1. Native North America
Before contact.

4. Paleo-Indians
18,000 to 8,000 BCE

5. 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

8. 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

10. Archaic Age
8000 t BCE

11. 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?

13. Woodland Period
600 BCE to 1000 CE

14. 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

16. Mississippian Period
900 to 1500 CE

17. 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 CE  connection to Little Ice Age?

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

22. Ancestral Puebloans
Early emergence of group ca BCE, major collapse ca 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

24. 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

25. Environment of Chaco Canyon.

27. Pueblo Bonito at Chaco Canyon.

28. 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)