Native Americans General Considerations

Many thousands of years before Christopher Columbus ships landed in the Bahamas,
a different group of people discovered America: the nomadic ancestors of modern
Native Americans ho hi!ed over a "land bridge# from Asia to hat is no Alas!a
more than $%,&&& years ago' (n fact, by the time )uropean adventurers arrived in the
$*th century A'+', scholars estimate that more than *& million people ere already
living in the Americas' ,f these, some $& million lived in the area that ould become
the -nited .tates' As time passed, these migrants and their descendants pushed south
and east, adapting as they ent' (n order to !eep trac! of these diverse groups,
anthropologists and geographers have divided them into "culture areas,# or rough
groupings of contiguous peoples ho shared similar habitats and characteristics'
Most scholars brea! North America/e0cluding present1day Me0ico/into $&
separate culture areas: the Arctic, the .ubarctic, the Northeast, the .outheast, the
2lains, the .outhest, the Great Basin, California, the Northest Coast and the
2lateau'
3he Northeast
3he Northeast culture area, one of the first to have sustained contact ith )uropeans,
stretched from present1day Canadas Atlantic coast to North Carolina and inland to
the Mississippi 4iver valley' (ts inhabitants ere members of to main groups:
(ro5uoian spea!ers 6these included the Cayuga, ,neida, )rie, ,nondaga, .eneca and
3uscarora7, most of hom lived along inland rivers and la!es in fortified, politically
stable villages, and the more numerous Algon5uian spea!ers 6these included the
2e5uot, 8o0, .hanee, 9ampanoag, +elaare and Menominee7 ho lived in small
farming and fishing villages along the ocean' 3here, they gre crops li!e corn, beans
and vegetables'
:ife in the Northeast culture area as already fraught ith conflict/the (ro5uoian
groups tended to be rather aggressive and arli!e, and bands and villages outside of
their allied confederacies ere never safe from their raids/and it gre more
complicated hen )uropean coloni;ers arrived' Colonial ars repeatedly forced the
regions natives to ta!e sides, pitting the (ro5uois groups against their Algon5uian
neighbors' Meanhile, as hite settlement pressed estard, it eventually displaced
both sets of indigenous people from their lands'
3he .outheast
3he .outheast culture area, north of the Gulf of Me0ico and south of the Northeast,
as a humid, fertile agricultural region' Many of its natives ere e0pert farmers/
they gre staple crops li!e mai;e, beans, s5uash, tobacco and sunfloer/ho
organi;ed their lives around small ceremonial and mar!et villages !non as hamlets'
2erhaps the most familiar of the .outheastern indigenous peoples are the Chero!ee,
Chic!asa, Chocta, Cree! and .eminole, sometimes called the 8ive Civili;ed
3ribes, ho all spo!e a variant of the Mus!ogean language'
By the time the -'.' had on its independence from Britain, the .outheast culture
area had already lost many of its native people to disease and displacement' (n $<=&,
the federal (ndian 4emoval Act compelled the relocation of hat remained of the
8ive Civili;ed 3ribes so that hite settlers could have their land' Beteen $<=& and
$<=<, federal officials forced nearly $&&,&&& (ndians out of the southern states and
into "(ndian 3erritory# 6later ,!lahoma7 est of the Mississippi' 3he Chero!ee called
this fre5uently deadly tre! the 3rail of 3ears'
3he 2lains
3he 2lains culture area comprises the vast prairie region beteen the Mississippi
4iver and the 4oc!y Mountains, from present1day Canada to the Gulf of Me0ico'
Before the arrival of )uropean traders and e0plorers, its inhabitants/spea!ers of
.iouan, Algon5uian, Caddoan, -to1A;tecan and Athabas!an languages/ere
