Christovao. In 1486, KingJohn II selected Dias to head an expedition to dis-cover the southern end of the African continent.

Dias required nearly a year of preparationsbefore he set sail to the south. He captained twocaravels of fifty tons, plus a third supply ship.Thesevessels were heavily armed, since Dias was uncertainwhat or who he might run into on his voyage. Hisbrother, Pero Dias, commanded the supply ship.Dias included six black Africans, two male and fourfemale, to serve as interpreters if his party madecontact with African natives.

The Portuguese expedition moved cautiouslyalong the African coast, sailing past the mouth ofthe Congo, which had been reached just the yearbefore by other Portuguese seamen.To the south,he reached the mouth of the Orange River, locatedin the northwestern portion of South Africa.Therehis ships encountered a violent storm that blewthem far beyond the African coast for 13 straight days.

When calmer weather returned, he sailed hisvessels to the east and, when he reached no land,he turned to the north. He landed at Bahia dosVaqueiros, known today as Mosselbaai (MosselBay).This placed Dias on the most southern tip ofthe continent of Africa.The storm had blown himcompletely around the continent’s southern end.

Wishing to continue on, he sailed to the east,reaching Aloga Bay, the site of modern- day PortElizabeth. Just to the east, he arrived at his furthestpoint of exploration, Great Fish River, which henamed for one of his ships, Rio Infante. Dias was

prepared to continue his voyage to the east, sincethe continent took a northward bend.This toldhim he was headed into the Indian Ocean.

But his crewmen were tired, fearful of continuingthe expedition and staged a sit-down strike which caused Dias to abandon his plans to continue on. Instead, he returned to Lisbon to present the news of his discovery to King John. Hereached Portugal in December, 1488, completing avoyage of over 16 months.

As Dias described the southern tip of Africa,especially the cape of land he discovered on hisreturn trip (the storm had scooted him past it,sight unseen), the king decided to name it the Capeof Good Hope.This discovery appeared to be a goodomen that greater discoveries lay ahead for thePortuguese in their quest for an all-water route tothe Orient.

Almost a decade later, Dias returned to exploringthe coast of Africa. In 1497, he accompanied anotherexplorer,Vasco da Gama, as a subordinate officer,until Da Gama reached the Cape Verde Islands. Buthe did not remain on the voyage.

Three years later, in 1500, Bartolomeu Dias methis fate.While sailing again in the vicinity of theCape of Good Hope, commanding a ship in a fleetunder the command of Pedro Alvares Cabral, thePortuguese discoverer of Brazil, Dias died when hisship floundered during a violent storm.

Dias Sails the Coast of Africa


While Bartolomeu Dias rediscovered the Capeof Good Hope and the southern tip of Africa, itremained the task of another explorer to completethe Portuguese search for an all-water route to theEast and its riches which Europeans were so desperate to access.

The seaman who accomplished the dream ofPrince Henry the Navigator was to be Vasco da Gama.He was born at Sines, Portugal, perhaps in the year1469. Little is known of Da Gama’s childhood, buthis father was a sea captain with connections tothe Portuguese crown.After Dias returned toPortugal in 1488 with his news of the rediscoveryof the southern tip of Africa, King John II intendedto finance a follow-up expedition. He selectedVasco da Gama’s father, Estevao, to lead theexploratory mission. However, both Estevao daGama and John II died before the plans for the tripwere finalized.

Portugal’s new king, Emmanuel I gave the commission, instead, to Estevao’s son,Vasco, ayoung man in his late 20s. On July 8, 1497,Vasco daGama set sail from Lisbon for the south.Along withhim were his brother, Paulo,and a crew of 150men.They sailed in four ships.

The voyage went well, and the ships landed atMossel Bay to the east of the Cape of Good Hopeby Christmas Day. By March, 1498, they landed onthe east coast of Africa, making contact with Arabtraders in Mozambique.Two months later, his shipsarrived in Calicut (Kozhikode), India.At last, thegoal of the Portuguese monarchy had been successfully completed: Ships had now sailed fromwestern Europe and arrived in the East, completelybypassing the land trade routes and the middlemenwho drove the prices of Eastern goods, includingspices, higher.

Calicut was a key trading center, a city loadedto the brim with spices from the East Indies. It hadbeen an important port since the 1300s, providingtraders from the west with spices and preciousstones.This trade was typically controlled by Arabs,but Da Gama was able to form an agreement with

the Indian rulers to establish direct sea-going tradewith the Portuguese. Da Gama collected a small loadof spices and returned home, arriving in Lisbon inJuly, 1499. On the return trip, his brother, Paulo,died.When Vasco da Gama arrived in Lisbon, he wasreceived as a heroic explorer.The king rewardedhim with a title:Admiral of the Sea of the Indies.With the king’s help, Da Gama became wealthy,gaining the title Count Vasco da Gama of Vidigueira.But there were other voyages in Da Gama’s future.

In 1502, he set sail for India again, this timewith a fleet of 25 ships. His purpose was to provideprotection for Portuguese traders and to revengeIndian violence against them. His trading effortsyielded great profits and made him rich. In fact, hereturned with so many spices, mostly pepper—over 1900 metric tons—that the price of pepper inLisbon dropped by 90 percent! Already, the tradeconnection by sea from Lisbon to India was payingoff dramatically.

After this voyage, Da Gama went into retire-ment from the sea. For the next 20 years, he servedas an advisor to King Emmanuel I and to his successor, King John III.Then, in 1524, Johnrewarded Da Gama even further, appointing him asthe Viceroy of India. However, Da Gama died inCochin, India, the following year.

Review and Write

1. How did Da Gama’s voyage to India alter the spice trade in Lisbon?

2. According to your reading, how did the suc-cessful voyage of Bartolomeu Dias and his dis-covery of the southern tip of Africa set thecourse for the career of Vasco da Gama?

3. After his return to Portugal, how did themonarchy of Lisbon reward the successful seacaptain,Vasco da Gama? Did da Gama makesubsequent voyages or did he only sail to theEast one time?


Da Gama Reaches India

As brave, inquisitive men from Portugal sailedinto the Atlantic in search of a route to the spiceislands of the East by sailing around the vast continentof Africa, their neighbors to the east, the Spanish,began to move slowly into the same waters.

Earlier in the 1400s, the Spanish kingdom ofCastile had sponsored the invasion of the Atlanticisland chain known as the Canary Islands, situatedseveral hundred miles southwest of Spain and evencloser to the western coast of Africa.

But apart from the conquest of these islands,the Spanish were busy otherwise at home and not in a mind to send explorers on the heels of the Portuguese. In the early 1400s, there was nounified nation of Spain.The Iberian kingdoms ofAragon and Castile fought with one another, as well as with other powers and foreigners living ontheir home territory.

In 1469, the history of Spain was changed forever.That year the prince of Aragon, Ferdinand,and the princess of Castile, Isabella, married. Overthe next two decades, these two monarchs foughttogether to gain control of the remainder ofterritory on the Iberian peninsula. By 1492, theysucceeded in taking control of Granada, located onthe southern end of the Iberian peninsula.Theircombined power was beginning to make these twoa significant force in western Europe.

That same year—1492—two other importantevents occurred at the hands of Ferdinand andIsabella.They ordered the Jewish people living inSpain to convert to Christianity or leave Iberia.As aresult, half of the 80,000 Jews in Spain fled thecountry.The removal of the Jews was part of a plan tocreate a Spain for Roman Catholics and no one else.

But the second event of 1492 was even moresignificant in the history of Spain.That year, KingFerdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain agreed tosponsor a young sailor and mapmaker from Genoa,Italy, and outfit him with three ships.He was to sail tothe spice islands of the Far East and to China.

But what was unique about Columbus was thathe claimed he could reach the Orient by sailingwest across the Atlantic Ocean, rather than follow-ing in the wake of the Portuguese ships that wereinching their way further south along the coast ofAfrica. His life’s story is a rich one, full of ambition,intrigue, challenge, and a dream he never abandoned.

Today, the name Christopher Columbus is wellknown. He is one of the most famous men in thehistory of the world. His name, however, was pronounced differently by those who knew him.Born in Genoa, in 1451 (the exact date is notknown), he was known as Cristoforo Colombo.(The name Christopher Columbus is an Englishform.) His father was a weaver of wool and hismother was a daughter of a wool weaver.

He was the oldest of five children.Two of hisbrothers, Bartholomew and Diego, sailed with himin later years on his voyages in search of the East.Cristoforo grew up with a fascination for the sea.Genoa was a port city, and he spent time as a boyon the docks, learning how to sail.

Cristoforo spent little time at formal study,receiving only a basic education as a youth.Whilehe worked at his father’s loom, he had no genuineinterest in pursuing weaving as a life’s work. Hisinterests lay with ships.While only 19 years old,the young Genoese had his first opportunity to goto sea, joining the crew of a Genoese galley. It wasa decision that soon nearly cost him his life.

The New Power of Spain



1. European name given Norsemen, meaning “sea raider” or “pirate.”2. Swift, sleek ships sailed by the Norse3. Norse assembly of free men established to govern the Icelandic colonies4. New World Norse site excavated by Norwegian archaeologist Helge Ingstad in 19615. Norseman who reached the New World in 986 when a storm off Greenland blew him west6. Norse name for Native Americans meaning “barbarians” or “weaklings”7. Name of first European (a Norse) born in the New World8. Norseman who killed a man, was banished to Iceland, then discovered Greenland9. Italian merchant who traveled to the Orient during the 1200s

10. Far Eastern leader who lived during the 1200s11. German printer whose printing press revolutionized how books were printed12. German geographer who built one of the first round globes in the history of Europe (1492)

A. Snorri B. Althing C. Johannes Gutenberg D. Martin BehaimE. Vikings F. Skrellings G. L’Anse aux Meadows H. Erik the Red I. Bjarni Herjolfsson J. Marco Polo K. drakken L. Kublai Khan

1. ____ 2. ____ 3. ____ 4. ____ 5. ____ 6. ____ 7. ____ 8. ____ 9. ____ 10. ____ 11. ____ 12. ____


1. Name for the small island chain in the South Pacific that produced spices2. Portuguese monarch who encouraged sailors to explore the Atlantic and African coast3. Portuguese explorer who “discovered” the southern tip of the African continent in 14874. Name given to the southern tip of Africa by Portuguese King John II5. Eastern port first reached by Europeans sailing around Africa in 14986. Castilean monarch who joined with the monarch of Aragon to form a united Spain in 14697. Aragonese monarch who joined with the monarch of Castile to form a united Spain in 14698. A type of pepper9. Traditional seaport for generations of intrepid Portuguese sailors.

10. Islands in the Atlantic discovered by sailors sponsored by the Portuguese navigation school11. Name of one of Bartolomeu Dais’s ships12. Portuguese monarch who commissioned Vasco da Gama for African coastal exploration

A. Emmanuel I B. Moluccas C. Rio Infante D. Henry the NavigatorE. Azores F. Bartolemeu Dias G. Sagres H. Cape of Good HopeI. cubebs J. Calicut K. Isabella L. Ferdinand

1. ____ 2. ____ 3. ____ 4. ____ 5. ____ 6. ____ 7. ____ 8. ____ 9. ____ 10. ____ 11. ____ 12. ____

Test IV


Christopher Columbus, an excited youth of 19,first sailed aboard a Genoese galley. On his firstvoyage, the ship was dispatched to fight somepirates from North Africa. Later, he was part of apair of voyages to the Aegean Sea, east of Greece.In 1476, he was part of a fleet of ships that sailedfrom Genoa through the Mediterranean bound forEngland. But the Portuguese attacked the fleet, andthe ship he was on sank.Wounded, the youngsailor clung to an oar in the open sea and managedto stroke to shore. But this did not stop Columbusfrom joining the crew of another ship.

His next ship was a Portuguese vessel that sailedto Ireland late in 1476, and then to Iceland in early1477.Here, the path of Christopher Columbus crossedthat of Leif Eriksson, the great Viking explorer.

According to one story, while in Ireland,Columbus witnessed a small boat wash up on shorewith the bodies of a man and woman onboard.They appeared to him to look Chinese.Althoughthey were probably Inuits, or Eskimos, or maybeLaplanders, Columbus always remembered theevent, and it probably served later in his life as aproof that the land of Asia lay to the west ofEurope on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

By the spring of 1477, Columbus was living inLisbon, Portugal, with his brother, Bartholomew,who made a living selling navigational maps andship instruments. Lisbon was an important port atthat time. Portuguese sailors were leaving regularlyto sail down the coast of Africa to reach the Eastwith all its spices, riches, and silks.

While working with Bartholomew, Columbussoon became well acquainted with some of thebest maps known at that time, each one showingthe latest discoveries: the Azores and the Madeiras,Atlantic islands founded by the Portuguese. It wasduring these years that Columbus furthered hisstudies. He learned Latin, because most of themaps of the day were written in that language. Healso studied Spanish, learning to read and write it.Conversations with sea captains, mapmakers, orcartographers, and others, caused him to develop

his idea of reaching the Orient not by sailing to the East, as others already were preparing to do,but by traveling out into the Atlantic Ocean,sailing west. His theory of reaching the East bygoing West was not odd.After all, Columbus knew,as did the educated people of his day, that theearth was not flat—as superstitious folksthought—but round.

He based his theory of a direct route to Asiaacross the Atlantic from a variety of sources, bothancient and recent. Columbus learned of the writings of the famous Greek philosopher-scientistAristotle who lived 1,800 years earlier.Aristotle had claimed that Asia could be reached by sailingwest across the Atlantic in just a few days. Booksdating from the Middle Ages made the same claim.

