basic american indian history for dummies

8/11/2019 Basic American Indian History for Dummies

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Basic American

Indian History

for Dummies

Pre-Columbus

North America


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How they got here. . .

Basic theory has it that 13 to 30 thousandyears ago a land bridge connecting Asia to No.America developed in the ice age

Peoples from Asia migrated for severalthousand years over the land bridge

Recent archeological findings suppose that

even earlier, folks came from Asia in boats Yay for the Chinese!!!

Its all up for debate


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Various Tribes we should be familiar with


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Various Tribes we should be familiar with

The Anasazi of the Southwest - built houses into the cliffsdescendents are: Pueblos and Hopi

Cahokia of the Mississippi River Valleymound buildersdescendents are: Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees

The Pacific Coast: Shasta (northwest), Yokut, Miwok, Maidu, & Pomo

Iroquois ConfederacyGreat Lakes area: Mohawks, Oneidas,Onondagas, Cayugas, & Seneca (add Huron to this area; they are enemiesof Iroquois Confederacy but friends to the French)

Atlantic Coast: Algonquian speaking tribes, Powhatan (Pocahontas)

Northeast: Massachusetts, Wampanoag, Narragansett, Pequot

Mexico: Aztecs

Central America: Mayans

South America: Incas


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Mound

Builders &Pueblo Cliff

Houses


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Using the Resources of their Environment

1. Altering the Lay of the Land:

Built temples, sculptures, buildings, pyramids

Specific Examples: Mayans paved elevated roads that led to multi-communities

Anasazi (Pueblos) built structures up to 5 stories high

Moundbuilders - out of St. Louis, MO.100+ - some over 100 tall covers 14 acres

Aztecs built Tenochtitlan on reclaimed land in the middle of a lake

2. Controlling the Water:

- Modified flows of rivers for drinking, irrigation, & fishing

- Specific examples:- Tribes in the southwest built irrigation canals & dams

- Tribes in the northeast built V-shaped rock damstrapped fish in the narrow V

3. Controlling the Game:- Stampedes and buffalo jumping

- Specific Examples:- Plains Indians would run buffalo off cliffs to corrals below


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Buffalo Jump


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Using the

Resources of their

Environment

3. Vegetation:

-Slash & Burn

-Crop

Managementsuch as 3 Sister

Farming (corn,beans, & squash)

-Controlled

Burn


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Cultural Advances

1. Medical Wonders:

- foods, herbs, bark, roots, other plant parts

- Specific Example:

- Heart problems were treated using parts of theFoxglove plantactive ingredient = digitalis

2. Astronomical Observations & Communication:

- Specific Example = Mayans:

- #0, calendar, a sophisticated written language

- Star wheel Observatories to predict harvesttimes


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Aztec Calendar


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ReligionHarmony & Balance

1. Creation of Myths to Explain In the Beginning:

- Sacred legends that provide grounding & answer all questions- Provide a moral framework

- Specific Example: Navajo First Man/First Woman creation occurred whena holy wind blew life into 2 ears of corn and they were sent to earth toprepare the world for the creation of all human beings.

2. Natural Elements of Scared Powers/Forces:

- Animals, Birds, Insects- Water

- Deities such as: Raven, Coyote, Rabbit, and mythological creatures (sortof like heroic action figures)

3. Tools of the Trade:- Peyote- from the Cactuscauses hallucinogenic effects

- Musical instruments such as: hide drums, flutes, rattles, human voice

- Food & Human Sacrifices

- Stone & Wooden carved animal figurines

- Totem Poles in the Pacific Northwest: they tell a storyused as housepoles, grave markers, symbols of family heritage


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Tribal MythsI love to tell the story


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Totem Poles


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4. Indians & Christianity:

- Two distinct differences in religious beliefs existed between the Indianand the Christian European which bred controversy:

1. Indians worshipped creation; Europeans worshipped the Creator

2. Indians revered the land and their physical environment as religiouslysacred; they were to be one with the land in harmony & balance

3. Europeans viewed the land and physical environment as resources to

be used, tamed, owned. . . The Bible placed man on top of the foodchain

- Consequently the Europeans saw Indians as uncivilized - the Indianssaw Europeans as greedy heathens; both distrusted the other

- The Spanish & French especially saw it as their mission to convert thenative populationsthe English sought mostly to remove or destroythem

- We can see how religious beliefs became a powerful psychologicaljustification by the Europeans to either remove or destroy if they werenot willing to converta specific example would be the PequotMassacre, 1637, by the Puritans in Massachusetts


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- Overtime, many tribes adopted aspects ofChristianity into their religious practices

- This occurred due to either/both actualconversions and/or accommodation to get theEuropean off their backs

- Some tribes, such as the Cherokee, will actuallyembrace Christianity

- In the end, disease, the impetus to convert theIndian to Christianity, and the want for the landHUGELY impacted the native populations


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Playing with the Population #s

BIG DEBATE as to the native population by 1492

#s range from 500,00 to 100 million+

Each side accuses the other of under or over

estimating Most experts settle on between 1 to 15 million

Bailey says probably no more than 4 million

Our Question???? What happened to all of them?

Vast % die of diseaseoften estimated to be 85-

95% of the population!!!


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Cultural ExchangeOld World v. New World

In the end, both win with regard to exchangeof ideas and goods & technologies

BUT, we know that the exchange was based ona power system that the New World Indianscould not overcome

The radical impact of population loss due todisease made it very difficult to resist the

European invasion As we study further, watch for the BIG IDEA of

examples of resistance v. accommodation

basic american indian history for dummies

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