Application APUSH

Chapter 1 terms

Tenochtitlán

proves the Americas had cities as large and complex as any in the world before Europeans arrived

New World

shows that the standard European framing of American history erases thousands of years of Native history

Kinship ties

explains how diverse Native societies stayed connected and adapted to change without a single government or language

Trade networks

proves Native societies were connected across the continent rather than isolated tribes

Political diversity

shows there was no single Native civilization but hundreds of different ones

Leave no trace

warns against the European assumption that land without ruins was empty wilderness

Origin stories

shows Native peoples had their own histories long before written records or archaeology

Creation story vs migration story

shows the different ways Native peoples explained their presence on the land

Sky Woman and Turtle Island

shows a worldview where animals are relatives who help create the world

Anishinaabe migration

shows how an origin story can create real political structures like the Three Fires Confederacy

Interconnectedness

contrasts with later European views of land and animals as property and resources

Oral tradition as history

shows historians should treat Native stories as evidence alongside science

Beringia

supports the scientific account that Native ancestors migrated from Asia during the ice age

Coastal migrations

shows there were multiple routes into the Americas not just one land bridge

White Sands footprints

shows humans were in the Americas earlier than scientists once believed and the timeline keeps changing

Glacial melting

shows how climate change drove where people could live and forced them to adapt

Na Dene and Aleut and Inuit

shows migration happened in waves over thousands of years not all at once

Bison and caribou drives

shows that environment shaped economy which shaped political organization

Haida Gwaii and Pacific Northwest

shows that abundant food let societies settle without needing agriculture

Medieval warm period

shows agriculture allowed cities and let leaders gain political power

Population before 1492

proves the Americas were more populated than Europe and were not empty land

Western vs Indigenous accounts

shows there are multiple valid ways of knowing the past and each has its own context