Christopher also came into possession of a letter written by a fellow Italian, a physician fromFlorence named Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli.The letter —dated June 25, 1474 and written to aCatholic official of Lisbon Cathedral—claimed that Cathay (the name used for China) lay only5,000 nautical miles due west of Lisbon. Even closer was Japan at a distance of only 3,000 miles!Excited, he wrote to Toscanelli, requesting moreinformation. He received a reply direct from thenotable scientist along with a map, showing a possi-ble route for such a voyage. Here, the dream of sail-ing to Asia across the dark waters of the Atlantictook form in Christopher Columbus’s mind,remaining forever unshakable.

Review and Write

1. When Christopher Columbus was a youngman, what adventures did he experience onthe high seas?

2. By the spring of 1477, Christopher Columbuswas working with his brother, Bartholomew, inLisbon, Portugal.What experiences therehelped prepare him for this theory about sail-ing west to arrive in the East?

Columbus Forms His Theory


In time, Columbus’s dream took shape. Heimagined himself sailing across the Atlantic andreaching Cipangu—Marco Polo’s name for Japan.He created in his mind a great city in Asia, ruled byhimself. He would control the trade of the East andthe West. But Columbus’s dream would neverbecome reality without royal support.

By the early 1480s, Christopher Columbus, nowknown in Lisbon as Cristobal Colon, began his searchfor such support. But selling his idea of travelingwest to reach Asia did not prove easy.The problemwas his estimate of the distance required to reachAsia.While he whittled down the distance from3,000 nautical miles to reach Japan to 2,400 (tomake it seem more attractive to potential backers),the actual distance from even the Canary Islands toCipangu was closer to 11,000 nautical miles.Columbus’s estimate was nearly 9,000 miles off!

Columbus’s appeals to the monarchs of Europefailed.The rulers’advisors knew Columbus’s

estimate was incorrect and recommended against sponsorship. In addition, his demands were morethan any king seemed willing to agree to.The eagerseaman wanted three ships for his voyage, mannedand paid for. He also wanted to be appointed governor of all lands he “discovered,” as well asreceive the title “Admiral of the Ocean Seas.” No seaexplorer had ever asked so much.

He first took his idea for an Atlantic voyage toKing John II of Portugal.Already involved in financingsailors along the African coast, he turned Columbusdown in 1482. During this time, Columbus hadmarried a Portuguese woman named Felipa dePerestrello.They had one child before Felipa died, alad named Diego, who later accompanied hisfather on some of his voyages.A few years later,Columbus approached King Ferdinand and QueenIsabella of Spain with his idea.At the same time, hisbrother, Bartholomew, appealed to the Englishking, Henry VII, and King Charles VIII of Francewith his brother’s proposal. Both Henry andCharles turned down the offer for the same reasons King John of Portugal had.

Christopher Columbus first attempted to gainan audience with the Spanish monarchs in 1485,but he waited an entire year before Isabella agreedto hear him.While the queen seemed to respondpositively to him as a person—they were about thesame age, and both had blue eyes and reddishhair—Isabella was not immediately prepared toback his plan. She turned it over to a commissionfor study. But this committee of experts took theirtime in making their decision.

Four more years passed before the commissionersgave their answer to the queen.They did not supportColumbus’s claim of the distance across the Atlanticto Japan.The experts said that no ship afloat couldmake the distance of over 10,000 miles non-stopfrom Lisbon to Asia. Discouraged, Columbus wasunsure where to turn next. But Isabella encouragedhim to apply again the next year.

At Christmas time, 1491, Columbus did just that.And this time, a second commission recommendedthat this pesky Italian be given an opportunity.They probably understood that Isabella wanted togive Columbus’s dream a chance. But whenColumbus added a new demand to his offer—to begranted ten percent of the trade profits resultingfrom his voyage to the East—Ferdinand andIsabella both rejected it.There was now nothingfor Columbus to do but leave Spain, rebuffed.


Columbus Campaigns for Support

It was one of the darkest moments in the lifeof Christopher Columbus.After seven years of waiting,the king and queen of Spain had finally turned himdown.The discouraged Italian sailor packed hismaps, charts, and personal belongings, and readiedto leave the court of Spain for the last time.

But on the very day the Spanish monarchs toldColumbus they were unprepared to sponsor hisproposed voyage, the keeper of King Ferdinand’sprivy purse, Luis de Santangel, met with QueenIsabella and convinced her that Columbus represented a true opportunity for her nation. Hereminded her that Columbus’ request for threeships and supplies would cost very little, indeed.The other demands of Columbus—titles, royalties,and income—would only be granted if he succeededin reaching the Orient.

As the queen changed her mind on the matter,so she changed the course of history. In fact, shebecame so eager to grant Columbus all he asked,she even offered to pledge her crown jewels tofinance the expedition. But Santangel promised hewould find the monies required.The court dispatcheda messenger to retrieve Columbus, already on theroad to meet his brother in France.

Now, all could be made ready for Columbus’voyage into the western ocean. But events movedslowly.While the queen offered her support inJanuary of 1492, four months would pass before thecontracts were signed by all parties.The agreementColumbus signed promised that he would be madeAdmiral of the Atlantic Ocean and that he wouldcollect 10 percent of all gold, precious stones,spices, or any other discoveries, tax free.

Columbus soon rounded up three ships for his voyage: a flagship, the largest of the three,named the Santa Maria, as well as two smaller vessels, the Pinta, and the Santa Clara.As the smallest of the three, measuring only 55 feet inlength, the Santa Clara was nicknamed affectionatelyby her crew as the Niña, Spanish for “little one.”The Santa Maria, measuring 85 feet in length, hada crew of 40 men and boys, while the Pinta and

Niña boasted crews of 26 and 24, respectively.These ships were primitive vessels by modern

standards.They were wooden and propelled bywind-blown sails.There were compasses onboardeach to help in navigation, but no other specialdevices to measure the distance travelled each day.Columbus knew enough about the stars to navigateat night, but was left to guess the distance coveredeach day by dead reckoning, a rare personal skill ofestimating distances by sight.

By summer’s end, the ships and crew wereready. On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his menset sail for the west. Nine days out, sailing to thesouthwest, the ships reached the Canary Islands.Atthat point, the Genoese captain set a course for thewest. Only one other man onboard was Genoese.There was a Venetian and one Portuguese, but theremainder of the crew was Spanish.

As the ships sailed on, they were aided by a fairtrade wind that nearly always blew to the west.While it pushed the ships along at a reasonableclip, many of the crewmen wondered how theywould ever get back to Spain, since the windsalways blew in the same direction.After threeweeks of open sea, with no land in sight, the crewbecame restless. Some began to talk of turning back.

Review and Write

1. From your reading of this page and the previous page, what challenges did Columbus face in his quest to reach the Far East by sailing across the Atlantic?

2. After the king and queen of Spain rejectedColumbus’s request for backing for his voyageacross the Atlantic, he was completely discour-aged.What changed the minds of the Spanishmonarchs at the last minute?

3. As Columbus received backing for his trans-Atlantic voyage, what was included in hisagreement with the monarchy of Spain?

Columbus Sails to the West


As Columbus’sships continued sailingever westward, threeweeks became four,then five. His crewbegan to become concerned that theyhad not yet reachednew land.A false sighting of land onSeptember 24 onlymade matters worse.Another mistaken sighting onOctober 7 caused some of the crewmen to panic,and even threaten mutiny. By October 9, ship-boardtensions were running high.

Life onboard the three ships had been difficultas the sailors made their way westward.The foodthey ate was monotonous, consisting of saltedmeat, hard bread, lentils and beans, and red wine.When they consumed the last of the wine, theydrank water stored in wooden barrels which oftentasted foul.There were few comforts on thesethree small vessels. Only the ships’ captains hadcabins and bunks to sleep in; everyone else sleptwherever they could find space,wearing their clothesat all times.And with no sighting of land for weekat a time, they crew grew understandably restless.

On the 9th, Columbus faced great hostilityamong his crewmen. He promised them theywould sail only three more days; then, if no landhad been sighted, he would return to Spain.All ofColumbus hopes now hinged on the sighting ofland by October 12.

If only Columbus’s men knew how far theyhad already sailed, they might not have agreed atall to continue. Columbus kept two logs, orrecords, of their journey westward: one showingthe actual distance covered each day and the othera false record showing less distance.This is the onehe showed his crew.

The following day, the winds blew strong, drivingthe ships as never before.The distance coveredthat day set a record for any on the voyage west.

Signs of land began toappear: tree branches withgreen leaves, some withflowers on them,were sightedfloating in the water.Everyone began to watchanxiously toward the westernhorizon, looking for land.On the 11th, strong windsgrew to nearly gale strength,but Columbus threw caution

into them, keeping his sails full.That night, around10 p.m., Columbus and a crewman both believedthey saw a light in the distance, but after a fewminutes, it disappeared. If there was such a light, itwas never identified.Through a night of heavingwaves, the three ships plunged on.

The ships were all within sight of one anotherthat night.After midnight, the Pinta was in the forward position, about a half mile beyond theother two vessels.To her port, or left, was theSanta Maria, while the Niña was positioned onthe Pinta’s right, or starboard side.

Later that night, at 2 A.M. on October 12, alookout on the Pinta, Rodrigo de Triana, sightedwhat he though to be white cliffs ahead.The captainof the Pinta, Martin Alonso Pinzon, also spotted itand fired a gun, the prearranged signal in case of aland sighting. Pinzon then shortened sail to allowthe Santa Maria to catch up. From across thewater, an excited Christopher Columbus shoutedwith joy,“Senor Martin Alonso, you did find land!Five thousand maravedis for you as a bonus!”

There were, indeed,gray clay cliffs ahead, situatedon a small Bahamian island.Through the night, theships floated in the vicinity and made full sail aftersunrise. By noon, on October 12, the last day tofind land before turning back for Spain, Columbusand his men dropped anchor and went ashore inthree small boats.There they stood on the first dryland in weeks, then dropped to their knees, manycrying with joy, as Admiral Columbus named theisland San Salvador, the Holy Saviour.


Columbus Arrives in the New World

For Columbus, the landing on this island situated in the Caribbean Bahamas was the triumphof a dream.Years of theory about reaching the FarEastern lands of Cathay and Cipangu were nowover for the Genoese sailor now known as Admiralof the Ocean Sea.

But at this moment of supreme satisfaction for Columbus, he and his crew were, in fact,nowhere near China or Japan. Despite the distancecovered, they were still thousands of miles awayfrom the Orient.Without ever realizing it,Columbus had stumbled upon a completely different land, a world completely unknown to any European of his day.

For the time being, however, Columbus was ahero. Over the next several weeks, he and his menexplored several different islands, searching for theriches of the mysterious East.They found none.Armed with a letter from the king and queen ofSpain intended for the emperor of China, theyfound, instead, scantily clad island natives “going totheir villages, both women and men, with a firebrand in the hand and herbs to drink thesmoke thereof, as they are accustomed.”

These natives were smoking tobacco in theform of large “cigars” which they inhaled throughthe nose, rather than the mouth.This was the first introduction of tobacco—the word used bythe natives—to Europeans. But nowhere didColumbus see riches, exotic spices, or golden-roofed palaces.

Days passed and the puzzled Columbus continued to hop from island to island, naming several as he went. He saw exotic parrots, andsigns of gold in the nose rings of some of thenatives, but no great amounts.

On the 24th of December tragedy struck thethree-ship convoy.The Santa Maria ran aground and was wrecked on a reef that Christmas Eve,causing her crew to abandon her. Once the crewand cargo were safely removed from the ship,with the help of local natives, Columbus made adecision.With supplies dwindling, he elected to

leave 40 of his men on the island to search for gold and build a fort, while he and the othersreturned to Spain.The admiral promised to returnas soon as possible. Gathering together his discoveries—some gold, parrots, and even a fewnatives—Columbus then set sail to the east. It wasJanuary 16, 1493.

The crew of the Niña and Pinta found thereturn trip more harrowing than the first leg oftheir journey. By mid-February, the two ships wereseparated by a severe storm.They never saw oneanother for the remainder of the voyage. Onboardthe Nina, Columbus and his men continued to rideout the gale. It became such a violent storm that allthe men onboard made a vow they would visit ashrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary as soon as theyarrived safely in Spain.

Columbus became so concerned about theship’s survival that he wrote out a copy of his journal, wrapped it in a piece of waxed cloth (to make it waterproof), and sealed it inside a barrel, throwing it overboard. In case his ship didcapsize, the document might be found, proving he had reached “the Orient.”

But the Niña finally made port at thePortuguese island of Santa Maria in the Azores.As Columbus and his men told their story, the captain on the island refused to believe their talesof land to the west. Certain these two Spanishships had been sailing along the African coast,he ordered the arrest of the crews. Only whenColumbus threatened to unleash his cannon on the little island town, did the Portuguese captainagree to release his Spanish captives.

Now only 800 miles from Spain, the Niñamet with another violent storm, destroying most of her sails. Finally, the battered ship limped into Lisbon, Portugal.While there,Columbus met with King John II who had refused to sponsor his voyage, and showed off his “Oriental” natives. On March 15, 1493,Columbus finally made his home port of Palos,Spain, just hours ahead of the Pinta.

Exploring the New World


Great excitement followed Columbus’s returnto Spain. Columbus convinced nearly everyone hehad reached the Far East by sailing directly acrossthe Atlantic Ocean.The king and queen of Spainencouraged him to make a second journey, providinghim with 17 ships and over 1,000 men, ready tosearch for riches and establish a colony.The secondvoyage began in late September, 1493.After taking onwater and supplies in the Canary Islands, Columbus’sships made the crossing in only three weeks.

When they arrived at the island whereColumbus had left men to erect a fort the previousyear, they found all the colonists dead and the fortdestroyed. Disappointed, Columbus pushed on, andestablished another colony on another island,Hispaniola, appointing his brother, Diego, as thecolonial leader.

