The First Americans: Prehistory - 1492

1. The First Americans: Prehistory - 1492 North American Peoples

2. 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)

3. 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)

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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

7. The First Americans: Prehistory - 1492 Modern North American Peoples

8. 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!!!

9. 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

10. Peoples of the West • 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 • 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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