American History {Chapter 1}
The First People of the Americas
People Migrate to the Americas * Paleo-Indians – first humans to live in the Americas (believed to have come from Siberia) * Ice Age – a time lasting thousands of years during which the Earth was covered with ice and glaciers * The Paleo-Indian hunters had a favored prey of immense mammals such as mammoths, mastodons, and giant bison * The first people to arrive in the Americas arrived in small boats
Paleo-Indians Adapt to Climate Change * The warming climate and the spread of the skilled Paleo-Indian hunters killed off the mammoths and other large mammals * Paleo-Indians adapted to the climate change by relying less on hunting large mammals and more in fishing and gathering nuts, berries, and roots * Developed tracking techniques needed for hunting small, mobile animals such as deer, antelope, moose, elk, and caribou * More food sources led to population growth
Diverse Culture Emerge * Indians became culturally diverse as they adapted to their varying local climates and environments * Over time, languages, rituals, mythic stories, and kinship systems became more complex and varied * By 1492, American Indians spoke at least 375 distinct languages (Athapaskan, Alogonquian, Caddoan, Siouan, Shoshonean, and Iroquoian) * Each language group divided into many ethnic groups called tribes or nations (subdivided into many smaller groups that identified with a particular village or hunting territory) * Each group was headed by a chief, who was usually advised by a council of elders
The Beginnings of Agriculture * American Indians developed three important crops: maize (corn), squashes, and beans * Expanded food supply promoted population growth which led to larger, permanent villages * By studying the sun, moon, and stars, the Mexican people developed precise calendars of the seasons and the days * Along the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean coast, the leading people were the Olmecs and later the Mayas * In the highlands of central Mexico, the Aztecs became the most powerful people * Crop cultivation was common in the American Southwest, Midwest, Southeast, and parts of the Northeast * Coastal peoples in what is now California and the Pacific Northwest did not need to farm because their fishing—usually for salmon—and their gathering of nuts, seeds, and berries was so productive
Early American Indian Cultures
The Southwest * The cultivation of crops in the first farming villages required building ponds, dams, and ditches in order to irrigate, or bring water to the fields (building such complex systems required leadership by a group of priests and chiefs * The Hohokams lived in the Gila and Salt river valleys of present-day southern Arizona (built more than 500 miles of irrigation canals) * Irrigation canals were so elaborate that later peoples referred to the Hohokams as Canal Builders * Adobe – a type of sun-dried brick * The Anasazis occupied the upland canyons in the Four Corners region * At Chaco Canyon, the Anasazis built an especially complex village that required 30,000 tons of sand-stone blocks (became center of the Anasazi world) * Both the Hohokams and Anasazis experienced a severe crisis as a prolonged drought reduced crops and the resulting famine led to violence between rival villages competing for scarce resources * Today, the Anasazis are known as the Pueblo peoples
The Mississippi River Valley * Mississippians were influenced by the great cultures of Mexico * Cahokia – largest and wealthiest city of the Mississippian culture * Cahokia provided fertile soil and excellent trade connections with distant groups * Cahokia’s residents abandoned the city (environmental crisis led to social conflict, growing population depleted the soil and deer, hunger led to disease and fighting among villages
The Great Plains *