Over the next several months, the Spaniardswere busy building a colony, searching for gold andother treasures, while Columbus explored theCaribbean, always looking for signs of the richesdescribed by Marco Polo. He discovered the greatisland of Jamaica, but no great riches. Columbusremained in the New World for nearly three years,returning to Spain in June of 1496.

Many of those who returned with him weredissatisfied with Columbus.They accused him ofhaving been difficult and harsh to them.They claimedthere was not enough gold to be found in the landsthey explored. Columbus had, in fact, not been cruelto his fellow colonists. Perhaps, instead, he had beentoo lax with them, for he was slow to put downquarrels and fights among his men, as they greedilysearched for gold and power in the New World.

King Ferdinand continued to support Columbus,

however, and authorized a third voyage for theGenoese admiral. Sailing in 1498, he followed aroute further south,hoping to hit upon the civilizationof the Chinese emperors.He discovered the northerncoast of South America, but found nothing that mirrored the claims of Marco Polo.When he arrivedin Hispaniola, he found the colonists frustrated andunhappy, for they had not yet discovered muchgold.They accused Columbus of mismanagement,complained about eating such Indian foods as“maize,”and demanded that Columbus allow themto enslave the Indians. Since Columbus was con-vinced he had landed in the East Indies, he calledthe natives “Indians.”

To appease them, the admiral granted thempermission to make slaves of the natives, a decisionhe regretted. But it was not enough. Many colonistsabandoned the colony, returned to Spain, andspoke against Columbus.Two of Columbus’s sonswere living in Lisbon at that time, serving as pagesto the king.They were often taunted in the streetsof the city by those who hated their father:“Therego the sons of the Admiral of the Mosquitoes!”

Concerned, Ferdinand and Isabella dispatchedFrancisco de Bobadilla to investigate the problemsin Columbus’s colony.When he arrived, he placedthe admiral and his two brothers in chains, shippingthem back to Spain to stand trial.While the kingpardoned Columbus, he never allowed him toreturn to govern his New World colony.

Disgraced, nearly penniless, Columbus imploredFerdinand to allow him to make a fourth voyage.Frustrated and tired of Columbus, the king agreed.In 1502, the admiral began his final voyage to theland he had found ten years earlier.

While the fourth voyage took Columbus tonew places, including Central America, he neverfound the great wealth of the Orient. Returning toSpain in 1504, he died two years later, forgotten bymany.Yet Columbus forever changed the course ofhistory, not by opening up the Orient to Spanishtrade, but by discovering a continent previouslyunknown to Europeans of his own time.


Columbus Faces Failure

While modern historians credit the Europeandiscovery of the Western Hemisphere to ChristopherColumbus, the continents that make up that hemisphere—North and South America are, in fact,named after another explorer, one whose career asa seaman was unimportant, but whose name hasappeared on maps of the world for hundreds of years.

The name “America” was taken from the nameof Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian merchant-explorer,who claimed to have discovered the American continent in 1497, five years after Columbus sailedto the New World in 1492.

Vespucci was born in 1454 in Florence, Italy.His family was prominent, and young Amerigoreceived an education from his uncle, a Dominicanpriest. From an early age, he developed an interestin astronomy, collecting books on that subject andothers. He became widely read, a man of the ItalianRenaissance who studied for a time under the greatpainter and sculptor, Michelangelo.

To support himself,Vespucci worked for localbankers and travelled to different countries to seeto his employer’s business affairs. One of thosecountries was Spain.

While living in Seville and Cadiz,Vespucciworked for a business that financed long voyages atsea.He developed a keen interest in ships and studiedto be a navigator. He later claimed he participatedin a voyage to the New World in 1497. Little isknown of this trip, because there is not much evidence to prove that he even made the voyage.No journals or ship records support his claim.

In 1499,Amerigo Vespucci made a second tripto the New World.This voyage is well documentedand not questioned by historians.Vespucci wasnever the ship’s captain on any voyage he made,but instead served as ship’s navigator.This expedition, captained by Alonso de Ojeda, exploredthe eastern coastal region of South America, anddiscovered the mouth of the Amazon River.Whilemaking this voyage,Vespucci utilized his knowledgeof astronomy and calculated the distance his shiphad traveled by observing the conjunction of the

moon with the planet Mars.He sailed to the Caribbean as well, and made

contact with Cuba, Hispaniola, and the BahamanIslands. Returning in 1500 to Spain, he reportedthe details of his adventure to everyone he met inthe New World.The next year he participated inanother voyage.This time he was second onboardonly to the captain.The captain sailed along theSouth American coast, turning around just 400miles from the southern tip of the continent.

In 1503,Vespucci was involved in one finalvoyage. Leading this trip, he further explored thecoast of South America and landed on the FalklandIslands.When he returned to Spain in 1504, theFlorentine navigator wrote about his travels andbragged constantly about his skill at sea. In 1508,he was named Pilot Major of Spain. (Columbus wasdead by this time.)

One of those who read about Vespucci’s voyages was a German mapmaker named MartinWaldseemuller. From Vespucci’s claims,Waldseemuller thought Amerigo had discoveredthe New World.When Waldseemuller printed awood block map in 1507, he placed the name“America” across the portion of the map thatincluded South America.

When Vespucci, dying in 1512, admitted he hadnot made the 1497 voyage and had only captainedone of the other trips,Waldseemuller decided tochange the name for the New World, but it wasalready established. By 1538 a world map producedby Gerardus Mercator labeled two continents afterthe Italian navigator who had lied about his accomplishments—North and South America.

Naming the New World


Although Christopher Columbus completedfour voyages to the New World, he only explored alimited portion of the Western Hemisphere. Giventhe immense size of North and South America, noone adventurer could possibly explore the entirehemisphere in a single lifetime.

As a result of his discoveries in the New World,others followed in the footsteps of Columbus.Theyare credited with making significant discoveries,helping to create a clearer picture of the lands ofAmerica. One, in fact, helped to discover an entireocean unknown to Europeans.

His name was Vasco Nuñez de Balboa.ThisSpanish soldier and explorer was the firstEuropean to reach the eastern shore of the PacificOcean. Crossing the continent at its narrowestpoint, the Isthmus of Panama, in Central America,Balboa helped the Spanish and others realize thatColumbus had landed not in the Orient, but hadrevealed a continent previously unknown toEuropeans. However, his discovery of the PacificOcean occurred seven years after Columbus had died.

Little is known of Balboa’s early life. Even theexact year of his birth—possibly 1475—is in question.He served as a young man in a nobleman’s house inMoguer, a Spanish port.As a youth, Balboa watchedas many ships bound for Columbus’s colony in theNew World docked at Moguer to take on supplies.

Intrigued by the lure of a new land, Balboa, in1501, joined a Spanish expedition to SouthAmerica. Failing to establish a colony in Columbia,the explorers returned to Hispaniola in 1502.There, Balboa began raising pigs, and fell into heavydebt.When another expedition was organized tocolonize the South American mainland in 1509,Balboa was eager to join. But his creditors refusedto allow him to leave Hispaniola.

The next year, Balboa hid onboard a supplyship bound for the settlement of San Sebastian,located just south of modern-day Panama. He andhis dog stowed away in a flour barrel, waiting untilthe ship was far out to sea before he revealed himself. Once the ship arrived near San Sebastian,

those onboard found the colony abandoned.Balboa, who had explored in South America before,suggested that he and the others move south ofthe Gulf of Uraba and establish another colonyamid Indians he knew to be friendly.

In no time,Balboa had talked his way into leadingthe expedition.When the group founded a colonyat Darien, on the west side of the Isthmus ofPanama, Balboa became acting governor. He evenmarried a daughter of the Indian chief, Comaco.Through that first year, natives in the region toldBalboa many stories about great wealth to thesouth and of a great sea to the west.

Led by their claims,Balboa outfitted an expeditionof 90 Spaniards and several Indians to cross theIsthmus of Panama.The crossing was difficult.Thetropical heat was sweltering, the jungles teemed withinsects and snakes.The men wore leather coatscovered with plate armor, which was heavy and hot.

During their third week in the jungles of theIsthmus, the natives told Balboa to climb a localmountain,and there he would site the sea in question.He did so, and looked upon the waters of thePacific Ocean. But even after making such a greatdiscovery for the Spanish, Balboa’s days were numbered.A new governor was appointed to serveDarien in 1514. Balboa remained in the region,establishing a settlement on the Pacific shores ofPanama.When the governor became jealous ofBalboa’s following, he falsely accused him of treason.After a sham trial, Balboa was executed, his headcut off and placed on a pike.


Balboa’s Discovery of the South Sea

Just a few years after the Spaniard Balboa“discovered” the Pacific Ocean, which he called the“South Sea,” a Portuguese sea captain sailed out intothat vast expanse of seawater and into the pages ofhistory. Ferdinand Magellan,beginning in 1519,wouldlead a convoy of ships to become the first sailingvessels in history to completely circumnavigate, orsail fully around, the earth.

While the experts, including experiencedsailors, had known the earth was round for manyyears, Magellan ultimately proved it true by engagingin a voyage into the unknown that would ultimatelyclaim his life.

Magellan was born the son of a Portuguesenobleman and, as a young man, served as a page tothe queen of Portugal.When he was 17 years old,the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama successfullysailed around the African Cape of Good Hope, thento India.Years later, at age 25, Magellan became asoldier and fought Moslems in India, traveling as fareast as Singapore. During a campaign against theMoslems in Spain (known as the Moors), Magellansuffered a wound that left him lame for the rest ofhis life.

Despite his military career, Magellan began todevelop an interest in ship navigation and geography.While he knew the earth was round, no one knewhow large the Pacific Ocean was.As Columbus hadbelieved one could sail west from Europe to the spice

islands of the East, so Magellan became convincedthe Pacific was not a large body of water. He thoughthe could reach the Moluccas, the Spice Islands ofthe East, by sailing a short distance west from theAmericas.To prove his theory, Magellan offered hisservices in 1517 to Charles I, king of Spain.

The king agreed and provided Magellan withfive ships and a promise of 5 percent of any spiceisland profits he might collect on Spain’s behalf. In1519, he set sail for America with 240 men. Hisplan was not to sail completely around the earth,but to reach the Moluccas and then return the wayhe had gone. Little did he know what lay ahead

His ships reached the bay of Rio de Janeiro inSouth America in December. No European hadcompletely explored the continent’s coast before.He searched for a route through or around SouthAmerica.Weeks passed and his men became restless.When some attempted a mutiny, he put it down,killing the co-conspirators. In time, Magellanreached the southern tip of the continent andpassed through the treacherous and stormy waterswith great difficulty. It took 38 days to completethe arduous sail through the waters known as theStraits of Magellan. (His men called the regionTierra del Fuego, meaning “land of fire,” becausethey observed many native campfires at night.

Once the difficult and harrowing trip throughthe straits was completed, Magellan gave his men arest, ordering a day of thanksgiving. He convincedhis men to be brave and continue with him acrossthe vast expanse that lay ahead of them. But supplieswere running low, and many of the men did not havethe spirit to continue the exhaustive journey.

In fact, not all of his men continued on, nor didall his ships. One of them, the Santiago had beenlost in a violent storm.Another, the San Antonio,turned around and sailed back to Spain, her crewleading a successful mutiny. Now Magellan set outon the most difficult leg of his voyage—passageacross the unknown waters of the largest ocean inthe world, the Pacific—with three ships, and a nervous crew.

Magellan Sails Two Seas


Now Magellan and his men prepared to set acourse across the Pacific Ocean, unsure of its sizeor what perils lay before them.With two shipsgone,one capsized, and the other taken by muti-neers, the trio of small vessels (Magellan’s largestship was probably no more than 70 feet long) continued their journey.

Those few Spaniards who had seen this greatocean had named it the South Sea. But Magellanrenamed it the “Pacific” because its waters were socalm or passive compared to the choppy, treacherouswaters of the South American straits in the regionof Cape Horn.

On they sailed, and fear soon gripped the crew.There was no land sighting for 98 straight days,except for a couple of deserted islands whichcould offer no shelter, food, or hope.The suppliesonboard the three vessels either ran out or werespoiled, making them practically inedible. One ofthe men on the voyage, a mysterious man namedAntonio Pigafetta, kept a detailed journal of theday-to-day challenge these explorers faced as they traversed the Pacific. In one passage, he wrote:

We were three months and twenty days with-out getting any kind of fresh food.We ate biscuit,which was no longer biscuit, but powder of biscuit swarming with worms, for they had eaten the good. It stank strongly of the urine of rats ...And of the rats ... some of us could not get enough.

Men began to drop from malnutrition and disease, dying one after another.The ship’s watersupply spoiled, but they were forced to drink itanyway.The crewmen ate anything they could gettheir hands on—strips of leather, shoes, the ships’rigging, sawdust, and, of course, rats.

When the ships finally arrived in the MarianaIslands of the South Pacific, they were nearly allstarved or sick. But Magellan and his men wereable to get food and water from the natives ofMicronesia, whom they encountered on these

islands. Sometimes, the Spaniards forced theislanders to provide them food.

Magellan continued sailing west until he reachedan island of the Philippines. One of Magellan’screwmen was a Moluccan slave named Enrique,who was able to speak to the island natives.Thisproved to Magellan that he had sailed completelyacross the Pacific and had reached the Spice Islands!While in the Philippines, Magellan converted alocal chief to Christianity, then helped him in hiscampaign against a neighboring tribe.This provedMagellan’s undoing. On April 27, 1521, Magellanwas killed by native wielding spears and cutlasses.

