THE AMERICAN INDIANS Adaptation and Migration Adaptation Changing

THE AMERICAN INDIANS

Adaptation and Migration • Adaptation – Changing the way one lives to survive in an environment • Migration – A group of people moving from one are to another • After the ice sheet from the Ice Age melted, plants and animals needed to adapt or leave. • The humans had to change their weapons, shelters, farming techniques. • There are no photographs of the earliest people, but we can imagine how they lived by studying different remains and artifacts

Archaeologists • Archaeologists – Scientists who study people • Archaeologists study artifacts, items made by people, in order to infer things about ancient people.

Prehistoric American Indians • Very difficult to study because there is no written record • Danger Cave • Found near Wendover • Some artifacts date back to 11, 000 years ago • Dog bones were found dating back to 9000 years ago

Prehistoric Indians cont. • Hogup Cave • Located in the West Desert near the Salt Lake • Had two chambers made of limestone • Different cultures, a group living at a particular time and place, also their way of living, lived in this cave over 8000 years • In 1970, vandals destroyed Hogup cave. • Very little was recovered.

The Archaic Indians: Desert Gatherers • Spent most of their days gathering food • Adapting to the environment • The people knew when to gather certain foods • They gathered plants, animal eggs, fish, and hunted • They also knew the migration habits of different animals • They would also move where they lived depending on the season • These people lived in wiki-ups

Archaic Indians cont. • These people made all sorts of baskets out of all sorts of fibers • These baskets carried everything from seeds and other food, to water, to children • They also made sandals, tools, and weapons out of any fiber they could find • They would also make other clothing such as robes • The main weapon and hunting tool for these people was the atlatl

• Show atlatl video

Later Native Groups • These groups came later than the hunters and gatherers • What makes them different is that they farmed and established permanent settlements • They were called the Fremont, who lived in the northern part of Utah, and the Anasazi, who lived in the southern part of Utah

Anasazi Indians • They lived around the corners of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico • They began to use the bow and arrow, which was more effective than the atlatl • The land where they lived was very dry, so the people built dams an reservoirs to water their crops

Anasazi Pottery • Their pottery had very distinct zigzag designs • They would also weave baskets and clothing

Anasazi Dwellings • The first Anasazi dwellings were pit houses • Hundreds of years later, they began to built their houses into cliffs • They also built places of worship called kivas • Eventually the Anasazi Indians left their homes • Nobody knows why or where they went • It is still a mystery to historians

Fremont Indians • Lived in the dry valleys and mountains of the Great Basin • The Fremont interacted and traded with the Anasazi • They were both farmers and hunter-gatherers • They lived near rivers our at the mouth of canyons where the soil was good for farming • The Fremont Indians lived in pit houses

Pottery and Art • Most of the Fremont pottery was made out of clay • They also made little clay figurines that looked like people • They would dress these figures in clothing and jewelry

Fremont Migration • The Fremont also left their homes around the same time as the Anasazi, 1300 AD • Why did these groups leave their homes?

Rock Art - Anasazi

Rock Art - Fremont

Historic American Indians • The next group of Indians are called historic Indians because there is a written history about them • They were here when the Europeans first came here • These groups are divided into five different tribes • The tribes are then divided into smaller bands or clans • These tribes all came into Utah from different places • They all spoke different languages, had different cultures, dances, rituals, and ceremonies • Although the land divided amongst the tribes, nobody owned the land

Utah’s Five Indian Tribes

The Land Provides Food • The tribes would hunt, fish, and farm depending on where they lived • The Utes and Shoshones had horses and were able to hunt larger animals like bison and antelope • The Utes lived in the mountain valleys and near lakes and streams • They were the largest tribe in Utah • The Shoshone lived more north and stretched into Idaho and Wyoming

Land Provides Food cont. • The Navajo in the four corners region of Utah • They raised sheep and goats and mostly farmed • They eventually get horses, but a lot later than the Utes • The Paiutes and the Goshutes lived in the western part of Utah • They did not have horses, so the mainly farmed and hunted small animals • The Goshute were often called “Root-diggers” because they often dug up roots of plants to eat

Dwellings • The tribes lived in different dwellings depending on their land area and their tribal traditions • The Navajo lived in hogans • These were wood framed dwellings covered with dirt • It was a spiritual connection to Mother Earth • The door of the hogan always faced east to meet the rising sun • Modern Navajo live in modern homes, but still have hogans for ceremonial purposes

Dwellings cont. • Paiutes and Goshutes lived in large family groups in small villages • They built wiki-ups • These are small brush covered houses made by weaving grasses and branches together • These provided shade for the Indians during the summers • During the winters, they usually lived in mountain caves where they were protected from the wind and could build fires

Dwellings cont. • The Utes and Shoshones lived in teepees made out of buffalo skins • Families could have a fire in the middle of the teepee, and the smoke would escape out the open top • Utes and Shoshones lived in large bands of up to 200 people

Cultural mixing • When the white settlers made it to the Utah area, many natives began trading with them • They would buy a lot of clothing and tools from the white men

A Spiritual People • Some Indian group were monotheistic, the belief in one God, and others were polytheistic, belief in many gods • The main focus of most Indian religions is a reverence and respect towards nature • The different tribes sang and danced to communicate with their gods and to ask for protection • American Indians would pass down their history through story-telling • This gave the Indians a strong sense of oral traditions