relatively settled hunters and farmers' After )uropean contact, and especially after
.panish colonists brought horses to the region in the $<th century, the peoples of the
Great 2lains became much more nomadic' Groups li!e the Cro, Blac!feet,
Cheyenne, Comanche and Arapaho used horses to pursue great herds of buffalo
across the prairie' 3he most common delling for these hunters as the cone1shaped
teepee, a bison1s!in tent that could be folded up and carried anyhere' 2lains (ndians
are also !non for their elaborately feathered ar bonnets'
As hite traders and settlers moved est across the 2lains region, they brought many
damaging things ith them: commercial goods, li!e !nives and !ettles, hich native
people came to depend on> guns> and disease' By the end of the $?th century, hite
sport hunters had nearly e0terminated the areas buffalo herds' 9ith settlers
encroaching on their lands and no ay to ma!e money, the 2lains natives ere forced
onto government reservations'
3he .outhest
3he peoples of the .outhest culture area, a huge desert region in present1
day Ari;ona and Ne Me0ico 6along ith parts of Colorado, -tah, 3e0as and
Me0ico7 developed to distinct ays of life'
.edentary farmers such as the @opi, the Auni, the Ba5ui and the Buma gre crops
li!e corn, beans and s5uash' Many lived in permanent settlements, !non as pueblos,
built of stone and adobe' 3hese pueblos featured great multistory dellings that
resembled apartment houses' At their centers, many of these villages also had large
ceremonial pit houses, or !ivas'
,ther .outhestern peoples, such as the NavaCo and the Apache, ere more nomadic'
3hey survived by hunting, gathering and raiding their more established neighbors for
their crops' Because these groups ere alays on the move, their homes ere much
less permanent than the pueblos' 8or instance, the NavaCo fashioned their iconic
eastard1facing round houses, !non as hogans, out of materials li!e mud and bar!'
By the time the southestern territories became a part of the -nited .tates after the
Me0ican 9ar, many of the regions native people had already been e0terminated'
6.panish colonists and missionaries had enslaved many of the 2ueblo (ndians, for
e0ample, or!ing them to death on vast .panish ranches !non as encomiendas'7
+uring the second half of the $?th century, the federal government resettled most of
the regions remaining natives onto reservations'
3he Great Basin
3he Great Basin culture area, an e0pansive bol formed by the 4oc!y Mountains to
the east, the .ierra Nevadas to the est, the Columbia 2lateau to the north, and the
Colorado 2lateau to the south, as a barren asteland of deserts, salt flats and
brac!ish la!es' (ts people, most of hom spo!e .hoshonean or -to1A;tecan dialects
6the Bannoc!, 2aiute and -te, for e0ample7, foraged for roots, seeds and nuts and
hunted sna!es, li;ards and small mammals' Because they ere alays on the move,
they lived in compact, easy1to1build i!iups made of illo poles or saplings, leaves
and brush' 3heir settlements and social groups ere impermanent, and communal
leadership 6hat little there as7 as informal'
After )uropean contact, some Great Basin groups got horses and formed e5uestrian
hunting and raiding bands that ere similar to the ones e associate ith the Great
2lains natives' After hite prospectors discovered gold and silver in the region in the
mid1$?th century, most of the Great Basins people lost their land and, fre5uently,
their lives'
California
Before )uropean contact, the temperate, hospitable California culture area had more
people/an estimated =&&,&&& in the mid1$Dth century/than any other' (t as also
more diverse: (ts estimated $&& different tribes and groups spo!e more spo!e more
than %&& dialects' 63hese languages derived from the 2enutian 6the Maidu, Mio!