But the remaining crewmen continued on,anxious to return to Spain.They explored theislands of the East Indies for months, and picked acargo of cloves and other spices. By then, one ofthe three ships had become so worm-eaten, themen burned it.The last two of Magellan’s originalfive vessels sailed on.They became separated, how-ever, and the Trinidad was attacked by Portuguesegalleys, stripped of her cargo and left to flounderin a storm.The last of Magellan’s ships, the Victoria,successfully crossed the Indian Ocean and roundedthe Cape of Good Hope, to reach Spain onSeptember 6, 1522. Only 18 men remained ofMagellan’s original crew of 240!

Despite the losses they suffered, the men whocompleted the first circumnavigation of the earthbecame rich.Their cargo of 25 tons of cloves, pluspacks of cinnamon and nutmeg sold for the modernequivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Review and Write

1. Before the great sea captain, FerdinandMagellan, began his momentous voyage acrossthe Pacific Ocean, what losses had he alreadyfaced regarding his fleet of ships?

2. As Magellan and his sailors sailed across thePacific, what challenges and fears did the crewexperience?


A Voyage Around the World


1. Place of Christopher Columbus’s birth2. Brother to Columbus who made his living selling navigational maps and ship instruments3. Greek philosopher-scientist who claimed Asia could be reached by sailing across the Atlantic4. Italian physician who claimed China lay only 5000 nautical miles west of Lisbon5. Medieval name for China6. Medieval name for Japan7. Spanish monarch to whom Columbus appealed for support of his Atlantic voyage to Asia8. Wife of Christopher Columbus9. Spain’s Privy Purse who convinced Queen Isabella to support Columbus

10. One of Christopher Columbus’s ships taken on his first voyage in search of Asia11. Crewman aboard the Pinta who may have spotted New World land first12. Name given the Caribbean island where Columbus first landed and went ashore

A. San Salvador B. Genoa C. Rodrigo de Triana D. BartholomewE. Santa Clara F. Aristotle G. Luis de Santangel H. ToscanelliI. Cipangu J. Ferdinand K. Felipa de Perestrello L. Cathay

1. ____ 2. ____ 3. ____ 4. ____ 5. ____ 6. ____ 7. ____ 8. ____ 9. ____ 10. ____ 11. ____ 12. ____


1. Italian merchant-explorer who claimed to have discovered the American continent in 14972. German mapmaker who was first to put the name “America” on a map in 15073. First mapmaker who labeled two continents—North and South America—in 15384. First Spanish soldier and explorer to reach the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean5. Site where Spanish explorers cross Central America in search of the Pacific Ocean6. Panamanian colony established by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa7. Term meaning “to completely encircle”8. First European to sail completely around the world9. Spice Islands of the East

10. Spanish name given the region adjacent to the Straits of Magellan11. Diarist aboard the Spanish exploration voyage of Magellan12. Only one of Magellan’s ships to complete his 1519-1522 voyage

A. Victoria B. Vespucci C. Pigafetta D. WaldseemullerE. Tierra del Fuego F. Darien G. Molluccas H. Isthmus of PanamaI. Magellan J. Gerardus Mercator K. circumnavigate L. Balboa

1. ____ 2. ____ 3. ____ 4. ____ 5. ____ 6. ____ 7. ____ 8. ____ 9. ____ 10. ____ 11. ____ 12. ____

Test V


Christopher Columbus attempted to establisha Spanish colony in the Caribbean during his firstvoyage across the Atlantic in 1493. But those firstcolonists were killed after treating the local islandnatives poorly.When Columbus returned that sameyear on his second voyage, with over 1,000 eagercolonists under his command, the Spanish wereguaranteed ultimate success in their colonizing efforts.

But even Columbus struggled with two differentmethods of expansion in the Caribbean.There wasthe view that his main task was the discovery ofnew lands, followed by the establishment of trad-ing posts to connect with the local Indian tribes.This approach assumes that the time the Spanishwould spend in such a colony would probably be short-lived.The point became quick profits and nolong-term commitment to the region.

The other model was very Spanish in its roots.It involved a military conquest of a region, theenslavement of the local peoples, and the establishment of long-term exploitation. In otherwords, in the second model, the assumption wasthat the conqueror would continue to control theland and its people for a long period of time,perhaps for generations.

The differences between these two models ofcolonization caused problems between Columbusand the Spanish soldiers and colonists who accompanied him.They refused to follow his lead,

treating the native population as they saw fit—not bytrading with them,but by turning them into slaves.

The clash between Spanish colonists andColumbus led more than once to direct involvementby the Crown to mediate arguments and disputesabout how to run the new colonies being established.As has already been noted, Columbus will eventuallyfall completely out of favor with the Spanish monarchswho will come to disregard him, convinced he hadserved poorly as a governor in the New World.

This pattern of abuse and conquest of nativepeoples soon became the pattern of Spanish exploration and exploitation in America.Typically,the Spanish “discovered” a new territory with previously unknown inhabitants.They were greetedby friendly natives, who saw the these new arrivalsas strange, but also exotic, even godlike.

In the meantime, the Spanish were busy sizingup their potential foe, weighing the potential forexploitation on this island or that.After living side byside with the natives, all the while taking hospitality,food, gold, and women from the local people, aresentment developed on the part of the Indians.

Violence would break out as the nativesattempted to remove the unwanted Spanish presence.Then, the well-armed Spanish with their muskets,armor, dogs, ships, and cannon would turn on thenatives,put down their attacks,and crush all resistance.

The Spanish would then control all aspects ofnative life, making the natives slaves, forcing them towork in their own mines, paying tribute to the newpower in the New World: Spanish conquistadors,soldiers who were well-armed and ready to use theirmight against a simpler, primitive, unprepared foe.

The Spanish Crown supported the process byestablishing in the New World the encomienda systemto regulate the new colonies, their settlements, andtowns.An encomienda was a land grant given to aSpanish settler along with slaves to work his land.His only obligation to his native slaves was toChristianize them.This system was oppressive; itdestroyed the will of the native population to live,while mocking the spirit of Christianity.


Exploring the New World Peoples

When the first Europeans arrived in the New World, arriving on ships flying the Spanishflag, they made contact immediately with peoplevery different from themselves.These Spanishadventurers were the first of a mass migration thatwould overrun the two continents of the WesternHemisphere: North and South America.

The result would be a combination of cultures,both Old World and New World.A massiveexchange of experiences, foods, animals, and evendiseases began to occur from the momentColumbus and his men witnessed Caribbean islandnatives smoking giant cigars through their nostrils.In some ways, this cultural exchange was subtleand took place almost without serious thought tothe consequences. Sometimes, it was forced.

When the European Christians arrived, theycarried out an extensive campaign to convert theNew World peoples to their way of faith. Spanishconversion tactics were often harsh and forceful.Natives who refused to convert might be mistreated,enslaved, or even killed.

Many American natives were enslaved by theSpanish and forced to work on their plantations, intheir mines, and generally exploited.The treatmentof Native Americans in the Caribbean, as well asCentral America became such a scandal that someSpaniards spoke out against the generalized abuse.

One such voice of protest against native mistreatment was a Spanish priest named Bartolomede las Casas. In earlier years in the Spanishcolonies, he had been a part of the destruction ofCuba, but later suffered a dramatic change of heart.He turned against colonial policy, writing againstthe destruction of the natives and their livelihood.

While converting the natives to Christianityremained a primary purpose of Las Casas, heargued that “the means to effect this end are not torob, to scandalize, to capture or destroy them, or tolay waste to their lands.”

Las Casas chronicled the destruction of thenatives and lamented the tremendous loss of life.He estimated that the destructive campaigns and

wars fought against the natives were the most common causes for the dramatic reduction in theirpopulations.Throughout the 1500s, for example,the estimated native population of Mexico, 25 million, was reduced to one million.

But the destruction of the native populationwas not primarily caused by war; instead, diseasewas the killer. European diseases, introduced throughsimple contact, laid waste to whole groups ofnatives. Smallpox, measles, and typhoid ranunchecked through native populations. Indians didnot have natural immunities to such “new”diseases.

An additional aspect of exchange betweenNative Americans and Europeans was in food.Colonists discovered and took back to Europe suchnew foods as the potato, squash, pumpkin, corn,and tomato.American cotton also proved betterthan Asian types. In return, the New World saw itsfirst lemons, coffee, sugar cane, wheat, oranges,rice, and lettuce.

Animals were also exchanged.The horse wasintroduced to Native Americans, as well as cows,chickens, sheep, and pigs.These provided newsources of meat, hides, and wool, changing forevernative cultures. New World tobacco became widelyused in Europe and other parts of the world.Andtwo great Old World tastes also made their way toEurope through vanilla beans and cacao, the substance used to make chocolate.

Review and Write

1. Create two lists: one of New World items andone of Old World items which wereexchanged. Do you think the exchange wasequal? Why or why not?

2. Once Europeans occupied the lands of theWestern Hemisphere, how did they go aboutspreading their influence and power?

3. How did las Casas feel about the treatment bythe Spanish of the Native Americans?

Exchange of Two Worlds


As the Spanish colonizers moved throughout theCaribbean, establishing their presence over variousgroups of island natives, many Spaniards were constantly frustrated at the lack of gold they found.Gold was the major incentive for adventurous mento make the sometimes harrowing trip across theAtlantic to a world completely new to them.

The people of the islands lived in simple,tribal structures, and were not wealthy or powerful.In fact, it would not be until the second HernandoCortés generation of Spanish colonists arrived in the New World that contact was made with alarge, powerful, wealthy people, living in an extensive civilization.They were the Aztecs of modern-day Mexico.

The Aztecs empire was nearly two hundredyears old when the first Europeans made contactwith them in the 1520s.The civilization was flourishing and growing more powerful when theSpaniards appeared in the Valley of Mexico wherethe Aztecs capital of Tenochtitlan was situated.

The Spanish leader responsible for the Spanishassault on the Aztecs was Diego Velasquez, theSpanish Governor of Cuba. In the early 1500s, thecolony in Cuba was facing sever problems, includinga lack of available land and a shortage of slavelabor. He dispatched military expeditions to thewestern mainland of the Yucatan and the Gulf ofMexico between 1516 and 1518 in search of both.

Spanish soldiers made contact with localnatives who told them of a wealthy people livingin an elaborate city further inland.When Velasquezreceived word of such a people, he was intriguedand dispatched a commander named HernandoCortés to carry Spanish power to these people andestablish trade with them.

Born in 1485 in the Spanish town of Medellin,Cortés’s parents sent him to study law at the age of14. But schooling did not suit him and he abandonhis studies, traveling to the New World at the age of19. In 1504, he landed on the island of Hispaniolain the West Indies.

Once there, he participated in several battles

with local Indians and later gained an encomienda.He came under the notice of Governor Velasquezwho took him on as his personal clerk in 1511.Cortésparticipated in the ongoing Spanish conquest ofCuba under the command of Velasquez, who laterbecame the governor of the large Caribbean island.

Through such service, Cortés was Velasquez’sfirst choice to lead an expedition onto the Mexicanmainland in search of the rumored civilization ofthe Aztecs.As Cortés organized his men and preparedships for the voyage to Mexico, his ambition beganto worry Velasquez. In time, he decided to removethe eager conquistador from his appointed task.When Cortés received word of Velasquez’s decision,he cut short his plans and immediately set sail forthe Mexico on February 18, 1519. He took approximately 600 men and a fleet of 11 ships.

Cortés first landed along the Mexican coast atCozumel.There he found Jeronimo de Aguilar, whohad been shipwrecked eight years earlier and livedwith the Maya Indians.Aguilar would serve as aguide and interpreter for Cortés’s expedition.

After landing at Tabasco, where he engaged thelocal Indian tribe in a brief skirmish, Cortés madefriends with the natives.They offered him gifts,including women, one of whom was an Aztec cap-tive named Malinche. She became Cortés’s mistressand advisor. She knew how native peoples thoughtand served as an interpreter.Already, Cortés’s planto move against the Aztecs was taking shape.


Cortés and the Aztecs

After leaving Tabasco, Cortés landed his fleetnear present-day Veracruz on the eastern shore ofMexico.There he established his own town,VillaRica de la Vera Cruz.The local natives told Cortésabout the Aztecs and he prepared to invade theirterritory. He had no intention of establishing tradewith the people he was to encounter. His plan was to completely subdue them and destroy their civilization. In short, he intended to conquer Mexico.

In August 1519, Cortés ordered his shipsburned to ensure his men would have no optionbut to follow him.There would be no retreat, hevowed. Soon, he and several hundred followersbegan their march toward the great Aztec empire.

Already, the Aztecs knew of the presence ofthese new Spanish invaders.Ambassadors andpriests were sent ahead to meet with Cortés. Intime, he came to understand just why the Aztecswere so intent on making peaceful connectionswith him.A long-standing Aztec legend told of amythical being called Quetzalcoatl (ket-sahl-koh-ahtl). He was a god of many things—wind, themorning, twins, life—and was believed to have createdmaize, metals, and the calendar used by the Aztecs.

This great being was depicted as a plumed serpent.According to the legend, Quetzalcoatl leftthe Aztecs and promised to return at the beginning of one of the 52-year cycles of the Azteccalendar. Many Aztecs were preparing for thereturn of their great god just as Cortés began makinghis way toward their fantastic city,Tenochtitlan.

When the emperor of the Aztec empire,Moctezuma received word of the arrival of “wingedtowers,” the masted ships of Cortés at Veracruz, hewas afraid it signaled the arrival of Quetzalcoatl. Hesent men to greet the returning god, dressingCortés in a costume that included a turquoise serpent mask, a crossband of quetzal feathers and apair of golden earrings.They hung from his neck agolden disc surrounded by precious stones.Therepresentatives of Moctezuma even placed rubber-soled sandals on his feet.

