Transcript 1.2 NA in 1400sx - Thomasville High School

North America in the 1400s
Section 1.2
Main Idea
• A variety of complex
societies existed in
different regions of
North America before
European explorers
arrived in the early
1500s.
1400s
• North America (NA) was
home to many diverse
groups and languages.
• Archeologists estimate
that between 1 to 10
million American
Indians lived before
Columbus.
Southwest
• The Anasazi people
mysteriously
disappeared before
European arrival.
• The Navajo and Apache
people moved into the
area and adapted many
of the ways of life of the
Anasazi.
• They lived in pueblos,
and raised corn, squash,
and beans near rivers.
Evidence of Anasazi
Pacific Coast
• This area was much richer
in resources than the SW.
• American Indians (AI)
hunted whale, salmon,
bear, moose, and deer.
• There was plenty of wood
to build study houses and
totem poles.
• These AI enjoyed far
more luxuries than
people living elsewhere in
NA.
Totem Poles
Canada and Alaska
• Why would people in
the north be unable to
rely on farming?
• Instead the hunted for
seals, beaver, musk ox,
and bear.
• Today AI living in this
region are known as
Inuit, but we mistakenly
call them Eskimos.
Inuit Culture
Great Plains
• Groups of nomadic
people that roamed the
plains following buffalo
herds.
• Farming here was
difficult, but the
abundance of animals
made for a stable life.
• The Sioux and
Cheyenne were well
established by the time
of European arrival.
Bison
• Uses for buffalo:
– Food
– Canteen (bladder)
– Dipping spoon (scrotum
and testicles)
– Clothing
– Shelter
– Tools (bones)
– Torch (horns)
Northeast
• The Northeast was home
to the Iroquois, the AI
group that developed the
first American democracy.
• These AI had a legislative
body similar to our
Congress, where
representatives voted on
laws.
• Large numbers of forests
allowed the Iroquois to
construct permanent
wooded homes called
longhouses.
American Indian Culture
• What is a generalization?
• The diversity of the
population makes
generalizations risky.
• Many AI societies were
organized around family,
these are called clans.
• Some were matrilineal,
meaning the women, not
men, help property and
passed on their names.
• Land was not bought and
sold, instead most AI
groups believed that the
land belonged to
everyone in the clan.
• Rival groups would fight
over control of good
hunting grounds.
• Division of labor usually
called for women to farm
and gather and men to
hunt.
Trade
• Although AI groups were
separated by distance and
languages they still traded
between each other.
• Coastal groups might trade
shells to mountain people in
exchange for iron.
• The most well know trading
path was from the Iroquois
lands in New York down to
the Cherokee in NC.
– The path ran right
through Thomasville!