NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURES EARLY SOCIETIES NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE

NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURES EARLY SOCIETIES NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE AREAS SHARED BELEIFS

I CAN l Identify 2 types of Early Societies in North America and Explain where and how they lived l Define totems l List 3 cultural regions of Native North Americans l State 2 examples of shared beliefs between Native North Americans

EARLY SOCIETIES l Earliest people in N America- hunters & gathers l After about 5000 BC some learned to farm and lived in villages l Not as populated as South America and Mesoamerica; they were complex societies before Europeans

EARLY SOCIETIES l Anasazi l Present day Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah l Dry environment, but grew maize, squash & beans l Learned how to use irrigation to increase food production

EARLY SOCIETIES l Anasazi Dwellings l Early lived in pit houses dug into the ground l After 750 AD began to build pueblos (aboveground houses made of heavy clay called adobe) l Built them on top of each other, multi-storied (some housed about 1000 people) l Cliff Dwellers- built houses in canyon walls, only be reached by ladder. WHY? Protection from enemies

Cliff Dwellers

DECLINE OF THE ANASAZI l Drought l Disease l Or invasions from nomadic tribes from the North l Might have caused them to move

MOUND BUILDERS l Eastern part of North America l Farming societies l Hopewell l Lived along the Mississippi, Ohio, and lower Missouri River valleys l Agriculture and Trade l Built large burial mounds to honor their dead l Declined around 700 AD

MOUND BUILDERS l Mississippian- same area as the Hopewell l Skilled farmers and traders l Built large settlements; largest city Cahokia, near present day St. Louis (30, 000) l Mounds- had flat tops and temples were built on top of the mound. l Mounds could be up to 100 ft tall and cover 16 acres l Mound builders had declined by time Europeans arrived

Mound Builders

NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE AREAS l Sub-artic l Followed seasonal migrations of deer l Lived in shelters from animal skins and log homes l Further south they had a rich supply of fish, plants, and animals. So developed large villages, without the need to farm

NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE AREAS SEE MAP on PG 13 l Pacific Northwest Carved images of totems– ancestor or animal spirits, on tall wooden poles l Great religious and historical signficance West and Southwest California Region * Food sources were plentiful * lived in large families or groups 50300 * over 100 different languages spoken l Great Basin Little Rain, so they gathered seeds, dug roots, trapped small animals Southwest Pueblo groups, like the Anasazi, irrigated. Focused on Rain and successful maize. Large towns

NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE AREAS Great Plains l Mainly grasslands, home to buffalo, deer, elk, and more l Nomadic hunters– used bow and arrows, would often chase over cliffs, or into a corral l l Used buffalo hides for teepees, and used almost all of the buffalo for something. Some tribes were matrilineal-traced ancestry through mothers. Northeast and Southeast l Eastern N America rich in resources l Animals, plants, wood, fish, l Cherokee, Creek, Seminole lived in farming villages governed by village councils l Northern groups did more hunting l Southern Groups- more farmers, hunters, and traders

NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE AREAS l Northeast and Southeast l Iroquois l Created the Iroquois league l An alliance or confederation, that protected each other from non-iroquois groups. l The league helped them to become one of the most powerful Native Americans peoples in North America

SHARED BELEIFS RELIGION PROPERTY l LINKED TO NATURE l l SPRIRITUAL FORCES WERE EVERYWHERE- HEAVENLY BODIES AND ON EARTH INVIDUAL OWNERSHIP ONLY TO CROPS YOU GREW l LAND ITSELF WAS EVERYONE. RIGHT TO USE IT WAS TEMPORARY l HONORED SPIRITS DAILY l PRESERVE LAND FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS (not like Europeans) l CEREMONIES MAINTAINED THE GROUP’S RELATIONSHIP TO EARTH AND SKY l LITTLE INTEREST- IN LG POLITICAL UNITS. SO NO LG EMPIRES LIKE AZTECS OR INCA OF MESOAMERICA