Topic 1.2_Native American Societies Before European Contact
Learning Objective: Explain how various native populations interacted with the natural environment in North America in the period before European contact.
Origins and long timeline of settlement
The original discovery and settlement of North and South America began at least 10{,}000\text{ years ago} and perhaps up to 40{,}000\text{ years ago}.
Migration route: Migrants from Asia may have crossed a land bridge that once connected Siberia and Alaska (land now submerged under the Bering Sea).
Over time, people migrated southward from near the Arctic Circle to the southern tip of South America.
Adaptations to varied environments led to the evolution of hundreds of tribes speaking hundreds of languages.
By 1491, the population in the Americas was probably between 50{,}000{,}000 and 100{,}000{,}000 people.
Civilizations of Central and South America
Maya (300–800 CE): built remarkable cities in the rain forests of the Yucatán Peninsula (present-day Guatemala, Belize, and southern Mexico).
Aztec (central Mexico): built a powerful empire; capital Tenochtitlán had a population of about 200{,}000, comparable to Europe's largest cities.
Inca (Peru, western South America): developed a vast empire in the Andean region.
Shared features among Maya, Aztec, and Inca:
Highly organized societies with extensive trade networks.
Calendars based on accurate astronomical observations.
Cultivation of crops that provided stable food supplies: maize for Maya and Aztecs; potatoes for the Incas.
Cultures of North America: overall patterns and diversity
The population north of Mexico in the 1490s may have ranged from under 1{,}000{,}000 to more than 10{,}000{,}000 people.
General patterns:
Fewer people and less complex social structures than in Mesoamerica and the Andes.
The relatively slow northward spread of maize (corn) from Mexico limited large-scale agriculture early on.
As maize agriculture spread and supported larger populations, societies became more socially diversified with specialists.
By the time of Columbus, many peoples in present-day U.S. and Canada lived in semi-permanent settlements, with group sizes often not exceeding about 300 individuals.
Gender roles and subsistence:
Men typically made tools and hunted game.
Women gathered plants and nuts or cultivated crops such as maize, beans, and tobacco.
Language diversity among Native Americans
Native American languages consisted of more than 20\text{ language families}, far more diverse than the Indo-European family that covered most European tongues.
Some of the largest language families in North America included:
Algonquian (northeast)
Siouan (Great Plains)
Athabaskan (southwest)
These families encompassed more than 400 distinct languages.
Southwest Settlements and adaptations
Regions now in New Mexico and Arizona:
Groups such as the Hohokam, Anasazi, and Pueblo developed multifaceted societies.
Many people lived in caves, under cliffs, or in multistoried buildings.
Maize cultivation spread into this region from Mexico, spurring economic growth and the development of irrigation systems.
The increasing wealth enabled more complex social and economic hierarchies.
By the arrival of Europeans, these communities faced extreme drought and hostilities from other groups, contributing to social strain.
Descendants continue to live in the region; arid climate helped preserve older stone and masonry dwellings.
Northwest Coast settlements
Geography: Pacific coast from present-day Alaska to northern California.
Architecture: permanent longhouses or plank houses.
Diet: rich combination of hunting, fishing, and gathering of nuts, berries, and roots.
Culture: carved large totem poles to remember stories, legends, and myths.
Social dynamics: rugged, mountainous terrain created barriers between tribes, limiting large-scale development.
Great Basin and Great Plains adaptations
Great Basin: dry climate; cultures adapted through mobility and varied subsistence strategies.
Great Plains: grasslands supported nomadic lifeways, especially the buffalo (bison) economy.
Housing and mobility:
Nomadic groups used tepees (frames of poles covered with animal skins) due to mobility needs.
Some groups settled in permanent earthen lodges along rivers and practiced agriculture (maize, beans, squash).
Society and trade:
Trade with other tribes was active.
The horse arrived later (not until the 17th century) through contact with Europeans, transforming mobility for tribes such as the Lakota Sioux.
Population and mobility trends: occasional mergers and splits of plains tribes as conditions changed; migration was common (e.g., Apaches gradually migrating southward from Canada to Texas).
Mississippi River Valley and Northeast settlements
Mississippi River Valley and Ohio River valleys hosted the Adena-Hopewell culture, known for large earthen mounds up to about 300\text{ feet} in length.
Cahokia (near present-day East St. Louis, Illinois) was one of the largest settlements in the Midwest, with as many as 30{,}000 inhabitants.
Northeast settlements: descendants of Adena-Hopewell expanded into New York and surrounding regions; farming combined with hunting.
Soil exhaustion problems:
The farming techniques exhausted soil quickly, requiring frequent movement to new lands.
Iroquois Confederation (Haudenosaunee): a powerful political union formed by the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and later the Tuscarora; from the 16th century through the American Revolution, they waged war with rival Native groups and Europeans.
Atlantic Seaboard settlements
Area from New Jersey to Florida inhabited by Coastal Plain peoples, including the Cherokee and Lumbee.
Descendants of Woodland mound builders.
Housing: timber and bark lodgings along rivers; access to rivers and Atlantic Ocean for food resources.
Overall diversity and identity
The vast variety of landforms and climates led to broadly diverse Native American cultures before 1492.
Europeans often grouped these cultures together, but each tribe held its own distinctive systems and traditions.
A shared pan-tribal identity as Native Americans did not emerge until much later in history.
Reflect on the learning objective
Objective restated: Describe the influence of the natural environment on the society and culture developed by various Native American groups prior to contact with Europeans.