Native American Cultures

SS8H1 The student will evaluate the development of Native American cultures and

impact of European exploration and settlement on Native American cultures in Georgia. (a, b,

c)

Evolution of Native Cultures• Through archaeological study we have pieced

together the development of native cultures that inhabited Georgia prior to European contact.

• Early people are identified by cultural periods based on their hunting, eating, and group behavior.

• Paleo, Archaic, Woodland and Mississippian

Paleo Indians

• Earliest people (paleolithic age)• Lived until about 10,000 years ago, prior to

8000 B.C.• People lived in groups of 25-50 people• Nomadic hunters that followed herds• Used wooden spears and Clovis points• Diet included bison, mammoths, ground sloths

and mastodons

Atlatl-Sling type tool which helped natives throw spears more accurately

Arrow or spear

Atlatl

Photo by Catherine Hackney

Archaic Period• These natives lived about 8000 B.C. to about

1000 B.C.• Hunted smaller game like deer, bear, turkey,

rabbit, and fish• Used smaller spears, stone points; invented

choppers, drills and other tools from deer antlers; and fish hooks from animal bones

• Moved during the different seasons to collect berries, nuts and fruit

• Less nomadic and began to save seeds for cultivation of plants and trees

Photo by Catherine Hackney

Woodland Indian Period• About 1000 B.C. to about 1000 A.D.• Tribes developed, several hundred families

banding together.• Began to build houses or large huts• Created the bow and arrow for better hunting• Created pottery for storage of food• Diet included: squash, wild greens, sunflowers,

berries, nuts, fish and game• Traded among different tribes• Burial mounds suggest religious ceremonies

Etowah Indian Mounds Historic SiteGeorgia Department of Natural Resources

Cartersville, GA

Mississippian Period• Culture started around 700 A.D. until

around 1600.• Known as Temple Mound period, lived

in villages of several thousand families with guard towers and palisades

• People grew most of their food, corn (maize), beans, pumpkins, squash and tobacco

• Religious people with beads, tattoos, and headdresses

Photo by Catherine Hackney

European Contact

Colonization in the New World

• The Spanish were the first to settle and explore Georgia

• De Soto’s soldier’s kept journals of their exploration and contact with native people

• Brought diseases that killed more than ½ of the native people

• Created missions along the barrier islands

Spain (1540-1600)• Wants to colonize Southeast: • God: convert “Indians” to Christianity• Gold: find riches and return to Europe• Glory: keep rival European powers from

claiming the land.• (not necessarily in that order)• St. Augustine: first settlement (military purpose) protect the gold!

• Spanish Missions in Georgia

• http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/missions.htm

Spanish Missions

• Spain: Did not want to have civilians colonize the land: sent missionaries and soldiers (key to Spanish colonization)

• Missions: church outposts/barrier islands• Franciscans (Friars): missionaries• Georgia’s coast divided into two provinces:– Guale (Wal-ee) north barrier islands– Mocama: southern islands (down to St. Marys)

Ruins of supposed Spanish mission, Georgia

Guale and Mocama

• Guale: (1566) Pedro Menendez builds mission on St. Catherines Island: not entirely successful

• Mocama (1580’s): spread work along GA coast• Juanillo Rebellion (1597): revolt at Guale– Friars deny Juanillo position of Chief– Revolt hurts Spanish colonization efforts

Explorers

Photo by Catherine Hackney

French (1560’s)

• Had explored Canada and Northern territory• Goal: Trade… Trade… Trade

• 1560’s: Huguenots (French Protestants) settle along the St. Johns– create Charles Fort: first European fort in the New

World (fails due to famine & hardships)

Church at Jamestown, VA

Photo 2010 by Catherine Hackney

England (1600’s)

• Wants to claim territory in the New World• Wants to settle permanent colonies• King James I issues a charter: legal document

creates Virginia Company• 1607: Jamestown: first permanent English

settlement in America• 1600’s-1700’s: England colonizes the East

Coast

• England’s desire to compete with other countries (France and Spain) for power and glory

• MERCANTILISM-Favorable balance of trade (export more than import)-England now had a place to grow RAW MATERIALS to create goods for trade with other countries-Bring gold and silver into the country = strong military-England had laws to regulated this trade philosophy

Tobacco becomes a major cash crop

Freedom from Religious persecution

• Refuge for reformers• Where they could practice their religion

without harassment

Jamestown

Jamestown photos by Catherine Hackney

Review

• Georgia native peoples- Paleo, Archaic, Woodland and Mississippian

• European Colonization- Spain, France, England• St. Augustine is oldest Spanish settlement• Jamestown is oldest English settlement in

North America