The indigenous peoples of the Americas, commonly called Native Americans, Indians, or First Nations (Canada) have been stereotyped in popular culture and material culture from their first interaction with Europeans to the present. Some of these stereotypical depictions are arguably positive: the wise elder, the brave warrior, and the devoted environmentalist. More common are negative portrayals of Native Americans: the savage, the brute, the drunk, and the whore. The continued use of Native Americans as mascots for sports teams remains a source of controversy. One of the most prevalent stereotypes is that of the noble savage. It is widely believed that Natives had no civilization or that they lived in small villages at one with nature. What are your ideas on how natives lived prior to European colonization (1492- Today)?
Native Americans of the Northeast Case Study: Iroquois
Geography
The geographic area of the Native American Northeast extends from the province of Quebec in modern-day Canada, through the Ohio River Valley, and down to the North Carolina coast. The Northeastern landscape is dominated by the Appalachian Mountains, which include rolling hills and prominent peaks.
Native Americans settled extensively in this area, especially during the Hopewellian period from 200 BCE to 500 CE, due to the temperate climate, accessible waterways, and good farming conditions. The most notable groups in this area include the Algonquians, Iroquois, Susquehannocks, Mohicans, and Hurons. |
Native Americans settled extensively in this area, especially during the Hopewellian period from 200 BCE to 500 CE, due to the temperate climate, accessible waterways, and good farming conditions. The most notable groups in this area include the Algonquians, Iroquois, Susquehannocks, Mohicans, and Hurons.
Economy
Some historians estimate that Native Americans were farming squash in Illinois as early as 5000 BCE. Corn farming spread through trading networks to the Ohio River Valley from the Southwest by 350 BCE. They soon began to plant and grow beans.
Together, the corn, squash, and beans, became known as the sacred "three sisters,” a term coined by the Iroquois people. According to the Iroquois, the three crops would only thrive if planted close together. Algonquians retained hunting and gathering as a source of food while beginning to farm. Women would gather berries and cultivate the cornfields, while men would hunt and occasionally aid in farming. Northeastern indigenous people living near rivers would fish salmon and collect shellfish, as well. With an abundance of food, Iroquois and Hurons made pottery to store the surplus. They also wove baskets to aid in the farming process. |
Societies
As the Northeast became more agricultural, the region became more urbanized. Although we consider agricultural areas less densely-populated today, farming required people to live together in fortified villages to protect their harvests. Many indigenous people in the Northeast lived in longhouses, dwellings up to 100 feet in length. Since Algonquians farmed while also maintaining hunting and fishing, they “commuted” from less permanent villages of wigwams.
Agriculture was the main source of food. In Iroquois society, women held a special role. Believed to be linked to the earth's power to create life, women determined how the food would be distributed — a considerable power in a farming society. Women were also responsible for selecting the sachems for the Confederacy. Iroquois society was MATRILINEAL; when a marriage transpired, the family moved into the longhouse of the mother, and FAMILY LINEAGE was traced from her. |
Iroquois author Doug George-Kanentiio explains:
In our society, women are the center of all things. Nature, we believe, has given women the ability to create; therefore it is only natural that women be in positions of power to protect this function....We traced our clans through women; a child born into the world assumed the clan membership of its mother. Our young women were expected to be physically strong....The young women received formal instruction in traditional planting.
In our society, women are the center of all things. Nature, we believe, has given women the ability to create; therefore it is only natural that women be in positions of power to protect this function....We traced our clans through women; a child born into the world assumed the clan membership of its mother. Our young women were expected to be physically strong....The young women received formal instruction in traditional planting.
Politics
Trade competition for trade led to ongoing conflict between the Iroquois and Algonquians. In hopes of ending intertribal conflict, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas established the Iroquois League, or the Great League of Peace between 1100 and 1400 CE. They set up a constitution called the Great Binding Law of Peace. During this time period, the Iroquoians met for about a year to devise a solution to this cyclic pattern of violence and retribution between tribes.
The Iroquois League devised a system in which each member group could maintain a level of autonomy over local affairs, but the League would unite over trade policies and diplomacy issues. The Iroquois League used a system of voting and representation similar to the US system used today. They also used a system were the Iriquoi nation had certain powers and the local people had certain powers. That is also similar to how we have the federal government in Washington with certain powers and the local governments in California and cities with powers. Therefore, many historians argue that the Iroquois League was the first American democracy, established at least four hundred years earlier than the US Constitution of 1787.
