Notes

lesson 4

The Pacific Northwest (from Oregon to Alaska) was rich in resources and supported a sizable population. To the Kwakiutl, Nootka, and Haida peoples, the most important resource was the sea. They hunted whales in canoes. Canoes were large enough to carry 15 people. In addition to the many resources of the sea, the coastal forest provided plentiful food. In this environment, the Northwest Coast tribes developed societies in which differences in wealth created social classes. Families displayed their rank and prosperity in a ceremony called the potlatch. In this ceremony, they gave food, drink, and gifts to the community. A bird headdress was used by the Kwakiutl in religious ceremonies. Carved of red cedar and painted, it shows a thunderbird, the highest of the spirits in the Kwakiutl religion. According to stories, it would swoop down and eat killer whales.

The desert lands of the Southwest were a much harsher environment than the Pacific coastlands. But as early as 1500 BC, the people of the Southwest were beginning to farm the land. Because of the climate, competition for farmland led to conflicts. The Hohokam of central Arizona were the most successful of early farmers. They used irrigation to produce harvests of corn, beans, and squash. Their use of pottery rather than baskets showed contact with Mesoamerican people to the south.

The Anasazi (People from the north) also influenced the Hohokam. They lived in the Four Corners region, where the present-day states of Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico meet. The Anasazi built cliff dwellings, such as the ones at Mesa Verde, Colorado. These large houses were built on top of mesas (flat-topped hills) or in shallow caves in the walls of canyons. By the AD 900s, the Anasazi were living in pueblos, villages of large, apartment-style compounds made of stone and adobe, or sun-baked clay. The contained 217 rooms. The largest Anasazi pueblo, begun around AD 900, was Pueblo Bonito. Its construction required a high degree of social organization and inventiveness. The Anasazi relied on human labor to quarry sandstone from the canyon walls and move it to the site. Builders then used a mudlike mortar to construct walls up to five stories high. Windows were small to keep out the burning sun. When completed, Pueblo Bonito housed about 1,000 people and contained more than 600 rooms. In addition, a number of underground or partly underground ceremonial chambers called kivas were used for a variety of religious practices. Many Anasazi pueblos were abandoned around 1200, possibly because of a prolonged drought. The descendants of the Anasazi, the pueblo people, continued many of their customs. Pueblo groups like the Hopi and Zuni used kivas for religious ceremonies. They also created beautiful pottery and woven blankets. They traded these, along with corn and other farm products, with plains Indians to the east, who supplied bison meat and hides. These nomadic plains tribes eventually became known by such names as the Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache.

Beginning around 700 BC, the Adena began to build huge earth mounds in which they buried their dead. Mounds that held the bodies of tribal leaders were filled with gifts, such as crafted copper and stone objects. 500 years later, the Hopewell culture also began building burial mounds. Their mounds were much larger and more plentiful than those of the Adena. Some of the Hopewell mounds may have been used for purposes other than burials. For example, the Great Serpent Mound, near Hillsboro, Ohio, have played a part in Hopewell religious ceremonies.
The Mississippian lasted from around AD 800 until the arrival of Europeans in the 1500s. These people created thriving villages based on farming and trade. Between 1000 and 1200, as many as 30,000 people lived at Cahokia, the leading site of Mississippian culture. Cahokia was led by priest-rulers, who regulated farming activities. The heart of the community was a 100-foot-high, flat-topped earthen pyramid, which was crowned by a wooden temple.
These Mississippian lands were located in a crossroads region between east and west. They enjoyed easy transportation on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Items found in burial mounds show that the Mississippians traded with people in the West and Mesomerica. Similar evidence shows that they also came into contact with people from the Northeast.

The eastern woodland tribes developed a variety of cultures. These people often clashed with each other over land. In some areas, tribes formed political alliances to ensure protection of tribal lands. The best example of a political alliance was the Iroquois, a group of tribes speaking related languages living in the eastern Great Lakes region. In the late 1500s, five of these tribes in upper New York (the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca) formed the Iroquois League. According to legend, Chief Hiawatha helped to create this league. His goal was to promote joint defense and cooperation among the tribes.

Trade was a major link between the cultures. Along the Columbia River in Oregon, the Chinook people established a marketplace that brought together trade goods from all over the West. And the Mississippian trade network stretched from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic coast and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Another major link was their religious beliefs. Almost all native North Americans believed that the world around them was filled with nature spirits. Most Native Americans recognized a number of sacred spirits. Some groups held up one supreme being (or Great Spirit) above all others. North American peoples believed that the spirits gave them rituals and customs to guide them in their lives and to satisfy their basic needs. If people practiced these rituals, they would live in peace and harmony. Native American religious beliefs also included great respect for the land as the source of life. Native Americans used the land but tried to alter it as little as possible. The land was sacred, not something that could be bought and sold. Later, when Europeans claimed land in North America, the issue of land ownership created conflict.

The family was the basis for social organization for Native Americans. Generally, the family unit was the extended family, including parents, children, grandparents, and other close relatives. Some tribes further organized families into clans, or groups of families descended from a common ancestor. In some tribes, clan members lived together in large houses or groups of houses.

Common among Native American clans was the use of totems. The term refers to a natural object with which an individual, clan, or group identifies itself. The totem was used as a symbol of the unity of a group or clan. It also helped define certain behaviors and the social relationships of a group. For example, Northwestern people displayed totem symbols on masks, boats, and huge poles set in front of their houses. Others used totem symbols in rituals or dances associated with important group events such as marriages, the naming of children, or the planting or harvesting of crops.