The First Americans

1. The First Americans People and Movements to 1500

2. Introduction • American history began as a multiethnic, multicultural folk movement • Toward the middle of the fifteenth century, several vastly different human groups—Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans—came into contact with each other • As these cultures collided, conflicts resulted—often with devastating consequences to the peoples involved • But, as the process of exploration and settlement continued, new societies emerged based on a wide-ranging series of cultural blending events appropriately characterized as the “American experiment.”

3. Earliest North Americans • Migrations of Asian peoples across the “land bridge” known as Beringia began an estimated 30,000 years ago • Over the course of the next 17,000 years, these first Americans (or Paleo-Indians) spread overland from the plains of modern-day Montana to the southern tip of South America, Tierra del Fuego • These earliest Americans arrived as members of nomadic bands following large mammals that roamed across the vast tundra searching for food

4. The Paleo-Indians • Other streams of migrants focused not on hunting, but rather on fishing and cultivating small plants • These peoples were centered along the Pacific coastline of both continents

5. The Paleo-Indians:Affect of Climate Change • As the climate began to change over the next 10,000 years, the last of the great ice ages drew to a close • The result of was that the large animals the human populations had depended upon either became extinct or drifted away

6. Early Americans • The early Americans started to decline in number, leaving behind a dispersed population that began adapting their societies and cultures to the available resources that could be extracted from the regions they now inhabited • For the first time, settled communities began to dot the American landscape

7. Early Americans:Agriculture • As the ancestors of modern Indians became more sedentary and settled in semi permanent villages, they began to cultivate certain plants • The requirements of tending these crops and their abundant yields simulated a more highly organized political system and village culture – all trademarks of emerging civilization • This then allowed populations to grow in size and complexity

8. North American Cultures • As students of history, we can understand any society, not just the Native American, by its myths, stone tools and carvings, architectural remains and fragments of textiles and pottery • However, assembling all of this archaeological evidence cannot give us a complete view of these Native Americans • We can only see a snapshot of their culture and society before the incoming Europe presence overwhelmed the Native American societies

9. North American Cultures:Population & Diversity • What was the population of the Native Americans before their contact with the Europeans? • Furthermore, between six hundred and eight hundred languages were spoken throughout the Americas • This pointed to a cultural diversity that Europeans had never experienced or could anticipate

10. Eastern Woodland Cultures • Centered in the eastern interior regions around the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers • Starting about 3,000 years ago, began cultivating crops in addition to foraging for food

11. Adena Cultures:First Mound-builders • First of the Woodland cultures • Appeared in the upper banks of the Ohio River • Culture would flourish until the 2nd Century • The Adena are considered the first of the mound-builders in North America • Name for the great burial mounds that are their lasting testament

12. Later Mound-builders:The Hopewell • As the Adena rose and then declined, another culture appeared in the Mississippi-Ohio Valley • They were call the Hopewell culture • Their enormous mounds were presumably built for burials and other ceremonies • From these mounds, artifacts have been found that suggest the Hopewell had an extensive trade network going as far as the Rocky Mountains and the Atlantic coastline

13. Mound-Builders of Cahokia • Between 950 and 1400, another mound-building culture appeared in the Mississippi River, near present day St. Louis • Focal point was a population center called Cahokia

14. Mound-Builders of Cahokia • Cahokia has been estimated to have a population of 40,000 • Why such a dense population? • Adopted prolific varieties of maize for food • Used sturdy planting tools such as the flint hoe • Developed a vast trade network • Subjugated subsidiary peoples

15. Mound-Builders of Cahokia:Collapse • Despite their achievements, Cahokia experienced a collapse in the early 1400’s • Reasons for collapse • Concentrated population strained resources • Pathogens from neighboring peoples devastated the interior of North America • However, despite the loss the Natchez people to the south of Cahokia would preserve the Mississippian culture for generations to come

16. Southwestern Cultures:The Hohokam • Centered in Arizona and also achieved a culture of great complexity • By 100, they had built a series of irrigation canals that allowed them to produce two yields of grains and cotton a year • Cultivated their crops with hoes • Use of cotton clothing • Produced intricate pottery that was traded as far as the central plains of Mexico

17. Southwestern Cultures:The Anasazi • Located in the Chaco Canyon in New Mexico • Built spacious apartments in the cliffs • Also developed seasonal calendars, sophisticate pottery, roadways and extensive irrigations systems similar to the Hohokam • The Anasazi also experienced a decline • Drought and the onslaught of enemy peoples reduced the numbers of the Anasazi during the late 1200’s

18. Southwestern Cultures:The Pueblo • Descended from the Anasazi • Settled along the Rio Grande in New Mexico • Culture • Agricultural techniques • “Cliff dwellers,” Pueblo towns contain some of the oldest used dwellings in America

19. Later Eastern Woodland Cultures • Descendants of the Adena-Hopwell cultures moved east • They settled in the temperate and wet climates of the Atlantic Coast and inland areas • Composed of small villages, clustered as tribes and based upon shared kinship • These rising cultures extended from Florida through New England, across the southern piedmont and tidewater regions, and into the valleys of the Hudson and Connecticut Rivers

20. Algonquian:The Chesapeake Tribes • After the 1300’s, the Chesapeake region proved hospitable to migrating peoples known as the Algonquian • Many of the tribes in the Chesapeake would form a confederation under the leader Powhatan • Those in the interior, such as the Creek, Catawba, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Cherokee, also formed their own confederacies

21. Algonquian:The Chesapeake Tribes • Although they has similar ancestors, these Eastern Woodland societies were much different from the highly structured and organized culture of the Southwest and Ohio Valley • Shared a combination of clan-based lineage and villages sustained by pragmatic concerns about work, defense, and marriage alliances • Leaders were changed frequently and tribal members were allowed widespread participation in decision making

22. The Chesapeake Tribes:Agriculture • The agricultural practices of these tribes were much different than what Europeans were accustomed to • Slash-and-burn style to clear land, combining the ash with decaying leaves and fish as a fertilizer • They also kept the soil rich in nutrients by inter-planting crops of maize and beans together, which also increased the crop yield

23. Algonquian:The Eastern Coastal Tribes • Algonquian peoples also settled along the eastern coastline and north of the St. Lawrence River • About 50 different cultures formed semi-sedentary or nomadic groups that hunted and fished in seasonal territories • The tribes that settled in the northerly climates included the Cree, Micmac, Chippewa and Montagnais • These tribes thinly populated the area and spread out over expansive hunting grounds

24. The Eastern Coastal Tribes:Coastal Tribes • Algonquian speaking tribes also inhabited the entire Atlantic coastline • They adopted agriculture during the seasonal productive periods • Therefore, the hoe and spear for fishing became important tools for these people, which included the Narragansett, Pequot and Delaware

25. The Iroquois • In between the two major Algonquian-speaking regions lay that of the Iroquois, which had settled in the area about 4,500 years earlier • As elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere, agricultural success led to a rapid population growth • By the 1400’s, the area of present day New York state was dense with Iroquois settlements filled with “longhouses” that could shelter dozens of families

26. The Five Nations of the Iroquois • By the 1570’s, western New York was the center of five great “nations” of Iroquois • These were the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca • These five nations formed a confederacy known as the Great League of Peace • Formed primarily for commercial and religious reasons, but was also seen as defensive

27. Conclusion • Migration of peoples into America • Formation of early Native American societies and civilizations in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys • Their descendents moved east to the Atlantic region of America, forming most of the modern Native American tribes • Great diversity of societies and cultures in North America before the impact of European exploration, which would change everything