Indigenous America

New World

  • 70,000 years ago people spread around Africa, Europe, and Asia.

  • The people followed where the animals (food) went.

  • 20,000 years ago earth was colder due to the Ice Age. So, the people walked from Siberia to North America.

  • 14,000 years ago the earth started getting warmer. The land connecting Siberia and North America melted, people couldn’t walk back to Siberia so, they spread across the Americas.

Agriculture

  • 9,000 years ago corn, squash, and beans (the three sisters) were domesticated.

  • China domesticates rice and Egypt domesticates wheat and grains.

Specialization

  • An occupation as an identity.

Gender Roles

  • Women farmed, men did everything else.

Native Survey

Common Ground

  • Spiritual practices (animist or polytheist)

    • The animist believed everything had a soul.

    • Polytheists believed in multiple gods.

  • Kinship - identified with families and clans (unless you were a slave)

Eastern Woodlands

  • Located between Mississippi and the Atlantic, wild rice was only grown here.

Plains

  • Located in the west of North America, Mostly nomadic and buffalo central.

Arctic

  • Inuits - Arctic people

  • Located in the North.

  • Inuits would hunt whales and seals for food.

  • They sailed along the rivers for vegetation.

Cahokia

  • Bloomed in 800AD-1300AD

  • Modern day Illinois

  • Had a population of 30,000

  • Multiple regions merged together to make a village

  • They traded with North America