Study Notes: The Old World to the New and Native American Nations

From the Old World to the New

• The history of the United States from its colonial beginnings is fairly short: it covers a period of less than 400 years, a span that can be described by the overlapping lifetimes of roughly a half-dozen men.

The Indian Nations

• Columbus believed he had reached the Indies and called the peoples he met “Indians.”

• The first encounters were with the Arawaks; San Salvador is an island in the Bahamas off the coast of Florida.

The First Americans

• The first Americans were immigrants from Asia.

• They arrived probably in search of game somewhere between $40{,}000$ and $15{,}000$ years ago.

The American Indian

• Indians arrived along the Atlantic seaboard relatively late in the long process of settling the American continents.

• In the region from what is now Georgia to Maine, eastern woodland Indians shared many common characteristics, with variation.

Population in 1492

• By 1492 there were estimated populations in three major regions:

  • North of Mexico: $1{,}000{,}000$

  • Mexico and Central America: $3{,}000{,}000$

  • South America: $6{,}000{,}000$

Indian Groups Divided by Language

• Anthropologists usually divide Indians into three large groups principally on the basis of language.

The Indians of the United States (regional ethnolinguistic groups)

• Southwestern Indians

• People of the Great Basin

• Indians of California

• Pacific Northwest Indians

• Indians of the Plains

• Southeastern Indians

• Eastern Woodland Indians

Muskogean (a language family within the Southeastern context)

• In the Southeast, several large groups spoke Muskogean.

• The main Muskogean groups listed:

  • Choctaw

  • Chickasaw

  • Creek

  • Seminole

Cherokee

• The Cherokee in Georgia were similar in living habits to other groups but spoke a different dialect.

• This group prevailed in the area around the eastern Great Lakes.

Algonquian

• The Algonquian tribes lived along the coast from Canada to North Carolina and would later become the “typical” Indian for early English migrants.

Southwestern Indians

• These Indians lived in multi-storied houses made of adobe or sun-dried bricks.

• Spanish explorers called these Indians Pueblos because the villages reminded the Spaniards of their own villages back home.

Southwestern Indians: the major groups listed

• Navajo

• Hopi

• Apache

• Mojave

Navajo

• (Navajo is listed as one of the Southwestern Indians.)

Hopi

• (Hopi is listed as one of the Southwestern Indians.)

Apache

• (Apache is listed as one of the Southwestern Indians.)

Mojave

• (Mojave is listed as one of the Southwestern Indians.)

People of the Great Basin

• Indians in the Nevada and Utah region, near the Sierra and Rocky Mountain ranges.

• Lived in small family units and wandered the sagebrush desert and mountains.

• Sustained themselves from pine nuts, berries, small animals, snakes, lizards.

Great Basin Tribes (examples listed)

• Shoshone

• Ute

• Paiute

Shoshone

• (Shoshone is listed as a Great Basin group.)

Ute

• (Ute is listed as a Great Basin group.)

Paiute

• (Paiute is listed as a Great Basin group.)

Indians of California

• California housed the largest number of Indians in the United States.

• They were noted basket makers.

• While many were peaceful, some groups like the Modoc and Mojave could be quite fearsome.

California Tribes (examples listed)

• Maidu

• Miwok

• Yokuts

• Chumash

Pacific Northwest Indians

• Lived along coastal Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.

• Staple food was salmon.

• They generally lived in large log houses;

• houses faced the water on the exterior; they were noted for colorful painted totem poles, which were similar in symbolic importance to a European Knight’s coat of arms.

Pacific Northwest: notable features

• Totem poles as symbolic markers and family emblems.

• To accompany the totem poles, a strong maritime economy centered on salmon.

• Nootka method of spearing is specifically mentioned.

Pacific Northwest: listed tribes (examples)

• Nootka

• Coos

• Haidi

Nootka

• Nootka is associated with the Pacific Northwest and is shown with the Nootka method of spearing.

Coos

• Coos is listed as a Pacific Northwest tribe.

Haidi

• Haidi is listed as a Pacific Northwest tribe.

Indians of the Plains

• The Great Plains Indians lived in rolling grasslands from the Rocky Mountains to almost the Mississippi River.

• After the introduction of horses by Europeans, these Indians became the “Horse Indians.”

• They were capable warriors; war objectives resembled hunting goals: seize food and gain glory for bravery.

Plains Tribes (examples listed)

• Crow

• Blackfoot

• Cheyenne

• Plains Cree

Blackfoot

• Listed as a Plains tribe.

Cheyenne

• Listed as a Plains tribe.

Plains Cree

• Listed as a Plains tribe.

Southeastern Indians

• Lived in forestland and practiced slash-and-burn agriculture.

• Fields were cleared by girdling trees (cutting a circle around the bark) to kill the tree and improve soil nutrients, thereby clearing land and fertilizing soil.

Southeastern Tribes (examples listed)

• Caddo

• Chickasaw

• Cherokee

• Creek

Caddo, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek

• Each listed as Southeastern Indians.

Eastern Woodlands Indians

• Used waterways to move about;

• Invented birchbark canoes (light boats from bent saplings covered with bark patches);

• Invented the snowshoe to cope with snowy winters.

Eastern Woodlands Tribes (examples listed)

• Ojibway (also known as Chippewa)

• Montagnais

• Kwakiutl (note: Kwakiutl are typically associated with the Pacific Northwest in other sources; the map here lists them in a broader visual but the text identifies Eastern Woodlands context for birchbark canoes and snowshoes)

• Cree

• Salish

• Carrier

Language Families and Major Groups in the Eastern Woodlands (map overview)

• Language families highlighted: Algonquian and Iroquoian (major families among Eastern Woodlands).

• Iroquoian groups include the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca (forming the Iroquois Confederacy).

• Algonquian groups include various tribes such as Ojibway (Chippewa), Ottawa, Potawatomi, Miami, Delaware, Susquehannock, Shawnee, Wampanoag, Narragansett, Massachusett (and related groups).

Eastern Woodlands: specific tribes named in the map (examples)

• Mohawk

• Iroquois (Iroquois Confederacy comprising Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca)

• Algonquin

• Seneca

An Essay on a Failure… (assignment overview)

• Students are to write a two-page paper about a failure in History (example: George Armstrong Custer).

• Formatting: Roman Times or New Courier, 12-point font, double-spaced.

• Citations: three sources, Chicago Style (footnotes and bibliography).

• Worth up to 25 points.

• Task: identify a moral failure by a historical character who lived between 1783 and 1860; discuss how the failure could have been corrected and how it could be resolved.