Peoples of North America

1. Peoples of North America Pages 168-171

2. The Desert Southwest • More than 1,000 years ago fields of corn, beans, & squash bloomed in the desert southwest • The Hohokams • Means vanished ones planted these fields • Built a complex irrigation system to farm desert • Lived near Gila River in present-day Arizona • Built temple mounds & ball courts like the Mayans • Survived until 1500

3. The Desert Southwest Cont. • Anasazi • Best-known society of the southwest • Lived in Four Corners region of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, & Utah • Built pueblos between 900-1300 AD • Pueblo Bonito • Pueblo village consisted of a huge complex with 800 rooms that housed about 6,000 people • At the center was a plaza where they dug their kiva which is a large underground chamber for religious ceremonies • Cliff Dwellings • Late 1100’s Anasazi built housing in the shadow of canyon walls • Mesa Verde largest of these is located in Colorado & had over 200 rooms • Late 1200’s long drought forced the Anasazi to abandon these • Their traditions survived among the Hopi & Pueblo tribes

4. The Mound Builders • Mississippi & Ohio valleys other farming cultures emerged in 700 BC • The Adena & Hopewells left behind giant earthen mounds • Some cone shaped others animal shaped • Great Serpent Mound in Ohio wiggles & twist for ¼ mile • Objects in these show that traders extended their influence over a wide area. They brought back shells & shark teeth from the Gulf of Mexico & copper from the Great Lakes region.

5. The Great Serpent Mound

6. The Mound Builders Cont. • Cahokia • 800 AD early cultures disappeared & Mississippians gained influence • Cahokia was their greatest center in present-day Illinois & housed over 40,000 people around 1200 AD • It had at least 60 mounds • Largest mound had a temple on its summit where priests held ceremonies. • Archaeologists think that this temple mound shows influence of Middle American civilizations • Heirs of the Mound Builders • Mississippians left no written records & cities disappeared by European arrival • Natchez people carried on their traditions

7. Cahokia

8. Diverse Regional Cultures • 10 culture areas based on environments lived in prior to 1500 each one had to adapt ways of life to the environment • Arctic • Subarctic • Northwest Coast • California • Great Basin • Plateau • Southwest • Great Plains • Eastern Woodlands • Southeast

9. Regions of North America

10. Inuits • Late immigrants from Siberia called Eskimos (eaters of raw flesh) by Native Americans they called themselves Inuits (the People) • Lived in small bands surviving by hunting & fishing • Seals & other sea mammals gave them food, clothing, tools, & oils for cooking • Built kayaks, igloos, dog sleds,& partially underground sod dwellings

11. Northwest Coast • Had a far richer environment that the Inuits • Rivers contained plenty of salmon • Hunters tracked deer, wolves, & bears in the forest • People built large permanent villages with wooden homes • Shared surplus goods in a potlatch ceremony • Held in Canada today person of wealth distributes lavish gifts to large numbers of guests.

12. Iroquois League • Eastern Woodlands stretched from the Atlantic Coast to the Great Lakes & was home to the Iroquios • They cleared land & built villages in the forest • Late 1500’s Dekanawidah urged rival Iroquois to stop their fighting • He became one of the founders of the political system known as the Iroquois League • 5 Nation alliance shared traditions & spoke same language • Only men sat on the council, but each clan had a clan mother to name or depose council members • League emerged right when Europeans arrived • Encounters with the Europeans took a toll on North American peoples & toppled the Aztecs & Incans