Cortés’s response disturbed the Aztecs.“Is thisall?” he asked them.“Is this your gift of welcome?”The envoys hurriedly left him, only to return withmore gifts, including a great gold disc in the shapeof the sun and a helmet full of gold dust.

To instill fear in his future opponent, Cortésdemonstrated his power by firing a cannon in thepresence of the Aztec greeters.They later describedwhat they saw to their emperor:

A thing like a ball of stone comes out of itsentrails; it comes out shooting sparks and rainingfire. If it is aimed against a mountain, the mountain splits and cracks open. If it is aimed against a tree, it shatters the tree into splinters.

Not only did Cortés’s cannon impress theIndians, they were greatly fearful of the huge creatures he brought with him—horses.These ani-mals were unknown to the Aztecs.

Moctezuma’s representatives begged him toremain on the coast and not proceed inlandtoward the Aztec empire. But Cortés, understandingthe power of the threat of Quetzalcoatl (Malinchehad related the story to him), the Spanish conquistador refused and demanded to meet withtheir emperor. Much to the dismay of the Aztecambassadors, Cortés began his march into the interior, toward his opponent.

Review and Write

1. After he landed on the coast of modern-dayMexico, the Spanish conquistador Cortésordered the burning of the ships that landedhim and his men.Why did he do this?

2. What connection did the Aztec people makebetween the approach of Cortés toward theircapital and the legend of the mythical beingcalled Quetzalcoatl?

3. How did Aztecs show respect for Cortés?

March to the Valley of Mexico


As Cortés and hismen marched, they madealliances with the Indianswho had been subjugatedby the Aztecs. He becamestronger as he continuedhis approach toward theAztec capital.As somenatives chose, instead, toattack the Spaniards, hedestroyed them, killingtheir leaders.

One such native tribe,the Tlaxcalans, led by a mighty warrior namedXicotenga, attempted to ambush Cortés.Numbering 40,000 to the Spanish leader’s 600, thefight resulted in a victory for the invaders. Cortéslost only one horse and had a few wounded men.But the Tlaxcalans were not prepared to surrender.Another encounter pitted Cortés’s menagainst a force of 100,000 warriors.This army nearly overwhelmed the Spanish, killing 45 of them.Only when Cortés’s men managed to kill several ofthe Indian leaders did the natives surrender andform an alliance with Cortés.

As news of Cortés’s advance reached the cityof Tenochtitlan, the Aztec people began to panic.With the defeat of the outlying native groups,nothingstood in the way of Cortés, despite the fact that thecity of Tenochtitlan boasted a population of 300,000people, more than enough to wipe out Cortés’sarmy.Yet superstition and fear kept the Aztecs frommoving against Cortés, at least for the time being.

On August 8, 1519, the emperor of the Aztecswent out to greet the return of Quetzlcoatl.Convinced that Cortés was the fabled god, theSpaniards were treated well.They were stunned bythe Aztec practice of human sacrifice and orderedthe erection of a Christian chapel. Out of fear, theAztecs allowed the church to be built.

But when a local tribal chieftain delivered toMoctezuma a gift in the form of a Spaniard’s head,the Aztecs realized their guests were not gods at

all, but men. Before theAztecs could react to therealization, their emperorwas taken prisoner. Cortéscould now control the leadership of Tenochtitlan.The Spaniards began dismantling the wealth ofthe emperor, taking goldand other valuables out ofpalaces and temples.As thedays slipped into weeksand months, the people of

the city began losing faith in their emperor.TheSpanish were tearing down the Aztec idols andarresting their noblemen, locking them in chains.

As the power of the emperor declined, Cortés’sown power became stronger.When 900 Spaniardslanded on the Mexican coast, sent by GovernorVelasquez to arrest the renegade Cortés and hismen, Cortés met them, defeating them in a nightbattle during a rain storm.They agreed to followCortés after that. Now Cortés had a well-armedforce of 1,300 men.

While away from the city of Tenochtitlan,Cortés had left a Spanish officer in charge, a lieutenant named Pedro de Alvarado. In Cortés’sabsence, the Aztecs gathered for a feast, andAlvarado panicked, believing the natives to bepreparing for an attack.The Spanish then assaultedthe gathered Aztecs, slaughtering many innocentvictims.The natives retaliated, driving Alvarado andhis men into a temple where they stood off theangry Aztecs.Alvarado ordered Moctezuma to tellhis people to stop their fighting. He did so, but itwould be the last time the Aztecs listened to theirnewly weakened emperor again.

When Cortés received news of the Aztecs’attack, he rushed to the city.As he entered, itappeared the capital had been abandoned. But itwas a trap. Now the Spaniards were surrounded bythousands of Aztecs, ready to end the nightmare ofpillage and humiliation caused by the Spaniards.


Invasion Against the Aztecs

Now, trapped in the Aztec capital, surroundedby thousands of Aztec warriors, Cortés and his menhave no choice but to attempt to break out of the city.

The prisoner of the Spanish, the EmperorMoctezuma, no longer served as a block to Aztecretaliation against the harsh and humiliating treatment they had received for months.Moctezuma’ssupporters were prepared to abandon him.Thetribal council deposed the captured leader andreplaced him with another emperor, who orderedattacks made against the Spaniards who hadplagued their city.

Surrounded, Cortés continued to use the captiveMoctezuma as a bargaining chip. He ordered theweakened emperor to tell his people not to attack.But they would no longer listen to him.As Aztecwarriors attacked, Moctezuma was struck by astone thrown by his own people while he appealedto them to stop threatening the Spaniards.

Three days later, Moctezuma died, leavingCortés with no means of bargaining.The Aztecshad lost faith in their emperor, realizing theSpanish were mortals, not gods, and they no longerfeared the weapons of fire, the cannon and gunsthe Spanish had wielded against them for months.

Cortés now fought desperately to get out ofthe hostile Aztec capital, with great loss of lifeamong his men. On June 30, 1520, known as NocheTriste, the “Sad Night,” Cortés and his men retreatedout of the city, but half of his men were lost. ButCortés was no sooner out of harm’s way than hebegan organizing a new army, gaining many alliesamong thousands of local Indian groups, plusSpanish reinforcements who had arrived from Cuba.

In December 1520, Cortés once again marchedagainst the city of Tenochtitlan.The Spanishblocked access to the city from the outside, allowingno one to go in or go out. Cortés cut off suppliesof food and water to the Aztecs living in the capital.

While Spanish weapons were used effectivelyagainst the larger number of Aztec warriors, thereal weapon that brought down the Aztec empirewas a germ.An outbreak of smallpox ravaged the

city, weakening its defenders.While such a diseasecould kill Europeans (they were responsible forbringing the disease to the New World), the nativesof the Western Hemisphere had no natural immunitiesto help them fight the illness.The result was thedeaths of thousands of inhabitants of Tenochtitlan.

On August 23, 1521, after a four-month-longsiege, the Aztecs surrendered to the Spanish. Insidethe city, Cortés found the Aztec people dying ofdisease and starvation. Once he had control of thecapital, following the surrender of the last king ofthe Aztecs, Cuauhtemoc, the Spaniards began tosystematically destroy the grand capital and itsbuildings. Nearly everything was leveled in theancient city, as the Spanish left hardly a trace oftheir culture, their architecture, or their religion.

With the final defeat of the Aztecs, Cortésbecame the master of the empire, which wasrenamed the Kingdom of New Spain. On top of theruins of the once powerful city of Tenochtitlan, anew city was built, the capital of the Spanishempire, Mexico City. Cortés was greatly rewardedfor destroying the Aztec civilization.And throughhis actions, the Spanish gained an immense additionof land, augmenting their holdings in the New World.

Review and Write

1. Based on your reading of Cortés’s campaign todestroy the Aztecs, how would you describethe treatment of the Aztecs at the hands of theSpanish?

2. As the Spanish attempted to flee Tenochtitlan,they had taken Moctezuma as their prisoner.Why did his capture not guarantee their safepassage out of the city?

3. With no means of bargaining, Cortés and hismen began to fight their way out ofTenochtitlan. Describe the night of June 30,1520, which came to be known as NocheTriste.

The Fight for Tenochtitlan


Cortés received great honors from the SpanishCrown for destroying the Empire of the Aztecs. Hebecame marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, with23,000 Indian subjects under his control. For awhile, he lived lavishly, as a king, until Spanishauthorities grew to distrust him, removing himfrom power. In his later years, he returned toSpain, where he was snubbed by the king andignored. Forced to live in virtual seclusion, he diedin 1547, a bitter and lonely man.

But his conquest of Mexico caused others toseek out additional wealthy kingdoms in the NewWorld for exploitation. Just as Cortés was completingthe subjugation of the Aztecs and continuing tosiphon off their great wealth of gold, silver, andjewels, plus turning them into slaves, another brashexplorer was on his way south to find a secondcivilization of wealth and power.

For years, the Spanish had heard rumors abouta vast civilization south of Central America. Balboa,the Spanish discoverer of the Pacific Ocean hadbeen intrigued by such stories, but was executedbefore having an opportunity to follow up onthem. But the stories of a golden land called “Biru,”drew the attention of others as well.

In 1524 and 1526, Spanish officials sent explorerssouth to gather information about the fabled civilization. One conquistador, Francisco Pizarro, anilliterate adventurer, became convinced that thestories were true. Pizarro traveled to Spain toobtain permission from the monarchy to mount anexpedition in search of “Biru.” Granted titles of captain general and adelantado, or commander, hereturned to Panama and raised a force to marchinto South America.Among them were four of hisown brothers, and two partners of Pizarro’s—apriest named Hernando de Luque and a fellowadventurer, Diego de Almagro. In time, a rivalrybetween Pizarro and Almagro developed.

In December 1531, Pizarro and his force of 200men sailed south of Panama and landed severalmonths later along the Peruvian coast.As luckwould have it, just as Pizarro was ready to march

against the empire of the Incas, an advanced peopleliving in the modern-day nation of Peru, he foundthem at war with one another, locked in a bittercivil conflict.

The Inca dispute was centered around a strugglebetween two half-brothers of a recently deceasedInca emperor named Huayna Capac. One of theclaimants to the Inca throne was Atahualpa (at-ah-WAL-puh), who had already captured his siblingand had taken the throne by the time the Europeansarrived in the mountain town of Cajamarca (ka-ha-MAR-ka).When Atahualpa went out to greet thesemysterious arrivals, Pizarro took him prisoner, justas Cortés had done with the Aztec emperor. Hehad underestimated the Spanish, convinced theirhorses had no power at night, and that theirswords and guns posed no real threat.

Once the Spaniards held Athualpa, he attemptedto gain his freedom by offering to fill a large roomwith gold objects his people would bring for hisransom. Pizarro agreed, but after the gold wasdelivered, he ordered the emperor be strangled todeath. (Pizarro feared the Incas were ready to rallyto save their leader.) With their emperor now dead,the Incas watched helplessly as the Spanishmarched into their capital of Cuzco, which wasdestroyed by the invaders in 1533.

As Pizarro took control of the Inca Empire,becoming the marquis and ruler, he and his partner,Almagro, had a falling out. In 1541, supporters ofAlmagro broke into Pizarro’s home as the oldexplorer was entertaining dinner guests, and killedhim with swords.

Review and Write

1. After Cortés conquered the Aztecs, how was herewarded by Spanish officials and the Crown?

2. After Cortés, another headstrong explorerbegan to march toward South America insearch of riches.What stories guided Pizarrotoward the empire of the Incas?


Pizzaro and the Incas

While Cortés and Pizarro followed rumors ofpowerful and wealthy empires that proved to betrue, leading to extensions of power and great richesfor Spain, some explorers did not find the wealththey were looking for. Not every native tale of greatwealth held by of a powerful New World empirewas true.

Those explorers to ventured north of the Aztecempire located in the Valley of Mexico into NorthAmerica discovered lands that both fascinated andintrigued them, but they found no great civilizationsor great wealth. One such explorer was known asJuan Ponce de Leon (hwahn PON-say day lay-OWN)

Ponce de Leon was born in the year 1460 inthe Spanish town of San Servos. Little is known ofhis early life. He was the son of a famous war hero,and was trained to give service to the monarchy asa public servant and conquistador. For a while,Ponce de Leon served as a page in the court of theking. He served in a war against the Moors, theMoslems living in Spain in the 1480s. By 1493, heprepared to sail to the New World on ChristopherColumbus’s second voyage.

After arriving in the Caribbean, Ponce de Leonwas one of the first Europeans to reach the islandof Borinquen.This was the Indian name for theplace later called Puerto Rico.

De Leon determined to seize Puerto Rico forhis king, and, in 1506, sailed to the island withabout 200 men under his command.While subduingthe islanders, he found rich gold deposits.The

natives of Puerto Rico proved generally friendlyand helped the Spaniards establish a port.

In exchange for their support, Ponce de Leonpromised the islanders protection from a neighboringpeoples, the Caribs. In time, he became governorof the island and the gold he collected from thenatives made him rich.

In 1511, King Ferdinand of Spain replaced Poncede Leon with another governor, Diego Columbus, ason of the great Admiral of the Ocean Sea.

About this same time, Ponce de Leon, nowremoved from his responsibilities as governor,began to hear native stories about a fountain withwaters that restored the youth of any older personwho drank from it.The stories told of a place to thenorth, an island named Bimini.Actually, the nativeshad no knowledge of such a spring; they were onlyrepeating stories they had heard from Spaniards.

Nevertheless, intrigued by the legends, Poncede Leon set out to discover the special waters,believing the site would yield vast amounts of goldand silver, as well. He explored islands in theBahamas and the island of Bimini, but failed to findgold or the restorative waters of legend.As hesearched, he made his way to a land that he laternamed La Florida meaning “land of flowers.” Hemade two separate visits to Florida, one in 1513and then eight years later, to colonize the peninsulafor Spain. Ponce de Leon explored extensively,meeting natives where the city of St.Augustine,Florida, is today.

