The Lives of American Indians

In the

Nineteenth Century

(1800’s)

Lesson 2(a)

To get a better understanding of suchsophistication, let's take a very brief look

at a few of the ancient societies: • the West Coast Peoples, • the first buffalo hunters of the Plains,  • the farmers of the Southwest, • farmers and mound builders of the

Eastern Woodlands, • town and city dwellers, • and tribal confederacies.

• Despite the belief of many Americans that Indians were uncivilized savages, the truth was that prior to European contact most Indian Nations had achieved a great deal of technological, agricultural, and political sophistication.  

Feathered Coiled Basket (Tapica) Mary John Posh, Univ. of Penn. c.1905 (250 quail, 223 woodpecker)http://sorrel.humboldt.edu/~rwj1/POM/pom11ga.html

The coastal regions of California supported a population of about 300,000 Indians who were hunter-gatherers and who lived in permanent communities.  While the Indians cultivated only one crop -- tobacco -- they also harvested an abundant variety of natural foods.  

The West Coast Indian Peoples

The West Coast Indian Peoples

• 1) Women gathered acorns and ground them into meal.

Essie Parrish (Kashaya Pomo) cracking and shelling acorns, Sonoma Co.; 1960Image found: California Indian Food and Culture, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, 2003

The West Coast Indian Peoples

Eastern Pomo sling for killing ducks and mud hens, with basket and 24 clay balls

• 2) Men fished the ocean shores and rivers, as well as hunted deer and smaller mammals.

Images found: California Indian Food and Culture, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, 2003

The West Coast Indian Peoples

• 3) The Chumash Indians of the Santa Barbara region lived from the abundance in the ocean and on land by following an annual cycle of subsistence.  They harvested and stored marine mammals, fish, shellfish, acorns, pine nuts, and other wild plants.

The Chumash and Their Neighbors

http://www.sbnature.org/research/anthro/chumash/study.htm

Click on boat to read more about the Chumash Indians.

1. (2.16 min.)

The West Coast Indian PeoplesThe northwest Pacific Indians were seagoing peoples who have harvested rich marine resources for at least 5,000 years.  Men fished with harpoons and nets from canoes, and villages accumulated reserves of dried fish and sea-mammal meat.

Go to: roundvalleyschools.org to the 8th Grade Video clips for Lesson 2 to learn more

about the Northwest Indian Peoples. Watch: 1. Native Americans in the Northwest (2:26 min.), and2. Video Quiz on Native Americans in the Northwest (3:02 min.)

Images found: California Indian Food and Culture, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, 2003

The Plains Indian Peoples

• The first Buffalo Hunters of the Plains. The stereotypical picture of Indians wearing feathered

headdresses and hunting buffalo from horseback did not become typical of the Great Plains Nations until the

18th and 19th centuries.  Horses didn’t arrive until the mid-16th Century with the Spanish.

 

Drawing by George Catlin Image round at:www.artsales.com/ARTistory/History_of_the_Buffalo/Catlin_Bo...ffalo.htm

The Plains Indian Peoples• Thousands of years ago, Indian Peoples hunted on foot on the

Great Plains for big game - bison, mastodons, buffalo, and wooly mammoths.  Over time, they created increasingly lethal projectiles - spears that could inflict mortal wounds on animals as large as African elephants.  Bows and arrows were in use throughout the Plains by A.D. 1000.

Images found at:www.flickr.com/photos/liodain/3246952193/

The Plains Indian Peoples

• As they developed more effective ways to hunt large game, they also used communal hunting techniques that required great degrees of social organization.  

Image round at:www.firstpeople.us site

The Plains Indian Peoples

Go to: roundvalleyschools.org to the 8th Grade Video Clips

for Lesson 2 to learn more about the Plains Indian Peoples

Watch:1. Introduction to Native People

of the Plains (2:15 min.)

and2. Native People of the Plains:

Teepees and Buffalos (3:09min.)

Image found at: http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/albright3/chap7c.htm

The Southwest Indian Peoples

• The ancient inhabitants of the southwestern US developed agriculturally-based societies about 3,000 years ago.

