Chapter 1 The First Americans

The Journey From Asia

- Achaeological finds suggest that the first Americans arrived thousand of years ago

- Archaelology is the study of ancient peoples. Archaelogists use artifacts (tools, weapons, baskets, and carvings) to develop their theories on how these ancient people made their way to the Americas.

- The most accepted theory is ancient peoples crossed the Bering Straight during the last Ice Age when sea levels were much lower, exposing a large land bridge connecting present day Siberia to Alaska.

- These ancient people were nomads, people who moved from place to place. They would have followed their food sources which may have led them across the land bridge. This would lead to a large migration, or movement, of people to the Americas.

The Journey From Asia

Settling Down

- Large animals began to disappear so early Native Americans had to look for a different food source.

- About 9000 years ago, people living in current day Mexico began to learn how to plant and harvest maize, an early form of corn. They also began to learn how to plant and harvest pumpkins, beans, and squash.

- By raising crops, early Native Americans no longer had to move from place to place following their food, and were able to produce more food than they had previously had, which also led to them being able to spend time on other activities.

- Using carbon dating, scientists can measure the amount of radioactive carbon in an artifact made from bone, wood or other biological materials and provide an approximate number, or estimate, on the artifact's age.

- This will lead to Native Americans staying in one place for extended periods and developing unique cultures, or ways of life.

The Olmec, Maya, and Aztec

- Long before Europeans arrived in the early 1500s, several great civilizations, or highly developed societies, arose in what is now Mexico and Central America.

- They built enormous cities in thick jungles and on mountain tops that were hard to reach.

- They also developed complex, or highly detailed, systems for writing, counting and tracking time.

The Olmec

- Flourished between 1500 B.C. and 300 B.C. along the Gulf Coast of what is now Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.

- Olmec farmers produced enough food to sustain cities containing thousands of people.

- Sculptors built large stone monuments and built stone pavements and drainage systems.

- Declined and collapsed for reasons unknown.

The Maya

- Built their civilization in the steamy rain forests of present-day Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize.

- Planted maize, beans, sweet potatoes, and other vegetables to feed a near 2 million people within their civilization.

- Built many large cities, each containing at least one stone pyramid, some reaching 200 feet tall.

- Maya civilization was a theocracy, where religious leaders ruled.

- Constructed a 365 day calendar and had great understanding of math.

- Devloped a form of writing called hieroglyphics.

- Transported goods by foot and along the coastlines, in canoes.

- Around 900 A.D., the civilization began to decline. By 1100, large cities were empty.

The Aztec

- Located in central Mexico. Built their largest city, Tenochtitlan, on in island in Lake Texcoco around 1325 after seeing an eagle with a snake in its beak, sitting on a cactus.

- Used soil from the bottom of the lake to make bridges of earth, connecting the island to the shore. They also filled parts of the lake with soil so they could grow crops.

- At the city's height, it was the largest city in the Americas and one of the largest in the world.

- Would grow into a military empire, and conquered nearly all rival communities and forced corquered people to work as slaves.

- Like other civilizations, the Aztec civilization was organized around their religion.

They believed human sacrifices were necessary to keep the gods pleased and would sacrifice prisoners of war to appease their gods.

The Aztec

- In 1519, Hernan Cortes led 550 Spanish soldiers into Tenochtitlan and were in awe of its beauty. Some soldiers thought the city was more magnificient than Rome and other European capitials at the time.

The Inca

- Developed in the western highlands of South America and was the largest of the early American civilizations.

- Around 1200, the Incans founded their captial, Cuzco.

- At its height, the empire stretched from north to south for more than 3,000 miles from present-day Colombia to northern Argentina and Chilie, and had a population of more than 9 million people.

- Built at least 10,000 miles of stone paved roads over mountains, deserts and jungles to march their army across the empire.

- Had a language, Quechua, and a system of record keeping using string called quipus.

- Used terrances, or broad platforms, to farm on mountainous lands.