and Bo!uts7, the @o!an 6the Chumash, 2omo, .alinas and .hasta7, the -to1A;tecan
6the 3ubabulabal, .errano and Einatemu!> also, many of the "Mission (ndians# ho
had been driven out of the .outhest by .panish coloni;ation spo!e -to1A;tecan
dialects7 and Athapas!an 6the @upa, among others7' (n fact, as one scholar has
pointed out, Californias linguistic landscape as more comple0 than that of )urope'
+espite this great diversity, many native Californians lived very similar lives' 3hey
did not practice much agriculture' (nstead, they organi;ed themselves into small,
family1based bands of hunter1gatherers !non as tribelets' (nter1tribelet relationships,
based on ell1established systems of trade and common rights, ere generally
peaceful'
.panish e0plorers infiltrated the California region in the middle of the $Dth century'
(n $FD?, the cleric Gunipero .erra established a mission at .an +iego, inaugurating a
particularly brutal period in hich forced labor, disease and assimilation nearly
e0terminated the culture areas native population'
3he Northest Coast
3he Northest Coast culture area, along the 2acific coast from British Columbia to
the top of Northern California, has a mild climate and an abundance of natural
resources' (n particular, the ocean and the regions rivers provided almost everything
its people needed/salmon, especially, but also hales, sea otters, seals and fish and
shellfish of all !inds' As a result, unli!e many other hunter1gatherers ho struggled to
e!e out a living and ere forced to follo animal herds from place to place, the
(ndians of the 2acific Northest ere secure enough to build permanent villages that
housed hundreds of people apiece' 3hose villages operated according to a rigidly
stratified social structure, more sophisticated than any outside of Me0ico and Central
America' A persons status as determined by his closeness to the villages chief and
reinforced by the number of possessions/blan!ets, shells and s!ins, canoes and even
slaves/he had at his disposal' 6Goods li!e these played an important role in the
potlatch, an elaborate gift1giving ceremony designed to affirm these class divisions'7
2rominent groups in the region included the Athapas!an @aida and 3lingit> the
2enutian Chinoo!, 3simshian and Coos> the 9a!ashan Ea!iutl and Nuu1chah1nulth
6Noot!a7> and the .alishan Coast .alish'
3he 2lateau
3he 2lateau culture area sat in the Columbia and 8raser river basins at the
intersection of the .ubarctic, the 2lains, the Great Basin, the California and the
Northest Coast 6present1day (daho,Montana and eastern ,regon and 9ashington7'
Most of its people lived in small, peaceful villages along stream and riverban!s and
survived by fishing for salmon and trout, hunting and gathering ild berries, roots
and nuts' (n the southern 2lateau region, the great maCority spo!e languages derived
from the 2enutian 6the Elamath, Eli!itat, Modoc, Ne; 2erce, 9alla 9alla and
Ba!ima or Ba!ama7' North of the Columbia 4iver, most 6the .!itsish 6Coeur
dAlene7, .alish 68lathead7, .po!ane and Columbia7 spo!e .alishan dialects'
(n the $<th century, other native groups brought horses to the 2lateau' 3he regions
inhabitants 5uic!ly integrated the animals into their economy, e0panding the radius of
their hunts and acting as traders and emissaries beteen the Northest and the 2lains'
(n $<&*, the e0plorers :eis and Clar! passed through the area, draing increasing
numbers of disease1spreading hite settlers' By the end of the $?th century, most of
the remaining 2lateau (ndians had been cleared from their lands and resettled in
government reservations'
Native American Art
Curiously, no ord e0ists in the hundreds of Native American languages that comes
close to our definition of art' 9hat does this meanH 3he anser is that in traditional
(ndian thin!ing, there is no separation beteen art and life or beteen hat is beautiful
and hat is functional' Art, everyday life and spirituality are so firmly intertined in
the routine of living that no ords are needed to separate them'
.hamanism
All Native American societies recogni;ed the e0ceptional receptivity to visionary
e0perience of certain individuals, and the ability such people have to gain access to
especially poerful spirit protectors' 3hese individuals, or shamans, could be of either
se0, though they have most often been men' 1 .hamans ore distinctive dress and used
amulets and mas!s to display the images of their poer beings, among hich the bear
is especially prominent across northern North America'
Native American :anguages
Variety
A common misconception is that there as one Native American language' (n reality,
there ere perhaps a thousand languages spo!en in the Americas before the arrival of
)uropeans 1 about %*& in the present territory of the -nited .tates alone' (n addition,
these languages shoed tremendous variety beteen one another' A trio of
individuals from three areas a hundred miles apart might very li!ely have been
completely unable to communicate by speech' 3here as, hoever, a sign language
used in some areas to allo communication beteen those of different tribes' 3his is
described in detail in 9illiam Clar!Is boo!, J3he (ndian .ign :anguageJ'
Complexity
3he spo!en languages ere neither primitive nor simple, and many had grammars as
comple0 as those of 4ussian and :atin' @oever, ith the e0ception of an
ideographic system used by the Mayans and their neighbors near the Bucatan
peninsula, none of the native languages of America had a riting system until the
arrival of )uropeans
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