Image from two of the Anasazi(Ancestral Pueblo Indian) sites in the Four Corners area-Northern NM and Arizona.Found at:http://www.digital-images.net/Gallery/Scenic/Southwest/Pueblo/pueblo.html

The Southwest Indian Peoples

• About 2,000 years ago, the Mogollon people in the highlands of the Arizona-New Mexico border grew corn and squash.  They first lived in pit houses, and then later built multi-apartment structures above ground.

Images found at: http://www.desertusa.com/ind1/du_peo_mog.html

The Southwest Indian Peoples

• Southwestern peoples began making clay pots around A.D. 200 and pottery was widespread by 500.

Images found at: http://www.firstpeople.us/

The Southwest Indian Peoples

• The Hohokam people who lived in the Sonoran Desert and are ancestors of the Pimas and Papagos, built sophisticated irrigation systems.

Photograph 1. Archaeologist Emil Haury standing in an excavated Hohokam canal. (Source: Southwest Parks and Monuments Association) Image found at:http://www.waterhistory.org/histories/hohokam2/

The Southwest Indian Peoples

Go to: roundvalleyschools.org to the 8th Grade Video Clips

for Lesson 2 to learn more about the Plains Indian Peoples

Watch:1. Native Americans in the

Southwest (1:41 min.)

and2. Video Quiz on Native Americans in the Southwest

(2:48 min.)

The Eastern Woodland Indians

• About 4,000 years ago, Indian women in the floodplains region began domesticating indigenous seed plants such as sunflowers, squash, and marsh elder.  Some Indians in Illinois were crossbreeding wild grasses and created corn about 7,000 years ago.  Indian farmers for thousands of years have selected the seeds of plans that did best in their environments and developed new strains for particular soils, climates, and growing seasons.

THE THREE SISTERS Diorama

AN IROQUOIS AGRICULTURAL FIELD at the NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM

The Eastern Woodland Indians• In the Eastern Woodlands, over a period of about 4,000 years,

Indian peoples constructed tens of thousands of earthen mounds.

The Eastern Woodland Indians

• The Adena people of the Ohio River Valley built mounds to honor their dead over 2,000 years ago.  The Hopewellian culture that emerged from the Adena about the first century built more elaborate burial mounds and earthen architecture.

A 35-foot (11 m) high and 175-foot (53 m)-diameter conical mound, is the second largest of its type in West Virginia. It is located in South Charleston, West Virginia. P. W. Norris of the Smithsonian Institution oversaw the excavation. His team discovered numerous skeletons along with weapons and jewelry.

Once serving as an ancient burial site, the Mound is the most recognizable landmark in Miamisburg. It is the largest conical burial mound in Ohio, and remains virtually intact. Located in a city park at 900 Mound Avenue, it is an Ohio historical site and serves as a popular attraction and picnic destination for area families. Visitors can climb to the top of the mound, via stone-masonry steps Information/images found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adena_culture

The Eastern Woodland Indians

• The culture spread through extensive exchange networks, and they obtained valuable raw materials from vast distances - grizzly bear teeth from the Rocky Mountains; obsidian volcanic stone for spear points and blades from Yellowstone; silver from Ontario; copper from the Great Lakes;  mica and copper from the Appalachians; quartz from Arkansas; pottery, marine shells, turtle shells, shark, and alligator teeth from the Gulf of Mexico.

The Eastern Woodland Indians• The Hopewell tradition was

not a single culture or society, but a widely dispersed set of related populations, which were connected by a common network of trade routes, known as the Hopewell Exchange System.

• The Hopewellian culture began a decline about 300 A.D. an seems to have disappeared around 550.

Hopewell Interaction Area and local expressions of the Hopewell tradition Image/Information found at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopewell_tradition

The Eastern Woodland Indians• Around 700,

Mississippian cultures arose that began in the lower Mississippi River Valley and spread north to the Great Lakes and east to Florida and the Carolinas.  They were stable, agriculturally-based settlements close to floodplains with large populations and complex ceremonial and political structures.

The Kincaid Site, a Mississippian settlement in southern Illinois.Image found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mound_builder_(people)

The Eastern Woodland Indians

Go to: roundvalleyschools.org to the 8th Grade Video Clips

for Lesson 2 to learn more about the

Eastern Woodland IndiansWatch:

1. Native Americans in the Woodlands (2:16 min.)

and2. Video Quiz on Native Americans in the Woodlands

(3:28 min.)

Oneida PortraitsImage found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oneida_portraits.jpg