The Iroquois League devised a system in which each member group could maintain a level of autonomy over local affairs, but the League would unite over trade policies and diplomacy issues. The Iroquois League used a system of voting and representation similar to the US system used today. They also used a system were the Iriquoi nation had certain powers and the local people had certain powers. That is also similar to how we have the federal government in Washington with certain powers and the local governments in California and cities with powers. Therefore, many historians argue that the Iroquois League was the first American democracy, established at least four hundred years earlier than the US Constitution of 1787.
Native Americans of the Southeast
Geography
This region stretches down the Mississippi River and into the area surrounding the Gulf of Mexico, through some of the most fertile lands in North America. Native Americans were the first to take advantage of such promising agricultural conditions.
The prominent Native American groups in this area were known as the Five Civilized Tribes: Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles. Mississippian culture, dominant from 1000 CE onward, developed from the beginnings of farming in Hopewellian culture, which dominated a few centuries before in the Northeast. |
Economy
The Mississippian peoples were excellent farmers. Notably, Cherokee women planted and harvested crops, including beans, squash, corn, tobacco, and sunflowers. They supplemented their diets with acorns, nuts, seeds, and fruits. Since they did not use any fertilizer, they had to burn the fields and create new ones every season. This required immense amounts of time and labor but ultimately led to large crop yields.
While they had great farming success, Southeastern Native Americans also continued to hunt and fish. They hunted deer with bows and arrows and fished in rivers and in the Gulf of Mexico for protein. In southern Florida, Calusa people developed complex fishing and trapping systems for clams, mussels, and saltwater fish. Mississippians also created intricate pottery and arrow points. They fashioned elaborate serving utensils and dishes for food, as well as weaponry for hunting larger animals. |
Society
Most people lived in hamlets, or villages, which would form political units of under one thousand people. Seminoles, in modern Florida and Georgia, constructed villages out of chickees, buildings with thatched roofs and open sides.
The agricultural boom of the Mississippian culture concentrated wealth at the top. The Creek people in Georgia practiced slavery, forcing prisoners of war to work their fields. The Southeast Native Americans were the first to organize villages around chiefdoms, in which families were ranked by social status and proximity to the chief himself.
Chiefs lived in elaborate wooden structures atop large mounds, indicating their power. Societies often had both peace chiefs and wartime chiefs, with distinct purposes and leadership strengths.
Historians know little about the religious practices of the American Indians in the Southeast. Yet they agree that the groups had a spiritual connection to the land and used the mounds for ceremonies worshipping natural features, including the sun, corn, and water, the elements which sustained them.
Chiefs lived in elaborate wooden structures atop large mounds, indicating their power. Societies often had both peace chiefs and wartime chiefs, with distinct purposes and leadership strengths.
Historians know little about the religious practices of the American Indians in the Southeast. Yet they agree that the groups had a spiritual connection to the land and used the mounds for ceremonies worshipping natural features, including the sun, corn, and water, the elements which sustained them.
Politics
Little is known about the mound builders but what we do know is that regional Mississippian populations were typically organized into chiefdoms–territorial groups with hereditary, elite leadership classes. Across the Southeast, the chiefdom system of political organization arose as a way of managing population growth. Archeologists suggest that mound building is evidence that there was centralization of control of combined political and religious power in the hands of few or one.
Native American culture of the Plains
.Geography
Culture
It is nearly impossible to generalize the religious traditions of the Plains region since every group had its own practices. Rituals often revolved around the sun and nature, with the Earth as the mother of all spirits. Cheyennes, for example, performed the Sun Dance, which forced people to sacrifice something personal for communal benefit. Lakotas believed that certain individuals were blessed to be spiritual leaders or medicine men. Indigenous people on the Plains regarded the buffalo and their migration patterns as sacred.
With the introduction of horses, Plains societies became less egalitarian; the men with the most horses had the most political impact, social status, and economic power. As European colonists arrived, the Sioux, in particular, began to trade with them. They received guns and horses in exchange for buffalo robes, blankets, and beads.
With the introduction of horses, Plains societies became less egalitarian; the men with the most horses had the most political impact, social status, and economic power. As European colonists arrived, the Sioux, in particular, began to trade with them. They received guns and horses in exchange for buffalo robes, blankets, and beads.