- All land belonged to the Incan king who was believed to be a desendant of the sun god.

North American Peoples

The Hohokam

- Lived in the dry, hot desert of what is now Arizona.

- May have came from Mexico about 300 B.C.

- This civilization florished between 300 A.D. and 1300 A.D.

- Used irrigation channels to carry water to their fields.

- Left behind pottery, carved stone, and shells etched with acids.

The Anasazi

- Lived around the same time as the Hohokam in the Four Corners area (where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado meet) around 1 A.D. to 1300.

- Built great stone dwellings that would later be called pueblos by the Spanish explorers.

- They also built dwellings into the walls of steep cliffs that would be easy to defend and offer protection from winter weather.

The Mound Builders

- Located in central North America, these Native American civilizations built thousands mounds that would resemble the pyramids in Central American civilizations

- These mounds can be found from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi River Valley.

- These were not built by just one group, but by several: the Adena and the Hopewell.

- Cahokia is the largest settlement of the Mound Builders. It is located in Illinois, built by a group of people known as the Mississippians after 900 A.D.

- The largest mound in Cahokia is the Monks Mound, rising nearly 100 feet.

- Cahokia would have resembled the great cities of Mexico dispite being over 2,000 miles away.

Peoples of the North

- People who settled in the northern-most part of North America, in the lands around the Artic Ocean, are called the Inuit.

- The Inuit may have been the last group to cross the land bridge from Serbia, and would build igloos to protect them from severe weather.

- Their clothing of furs and sealskins was warm and waterproof, and they were hunters and fishers, seeking whales, seals, and walruses in small boats. On land, they would have hunted caribou.

Peoples of the West

- People of the northwest coast, such as the Tlingit, Haida, and Chinook, depended on the forest and the sea.

- They built wooden houses and made canoes, cloth, and baskets from tree bark. Would fish for salmon and preserve the salmon by smoking it over fires.

- The Nez Perce and the Yakima peoples of the plateau region would fish the rivers, hunt deer in forests, and gather roots and berries in the area between the Cascade Mountains and Rocky Mountains.

- In the Great Basin region, between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains, the soil was too hard and rocky for farming, so people like the Ute and Shoshone travled in search of food, such as small game, pine nuts, berries, roots and some insects.

Peoples of the Southwest

- Descendants of the Anaszi people included the Hopi, Acoma, and the Zuni people.

- They built their homes out of mud bricks and raised corn or maize as their basic food. They also grew beans, squash, melons, pumpkins and fruit.

- By the 1500s, two new groups settled in the region, the Apache and the Navajo. These groups were hunter and gathers and would hunt deer and other game. They would eventually settle into villages and begin to grow crops and raise sheep.

Peoples of the East

- The peoples who lived in the woodlands of eastern North America formed complex societies.

- The many Algonquian groups were linked by similar language.

- The Iroquois and Cherokee had formal law codes and formed federations, or governments that linked different groups.

- The Iroquois lived near Canada in what is now New York State. There was 5 groups that often warred with each other until the 1500s when they established the Great Peace, an alliance that was called the Iroquois League.

Peoples of the Plains

- The peoples of the Great Plains were nomadic. Their villages were temporary and would move after a growing season or two. Their homes were tepees.

- The men would hunt antelope, deer, and buffalo, while the women would plant maize, squash, and beans.

- When the Spanish brough horses to Mexico in the 1500s, some got loose and made their way north. Native Americans captured and teamed the wild horses.

- Several tribes such as the Comanche and the Dakota became skilled riders and would hunt and fight on horseback, using spears, bows and arrows, and clubs.

Peoples of the Southeast

- The Southeast was a woodlands area with a warmer climate.

- The Creek, Chickasaw and Cherokee were among the regions' tribes.

- These groups would live in loosely knit farming communities in areas such as Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and the Carolinas, where they would grow corn, tobacco, squash and other crops.