During his second visit to Florida, Ponce deLeon brought 200 men and 50 horses on twoships. Once there, he came in contact with nativeswho were hostile to him and his men. On the westcoast of what is today known as Sanibel Island, theSpaniards and natives engaged in a battle. Ponce deLeon was shot in the stomach by a poisonousarrow.With their leader dying, the Spaniards abandoned Florida and sailed back to Cuba, wherehe died. His grave was marked with a stone bearingthe words:“Here lie the bones of a Lion, Mightierin deeds than in name.”

The Exploration of Ponce de Leon


Most of the coloniesestablished by the Spanishin the New World throughthe 1500s were locatedeither on islands in theCaribbean Sea, Mexico,South America, or CentralAmerica. Few colonies werebuilt in North America,where the United States islocated today. But some Spanish colonists didexplore across the lands that today make up theUnited States. Juan Ponce de Leon was one, as hetrekked across Florida in search of gold and eternalyouth.Another such North American conquistadorwas Hernando de Soto.

The year of his birth in Badajoz, Spain, is notknown, maybe 1496, perhaps 1500. But he madehis way to the New World at a young age, gainingthe rank of cavalry captain in 1516. De Soto participated in the military campaigns throughCentral America, including Nicaragua and Honduras,and was part of an expedition to Panama.

In 1532, he joined the expedition of FranciscoPizarro into South America to conquer the Incas.De Soto’s military reputation was sufficient tocause Pizarro to make him second in command.While exploring the highlands of Peru, De Soto discovered the great national road that led to theInca capital at Cuzco, giving the Spanish easieraccess into the heart of the native empire.

In time, however, De Soto became upset atPizarro’s treatment of the Incas, especially hisorder to execute the Emperor,Atahualpa. He leftthe mission and returned to Spain in 1536.Thecampaign against the Incas, however, did make De Soto rich, for his share of the Incas treasureamounted to 18,000 ounces of gold.

With that gold, he bought a villa in Spain, nearSeville, and married the next year.With no intentionto ever return to the New World, De Soto made alife for himself as a Spanish gentleman. But he laterbecame fascinated at stories he read of other

Spaniards who, travelingthrough North America,witnessed great civilizations ofextraordinary wealth. Spurredby the lure of glory, fame, andgold, De Soto sold all his holdings and invested a fortune in outfitting an expedition to North America.After receiving permission

from Charles V, King of Spain, he sailed to Cubawith nearly 1,000 soldiers and a dozen or so priests,all on 10 ships.The year was 1538.

After spending the winter in Cuba, buying supplies and horses, the expedition set out in May,1539. His 1,000 men were some of the best armed and equipped ever to embark on such anexpedition of discovery. Finally, they landed inFlorida, following the path of Ponce de Leon. Forthe next three years, De Soto hunted for a civilizationof great wealth, a North American Aztec empire.But it did not exist.

Instead, De Soto wandered over 2,000 miles ofthe modern-day United States, traveling throughFlorida, Georgia, the Carolinas,Tennessee,Alabama,Mississippi, and Arkansas. He reached the southern-most portion of the Appalachian Mountains andwas the first European to see the Mississippi River.He and his men made contact with severalSoutheastern Indian tribes, such as the Natchez.With almost every encounter, De Soto fought theNative American groups along his path. Hedestroyed tribes, enslaved them, and his menspread diseases.

Some tribes strongly opposed him, such as theCoosas of northern Georgia and the Chickasaws ofMississippi, cutting his number of soldiers dramatically. Driven by his dream of gold just overthe next mountain, he became sick. He died on thebanks of the Mississippi where he was buried inMay 1542. Once again, another Spanish dreamerfound no riches and, instead, destroyed the lives ofNative Americans.


De Soto’s Exploration of North America

Others also sought riches for the sovereignnation of Spain and for themselves in 16th century America. Included was a conquistador who traveled overland perhaps more than anyother Spanish glory seeker, crossing vast, relentlessdeserts and mountain ranges that repeatedly testedthe endurance of his men. His name was FranciscoVazquez de Coronado.

He was born in 1510 into a noble family inSalamanca, Spain.At age 25, he made his way to theNew World and served as an assistant to the firstviceroy, or governor, of New Spain.After threeyears in Mexico, Coronado married a Spanish colonial treasurer’s daughter, which landed him agreat estate and made him wealthy. He participatedin the quelling of a native slave revolt.

In time, Coronado became the governor of aMexican district, New Galicia, in western Mexico.As Balboa had listened to the stories of the Incasand Cortés of the Aztecs, so Coronado heard enticing tales of elaborate and wealthy cities to thenorth. One of these stories came to him through aSpanish missionary he had sent into the landsnorth of his district. Friar Marcos de Niza venturedthrough modern-day New Mexico and returnedwith a story of seven cities of gold. One of them,the fabled city of Cibola, piqued Coronado’s interest until he could resist it no longer.

Coronado organized an expedition of 300Spanish soldiers and 1,000 Tlaxcalan Indians, alongwith a great herd of cattle to provide theexploratory party with meat. In 1540, he set out insearch of the rumored cities of gold. He followedthe coast of the Gulf of California to the SonoraRiver, then followed it upstream. Coronado’s menthen marched along the Gila River until theyarrived at the city of Father Marcos’s story.

But the golden city of Cibola was actually aZuni pueblo called Hawikuh.The Zuni were notfriendly to the Spanish (some of them had beenmistreated by other Spaniards in earlier encounters).This led to violence, and in one fight with theZuni, Coronado was nearly killed.

Despite the disappoint of all those on theexpedition as they discovered nothing more thansun-dried brick pueblos in the desert hills, theparty continued, hoping the golden cities werebeyond the land of the Zuni.

While in the region of the Southwest,Coronado split up his party, sending smaller groupsof soldiers and Indians to explore different placessimultaneously. One such party was sent to themouth of the Colorado River. Members of thisscouting expedition were the first Europeans tosee the wonders of Arizona’s Grand Canyon.

During the winter of 1540-41, Coronado’s mainparty encamped near some Indian villages nearpresent-day Albuquerque, New Mexico. Severaltimes, he and his men were force to repel attacksfrom various native groups.That winter, Coronadomet a Native American whom he called “the Turk.”This Indian told Coronado of a new story of awealthy civilization in the lands to the northwest,called Quivira.

Coronado, still yearning to find the riches ofthe region, marched the next year into theAmerican Midwest, crossing the Texas panhandleand then moving north.When Quivira did notmaterialize, Coronado ordered the execution of“the Turk.” Other natives led the conquistador to anIndian village located in present-day Lindsborg,Kansas. It was no city of gold, however, just a villageof thatched huts of the Wichita Indians. Coronadoreturned to Mexico in 1552, generally followingthe same route he had come by. Only 100 of themen who accompanied him into the Southwest ontheir treasure-hunting mission returned.

Review and Write

1. While serving as a Mexican district governorover New Galicia, what kinds of stories didCoronado hear about the lands to the north?

2. Did Coronado encounter Native Americans inthe American Southwest?

Coronado and the American Southwest


The Spanish went to great lengths in theirefforts to follow up Christopher Columbus’s firstand second voyages and establish permanentcolonies throughout Central and South Americaand the Caribbean. However, the Spanish largelyremained south of what is today the United States.It remained for other explorers sponsored by othercountries to explore the area of the Eastern seaboard.

One such explorer landed in America withinjust a few years of Columbus. His name was JohnCabot.Although there are some doubts, it seemsthat Cabot was another seagoing explorer fromGenoa, just as Columbus was. Little is known aboutthis celebrated navigator. No one knows exactlywhen he as born; even the year of his death is notclear. Even his birth name is not for certain. Hemay have been named Giovanni or Zuan Caboto.But his voyage to North America in the 1490s iswell documented.

In 1461,he took up residence in the great tradingcity-state of Venice in northern Italy.There hebecame a merchant, making long-distance trips asfar east as Arabia, where he heard stories about thespices that lay further east. By 1490, he moved toEngland with his three sons—Ludovico, Sancto,and Sebastiano—and made his reputation as a well-seasoned merchant and seaman.

Cabot began to formulate a theory similar to Columbus’s of sailing west to reach the East.In fact, from the stories he had heard on his many travels to the Orient, he had become convinced that the “isle of Brazil,” a place wherespices could be found in abundance, lay to thewest of England, further north than Columbusbelieved it to be located.

When, in 1492, Columbus made his first voyagein search of the Far Eastern spice islands, hereached the New World without realizing it. But hisdiscovery further convinced Cabot that Columbushad sailed too far south.The Venetian merchantappealed to the king of England, Henry VII, for permission and support to make such an exploration.In the spring of 1496, Henry granted Cabot the

privilege to seek the islands.When he made thevoyage, poor winds and a shortage of suppliescaused him to return home.The next year, Cabotsailed to the west aboard a single ship, theMatthew, with 18 men, including his son, Sebastian.

After 50 days of sailing, Cabot reached NorthAmerica on June 24, 1497. (Columbus was stillbusy exploring the Caribbean islands at that time,making Cabot the first European since the Norsemen500 years earlier to reach the American mainland.)While it is not known exactly where Cabot and hiscrew landed, it was in the vicinity of Labrador andNewfoundland.Here he found the great fishing banksof northeastern Canada. By the end of July, Cabotreturned to England,where he was warmly receivedby King Henry, who gave him permission to sailagain the next year.

Cabot’s second voyage a year later included fiveships and 300 men. He planned to return to NorthAmerica and search south of his previous voyage.On the way, storms struck, damaging one ship, forc-ing it to return to England.This would prove to bethe only one of Cabot’s five ships to return; theother four disappeared, and John Cabot was neverheard from again.Yet England laid claim to the por-tion of North America that Cabot had discovered.

Years later, John Cabot’s second son, Sebastian,commanded voyages to America on behalf ofEngland (1508) and Spain (1526). He discoveredHudson Bay, giving England a claim to further territory in North America.

Review and Write

1. Why were the voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot important to England?

2. After the voyages of Columbus, where did theSpanish establish colonies?

3. After the voyages of Columbus, what parts ofthe New World remained open for colonizationby other European nations?


Cabot Sails for England

The “discovery” of the New World byChristopher Columbus led to an international com-petition in search of the riches of the Orient and arace to lay claim to American territory by establish-ing colonies in the Western Hemisphere by Spain,Portugal, England and France.

France joined those European nations interestedin New World explorations in the 1520s. In 1523,King Francis I commissioned another Italian seacaptain, Giovanni da Verrazano to sail across theAtlantic Ocean in search of a route through theWestern Hemisphere to the Orient, known as the“Northwest Passage.” No such route existed, but itbecame the object of many an explorer over thenext several centuries.

Verrazano’s fleet included four ships, but onlyone completed the voyage (the others were crippledby storms). In April 1524,Verrazano’s ship, theDauphin, reached the American coast and exploredfrom modern-day Newfoundland, where Cabot hadalready explored, down to the region of SouthCarolina. For a while, he dropped anchor in NewYork harbor and traded with the Indians.

In fact, the capable Italian made contact andtraded with several tribes along the seacoast,including the Wampanoags of Cape Cod.When hecontacted the Abenakis in modern-day Maine, hetraded, but ran out of barter goods, irritating hisIndian traders.

Some Indians informed Verrazano that a greatnative city lay to the north, called Norumbega.Thecity was said to guard the entrance to the NorthwestPassage.While the story was a fabrication,Verrazano returned to France and told Francis Iwhat he had accomplished. But the king was distracted in a war with the Spanish, and did notimmediately follow up on Verrazano’s information.

Others in France did, however. By the 1530s,French fishermen from Brittany and Normandyventured across the Atlantic to establish seasonalfishing communities to harvest the abundance ofcod and other seafish in the region.While they didnot establish permanent settlements, French sea

captains became accustomed to making regulartrips to the New World’s fishing banks of NovaScotia and Newfoundland.

When Francis I did regain his interest in sponsoring exploratory voyages to the New World,he commissioned another explorer, Jacques Cartier.He proved a superb navigator and shipmaster.Cartier completed three separate voyages toAmerica, landing in Newfoundland, Labrador, andreaching the St. Lawrence River, all between 1534and 1542. He established trade with the Micmacs,an Algonquian Indian people.

On Cartier’s second voyage (1535) he sailed upthe St. Lawrence River, naming a local mountain,Mont Real (Mount Royal), which later became thesite for the city of Montreal. During his third voyage,Cartier attempted to build a permanent settlement,but hostile Iroquois Indians caused him to abandonthe attempt. Despite his failures, Cartier’s voyagesprovide the French with claims to the lands includedin modern-day Canada. However, overlappingEnglish claims would cause much strife and rivalrybetween these two competing European powersfor years to come.

Review and Write

Why would French explorers have as much or greater interest in searching for a “Northwest Passage” as they did establishing New World colonies?