Politics
These hunting-agrarian groups were mostly divided at the level of the band. A band could consist of a dozen to a few hundred people who lived, hunted, and traveled together. Often, bands would unite in a village setting to farm or hunt a large herd of bison. Villages usually had fluid populations and little to no political structure.
Native Americans of the Southwest Case Study: Pueblo
Geography
The Southwest region, expanding through present-day Arizona and New Mexico and into Colorado, Texas, Utah, and Mexico, was home to a variety of indigenous groups and cultural practices pre-colonization. In this region dwelled several groups we collectively call the Pueblo. The Spanish first gave them this name, which means “town” or “village,” because they lived in towns or villages of permanent stone-and-mud buildings with thatched roofs. The three main groups of the Pueblo people were the Mogollon, Hohokam, and Anasazi.
Anasazis, sometimes called the Ancestral Pueblos, lived in the Four Corners region (where the states of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona meet today); the Mogollon lived mostly in southwestern New Mexico; the Hohokam dominated the desert of southern Arizona. Historians think that these three groups ruled over the region from approximately 200CE to 1500 CE, and either walked away from their towns or evolved into the Pueblos, whom the Spanish encountered during colonization and who still live in modern New Mexico. |
Economy:
Historians credit Anasazis, Mogollons, and Hohokams as the first farmers in North America. Corn, the first crop the Ancestral Pueblos cultivated, is all over the creation stories of the Pueblo. The Ancestral Pueblos thought that corn was corn not only food but also a spiritual gift.
In the dry climate of the Southwest, Ancestral Pueblos developed complex irrigation systems, which maintained crops even in the hot sun. By 800 CE, Hohokams had created one of the largest irrigation systems to date, stretching through most of what we call Arizona today. This new irrigation system allowed the Pueblos to begin planting beans and squash in addition to corn. |
These elaborate systems enabled agriculture to flourish, which allowed new forms of production and societal development. Women began to make ceramic pots to hold the surplus of corn, squash, and beans, and large containers to grind the corn. They also wove baskets with which to collect the harvest.
Although agriculture boomed in the region, Navajos and Apaches arrived from the Pacific Northwest in about 1200 CE an did not become farmers like the Pueblo. The Navajo and Apache continued hunting and gathering.
Although agriculture boomed in the region, Navajos and Apaches arrived from the Pacific Northwest in about 1200 CE an did not become farmers like the Pueblo. The Navajo and Apache continued hunting and gathering.
Agriculture dictated the way the Ancestral Pueblo people lived. With surplus food and stability, settled and stopped hunting and gathering, living in stone and adobe houses. These buildings had multiple stories, each with multiple rooms. The Ancestral Pueblos, regarded as highly developed for their time, tended to live in larger urban areas with thousands of people and intricate dwellings.
Chaco Canyon, a center for the Anasazi people, was a trade hub and home to over twelve thousand people. The Chacoans, a branch of the Anasazi people living in the canyon, created over four hundred miles of roads that connected the town to other villages in the region. The Chacoans mostly traded away turquoise, traveling west for seashells from California, south for exotic birds from Central America, and north for minerals and ores from the Rocky Mountains.
Chaco Canyon, a center for the Anasazi people, was a trade hub and home to over twelve thousand people. The Chacoans, a branch of the Anasazi people living in the canyon, created over four hundred miles of roads that connected the town to other villages in the region. The Chacoans mostly traded away turquoise, traveling west for seashells from California, south for exotic birds from Central America, and north for minerals and ores from the Rocky Mountains.
Society
The extended family lived and worked together, both women and men participating in the agricultural processes. Since the Pueblos did less hunting, men helped with farming.
In many tribes, American Indian women had a wide range of roles as leaders, craftswomen, healers, builders, farmers, and warriors. In matrilineal cultures, clan membership and tangible possessions descend through women instead of men. In addition to farm labor, women raised children and performed household tasks, while male heads of households would participate in an informal council to make community, or band, decisions.
The Puebloan people’s status of women was high but there were differences depending on the social systems of either the western or eastern Puebloans. The western Pueblos, including the Hopi, based their system of inheritance and the determining of descent through the female line; therefore, women owned the houses and gardens.
