Chapter 1: Indigenous America

Indigenous America

Introduction

Europeans termed the Americas as the "New World," but it was anything but for the millions of Native Americans who had already inhabited the land for over ten thousand years. These Native Americans were dynamic and diverse, speaking hundreds of languages and developing a myriad of distinct cultures. They established settled communities, followed seasonal migration patterns, forged alliances, engaged in warfare, developed self-sufficient economies, maintained extensive trade networks, and cultivated unique art forms and spiritual values. Their communities were bound together by kinship ties.

The arrival of Europeans triggered a global exchange of people, animals, plants, and microbes known as the Columbian Exchange. This exchange connected more than ten thousand years of geographic separation, but also led to centuries of violence, a devastating biological terror, and a complete revolution of world history. This marked a pivotal development in human history and the beginning of the long American yawp.

The First Americans

American history starts with the first Americans, whose origins are rooted in stories passed down through generations, revealing Indigenous beliefs. The Salinan people of California tell of a bald eagle creating the first man from clay and the first woman from a feather. The Lenape tradition speaks of Sky Woman falling into a watery world, landing on a turtle's back with the help of muskrat and beaver, thereby creating Turtle Island, or North America. The Choctaw tradition locates their beginnings inside the great Mother Mound earthwork, Nunih Waya, in the lower Mississippi Valley. The Nahua people trace their origins to the place of the Seven Caves, from which their ancestors emerged before migrating to central Mexico.

Archaeologists and anthropologists study artifacts, bones, and genetic signatures to understand migration histories, suggesting that the Americas were once a "new world" for Native Americans as well. During the last global ice age, much of the world's water was trapped in continental glaciers. Around twenty thousand years ago, ice sheets extended across North America as far south as modern-day Illinois. Lowered sea levels due to these ice sheets created a land bridge across the Bering Strait between Asia and North America. Between twelve and twenty thousand years ago, Native ancestors crossed this bridge, exploiting resources in the Beringian tundra. DNA evidence indicates a pause of possibly fifteen thousand years in the region between Asia and America. Other ancestors traveled by sea along the Pacific coast, settling where ecosystems allowed. As glacial sheets receded around fourteen thousand years ago, a corridor opened to warmer climates, prompting communities to migrate southward and eastward.

Evidence from Monte Verde, Chile, indicates human activity dating back at least 14,500 years. Similar evidence suggests settlement in the Florida panhandle and Central Texas around the same time. Archaeological and traditional knowledge converge on many points, with dental, archaeological, linguistic, oral, ecological, and genetic evidence showing diversity as groups settled and migrated over thousands of years from various origins. Whether from the earth, water, or sky, made by a creator, or migrating to new homelands, Native American communities have histories in America that predate human memory.

In the Northwest, Native groups utilized salmon-filled rivers, while communities on the plains and prairies followed bison herds. Cultures and lifestyles varied across mountains, prairies, deserts, and forests, with hundreds of languages and distinct cultural practices. Rich and diverse diets led to significant population growth. Agriculture emerged between nine thousand and five thousand years ago, nearly simultaneously in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Mesoamericans domesticated maize (corn), leading to the hemisphere's first settled populations around 1200 BCE. Corn, easily dried and stored, allowed for harvests twice a year in the fertile Gulf Coast. This crop spread across North America and remains spiritually and culturally significant in many Native communities.

Agriculture flourished in the fertile river valleys between the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean, known as the Eastern Woodlands. Corn, beans, and squash, known as the Three Sisters, provided the necessary nutrition for sustaining cities and civilizations. Woodland communities managed forest resources by burning underbrush to create parklike hunting grounds and clear land for planting. Shifting cultivation was commonly practiced, where farmers cut and burned forests, planted seeds in the ashes, and moved to new fields as yields declined, allowing the land to recover. In fertile regions, Native American farmers engaged in permanent, intensive agriculture using hand tools, which supported sustainable farming practices with high yields. Women typically practiced agriculture while men hunted and fished.

Agriculture facilitated social change but may have also led to a decline in health, as remains indicate weaker bones and teeth in societies transitioning to agriculture. Nevertheless, farming allowed for greater food production, enabling some community members to pursue other skills such as religious leadership, soldiery, and artistry.

North America's Indigenous peoples shared broad traits, although spiritual practices, property understandings, and kinship networks differed from European arrangements. Most Native Americans saw no distinction between the natural and supernatural, with spiritual power permeating their world. Kinship bound Native North Americans together, with many cultures understanding ancestry as matrilineal, where family identity followed the female line. Mothers held significant influence, and men's identities often depended on their relationships with women. Native American culture generally afforded greater sexual and marital freedom than European cultures. Property rights differed, with personal ownership of tools and land use rights recognized, but not permanent possession.

