Lecture 3: Native American Societies and Cultures

Early America was part of the Atlantic World, involving the exchange of people, goods, and ideas between Africa, Europe, and the Americas.
This lecture will focus on Native American cultures before the European invasion, with subsequent lectures covering African and European backgrounds.

Native Americans, like other cultures, developed creation stories to explain their origins.
Cherokee: Originating from the American southeast, they narrate a great flood where animals lived in the heavens above the water.
- A Buzzard was sent to check if the earth was dry enough to land, and as it flew over Cherokee Country, its wings created valleys and mountains.
- The first humans were a brother and sister who were instructed to multiply rapidly, but to avoid overpopulation, women were limited to one child per year.
Winnebago: From the upper Midwest, their creation story is kinder to women, emphasizing the pleasantness of the newly created world.
- The earth was covered in green, and the odors were pleasant.

Anthropological, archeological, and historical investigations explore the origins of Native American groups.
It is widely accepted that Native Americans lived in the Americas as early as 30,000 years ago.
During that time, the earth's climate was colder, with thick glaciers pushing south.
The oceans dropped hundreds of feet, revealing marshy land known as Beringia.
Beringia: A land bridge connecting Asia and the Americas, now known as the Bering Strait.
- This allowed large animals, such as Woolly Mammoths and Mastodons, to migrate into North America.
- Hunter-gathering peoples followed these animals, becoming the first settlers on the continent.
- The discovery of large fluted spear-heads in Clovis, New Mexico, in the 1930s supported the Beringian theory.
- Migrants came in small bands and distributed themselves across North and South America.
- By 1492, there were more than 1,000 different Native groups speaking as many as 250 separate languages north of Mexico.
By 15,000 BCE, warming temperatures melted the glaciers, raising sea levels and cutting off further migrations from Asia.
Diffusionists: Scholars who question the Beringian theory, suggesting additional migration points.
- They point to evidence of ancient settlements in South America thousands of miles away from Alaska.
- Some suggest migrants came by boat across the Pacific.
Many modern Native American groups dismiss migratory theories, citing oral traditions that their ancestors were indigenous to the Americas.

In 1798, Native American leader Little Turtle met with a French ambassador and disputed Beringian theories, suggesting that the Tartars of Siberia could have come from America.

Whether through a single or multiple entry points, scholars agree that the first migrants were Paleo-Indians, or cave men.
They lived in rock shelters and used stone, bone, and wood tools.
Atlatl: After 12,000 BCE, they used a throwing stick called an atlatl to hurl spears with greater velocity over longer distances enabling them to kill their prey.
Archeological evidence from Monte Verde in Chile indicates they used digging sticks and grinding stones and consumed seeds, nuts, wild potatoes, mushrooms, berries, and hunted game.
A child's footprint was found preserved in the clay of a riverbank.

Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico preserves petroglyphs of Ancestral Puebloan peoples.
A rock featuring the traced hand of a small child was discovered, illustrating a poignant connection between past and present.

The end of migrations across the Beringian land bridge dramatically changed the North American landscape.
Retreating glaciers carved the earth, creating lake and river systems like the Great Lakes.
Warming temperatures led to the growth of forests and grasslands.
Native migrations followed river systems, driven by population growth and pressure on food resources.
Five Primary Migratory Routes:
1. Alaska across Canada to the St. Lawrence River and down the east coast.
2. Alaska down the Pacific coast to California.
3. Along the river systems of the Great Plains to the American Southwest and into Mexico, Central, and South America.
4. Among the eastern tributaries of the Mississippi River.
5. From the Gulf of Mexico, including the islands of the Caribbean.

The first Native Americans were nomadic hunter-gatherers, following their food.
By 9000 BCE, large prehistoric animals became extinct, leading Native Americans to seek other food resources.
They used periodic burns to manage the landscape, encouraging the growth of forage for deer and other game.
Some Native American groups adopted sedentary lifestyles, building permanent villages.
Eastern Woodlands: They constructed circular wigwams and rectangular longhouses out of branches, bark, mud, and straw.
Sedentary lifestyles did not always mean permanence; many groups remained seasonally mobile.

The movement to a sedentary lifestyle led to an explosion of new craft production, including pottery.
The earliest Native American pottery dates to 3500 BCE.
Clay vessels allowed for new ways to prepare and store food.
Dogs were the only domesticated animals, mainly for companionship or labor.
The lack of domesticated animals insulated Natives from communicable diseases common in Europe.

Around 5000 BCE, some Native groups experienced the Agricultural Revolution.
- The transformation of nomadic societies into settled agricultural communities.
Farming of teosinte grass originated in the Mexican plateau and spread.
By 2,000 BCE, corn (maize) was popular in the American southwest and throughout the Mississippi Valley by 800 CE.
By 1492, corn was found in agricultural regions across Native America.
Corn, beans, and squash contributed to permanent villages and population growth.
The Native diet created a balanced diet, expanding life expectancies.
Corn could be stored, providing food in times of drought.
Women became dominant in farming, leading to cultural mythologies like the “corn mother.”

Also known as Anasazi (meaning “ancient enemies” among the Navajo).

They were master stone and brick masons, constructing hundreds of towns, including Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.
Pueblo Bonito served as a central point for trade and ceremony, with a population of over 1,000 people.
They were excellent astronomers and followed a complex ceremonial cycle reflected in their buildings and petroglyphs.
They endured a great drought from 1130 to 1180, leading to the abandonment of many towns.
By the time the Spanish arrived in the 1540s, the great Pueblo towns were ruins.
Their descendants continue to live in smaller, but permanent, pueblos.