The eastern Pueblo were the opposite and the men owned the houses and gardens. Generally, the women would gatherer food, and take care of their home and family. Both men and women took part in storytelling, music, artwork, and traditional medicine. Even though women played important roles in religion and clan governance, the men were still in charge of hunting, politics, agriculture, and war.
The eastern Pueblo were the opposite and the men owned the houses and gardens. Generally, the women would gatherer food, and take care of their home and family. Both men and women took part in storytelling, music, artwork, and traditional medicine. Even though women played important roles in religion and clan governance, the men were still in charge of hunting, politics, agriculture, and war.
Culture
Religion is central to Pueblo life. Their traditional religious beliefs included praying to the Earth Mother, Sun Father, and Moonlight-Giving Mother. The Pueblo believed in katsina. Many ceremonies occurred during winter solstice, summer, harvest, and again in winter.
Music of the Pueblo people had a spiritual aspect it, as they were said to bring about prosperity: Pueblo songs are said to possess the power to lure needed game animals to the hunters who provide food, and they also have the power to regulate the agricultural cycle. To the Native people of the American deserts, song had a kind of spiritual power that could improve their lives and livelihoods.
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Environment
The region that the Pueblo lived in was semi-arid, dry with little rain. These southwestern peoples believed that farming was a more reliable way to ensure their society’s sustenance than hunting and gathering. That was the reason they created their irrigation systems which allowed them to thrive. However, of natural disasters led to the fall of the Anasazi. A persistent drought, lasting from about 1130-1180 CE, decimated Anasazis' crops, while a major flood in 1358 destroyed the Hohokam irrigation system.
Politics
Pueblo Government. The descendants of the Anasazis continued to live in adobe pueblos under their own unique form of sociopolitical structure. In Pueblo communities, the land belong to everyone. While village decisions required the unanimous consent of all of the adult men, women held an influential voice in the councils of government. Pueblo people developed specialized offices for the unique responsibilities required by their lifestyle and environment. The people of the Isleta pueblo, for example, were governed by a lead chief, a war priest, and a hunting chief.
The lead chiefs greatest responsibility was his selection of the individuals who were responsible for maintaining and managing the irrigation facilities. The Isleta people expected their chiefs to be gentle men who had never injured or killed a living being. The chief was required to remain within the pueblo at all times and was responsible for performing the agricultural rituals that ensured that the crops and irrigation works would receive adequate rain. Because his duties were so important to the preservation of the community, the public supported the chief by planting and harvesting his crops for him.
The war priest, who was appointed by the chief, was responsible for obtaining meat, firewood, and clothing from the residents of the pueblo for the chief. The war priest was also the leader of a society of warriors that maintained internal order and protected the community and its farmland from invasion by outsiders.
The hunting chief was responsible for leading the hunt and performing rituals that ensured that an adequate supply of game would be provided for the community. The pueblo communities also had specialized shamans who were responsible for the specific tasks of regulating the weather and healing. In short the Isleta people maintained an effective system of specialized leaders who oversaw every aspect of pueblo life.
The lead chiefs greatest responsibility was his selection of the individuals who were responsible for maintaining and managing the irrigation facilities. The Isleta people expected their chiefs to be gentle men who had never injured or killed a living being. The chief was required to remain within the pueblo at all times and was responsible for performing the agricultural rituals that ensured that the crops and irrigation works would receive adequate rain. Because his duties were so important to the preservation of the community, the public supported the chief by planting and harvesting his crops for him.
The war priest, who was appointed by the chief, was responsible for obtaining meat, firewood, and clothing from the residents of the pueblo for the chief. The war priest was also the leader of a society of warriors that maintained internal order and protected the community and its farmland from invasion by outsiders.
The hunting chief was responsible for leading the hunt and performing rituals that ensured that an adequate supply of game would be provided for the community. The pueblo communities also had specialized shamans who were responsible for the specific tasks of regulating the weather and healing. In short the Isleta people maintained an effective system of specialized leaders who oversaw every aspect of pueblo life.
Native Americans of the Pacific Coast (California) Case Study: Luiseno
Interaction with the Environment
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Over millennia, waves of migrants explored and settled the region, turning California into one of the most densely populated areas in all of North America. More than 300,000 people lived in California at the time of Spanish colonization in the late 18th century. These native peoples were not organized in a single society, as were the Aztecs to the south, but lived in hundreds of small, politically autonomous communities connected by trade and kinship networks. The early Native Californian communities were astonishingly diverse in culture and way of life, ranging from the seafaring Chumash to the agricultural Yuma and Luiseno to the nomadic Modoc.
