Native American Nations,

Empires and Tribes

DO NOW

Tell me the story of…..(pick one)

The first Thanksgiving

Little Red Riding Hood

Goldilocks and the three bears

Dominant Narrative – the main perspective

that most people believe and most of society…

(whether it being parents, family, friends, movies, TV shows, websites, social media, teachers, etc.)

…believes in and sometimes unknowingly

supports.

What is the dominant narrative regarding

Native Americans?

Agriculture

Mayas – Central America

Advanced calendars (superior to European)

Advanced mathematics

Canals

Compared to largest European cities

Religious areas/markets that could fit

thousands

Aztecs - Mexico

Incas - Peru

Terraced farming

Network of roads and massive Empire

Incas

Trapezoidal stones

Incan construction withstood earthquakes that

crumbled European buildings

Incas

Irrigation

Astronomy

Largest city north of Mexico in early 1000s

Advanced engineering

Diverted streams and rivers to help city grow

Base of main structure larger than biggest

pyramid in Egypt

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/cahokia/hodges-text/3

Cahokia - Illinois

Cahokia

Over 120 mounds

Largest 10 stories / 22 million ft3 of soil

Ancestoral Puebloans

Southwest

Built cities directly into cliffs

Iroquois

New York

Union of tribes

Democratic government

Iroquois

CLOSING QUESTIONS

How do these primary sources (ruins,

documents, etc.) challenge the dominant

narrative???

You’ve covered some of this before…why then

do many of us still go back to assuming Native

Americans only lived in tipi’s and ran around

naked with chiefs, deer, forests, etc. ???

What does this say about how difficult it is to

overcome bias???

If we wanted to trade with them for some of their things, they

would come to the seashore on some rocks where the waves

were most violent, while we remained in the little boat, and

they sent us what they wanted to give on a rope, continually

shouting to us not to approach the land; they would take in

exchange only knives, hooks for fishing and sharp metal. We

found no kindess in them, and when we had nothing more to

exchange and left them, the men made all the signs of scorn

and shame that any brute creature would make [GV footnote:

such as showing their buttocks and laughing.]

Giovanni da Verrazzano

IN FACT…WHEN YOU LOOK AT A MAP OF THE AMERICAS IT WAS

HEAVILY POPULATED

FREEDOM IN NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE

When an Indian child has lived among us, taught our language

and our culture, if he goes to see his Indian family there is no

persuading him to return. But when white persons of either sex

have been taken prisoners at a young age by the Indians, and

lived with them, and later treated with all imaginable kindness

and encouraged to stay among us instead, in a short time they

become disgusted with our manner of life…and at first chance

escape again into the woods to be with the Indians.

Ben Franklin 1753

NATIVE AMERICAN OBSERVATIONS ABOUT

EUROPEANS AND FREEDOM The Huron were amazed that one man should have more than

another, and that the rich should have more respect than the

poor… they think of Europeans as slaves, and call us miserable

Souls, whose Life is not worth having because we

degrade(lower, ‘diss’) ourselves in subjecting ourselves to one

Man (a king) who possesses the whole Power, and is bound by

no Law but his own Will… Individual Indians value their

freedom above anything that you can imagine, and this is the

reason they always say that one’s as much Master as another,

and since Men are all made of the same Clay there should be

no Distinction or Superiority among them.

-Baron of LaHontan, lived in Canada between 1683 and 1694

RELATION TO OTHER SOURCES

Does the Baron’s and Franklin’s account

of freedom and mobility matchup with

Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda’s account of

class and mobility in Native American

society?

Native Americans in

General

Trade throughout the Americas

Numerous advancements!

Technology included agricultural practices, architecture and astronomy.