Native Americans used various communication methods, including graphic ones, some of which are still used today. Algonquian-speaking Ojibwes used birch-bark scrolls to record medical treatments, recipes, songs, and stories. Other Eastern Woodland peoples wove plant fibers, embroidered skins with porcupine quills, and created earthworks for ceremonial purposes. Plains artisans wove buffalo hair and painted on buffalo skins, while Pacific Northwest weavers used goat hair for textiles after European contact. Maya, Zapotec, and Nahua ancestors in Mesoamerica painted histories on plant-derived textiles and carved them into stone. In the Andes, Inca recorders used knotted strings, or khipu, to note information.

Two thousand years ago, the Puebloan groups in the Greater Southwest, the Mississippian groups along the Great River and its tributaries, and the Mesoamerican groups of central Mexico and the Yucatán were among the largest cultural groups in North America. Agricultural technology advancements facilitated the growth of early societies like Tenochtitlán in the Valley of Mexico, Cahokia along the Mississippi River, and the desert oasis areas of the Greater Southwest.

Chaco Canyon in northern New Mexico, inhabited by ancestral Puebloan peoples between 900 and 1300 CE, housed as many as fifteen thousand individuals. Sophisticated agricultural practices, extensive trading networks, and domesticated animals like turkeys supported a large population. Massive residential structures were built from sandstone blocks and lumber, including Pueblo Bonito, which covered two acres and rose five stories with six hundred rooms decorated with copper bells, turquoise, and macaws. Homes included kivas, small dugout rooms used for ceremonies and as cultural centers. Puebloan spirituality was linked to the earth and heavens, with generations charting the stars and designing homes aligned with the sun and moon.

The Puebloan people of Chaco Canyon faced ecological challenges like deforestation and overirrigation, leading to the community's collapse and dispersal. A fifty-year drought began in 1130, leading to the desertion of Chaco Canyon. New groups, including the Apache and Navajo, entered the territory and adopted Puebloan customs. The same drought likely affected the Mississippian peoples, who developed one of the largest civilizations north of modern-day Mexico. Cahokia, the largest Mississippian settlement, peaked at a population between ten thousand and thirty thousand around 1000 years ago, rivaling contemporary European cities. The city spanned two thousand acres and centered on Monks Mound, a large earthen hill that rose ten stories, larger at its base than the pyramids of Egypt. As with the Woodland peoples, life and death in Cahokia were linked to the movement of the stars, sun, and moon, reflected in their ceremonial earthwork structures.

Cahokia was politically organized around chiefdoms, a hierarchical system that gave leaders secular and sacred authority. The city's size and influence suggest reliance on lesser chiefdoms under a paramount leader. Social stratification was maintained through frequent warfare. War captives were enslaved, forming an essential part of the economy in the North American Southeast. Native American slavery was not based on property ownership but on a lack of kinship networks. Enslaved individuals could become fully integrated community members through adoption or marriage, enabling them to enter a kinship network.

Around 1050, Cahokia experienced a "big bang," with a rapid shift in political, social, and ideological aspects. The population grew by almost 500 percent in one generation as new groups were absorbed. By 1300, strains led to the city's collapse. Ecological disaster or slow depopulation were initially cited, but research now emphasizes warfare or internal political tensions. Environmental explanations suggest that population growth strained arable land, and the demand for fuel and building materials led to deforestation, erosion, and drought. Defensive stockades suggest that political turmoil among the ruling elite and external threats contributed to the civilization's end.

North American communities were connected through kinship, politics, culture, and long-distance trading routes. The Mississippi River served as a critical trade artery, supported by waterways vital to transportation and communication. Cahokia's location near the Mississippi, Illinois, and Missouri Rivers made it a key trading center. These rivers facilitated networks stretching from the Great Lakes to the American Southeast. Materials like seashells traveled over a thousand miles to reach Cahokia. The community at Poverty Point, Louisiana, had access to copper from Canada and flint from Indiana 3,500 years ago. Mica from the Allegheny Mountains was found at the Serpent Mound site near the Ohio River, and obsidian from Mexico was found at nearby earthworks. Turquoise from the Greater Southwest was used at Teotihuacan 1200 years ago.

In the Eastern Woodlands, many Native American societies lived in dispersed communities to leverage abundant soil, rivers, and streams. The Lenapes, or Delawares, farmed bottomlands throughout the Hudson and Delaware River watersheds in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Their settlements were loosely connected by political, social, and spiritual bonds. Kinship tied Lenape communities together, with society organized along matrilineal lines. Marriage occurred between clans, and married men joined their wives' clans. Lenape women held authority over marriages, households, and agricultural production, possibly influencing the selection of leaders, called sachems.