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The early population of California bore little physical resemblance to the Native Americans of the Great Plains and apparently shared no ties of language or culture with these nations. This was due to California's rugged topography, marked by mountain ranges and deserts, made it difficult for indigenous groups to travel great distances, and the region's native peoples were even isolated from each other, tending to live in large family groups or clans with little political structure, unlike the larger tribes and nations to the east.
One activity shared by all native Californians was interaction with and manipulation of the environment. Using combinations of hunting, gathering, fishing, and agriculture, they skillfully harvested California's natural resources. |
Many groups dried, shelled, ground, washed, and cooked acorns into soup and bread, flavored with berries, seeds, and nuts. Some caught trout, salmon, and shellfish with harpoons and nets. Others hunted elk, deer, rabbits, and fowl with bows and obsidian-tipped arrows.
Whether they lived in mountains, valleys, deserts, forests, or beaches, native peoples continually tended and cultivated the land through controlled burnings, weeding, pruning, tilling, irrigation, and selective replanting. Because native groups usually altered the landscape in a way that mimicked nature, Europeans mistakenly assumed natives lived in an untouched "wilderness." They could not see how thoroughly California's environment had been transformed by thousands of years of human use. The largest game animal was the black tail deer that was hunted using bows and arrows.
Whether they lived in mountains, valleys, deserts, forests, or beaches, native peoples continually tended and cultivated the land through controlled burnings, weeding, pruning, tilling, irrigation, and selective replanting. Because native groups usually altered the landscape in a way that mimicked nature, Europeans mistakenly assumed natives lived in an untouched "wilderness." They could not see how thoroughly California's environment had been transformed by thousands of years of human use. The largest game animal was the black tail deer that was hunted using bows and arrows.
Culture
Natives of the Pacific Coast had many religious beliefs. One example was the Luiseno Natives that The Luiseño practiced the Toloache religion, which they shared with the Diegueño, their southern neighbors, and other Indians of southern California. Luiseño religion was unique, however, in its idea of a great, all-powerful god, which they called Chingichnish. The Luiseno also believed in Shamans or medicine men. The Luiseño held a series of ceremonies for boys, some of which involved a drug made from jimsonweed. This was drunk to inspire visions or dreams of the supernatural, which were central to the Luiseño religion
For the Native American people of Southern California, games and gambling were an important part of daily life. There were a number of gambling games which involved dice and games which involved guessing which hand held a marked stick or bone and a hockey game called shinny Despite the efforts of the missionaries, Mexicans, and Americans to destroy the culture of the Luiseño people, Luiseno people continued speaking the traditional language, singing songs, telling stories, weaving baskets, and passing traditions on into the future. Sometimes this was done in secret; always with great determination.
Today there are seven bands of Luiseño people: San Luis Rey, Pala, Pauma, La Jolla, Rincón, Pechanga, and Sobóba. The Luiseño continue to work for civil rights, cultural preservation, and language revitalization. |
Society
Most California native communities consisted of between 200 and 500 people under the authority of a male leader. Typically, social life was focused around a central village where the leader lived, surrounded by smaller settlements.
Boundaries between each community's land — usually 8 to 10 square miles — were acknowledged, but groups tended to allow neighbors access for gathering and hunting purposes. Areas with greater natural resources, such as in the San Joaquin Valley and along the coast, usually supported more communities with smaller land bases. In general, more nomadic groups tended to have greater social equality. More sedentary groups — such as the maritime Yurok of the northwest — had hierarchical social classes with a wide gulf between rich and poor. Politics
In the Pacific coast there was no empire. Each clan appears to have inhabited a separate village, and to have been a law unto itself.
For example, the Luiseños seem to have been democratic. Historians believe this because there appear to be no legends of powerful chiefs. The religious chief of each clan seems to have possessed the most power, all matters pertaining to religion being under his control. This office was hereditary, though in some cases it might pass out of the direct line of descent, as when the heir was incapable of performing the duties. Women in some cases held the office. The office of chief of the rabbit hunt was hereditary. Presumably the medicine man possessed a certain amount of governmental power. It is certain that the Indians fought at times, and it would seem that on such occasions they must of necessity have had a leader. |