Native American Exam 3

Oneota

This was an agricultural phase in the Upper Midwest (particularly Wisconsin) that emerged in the 1100s AD. Archaeologists believe the Effigy Mound builders may have been absorbed by this culture, which was composed of Siouan speakers who later drifted out west on the Plains

Plains Ojibwa

This was originally a woodland group, the Ojibwa, that was located in the Great Lakes region upon contact but later drifted out onto the Great Plains after it took possession of the horse. It is an example of one of the many groups that left other regions in order to hunt the vast herds of buffalo upon the Great Plains and developed a Plains Indian culture during the contact period.

Indian Territory

This was part of the Louisiana Purchase that was set aside for the Indian tribes of the Southeast and Northeast as a new homeland. It was created in order to facilitate Indian Removal and today is the state of Oklahoma

Tribal Organization

This is a form of political organization in which a tribe is both a cultural unit and the highest level of political organization.

Hemaneh

This is a term that means "Half-Man, Half-Woman" among the Cheyenne, and it was used to describe Cheyenne berdaches.

Earth Lodge

This was a type of dwelling common among some tribes of the Great Plains such as the Pawnees, Mandans, and Arikaras. Among the Pawnees, the dwellings were often fifty to sixty feet in diameter and twelve feet high and housed an entire extended family

Hopewell

This is a mound complex found in the Northeast as well as the Southeast. It reached its height during the Woodland Period between 2,200 and 1,700 years ago and is characterized by large, enclosed mounds that were connected by what are called the Great Hopewell Roads

Wisconsin Effigy Mounds

This is a unique set of mounds that exist mostly in Wisconsin and surrounding states that were constructed between 700 AD and 1200 AD. They are not related to other mound complexes and reflect a basic cosmological division between creatures of the Upper World (the sky) and the Lower World (earth and water).

League of the Iroquois

This was a defensive league established by five Iroquoian-speaking tribes: the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk. It fought against all other tribes in the Northeast, to include related Iroquoian tribes.

Sachems and Sagamores

These terms come from various Algonquian dialects, andboth words have the same root in proto-Algonquian. Both terms refer to a leader of anynortheastern Indian group (including Iroquoian) despite the fact that Iroquoians used a different set of terms. Depending on the Indian tribe under investigation, these terms can refer to a headman over band, or a more powerful chief who led a politically integrated tribe, a chiefdom, or a confederacy.

Powhatan Confederation

This was a powerful confederation and chiefdom made up of about thirty tribal groups that spoke closely related Algonquian dialects and lived in the Chesapeake Bay region during the time of English settlement in the early 1600s. It had a population of about 8,000 persons

Pocahontas

This was the daughter of Powhatan, the chief of the mighty Powhatan Confederation of Indians. She married the Englishman John Rolfe in 1614 and thus cemented a peace between her people and the English settlers at Jamestown.

Wars of the Iroquois

These were a series of conflicts fought by the Five Nations League of the Iroquois between the 1640s and 1701 in which they tried to exterminate other tribes in the Great Lakes region. They were once called the "Beaver Wars" because it was mistakenly thought the wars had as their purpose the monopolization of the fur trade.

Longhouse

This was an extended family dwelling among Iroquoian tribes of the Northeast that could be 150 feet long and 20 feet wide that housed nuclear families in apartment-like structures on the inside while common meeting areas were in the center

Hiawatha

This man was an Onandaga who, along with Deganawida, another Onondaga, created the powerful League of the Iroquois in about 1570 AD.

Covenant Chain

This was the complex series of alliances that the League of the Iroquois made with various Indian tribes and European powers, particularly the British

Clan Matrons

Among Iroquoian-speaking tribes, these were the eldest women in aclan in a village. They chose the male leaders, or sachems, in the village, and among the tribes of the League of the Iroquois they chose the fifty sachems who governed the League as well

State Society

This is a type of society beyond a chiefdom where the ruler develops a bureaucracy to assist in carrying out the duties of government in areas such as revenue collection, the military, and religion

Southern Ceremonial Complex

This was ceremonial complex among the Southeastern tribes during the early historic period. It involved the use of platform mounds that held temples and was a remnant of the ceremonial complex that characterized Mississippian culture. It had elements from the ceremonial complexes in Meso-America.

Five Civilized Tribes

These were five Southeastern Indians tribes that became highly acculturated and adopted significant aspects of Euro-American culture. The five tribes were the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole.

Indian Removal Act

This was an act passed by the United States Congress in 1830under the presidency of Andrew Jackson. It mandated that all Indian tribes living on the eastern side of the Mississippi River be removed to the western side.

Ritual adoption

This was a common custom among both tribes of the Northeast and Southeast whereby a person captured in war was adopted into a family to replace a deceased family member.

Platform Mounds

These were common in the Southeast, although they found farther north into the Midwest. Precontact civilizations such as the Mississippians built them at places like Cahokia. They were of Meso-American origin and often held temples or residences of powerful leaders as in the case of the Great Sun of the Natchez.

Glyphs

In Meso-American writing systems, these are specific pictograms that can stand for individual objects and ideas and can also be combined to express more complicated and abstract ideas.

Teotihuacan

This is a city that reached its height in the Valley of Mexico during the Classical Age between 100 BC and 650 AD. It is dominated by two pyramids, the Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon. It has many of other pyramids and temples that line the main avenue, the Street of the Dead. Little is know about who built this city as it did not develop a writing system.

Sheave of Years

This was the term the Aztecs and likely earlier Meso-American societies used to denote fifty-two years. It occurred when the first of day of the sacred calendar coincided with the first day of the secular calendar or Vague Year.

Chacmool

Among the Toltecs this was a basin where the hearts of human sacrificial victims were put as an offering to various gods.

Chichen Itza

This is a city of the Maya Indians that has both Mayan and Toltec structures. It was supposedly visited the Toltec king Tolpilzin in 987 AD, and he built the Toltec section of the city

Nahuatl

This was the language of many tribes in the Valley of Mexico to include the Aztec Indians.

Tenochtitlan

This was the principal city of the Aztecs and the capital of their empire.

Chinampas

These were artificial islands that the Aztec built over water using sticksand grass matting. These were covered with soil and used to grow crops such as corn.

Flower Wars

Among the Aztecs, these were wars that had as their purpose the capture of prisoners who were sacrificed to their gods.

Sovereignty

This is a concept that gives governments power. In the case of American Indians, they have tribal governments and thus sovereignty to run their affairs as they see fit.

Dawes Act

This was an act passed by Congress in 1887 that required Indian reservations to be divided up among the tribes so that individual Indian families would have their own lands. It was supposed to "civilize" the Indians by promoting agriculture, but it resulted instead in Indians selling their plots to white ranchers and logging companies.

Blood Quantum

This is a tool that is used mostly in the United States to determine whether one is an Indian or not, and it involves determine what "percentage" of Indian ancestry a person is.

Kennewick Man

This is the term used to designate a skeleton of a man found in Washington state that is about 9,000 years old. Archaeologists have determined that this man was not an Indian but most likely Ainu or Polynesian.

Indian Reorganization Act

This an act passed by Congress in 1934. It changed the way the federal government conducted Indian affairs because it shifted significant political power away from Washington and back to the tribes.

Peyote

This is a cactus with small buds that produce a powerful hallucinogen. While it was first used by Indians in the Southwest, its use spread to other tribes during the reservation period. Members of the Christian denomination known as the Native American Church (which includes members of many tribes) use it in their ceremonies.