THE FIRST AMERICANS: PREHISTORY - 1492

North American Peoples

Early Native Americans

LongLong 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)

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)

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.

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

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

THE FIRST AMERICANS: PREHISTORY - 1492

North American Peoples

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!!!

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

Peoples of the West

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

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

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

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

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

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