Native North America Before contact.

Paleo-Indians 18,000 to 8,000 BCE

Paleo-Indians Hunter-gatherer-scavengers (just like other early people) Initially relied on mega-fauna (mammoths, etc.) Small kinship bands Produced flaked stone blades (flint knapping) Clovis design  found ALL OVER North America, emerging around 11,500 BCE Used the atlatl for distance hunting Lifestyle began to shift as climate slowly moved out of LGM and megafauna died  emergence of horticulture

Paleo-Indians: Diversification As groups spread, their cultures and languages began to differ FIVE major language groups developed in North America: Algonquian  Eastern Canada and New England Iroquoian  Great Lakes Region Muskogean  Southeast Siouan  Great Plains Uto-Aztecan  Northwest and Southwest

Archaic Age 8000 t0 1000 BCE

Archaic Age Began when people began to form settled communities Developing horticulture  domesticating wild plants: squash, gourds, pumpkins, sunflowers, beans, and maize Domestication of the dog (used for hunting and as a pack animal), and turkey (food source) Heavy reliance on oysters, fisheries, and small game along coast Increasing population density Shown through significant midden piles of shells, bones, etc  shell rings?

Woodland Period 600 BCE to 1000 CE

Woodland Period Development of the first great American civilizations during this period: Adena and Hopewell  “mound builders” constructed significant earthen mounds (usually for the burial of the dead) Major agricultural revolution by 300 CE Hohokam use complex irrigation to farm in the Southwest  populations explode New technologies emerge: bow and arrow for hunting and warfare, blowguns in the Southeast Most important: new pottery technologies allowed for better storage of food and seeds

Mississippian Period 900 to 1500 CE

Mississippian Culture Emerging out of the earlier Woodland period, Mississippian culture was: Based on major urban settlements and satellite villages  Cahokia A mound-building culture like Hopewell Based on agriculture and trade Tobacco frequently used as a currency Intensely hierarchical  strong class divisions River systems connected nearly 1/3 of the North American continent to Mississippian sites Sites appear to collapse beginning ca. 1300 CE  connection to Little Ice Age?

Cliff palaces and pit houses. Ancestral Puebloans Cliff palaces and pit houses.

Ancestral Puebloans Early emergence of group ca. 1100 BCE, major collapse ca. 1250 CE Occupation area included the Four Corners region of the US (Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado) Term used to describe this cultural group = Anasazi NOT a term used by modern Pueblo peoples; term comes from the Navajo (not a Pueblo group) and is therefore sometimes controversial Environment  high elevation, basin-and-range topography, arid and semi-arid conditions Geology of the region lends itself to cliffside caves and overhangs  used in some cases as housing

Ancestral Puebloans Extremely well-known for their architecture Initial use of round pit-houses  kept the dwelling cool during summer and insulated in winter Change over to use apartment-style complexes, usually built into canyon or cliff faces Planned cities with multistory, multipurpose buildings around a central plaza Frequently in a half-moon shape Commonly contained multiple kivas (round, subterranean religious structures) Distinctive T-shaped doors and windows Major city = Chaco Canyon (ca. 900 and 1150 CE) Buildings constructed to capture solar and lunar cycles Pilgrimage site? Extensive road system centering around Chaco Abandoned in the late 12th century CE, after 50 years of drought

Environment of Chaco Canyon.

Pueblo Bonito at Chaco Canyon.

Ancestral Puebloans Following abandonment of Chaco, populations appear to have moved north  construction boom at Mesa Verde Cliff Palaces  use same general plan for communities as Chaco, with multistory construction and kivas HOWEVER, build under giant cliff overhangs Decline in population in late 1300s, early 1400s Warfare? Drought?  some evidence of violence and cannibalism Major communities abandoned  modern Pueblo peoples develop out of scattered smaller towns (Hopi, Zuni)