Basic American

Indian History
for Dummies

Pre-Columbus
North America
How they got here. . .
Basic theory has it that 13 to 30 thousand
years ago a land bridge connecting Asia to No.
America developed in the ice age
Peoples from Asia migrated for several
thousand years over the land bridge
Recent archeological findings suppose that
even earlier, folks came from Asia in boats
Yay for the Chinese!!!
Its all up for debate

Various Tribes we should be familiar with
Various Tribes we should be familiar with
The Anasazi of the Southwest - built houses into the cliffs
descendents are: Pueblos and Hopi
Cahokia of the Mississippi River Valley mound builders
descendents are: Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees
The Pacific Coast: Shasta (northwest), Yokut, Miwok, Maidu, & Pomo
Iroquois Confederacy Great Lakes area: Mohawks, Oneidas,
Onondagas, Cayugas, & Seneca (add Huron to this area; they are enemies
of Iroquois Confederacy but friends to the French)
Atlantic Coast: Algonquian speaking tribes, Powhatan (Pocahontas )
Northeast: Massachusetts, Wampanoag, Narragansett, Pequot
Mexico: Aztecs
Central America: Mayans
South America: Incas

Mound
Builders &
Pueblo Cliff
Houses
Using the Resources of their Environment
1. Altering the Lay of the Land:
Built temples, sculptures, buildings, pyramids
Specific Examples:
Mayans paved elevated roads that led to multi-communities
Anasazi (Pueblos) built structures up to 5 stories high
Moundbuilders - out of St. Louis, MO. 100+ - some over 100 tall covers 14 acres
Aztecs built Tenochtitlan on reclaimed land in the middle of a lake
2. Controlling the Water:
- Modified flows of rivers for drinking, irrigation, & fishing
- Specific examples:
- Tribes in the southwest built irrigation canals & dams
- Tribes in the northeast built V-shaped rock dams trapped fish in the narrow V
3. Controlling the Game:
- Stampedes and buffalo jumping
- Specific Examples:
- Plains Indians would run buffalo off cliffs to corrals below




Buffalo Jump
Using the
Resources of their
Environment
3. Vegetation:
-Slash & Burn
-Crop
Management
such as 3 Sister
Farming (corn,
beans, & squash)
-Controlled
Burn
Cultural Advances
1. Medical Wonders:
- foods, herbs, bark, roots, other plant parts
- Specific Example:
- Heart problems were treated using parts of the
Foxglove plant active ingredient = digitalis
2. Astronomical Observations & Communication:
- Specific Example = Mayans:
- #0, calendar, a sophisticated written language
- Star wheel Observatories to predict harvest
times

Aztec Calendar
Religion Harmony & Balance
1. Creation of Myths to Explain In the Beginning:
- Sacred legends that provide grounding & answer all questions
- Provide a moral framework
- Specific Example: Navajo First Man/First Woman creation occurred when
a holy wind blew life into 2 ears of corn and they were sent to earth to
prepare the world for the creation of all human beings.
2. Natural Elements of Scared Powers/Forces:
- Animals, Birds, Insects
- Water
- Deities such as: Raven, Coyote, Rabbit, and mythological creatures (sort
of like heroic action figures)
3. Tools of the Trade:
- Peyote- from the Cactus causes hallucinogenic effects
- Musical instruments such as: hide drums, flutes, rattles, human voice
- Food & Human Sacrifices
- Stone & Wooden carved animal figurines
- Totem Poles in the Pacific Northwest: they tell a story used as house
poles, grave markers, symbols of family heritage

Tribal MythsI love to tell the story
Totem Poles
Religion Harmony & Balance
4. Indians & Christianity:
- Two distinct differences in religious beliefs existed between the Indian
and the Christian European which bred controversy:
1. Indians worshipped creation; Europeans worshipped the Creator
2. Indians revered the land and their physical environment as religiously
sacred; they were to be one with the land in harmony & balance
3. Europeans viewed the land and physical environment as resources to
be used, tamed, owned. . . The Bible placed man on top of the food
chain
- Consequently the Europeans saw Indians as uncivilized - the Indians
saw Europeans as greedy heathens; both distrusted the other
- The Spanish & French especially saw it as their mission to convert the
native populations the English sought mostly to remove or destroy
them
- We can see how religious beliefs became a powerful psychological
justification by the Europeans to either remove or destroy if they were
not willing to convert a specific example would be the Pequot
Massacre, 1637, by the Puritans in Massachusetts


Religion Harmony & Balance
- Overtime, many tribes adopted aspects of
Christianity into their religious practices
- This occurred due to either/both actual
conversions and/or accommodation to get the
European off their backs
- Some tribes, such as the Cherokee, will actually
embrace Christianity
- In the end, disease, the impetus to convert the
Indian to Christianity, and the want for the land
HUGELY impacted the native populations

Playing with the Population #s
BIG DEBATE as to the native population by 1492
#s range from 500,00 to 100 million+
Each side accuses the other of under or over
estimating
Most experts settle on between 1 to 15 million
Bailey says probably no more than 4 million
Our Question???? What happened to all of them?
Vast % die of disease often estimated to be 85-
95% of the population!!!
Cultural Exchange Old World v. New World
In the end, both win with regard to exchange
of ideas and goods & technologies
BUT, we know that the exchange was based on
a power system that the New World Indians
could not overcome
The radical impact of population loss due to
disease made it very difficult to resist the
European invasion
As we study further, watch for the BIG IDEA of
examples of resistance v. accommodation