American Indian History

Evolution of Humans (Lecture 1)

  • Humans first evolved in Africa 4-5 million years ago.

  • Through Evolution and adaptation, different human species began to change

  • Around 120,000 - 100,000 years ago, modern humans began to migrate out of Africa into the rest of the world.

  • We suspect that they reached North American by an Ice Age “land bridge” about 12,000 years ago. (also known as berengia)

    • Side note: berengia connected from east russia into west alaska

  • They lived a nomadic livestyle, moving to america to hunt the large animals and began to settle very slowly as they follow the game through the bridge, using the hides to keep themselves warm.

  • Eventually, the land bridge melted (around 12,000 years ago) and reappeared (11,000 years ago) until people began to stay permanently in north america.

  • They would go out in many different directions, with some of the earliest indian americans going southwest

  • Four periods of american Indian settlement:

    • Paleo-Indian

    • Archaic

    • Formative

    • European Colonization (Ends the formative period)

North America (from the Big Bang to European Crossing) (Lecture 2)

  • Paleo-Indian Period

    • Carbon Dating puts the period at which people first came to America about 13,000 years ago, others say people were here beforehand

    • American Indians’ creation stories say that their people had always been in North America since the beginning of time

    • The period comes to an end with the end of the ice age about 10,000 years ago

  • Archaic period

    • Time that hte Paleo indians spread out across the americas

    • Lasted until about 4 to 5,000 years ago

    • Indians begin to seetle across north america from the southwest, to mexico, to the eastern part of the country.

    • By the end of the period, there is a large number of american indian settlements, cities, cultures, traditions, etc.

    • While we cannot pin down the exact time it ended, we are able to differentiate when the next period starts

  • The Formative Period

    • Sociopolitical systems start, and there is a shift from nomadic ways of life to permanent settlement and the start of agriculture

    • Depending on the scholar, some say it occured around 3,000 to 5,000 years ago

    • Some places left behind nomadic ways of hunting, numbering up to 10,000 people in these places

    • Cahookia - large city that had earth mounds that went high into the air

    • Cultures like Cahokia developed in the southwest, such as the Anasazi

      • They had multi-story apartments and connected roads to allow for long distance trading

    • Tennessee has 6 main Indian tribes: Quapaw, Chickasaw, Shawnee, Cherokee, Yushi, Kusatoo

    • The Three Sisters

      • Three foods that characterize farming in the formative period

        • Corn - originally much smaller than the corn that we know of now

        • Beans - Good source of protein

        • Squash

    • This period ends once the Indians reach contact with Europe

Anasazi Culture (Lecture 3)

  • Anasazi Cultures / Pueblo Indians

    • Transfered from a nomadic into sedentary agricultural culture

    • Began building villages into canyon walls (apartment complexes)

    • Disease, warfare, and drought all led to a loss of life in the Pueblos

    • Today, they still farm, make pottery, and basket weave.

  • Mississippi Culture

    • Cahokia provides a clear picture of their culture through its mounds - Religious purposes, burial mounds, civilian buildings

      • Center of at least 50 communities

      • Center of a major trading network (now Oklahoma to the Atlantic coast, great lakes region, and to the gulf coast

    • Tradition reached peak in 1200 to 1500 CE - close to first contact between Indians and Europeans

    • Larger cities began to expand into Missouri and Arkansas

    • Produced distinctive pottery

    • The natural environment played a large part of the spiritual life of the Mississipians

      • Big idea that everything was related to one another

      • Prayed to spirits of the game they killed for having to kill it for nourishment

    • Two largest cultures of Mississipian culture were the Cherokee and the Iroquois

  • Cherokee

    • Part of the Iroquian language group

    • Lived in the southern Appalachian mountains around 8,000 years ago

    • By 1,500 years BCE, language had developed as a distinct language and by 1,000 BCE were living a woodland lifestyle, cultivated the three sisters

    • Central philosophy was about harmony and balance of the natural world

    • Government was done through democratic consensus, though it relied on large leaders like priests and chiefs

    • family was a large tenant of life

    • Women had a large place in Cherokee society, as the property passed down from mother to daughter

  • Iroquois

    • Composed of four groups - Seneca, Cayuga, Oninaga, Oneida. The Tuscarora would later join.

    • This confederacy was a very powerful military force - they played a large part in some of the European conflicts in the wars that went on in America

    • Mostly agricultural - Cultivated the three sisters along with sunflowers and other crops

    • Shifted their fields every 10 to 12 years

    • Women controlled property and the election of leaders, and to an extent whether the tribes went into warfare

    • trade was largely important - some items were found on the eastern coast

    • Women were responsible for housework and agricultural work, and men hunted, fished, and traded, though women also had traded and participated in government warfare