THE FIRST AMERICANS: PREHISTORY - 1492

North American Peoples

Early Native Americans Long before the

Europeans came in 1500’s CE Many native cultures…

Rose Flourished Disappeared

Most advanced Hohokam (Southwest) Anasazi (Southwest) Mound Builders (Ohio

River Valley)

The Hohokam Present-day Arizona

Dry, hot desert Area b/t Gila and Salt River Valleys

Believed from Mexico Came around 300BCE Flourished 300CE-1300CE

Experts @ squeezing every drop of water Life depended on irrigation

100’s miles of channels bringing H2O Left behind…

Pottery Carved stone Shells etched w/ acid (acquired in

trade from coastal people)

The Anasazi 1CE-1300CE 4 Corners (where Utah, Colorado,

Arizona, New Mexico meet) Built great stone dwellings

Pueblo Bonita Spanish for pretty village Stone and sun-dried clay 4 stories high

800+ rooms and 32 kivas!!! Cliff Dwellings

Carved & built into walls of cliffs Mesa Verde

1000’s of inhabitants Easy to defend Protection from winter weather

Complex system of roads linking the villages

Env’t issues finally caused demise Drought Etc.

The Mound Builders Earthen mounds dot US landscape

Not work of a single group, but many called, the Mound Builders

Earliest built around 1000BCE Some shape of pyramids; some

elaborate animals Some contain burial chambers

From Pennsylvania to Mississippi River As far north as Great Lakes and south

as far as Florida Major Builders…

Adena 800BCE Ohio Valley hunter-gatherers

Hopewell 200BCE-500CE Farmers and traders Burial mounds in shape of birds,

snakes, alligators

Cahokia Largest settlement of mound builders

Built by Mississippians Present-day Illinois

Largest mound (Monk’s Mound)- 100ft!!! Looks like cities of Aztecs even though more than 2,000 miles away

Believed they travelled from Mexico through Gulf and up the Mississippi River Dominated by pyramid-shaped mounds

THE FIRST AMERICANS: PREHISTORY - 1492

Modern North American Peoples

Modern Native Americans As early groups faded

away… Other rise to take their

place Europeans arrive and NA

full of many new, different native cultures

Modern Natives are the ones we think of today

Wherever they lived and how… Did what best suited their

environment All of this will change when

the “white man” arrives!!!

Peoples of the North Inuit

People who settled northernmost part of NA Land surrounding Arctic Ocean Believed to be the last to pass over Beringia

Many skills (brought from original home in Siberia) Winter they built igloos

Made of blocks of ice and snow to protect from extreme cold

Cloths made of furs and sealskin Made both warm and waterproof

Hunters and Fisherman Coastal Waters

Whales, seals, and walruses Skin-covered boats

Land Hunted caribou

Made cloths from hides and burned seal-oil lamps

Peoples of the West

Northwest Coast Tlingit, Haida, Chinook Used resources of forest and sea

Built wooden houses, canoes, cloth,

baskets from tree bark Spears and traps

Fished for salmon Main food source Smoked over fires to preserve

Plateau Area b/t Cascade and Rocky Mts. Nez Perce and Yakima

Fished for salmon Hunted deer in forests Gathered roots and berries Made earthen houses

Mild climate and dependable food = good place for many different groups

California Great variety of cultures

Northern Coast Fished for their food

Southern Deserts Nomadic groups gathered

roots and seeds Central Valley

Pomo people Women gathered

acorns and pounded into flour

Great Basin Area b/t Sierra Nevada and

Rocky Mts. Dry climate, hard rocky soil Ute and Shoshone

Traveled for food, nomadic Ate small game, nuts, berries,

roots, and insects

Peoples of the Southwest Descendents of Anasazi

Hopi, Acoma, Zuni Built homes of adobe Raised maize (main)

Beans, squash, pumpkins, melons, and fruit Part of major trade network

Into SW and Mexico 1500’s

2 new groups settled in area Apache and Navajo

Hunter-gatherers Deer and other game

Eventually… Became stationary Permanent homes called Hogans Grew maize Raised sheep

People of the Plains Nomadic

Temporary villages (growing season)

Tepees Men hunted antelope, deer but

mainly buffalo Women grew plots of maize,

beans, squash 1500’s Spanish brought

horses to Mexico Some got out migrated North

Tamed wild horses Became skilled riders who

hunted, and fought from backs Used spears, bows, clubs, and

knives

People of the NE Woodlands Northeast Woodlands Iroquois and Cherokee

Complex political systems to govern nations

Longhouses Used forest to hunt and grow crops

Deer, corn, beans, squash Iroquois near Canada, now northern

NY 5 nations

Onondaga, Seneca, Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga

Warred w/ each other until 1500’s Joined together to form Iroquois

Confederacy Women ruled; chose the men for the tribal

council 1st Constitution in the new world

People of the Southeast Woodland, but

warmer climate Creek, Chickasaw,

Cherokee, Catawba Creek: farming villages

(GA, ALAB) Corn, tobacco, squash,

etc. Chickasaw: now Miss.

Farmed river bottoms Cherokee and Catawba

Farmed mts. of GA and Carolinas