Cartier Sails for France



1. A land grant given to a Spanish settler along with slaves to work his land2. Location of the Aztec Empire in the New World3. Capital of the Aztec Empire4. Shipwrecked Spaniard living with the Mayan Indians who served as interpreter to Cortés5. Aztec captive who served as mistress, advisor, and interpreter to Cortés6. Legendary Aztec god who was depicted as a plumed serpent7. Aztec emperor captured by Cortés and his men8. Neighbors to the Aztecs who formed an alliance with Cortés against the empire9. Cortés’s lieutenant who massacred hundreds of Aztecs during an absence by Cortés

10. June 30, 1520 (“the Sad Night”):The night when Cortés retreated from the Aztec capital11. Last king of the Aztecs12. Capital of New Spain built on the ruins of the Aztec capital

A. Mexico City B. Valley of Mexico C. Cuauhtemoc D. encomiendaE. Noche Triste F. Tenochtitlan G. Pedro de Alvarado H. TlaxcalansI. Jeronimo de Aguilar J. Moctezuma K. Malinche L. Quetzalcoatl

1. ____ 2. ____ 3. ____ 4. ____ 5. ____ 6. ____ 7. ____ 8. ____ 9. ____ 10. ____ 11. ____ 12. ____


1. Fabled land of gold told by Native Americans to Spanish explorers2. Spanish explorer who conquered the South American empire of the Incas3. Inca emperor killed by the Spanish4. Inca capital overtaken and destroyed by the Spanish in 15335. Indian name for Puerto Rico6. Spanish explorer credited with first reaching the island of Puerto Rico7. Name of peninsula discovered by Ponce de Leon which translates “land of flowers”8. Site where Ponce de Leon was killed by a native’s poisonous arrow9. Spanish explorer who came into contact with Native Americans including the Natchez

10. Name of fabled city of gold said to be located in the American Southwest11. Zuni pueblo whose people exchanged violent encounter with Spaniards under Coronado12. Early Italian explorer who sailed on behalf of England and landed in modern-day Canada

A. Florida B. Biru C. John Cabot D. PizarroE. Hawikuh F. Atahualpa G. Cibola H. CuzcoI. Sanibel Island J. Borinquen K. De Soto L. De Leon

1. ____ 2. ____ 3. ____ 4. ____ 5. ____ 6. ____ 7. ____ 8. ____ 9. ____ 10. ____ 11. ____ 12. ____

Test VI


Migration Paths of Early Indians



Culture Areas and Tribal Locations

SUBARCTIC

ALASKA

PLAINS

PLATEAU

GREATBASIN

CALI-FORNIA

SOUTHWEST

EASTERNWOODLAND

NORTHWESTCOAST

ARCTIC

SOUTHEAST

NORTHERNMEXICO

MIDDLEAMERICA

CENTRAL AMERICAAND THE

CARIBBEAN

ATLANTICOCEAN

PACIFICOCEAN

GULF OFMEXICO

CARIBBEAN SEA

ATLANTICOCEAN

HUDSONBAY

Shasta

YukiWintunMiwok

Yokuts

Opata

Tarahumara

Cora

Acaxee

Yaqui

Tepecano

Toboso

Tamaulipec

Otomi

MixtecZapotec

Mixe-zoqueTlapanec

YucatanMaya

LacandonMaya

QuicheMaya

MosquitoLenca

Nicarao

WesternApache

Totonac

Zuni

NavahoHopi

Havasupai

PimaPapago

Yuma

Pueblo

Comanche

JicarillaApache

MescaleroApache

UteWasho

Mono

Shoshoni(Snake)

Klamath

Modoc

Bannock

Gosuite

SouthernPaiute

Wichita

SouthernCheyenne

OsageKiowa

KiowaApache

Arapaho

NorthernCheyenne

Crow

KidatsaMandan

Arikara

Pawnee MissouriOmahaOto

Kansa

Iowa

SanteeLakota

YanktonLakota

SaukFox

Kaskaskia

Piankashaw

Win

neba

go

Menominee

Peoria

Shawnee

Illinois Miami

Chickasaw

Taino

Choctaw

NatchezTonkawa

CherokeeYuchiTuskegee

Creek

ApalacheeAlabama

Quapaw

Caddo

Seminole

Catawba

Tuscarora

Potawatomi

ChickahominyMattapony

Pamlico

Seneca

Mohawk

Pequot

Mohegan

Micmac

Passamaquoddy

AbnakiPenobscot

Mahecan

Ottawa

Ojibwa (Chippewa)

PlainsCree

CreeCree

Inuit

InuitInuit

Inuit

Inuit

Inuit

Naskapi

Montagnais

Beaver

Sarsi

Piegan Assiniboine

Siksika(Blackfoot)Shuswap

SanfoilKalispel

Spokan

YakimaKlikitat

KlikitatKlikitat

Wallawalla

Bella CoolaTsimshian

Tlingit

Chehalis

KarokNez Perce

Flathead

CoeurD’Alene

Slave

Yellowknife

Chipewyan

Kaska

Tanana

Ingalik

Tanaina

Tlingit

LipanApache

Haida

Massachuset

WampanoagNarraganset

Delaware (Lenni Lenape)

Powhatan

Yamasee

Taino

Taino

Ciboney

Ciboney

Biloxi

Mobile

Pericu

Chumash

Pomo

Yurok

Coos

Tillamook

Chinook

NooktaKwakiutl

Bella Bella

Aleut

SerranoCahuilla

Discovery of America


A T L A

N T I C

O C

E A

NN

O R

T H

A M

E R I C

A

A F R

I C A

SO

UT

H A

ME

RIC

A

FRANCE

SPAIN ENGLAND

PORTUGAL

AZO

RES

CA

NA

RIES

BER

MU

DA

WAT

LING

”S ISLAN

D

(San Salvador)

HISPA

NIO

LA

Cap

e Race

CU

BA

W E S T I N

D I E S

G U

L F O F

M E X

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Sixteenth Century Spanish Explorations

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1519

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1528

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1535

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1542

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154

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Rio Grande

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Arkansas River

Mississippi River

Alabama River

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1. Massive glaciers held so much water that sea levels may have dropped 300 feet lower than they aretoday. Land normally underwater, in what is today known as the Bering Strait, would have been abovesea level—a large piece of ice-free open land perhaps extending 750 feet from the north to the south,forming a giant meadow or pasture for migratory animals.

2. Following the migratory animals on which they depended for food, ancient humans migrated acrossBeringia from Asia to the Western Hemisphere without ever realizing they had crossed from one conti-nent to another.

Page 5

1. Answers will vary.The observation of dental patterns of the earliest people in America matching that of the people of northeastern Asia is compelling. Such a similarity could hardly be a coincidence.The blood-type, gene pool, and linguistic arguments seem less significant. But students will see the merits in each according to their own interpretations

2. Scientists use the teeth structure found in the oldest human fossils, which match that of the people ofnortheastern Asia; another is blood type. Since today’s North Americans have two blood types—O andA—it is believed they migrated to the New World before 30,000 B.C., before Type B developed; and athird is the physical characteristics of Native Americans which experts believe may have required20,000 years of genetic change to produce.

Page 6

1. They were dependent on the hunt, so they were nomadic.This circumstance kept ancient cultures from developing roots, organized systems, or any sense of permanence.Their choices for food, clothing,shelter, and materials for tools and weapons was limited by the animals they hunted. Such a nomadic existence probably produced a day-to-day lifestyle.

Page 8

1. It is a durable material and some forms lend themselves to reshaping.

2. Two methods were employed. One method was to chip stones called flints which was achieved byusing stone hammers, antler batons, and antler tips, chiseling away and reducing a flint core to flakes,then working the flakes into a useful form.The second method was to peck and grind stones. Hardstones such as granite or basalt were reworked using other stones into a tool, producing a smooth,even, sharp edge.

3. The Clovis Point was a bifacial point, meaning it was chipped the same on both faces of the stone tomake it symmetrical. It was also fluted, meaning the base of the Clovis Point was flaked to produce aconcave trough running about one-third the length of the point, which would accommodate the endof a spear shaft.

Answers



Page 10

1. The discovery of a Folsom Point stuck between the ribs of a now long-extinct species of bison provid-ed proof that humans had hunted in America thousands of years earlier than many anthropologists pre-viously believed.

2. Notching refers to the knapping (instead of fluting) of the stone to create a pair of notches, or indenta-tions, located at the base of the projectile point.

3. The Eden Point is narrow and long having what is called a lanceolate shape. It features no fluting andno notches.These points narrow to a sharp point, resulting in a streamlined, even delicate-lookingpoint; the Scottsbluff Point is wider and shorter than the Eden, and features slight notching at the base;the Alberta is also notched at the base, but is typically wider than the Eden.

Page 11

Answers will vary widely. Most people have little exposure to the culture and traits of Native Americans.They rely on the portrayals of Native Americans in movies and television, so their images arestereotypical images of, tepees, buffalo hunters, feathered headdresses, bows and arrows, etc.

Page 12

1. It is a fact that around 1600 B.C.Asians living in Southeast Asia began moving out cautiously into thePacific Ocean, settling the islands of the south Pacific. Beginning then, and over the next 2000 years,Polynesians settled on hundreds of islands across the Pacific,traveling in sturdy canoes. Given their sail-ing skill, it is not inconceivable to imagine that at that some point Polynesians may have landed some-where in the Western Hemisphere.

2. The sweet potato appears to be a food found originally in the Americas.Yet the sweet potato arrived atEaster Island, 200 miles off the west coast of South America.Whether it was carried by a Polynesianwho landed in South America or by a Native American who ventured out into the Pacific, we do notknow.

3. The Red Paint People were a great seagoing culture, fishing and trading along the Atlantic coastlands.They were the first in America to build burial mounds, and they lived in 300-foot-long houses. Also,they erected stone markers that are strikingly similar to those erected by Europeans in Brittany andNorway.

Page 14: Test I

Part I1. B 2. E 3. K 4. I 5. J 6. A 7. D 8. F 9. H 10. G 11. L 12. C

Part II1. J 2. E 3. D 4. A 5. K 6. G 7. B 8. L 9. F 10. I 11. C 12. H

Early North America: Answers


Page 15

1. Experts estimate that 75 million people lived in North and South America during the 1500s.

2. Approximately 10 percent.

3. The Great Plains Culture Region.

Page 16

They hunted using projectile points, gathered wild plants; lived in caves, rock cliffs, or grass hutscalled wickiups.

Their environment helped to shape their culture by causing them to adapt to the harsh environmentof the arid, nearly treeless, desert world.When the began practicing systematic agriculture, they adaptedtheir environment by building irrigation ditches and catching rain runoff.

Page 18

1. The Anasazi culture began to take shape around 100 BC and was centered in the “four corners”plateau, where four states—Colorado, Utah,Arizona, and New Mexico—meet.

2. Centered in Chaco Canyon, Pueblo Bonito was an intricate complex of 800 rooms built in the shapeof a half-circle.The pueblo rose from the desert floor to a height of five stories. Other structures atPueblo Bonito include large kivas used for ceremonial purposes. The site may have been home to asmany as 1000 people.

3. Examinations of tree rings reveal the years 1276 to 1299 as part of a drought cycle in the region.

Page 20

1. Men wove cotton products, preparing the raw cotton by carding and spinning it into thread.Womenworked the looms, but the men dyed the cloth. Otherwise, pottery and basketry were consideredwomen’s work.

2. The Southwestern tribes relied on the production of crops such as kidney beans, squash, gourds, sun-flowers, and Aztec beans. Later, through Spanish influence, these tribes produced wheat, onions,peaches,watermelons, and the chili pepper. Corn was the mainstay of their diet.They produceddozens of corn-based dishes including flours, breads, soups, and popcorn.

Page 21

1. The people of this region became more dependent on deer, nuts, and wild grains for their food as thelast of the large ancient animals died out.

2. The Adena culture was named for an archaeological site located on the Ohio River in the modern-daystate of Ohio.



3. Answers to this question will vary. The fact that early peoples living lives of primitive subsistencewere compelled to make musical instruments and ornament utilitarian objects perhaps suggests a fun-damental human need for beauty.The mounds suggest the importance among even very primitive cul-tures of showing honor and reverence to the dead.

Page 22

In addition to the earthen burial mounds that were common to all three cultures, Mississippians con-structed temple mounds of earthen pyramids.

Page 26

1. The Algonquians used several different kinds of traps, snares, and deadfalls.

2. The Algonquians used the sap to produce both maple syrup and maple sugar.

Page 27

The Algonquians’ clothing varied from season to season.They fashioned their clothing from the elements of nature. Spiritually, they responded to the spirits of nature, manitou. Responding daily to manitou helped give one direction and success in daily life.

Page 29

1. The earliest residents of the Great Plains region were nomadic hunters who lived on the land between 11,000 and 7,000 years ago. Between 5,000 and 2500 B.C., the Plains peoples nearly abandoned theregion completely, driven both east and west by a warming trend that rendered the Plains inhos-pitable.The great animals of the Pleistocene Era left the region, leaving those living on the Plains withonly small animals to hunt. Following the drought, Indians returned to the Plains between 500 B.C. andA.D. 1,000.A new interest in agriculture allowed them to develop new settlements, until 1500 when adrought on the Plains caused Native Americans to abandon many of their settlements in the westernhalf of the region.

2. They may have been driven both east and west by a warming trend that rendered the Plains inhos-pitable.

3. They settled in what is today eastern Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, northeastern Oklahoma and alongthe course of the Missouri River from Missouri to the Dakotas.

4. A drought on the Plains may have caused the Native Americans to abandon many of their settlementsin the Western half of the region.

Page 30

1. The introduction of the horse to Plains tribes brought the members of the tribe greater mobility,especially for buffalo hunts; provided a more steady source of food; caused the tribes to become dependent on the horse-bound hunt for killing buffalo; provided greater supplies of raw materials for



weapons, clothing, artifacts, tools, etc.With reliance on the buffalo and horse, Plains tribes became less dependent on farming for food.The horse changed the style of housing.With access to additional numbers of buffalo hides, they developed tepees as a common Plains shelter.

Page 31

The horse not only became the chief means of transportation, but it also became the basis of the tribal economies of the region.The worth of an item for trade trade was commonly given in terms of the number of horses it was worth, or the number of items that a horse was worth.The horse became thebeast of burden. Use of the horse changed the way Indians fought one another.

