Heimler APUSH Unit 1.2

Introduction to Native American Cultures

• Diversity of Cultures

  • Before European contact, Native American peoples organized into a variety of cultures depending on their geography.

  • Common stereotype: Native Americans as uniform horse riders hunting buffalo – this view is misleading.

  • Varied lifestyles: fishing villages, nomadic hunters, agricultural communities, and large city-based empires.

Mesoamerican Civilizations

• Aztecs (Mexica)

  • Capital: Tenochtitlan, population peaked around 300,000.

  • Known for complex irrigation systems and religious practices.

• Maya

  • Settled on the Yucatan Peninsula.

  • Developed large cities, complex irrigation, and stone temples for rulers believed to be divine.

• Inca

  • Civilization located in the Andes Mountains of present-day Peru.

  • Empire size: approximately 16 million people across 350,000 square miles.

  • Key crop: potatoes, along with maize, irrigated by sophisticated systems.

Significance of Maize

• Maize Cultivation

  • Integral for nutrition and economic development.

  • Supported settlement patterns, advanced irrigation, and social diversification.

  • Spread northward, influencing cultures across North America.

Native American Cultures in North America

• Southwest - Pueblo Peoples

  • Location: Present-day New Mexico and Arizona.

  • Features: sedentary farming communities, adobe and masonry homes.

  • Organized society with administrative and religious centers.

• Great Plains and Great Basin

  • Inhabited by nomadic hunter-gatherers, requiring large areas for sustenance.

  • Example: Ute people organized in egalitarian, kin-based bands.

• Pacific Northwest

  • Settled into fishing villages and relied on natural resources.

  • Example: Chinook people lived in large plank houses made from cedar.

  • Chumash people in California were hunters and gatherers with permanent settlements based on food availability.

Mississippi River Valley Societies

• Hopewell Culture

  • Towns of 4,000 to 6,000 people engaged in extensive trade networks across North America.

• Cahokia Civilization

  • Largest settlement with population estimates between 10,000 to 30,000.

  • Centralized government led by powerful chieftains with wide trade connections.

Northeastern Societies

• Iroquois Confederacy

  • Lived in sizable villages, practiced agriculture (maize, squash, beans).

  • Constructed longhouses accommodating 30 to 50 family members.