Dispersed authority, small settlements, and kin-based organization contributed to the stability and resilience of Lenape communities. Sachems governed by consent, acquiring authority through wisdom and experience, differing from the hierarchical Mississippian cultures. Large gatherings occurred for ceremonial purposes and decision-making. Sachems spoke for their people in councils that included men, women, and elders. Occasional tensions arose with groups like the Iroquois and Susquehannock, but the absence of fortifications suggests that the Lenapes avoided large-scale warfare.

The longevity of Lenape societies was also due to their farming and fishing skills. Along with the Three Sisters, Lenape women planted tobacco, sunflowers, and gourds, harvested fruits and nuts, and cultivated medicinal plants. They organized communities to capitalize on growing seasons and animal migration patterns, gathering in larger groups during planting and harvesting seasons. As skilled fishers, they organized seasonal fish camps to net shellfish and catch shad, weaving nets, baskets, and household materials from rushes along the streams, rivers, and coasts. They created a stable, prosperous civilization in fertile lands, and their prosperity was quickly recognized by the first Dutch and Swedish settlers in the seventeenth century, who sought their friendship.

In the Pacific Northwest, the Kwakwaka'wakw, Tlingits, Haidas, and other peoples thrived in a moderate climate with lush forests and rivers. Salmon was crucial for survival and was highly valued, appearing on totem poles, baskets, canoes, and tools. It was treated with spiritual respect, symbolizing prosperity, life, and renewal. Sustainable harvesting practices ensured the survival of salmon populations. The Coast Salish people celebrated the First Salmon Ceremony when the first migrating salmon was spotted. Elders monitored salmon runs and delayed harvesting to ensure future spawning. Men used nets, hooks, and small tools to catch salmon, while large cedar canoes enabled fishing expeditions in the Pacific Ocean, where they caught halibut, sturgeon, and other fish.

Food surpluses led to significant population growth, and the Pacific Northwest became densely populated. This, combined with surplus food, created a unique social organization centered on elaborate feasts called potlatches. Potlatches celebrated births, weddings, and determined social status. Hosts demonstrated wealth and power by entertaining guests with food, artwork, and performances. The more hosts gave away, the more prestige they gained. Some men saved for decades to host extravagant potlatches.

Many Pacific Northwest peoples built plank houses from cedar trees, such as the five-hundred-foot-long Suquamish Oleman House. Totem poles, carved and painted with animals or figures, told stories and expressed identities. Masks and other wooden items were also carved.

Despite commonalities, Native cultures varied greatly, with hundreds of languages and diverse climates. Some lived in cities, others in small bands, some migrated seasonally, and others settled permanently. All had long histories and unique cultures, but the arrival of Europeans changed everything.

European Expansion

Scandinavian seafarers reached the New World before Columbus, sailing as far east as Constantinople and raiding North Africa. They established colonies in Iceland and Greenland, and around the year 1000, Leif Erikson reached Newfoundland, Canada. However, the Norse colony failed due to limited resources, harsh weather, food shortages, and Native resistance.

Centuries before Columbus, the Crusades connected Europe with the wealth, power, and knowledge of Asia. Europeans rediscovered Greek, Roman, and Muslim knowledge, sparking the Renaissance and fueling expansion. Asian goods flooded European markets, increasing demand for new commodities and trade supremacy.

European nation-states consolidated under powerful kings. The Hundred Years' War between England and France accelerated nationalism and cultivated financial and military administration. In Spain, the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile consolidated the Iberian peninsula's most powerful kingdoms. The Spanish crown concluded the Reconquista by expelling Muslim Moors and Iberian Jews in 1492, the same year Columbus sailed west. These new nations sought access to Asia's wealth.

Seafaring Italian traders controlled Mediterranean trade with Asia, and Spain and Portugal sought a more direct route, investing heavily in exploration. Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal invested in research and technology, leading to breakthroughs like the astrolabe for calculating latitude and the caravel, a ship suited for ocean exploration. The astrolabe allowed for precise navigation, and the caravel's rugged design enabled lengthy voyages and large cargo capacity.

Driven by economic and religious motivations, the Portuguese established forts along the Atlantic coast of Africa in the fifteenth century, initiating colonization. Trading posts funded further trade and colonization. By the end of the fifteenth century, Vasco da Gama reached India and other Asian markets.