Page 32

1. Tribes could only hunt buffalo that were found near a tribe’s village.Warriors usually attempted to runa buffalo herd off a nearby cliff or into a ravine, where their quarry would either die from the fall orbe trapped, allowing hunters to kill them with their arrows.

2. Most tepees followed the same basic construction design.Three or four poles about 25 feet in lengthwere lashed together near their ends to form the basic support structure of the tepee.Then additionalpoles were added, approximately 16 in number, to form the circle of the tepee on the ground. Theframework was then covered with animal hides.

Page 33

Since the Mandan lived in permanent settlements and practiced an extensive agriculture, they needed a shelter that was designed to last longer then other types of shelters, since they intended to remain in one place longer.Also, given the northern location of tribes such as the Mandan, the earthen lodges provided a warm place in winter and a cool place in summer.Also, these shelters could withstand an accumulation of heavy snow on their roofs.

Page 34

1. Answers will vary widely. Some of the answers concerning what might have been the most enjoyable might be sitting around campfires, listening to stories. Other positives might include having a relative independence as a band. Some students might answer the question with such observations as “I would enjoy not having to go to school” or “It might be fun to live off the land or live outdoors.”Others might think it would be fun to hunt for your own food.

The negatives might include living in the cold of the winter with little shelter or having no privacy.Some might think the possibility of war or a fight would be a negative. In the end, students will answer according to their own values.

2. A tribal band was a division of the tribe based on families, marriages, and other social structures.

3. During the summer, the bands might gather to compete in games or to hold ceremonies or councils.



Page 35

1. Counting coup required a warrior to get very close to his enemy, so close he could touch him.This obviously might cause a warrior to risk his own life by getting close to an armed enemy.

2. Plains tribes were established on the basis of military societies. Membership in those societies was an honor and to lie about one’s exploits in combat would be a dishonorable thing to do.Also, a tribe’s warriors often became chiefs and other leaders.The reputation of a warrior might help him gain a position of power in the tribe.Thus, he needed to tell the truth about his skills in battle.

Page 36

All things—plants, animals, even inanimate items such as rocks, the stars, and water, contained a spirit that could be passed on to warriors who performed certain deeds. Many rituals, done for religious purposes, such as the Sun Dance,Vision Quest, etc., directly related to the tribe’s concept of the spirit world.

Page 37: Test II

Part I1. L 2. C 3. E 4. G 5. K 6. A 7. I 8. J 9. H 10. F 11. D 12. B

Part II1. B 2. D 3. F 4. H 5. J 6. L 7. K 8. I 9. E 10. G 11. C 12. A

Page 38

The Great Basin region was hostile and arid. Plant types were few and sparse.The region featured poor animal life. Since the Great Basin Indians did not practice systematic agriculture, they were dependent on food sources including plants and animals, which were not present in the region in abundance.

Page 39

The Plateau was thick with forests, home to all kinds of fur-bearing animals from great grizzly bears to beavers.The rivers in the region teemed with fish.This natural abundance has always been a magnet for Native Americans.The environment of the Great Basin is, by comparison, hostile.

Page 40

1. Tribal traditions practiced by the Pacific peoples and adopted by the Plateau peoples included the tradition of head-flattening, nose-piercing, the wearing of cedar-slat protective gear for fighting, and the wearing of shredded wood clothing.

2. The introduction of the horse to the Plateau peoples primarily brought them greater mobility, allowingthem to hunt buffalo with greater success.



Page 42

1. The Northwest Culture Region includes an elongated strip of land stretching from the border betweenmodern-day Oregon and California north to the Alaskan coast.

2. Since the early Indians to the region did not use pottery, a traditional means of dating ancient people,archaeologists have traditionally relied on various projectile points instead.

3. Due to the abundance of food, trees, animal and sea life, the Pacific Northwest Indians were able todevelop rich economies.

Page 43

The forests were homes to gigantic trees; lakes and rivers were full of fish; living along the ocean coast gave the people there access to a rich harvest of marine life, including whales.The result was a lifestyle that reflected this abundance.

Page 44

1. Northwest Indians collected woolen blankets, cedar artifacts, strings of rare seashells, copper plates,slaves, and names.

2. “Too-Rich,” “Throwing-Away-Property,” “Always-Giving-Away-Blankets-While-Talking.”

3. Guests could not refuse to attend a potlatch when invited and to fail to repay double after a year wasa complete disgrace, often resulting in selling oneself into slavery.

Page 45

Answers on both questions will vary. Students are likely to find the memorial and mortuary polesmore admirable than the potlatch, ridicule, and house totem poles.

Page 47

1. The natural environment of California provided many varied food sources for the tribes of the region,including fish, eels, shellfish, acorns, wild plants and berries, and insects.With relative abundance, there was no dramatic need for systematic agriculture to feed the native population.

2. Californians used nets, spears, diverting traps, and fishhooks to catch the great fish.

3. The acorns were dried and the shells were removed.Women then pounded the dried nuts with stonemortars and pestles, making a fine nut meal.This was baked into unleavened loaves of acorn bread.

4. Caterpillars, grasshoppers, angleworms and hornet grubs.



Page 49

1. Many tribes operated in tribelets formed around a single settlement and several smaller, outlying orsatellite villages. Each tribelet occupied designated lands. Leadership was inherited. But tribelet leadersdid not have extraordinary power.They were not usually war leaders, since warfare was not commonlypracticed among the tribes of California.California tribelet families had close personal relationships.Their children were raised with great freedom, and passed the time playing.Their education was basicand occasional.California Indians were not usually buried with their best belongings, but rather witholder, broken and perhaps useless items.After death, the name of the departed one was never to bespoken again.

2. The extended family was the basic unit of the California tribe social system. It consisted of a marriedcouple, their children, and an unmarried relative or two, such as the wife’s brother or a widowed aunt.

3. Adolescent girls might undergo a purification ritual. For ten days, they were isolated from the tribe andforbidden to eat meat.

4. The puberty rite for young men of the Luiseno tribe featured a hallucinatory drink. During their hallu-cinogenic stupor, boys were to see visions during which they acquired guardian spirits.

Page 50

1. Most of Mexico and all of Central America.

2. Tikal was located in modern-day Guatemala. Archaeological findings suggest an elaborate city whichfeatured 3000 buildings, including six temple pyramids.Tikal was home to at least 20,000 people.

3. Within Mayan culture, the Sun Children were responsible for the society’s trade, commerce, taxation,civil justice, and other civic affairs.

Page 52

1. She was very beautiful and she had married five times, resulting in the deaths of all her husbands.

2. He was so quiet that many in his tribe thought he was just a fool. But he was wiser than his tribespeo-ple thought.

3. She sat down by the pond and sang a song. Out of the pond, the serpent appeared.The serpentwrapped itself around the woman, closing around her arms and legs.The venom of the snake enteredthe woman.

4. He would not lie down with her at night so she was unable to pass the venom from herself to him,leading to her own death.



Page 55

1. She has died.

2. He had been gone on a hunt and was not aware she had died.

Page 59

1. The dead had to pass over the bridge in order to arrive at the Island of the Dead.

2. The Island of the Dead is filled up every two days.The dead are then told they must swim in the river.Then, they are turned into fish or ducks.This makes way for the new dead who continue arriving.

Page 60: Test III

Part I1. B 2. E 3. K 4. H 5. I 6. D 7. J 8. F 9. G 10. C 11. L 12. A

Part II1. D 2. J 3. B 4. G 5. I 6. E 7. K 8. H 9. C 10. F 11. L 12. A

Page 62

1. Since they are based on facts, they give modern historians information about how the Vikings lived andwhere they explored across the Atlantic Ocean.

2. As a younger man, Erik had killed someone in Norway and been banished to Iceland.When he got intotrouble there, he and a group of his followers fled to the west, discovering Greenland.

3. Some historians believe the name Vinlandi referred to either grapevines or berry bushes found by theVikings. Others believe it may have referred to a different Norse word, meaning “Land of Pasture.”

Page 64

1. Education was the principal cause of a new worldview among Renaissance people. Greater wealth pro-vided funding for new schools to begin new areas of study and to revive and preserve the learning ofthe past—the works of ancient philosophers, scientists, and essayists.

2. When Polo wrote his book about the East, there was no technology in Europe for mass printing

3. One of those who read Polo’s book was Christopher Columbus.

4. By 1492, he had built one of the first round globes in the history of the world.



Page 66

1. They traveled slowly because they were sailing in unknown waters, uncertain of what lay ahead. In addition, they were attempting to map the lands they passed.

2. As long as spices remained so high-priced, the average person in Europe would never experience easyaccess to spices.The Europeans longed, therefore, to make more direct connections with Eastern mer-chants and traders.

3. Henry and his fellow seamen were interested in determining whether a ship could sail around the con-tinent of Africa, then make its way to the East,with its riches and spices.

Page 68

1. Da Gama returned with so many spices—mostly pepper—that the price of pepper in Lisbon droppedby 90 percent!

2. It remained the task of another explorer to complete the Portuguese search for an all-water route to theEast.The seaman who accomplished this was Da Gama.

3. The king rewarded him with the title,Admiral of the Sea of the Indies. Da Gama was also given greatwealth and the title of Count of Vidigueira. He sailed to the East twice.

Page 70: Test IV

Part I1. E 2. K 3. B 4. G 5. I 6. F 7. A 8. H 9. J 10. L 11. C 12. D

Part II1. B 2. D 3. F 4. H 5. J 6. L 7. K 8. I 9. G 10. E 11. C 12. A

Page 71

1. He sailed on a Genoese galley and fought pirates on his first voyage. In1476, he was part of a fleet ofships that was attacked by the Portuguese.The ship he was sailing on was sunk.Wounded, he clung toan oar in the open sea and managed to stroke to shore.

2. He became well acquainted with some of the best maps known at that time, each showing the latestdiscoveries, including the Atlantic islands of the Azores and the Madeiras.

Page 73

1. His calculations were not taken seriously by advisors to the kings to whom he appealed for support;he appeared to ask for too much from these monarchs; months passed before the necessary contracts were all signed; the ships he sailed were primitive, with few guidance systems onboard.



2 .The same day the monarchs turned Columbus down, they were approached by the keeper of the privypurse, de Santangel, who convinced the queen that Columbus represented an opportunity for hernation. Columbus’s voyage would not cost the crown much and the rewards could be great.

3. The agreement Columbus signed promised that he would be made admiral of the Atlantic Ocean andwould collect 10 percent of all gold, precious stones,spices, or any other discoveries, tax free.

Page 80

1. He had already lost two ships—one capsized and the other taken by mutineers. He only had three shipsleft, the largest of which was no longer than 70 feet.

2. There was no land sighted for 98 straight days, except for a couple of deserted islands which couldoffer no shelter, food, or hope.The supplies onboard the three vessels either ran out or were spoiled,making them practically inedible. The ship's water supply spoiled.

Page 81: Test V

Part I1. B 2. D 3. F 4. H 5. L 6. I 7. J 8. K 9. G 10. E 11. C 12. A

Part II1. B 2. D 3. J 4. L 5. H 6. F 7. K 8. I 9. G 10. E 11. C 12. A

Page 83

1. New World Items: potato, squash, pumpkin, corn, tomato, cotton, vanilla, cacao. Old World Items:lemons, oranges, coffee, sugar cane, wheat, rice, lettuce, diseases (smallpox, measles, typhoid), cow,chickens, sheep, pigs.Answers will vary regarding the equality of the exchanges

2. European Christians carried out an extensive campaign to convert the New World peoples. ManyAmerican natives were enslaved by the Spanish and forced to work on their plantations, in their mines,and were generally exploited.

3. He chronicled the destruction and lamented the tremendous loss of life.

Page 85

1. It would eliminate the possibility of his men retreating.

2. According to the legend, Quetzalcoatl had promised to return at the beginning of one of the 52-yearcycles of the Aztec calendar. Many Aztecs were preparing for the return of their great god just as Cortésbegan making his way toward their capital.

3. They dressed Cortés in a turquoise serpent mask,a crossband of quetzal feathers, and a pair of goldenearrings.They hung a golden disc around his neck and placed rubber-soled sandals on his feet.



Page 87

1. The Aztecs were harshly treated by the Spanish who tricked, threatened, cheated, and killed them.

2. Moctezuma’s supporters were ready to abandon him. In fact, Moctezuma had served as a block to Aztecretaliation against the Spanish. But with his capture and humiliation, the Aztecs picked another emperor.

3. That night, Cortés and his men retreated out of the city, but half of his men were lost.

Page 88

1. He became marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, with 23,000 Indian subjects. He lived lavishly as a kinguntil Spanish authorities removed him from power.

2. The Spanish had heard rumors of a vast civilization south of Central America. Balboa searched for it,but was executed before he succeeded. Pizarro followed in the wake of Balboa’s failure.

Page 91

1. He heard enticing tales of elaborate and wealthy cities to the north, including a tale about seven citiesof gold.

2 He reached the Zuni Indian village of Hawikuh, a pueblo of no real wealth located along the Gila river.He also reached the Wichita Indian village of Quivira, located near present-day Lindsborg, Kansas.

Page 92

1. They provided England and the monarchy with a claim to New World territory.

2. The Spanish established colonies in Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean.

3. North America was left open for colonization by others.

Page 93

1. They, as other European powers, were still looking for an all-water route to the Orient.The Northwest Passage, therefore, remained a primary goal for New World explorers. Colonization had value to these European powers, but they still considered the real wealth to lie in the Far East.

Page 94: Test VI

Part I1. B 2. D 3. F 4. I 5. K 6. L 7. J 8. H 9. G 10. E 11. C 12. A

Part II1. B 2. D 3. F 4. H 5. J 6. L 7. A 8. I 9. K 10. G 11. E 12. C


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