Georgia and the American Experience

1. Georgia and the American Experience Chapter 3: The Land And Its Early People Study Presentation

2. Georgia and the American Experience Section 1: How Did We Learn About the Earliest Peoples? Section 2: Indian Nations in Georgia

3. Section 1: How Did We Learn About the Earliest Peoples? • Essential Question • How did Georgia’s prehistoric Indian tribes live?

4. Section 1: What is Geography? • What words do I need to know? • archeologist • anthropologist • shale • artifact • culture • tribe • antiquities

5. Understanding Ancient Peoples Through Artifacts • Oral Tradition: Elders repeated narratives of events often until the younger generations memorized them • Archeologists dig into earth to find artifacts (items made by people) that tell us about early inhabitants • Shale: Layered rock that can encase ancient animals or birds

6. Understanding Ancient Peoples Through Culture • Anthropologists use artifacts, cave drawings, well-traveled pathways, and oral history to study a group’s culture • Culture: shared beliefs, traditions, music, art, and social institutions of a group of people

7. This cave drawing depicts a deer hunt.

8. Cultural Periods in Georgia History: Paleo • Paleo (from Greek, “Very Old”) • Also called Old Stone Age • Lasted about 10,000 years • Nomadic (roaming) hunters • Most tools and spear points made of stone • Used an “atlatl”: stone sling-like implement that threw darts from a longer distance

9. The atlatl allowed Native Americans to hunt more efficiently.

10. Notice how the arrow is bowed. As it straightened in flight it gained force, resulting in an increas in range and accuracy.

11. While trying atlatls, bow and arrow, spears, etc. can be fun and educational, care must be taken at all times. An atlatl demonstration gone awry.

12. Cultural Periods in Georgia History: Early Archaic • Archaic (means “Old”) • Three time spans: Early, Middle, Late • Early Archaic period: 8,000 B.C. to 5,000 B.C. • Hunted large animals and small game • Invented tools from deer antlers • Moved with each season to find best food resources

13. Cultural Periods in Georgia History: Middle Archaic • Began around 5,000 B.C. • Water levels moved back along rivers and coastal areas • People began making hooks from animal bones • Shellfish was a more common food • Food was easier to find; people moved around less

14. Cultural Periods in Georgia History: Late Archaic • 4,000 B.C. to 1,000 B.C. • Created grooved axes to clear trees and bushes • Began saving and planting seeds for plants and seeds for growing seasons (horticulture) • Made and used pottery for storing, cooking, and serving food

15. Cultural Periods in Georgia History: Woodland • 1,000 B.C. to 1,000 A.D. • Tribe: group of people sharing common ancestry, name, and way of living • Hundreds of families formed tribes • Built domed-shaped huts with trees • Used bow and arrows to hunt • Held religious ceremonies • Improved pottery-making techniques

16. The bow and arrow was a great improvement over the atlatl.

17. Cultural Periods in Georgia History: Mississippian • Also called the Temple Mound period • Farmed with homemade tools and grew most of their food • Thousands might live in a single settlement, protected by fences and moats • Very religious; used jewelry and body art

18. The Black Drink Ceremony… …separated the men from the boys!!! Yaupon Holly

19. Archeological Finds • Ancient middens (garbage piles) show what people ate, how they used fire, what they used for cooking • Ocmulgee National Monument near Macon reveals a large ceremonial area with benches and platforms • There are large temple mounds in Early, Bartow, and Bibb counties • Stallings Island near Augusta is a large shell midden

21. Section 2: Indian Nations in Georgia • ESSENTIAL QUESTION • Which Indian nations lived in Georgia and how did they live?

22. Section 2: Indian Nations in Georgia • What peoples do I need to know? • Creek (Muscogee) • Cherokee

23. The Creeks (Muscogee) • Originally from American southwest • Spoke Muskogean • Discovered by early European explorers who called them Creeks • Lived along Ocheese Creek (today’s Ocmulgee River) • Lived in italwa and talofa (large villages surrounded by smaller villages) similar to today’s large city and surrounding suburbs

24. Creek (Muscogee) Lifestyle • Village center featured a plaza and rotunda • Games and ceremonies held in plaza • Rotunda was used for council meetings • Wooden huts or log cabins with chimneys surrounded the plaza • Villages, split from larger villages, helped form a confederacy • Raised livestock and were successful farmers

25. A Native American Village

26. “Good Lord willing and the creek (Creek) don’t rise…” This old saying doesn’t mean rising water but the hope that the Creek Indians don’t attack.

27. The Cherokee • Lived in northwestern mountain region of the state • Called themselves Awi-yum-wija, which meant “real people” or “principal people” • Tribal Clans: groups of Cherokee who believed themselves related by blood • Two tribal chiefs: one for making war and one for making peacetime decisions • Clans governed on the local level

28. The Cherokee Family • Family lines were traced through the mother, not the father • The mother’s brothers took responsibility for raising her children • Mothers handled most domestic • chores; fathers often left home to hunt or trade

29. Cherokee Lifestyle • Built homes on high banks or hills along rivers and streams • Shelters were built from available materials, often plastered on the exterior to keep out rain and cold • Log cabins built for winter living • Fishing and raising crops including maize (corn) • Barter: trading goods and services without use of money was an economic system

30. The Cherokee built log cabins for winter living.

31. Economics – the study of how we allocate limited resources to meet our unlimited wants.

32. Cherokee Religious Beliefs • Believed Earth was large island resting on water • “This World”: tribe was at center of the earth • “Upper World”: above This World; clean and pure world; Sun and Moon chief gods • “Under World”: in waters below This World; disorder and change • Deer and birds were honored; bears were not

33. Other Cherokee Lifestyle Practices • Drank ginseng potion to stop bleeding or shortness of breath • Smoked tobacco on ceremonial occasions when seeking the gods’ blessings • Green Corn Ceremony held to give thanks for corn, the most important food source • Followed “Law of Retaliation,” avenging a wrong by getting even; this law helped prevent feuds within a tribe

34. Smoking tobacco was an important part of many ceremonies.

35. Native American families banded together to form clans. Tribes were groups of clans. There were 7 major clans; all Cherokee belonged to one of these clans.