Ocean currents forced Iberian sailors to sail west before heading east to Africa, leading to the discovery of islands off the coast of Europe and Africa, including the Azores, the Canary Islands, and the Cape Verde Islands, which became training grounds for colonization and sugar cultivation by enslaved laborers.

Sugar was originally grown in Asia and became a luxury item in Europe. The Portuguese learned sugar-growing from Mediterranean plantations started by Muslims, using enslaved labor. Sugar required tropical temperatures, rainfall, and a long growing season. The Atlantic islands provided defensible land for sugar production, leading to ecological destruction. The Canary Island natives, known as the Guanches, were enslaved or perished after European arrival.

Portugal turned to enslaved Africans from Senegambia, the Gold Coast, Benin, Kongo, and Ndongo as a labor source for island plantations, trading war captives for guns, iron, and manufactured goods. This differed from chattel slavery. Portuguese trading posts purchased enslaved people for sugar fields. The Portuguese plantation system developed on the island of São Tomé became a model for the plantation system.

Spain also advanced maritime technology, with its sailors mastering caravels. Spain yearned for its own path to empire as Portugal consolidated control over African trading networks. Christopher Columbus, an Italian-born sailor, promised that opportunity. He underestimated the size of the globe and convinced Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain to provide him with three ships, which set sail in 1492. On October 12, 1492, after two months at sea, the ships landed in the modern-day Bahamas.

The Indigenous Arawaks, or Taíno, populated the Caribbean islands, fishing and growing corn, yams, and cassava. Columbus described them as innocent. The Arawaks wore small gold ornaments. Columbus left thirty-nine Spaniards at a military fort on Hispaniola to find gold while he returned to Spain with a dozen captured Arawaks.

Columbus promised the Spanish crown gold and enslaved laborers. He reported, "With fifty men they can all be subjugated and made to do what is required of them." He returned with seventeen ships and over one thousand men, believing he had landed in the East Indies. The Spanish sought to extract wealth from the Caribbean, decimating the Arawaks. Bartolomé de Las Casas described the Spanish cutting off the hands, noses, and ears of Indians. Enslaved laborers exhausted the islands' gold reserves, and the Spaniards forced them to labor on encomiendas. Violence and dehumanizing exploitation ravaged the Arawaks, and their population collapsed. Historians estimate the pre-contact population at one to eight million, but they were soon gone.

Native Americans were unprepared for the arrival of Europeans. Isolated from the Old World, its domesticated animals, and its immunological history, Native Americans lived free from terrible diseases but lacked the immunities that Europeans and Africans had developed. Europeans carried smallpox, typhus, influenza, diphtheria, measles, and hepatitis, which decimated Native communities. Many died in war and slavery, but millions died in epidemics. As much as 90 percent of the population of the Americas perished within the first century and a half of European contact.

Though ravaged by disease and warfare, Native Americans resisted and adapted to colonialism, shaping life in the New World for hundreds of years. But the Europeans kept coming.

Spanish Exploration and Conquest

As news of the Spanish conquest spread, Spaniards sought land, gold, and titles in the New World. A New World empire spread from Spain's Caribbean foothold. Motives were clear: to serve God and the king, and to get rich. Mercenaries joined the conquest to capture the New World's wealth.

The Spanish managed labor relations through the encomienda, an exploitive system tying Indigenous laborers to estates. The Spanish crown granted land and natives to individuals. Encomenderos brutalized their laborers. After Bartolomé de Las Casas published his account of Spanish abuses (The Destruction of the Indies), Spanish authorities abolished the encomienda in 1542 and replaced it with the repartimiento, which replicated many abuses, and the exploitation of the Native population continued.

As Spain's New World empire expanded, Spanish conquerors encountered the massive empires of Central and South America, including the Maya, who built massive temples, sustained populations, and constructed a civilization with writing, mathematics, and calendars. Maya civilization collapsed before European arrival, likely due to droughts and unsustainable agriculture. The Aztecs then built the largest empire in the New World, moving south into the Valley of Mexico and building Tenochtitlán, a city on islands in Lake Texcoco, founded in 1325. Tenochtitlán rivaled the world's largest cities in size and grandeur.

Much of the city was fed by crops grown on chinampas, artificial islands. The Templo Mayor was located at the city center. The Spaniards saw 70,000 buildings, housing 200,000-250,000 people, all built on a lake. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, a Spanish soldier, recalled, “When we saw so many cities and villages built in the water and other great towns on dry land, we were amazed and said that it was like the enchantments. … Some of our soldiers even asked whether the things that we saw were not a dream? . . . I do not know how to describe it, seeing things as we did that had never been heard of or seen before, not even dreamed about.