Ancient Peoples Of The American Southwest

1)Paleo-Indians, the first Americans lived in bands of fifteen to fifty people, and traveled within their territory to hunt. Archaic Indians experienced a warming climate. One of the results of the warming climate was better hunting. Forest grew larger with a greater variety of plants and animals. The changes allowed some Indians to reside in permanent homes. The ample supply of food allowed more peoples to live on less acreage. The weather also allowed for specialization of caring for plants; this was the beginning of controlling crops to better supply the people.

The Lenape Indians are the natives of New Jersey and were around well before any of the explorers or our ancestors came to the area. They had a society rich of culture, traditions, beliefs and customs. They are one of the largest Indian tribes on the east coast, containing three primary divisions or clans. Frederick Hodge (1907) worked for the Bureau of American Ethnology and has done extensive research on the topic of Native Americans. Hodge compiled a detailed reference book called The Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, which gives detailed histories on many of the American Indian tribes. According to Hodge, the Lenape or Delaware Indians were an Indian society based from the Delaware area all the way to southern New York in

The Cahuilla were a Native Southern Californian tribe that occupied the Riverside County, Higher Palomar Mountain Region and East Colorado Desert. The tribe was divided into two groups or moieties know as Wildcats or Coyotes. The Cahuilla lived in small clans that varied in population, and together all the separate clans made up a larger political group called a sib ”http://www.aguacaliente.org/content/History%20&%20Culture/.” The tribe was at first considered to be very simple and savage because they were never interacted with. As the Europeans and Spanish Missionaries considered the desert an inhospitable place that was better to avoid because

In the early history of the United States, even before Europeans set foot in North America, there were Native Americans all across the continent. Native Americans lived in tribes and were nomadic. Although they were nomadic, they would also inhabit “permanent villages” where they would live year-round. On the occasion that those “permanent villages” were abandoned, left behind would be artifacts from their culture that explained a great amount about their lifestyle and traditions. These popular artifacts were most commonly found in southwest and northeast regions such as the Great Plains, the Great Basin, and the Mississippi River Valley.

The Tchefuncte culture, during the Woodland Period, was the first people to use the land to make pottery. Populations in the Woodland Period became more sedentary and began to establish semi-permanent villages and to practice agriculture. “A major change in hunting strategy occurred during the time of the Woodland Indians with the introduction of the bow and arrow.” (Prehistory, screen 1). They continued to hunt and farm, more efficiently with the bow and

The horse left a large impression on the lives of the Plains Indians; however, the real question being viewed is how this animal impacted the lives of, more specifically, the Sioux, Comanche, and Apache Plains Indians. Life before the introduction of the horse was a challenge. The Sioux’s constant migration with the buffalo required long days and created the need for a tool like the horse in order to better the living standards. The Comanche Indians were extraordinary horsemen once the horse was introduced to them allowing hunting and gathering to become more efficient. The Apache Indians were known for their fighting skills and warrior-like attributes. When they encountered the Spanish conquistadors and saw their use of the horse, strong desires for this animal swept over the Apache population and quickly lead to the trade and even theft of the horse. It boosted the abilities to fight for these Indians and provided them with a tool that made them, in their opinion, almost invincible. This information is being derived from a source that covers every Plains Indian tribe and accurately expresses the actions of these Indians. Without a bias, it describes that advantages and disadvantages of each tribe, and in this case, explains the actions of the Apache Indians. Even with this advantage, however, the Comanche Indians still seemed to have an advantage over the Apache Tribe. This efficiency as well as addition to the Indian tribes allowed for these societies to feel more

Page, Jake. In the hands of the Great Spirit: the 20,000-year history of American Indians.

The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican people that lived within the regions of central Mexico during the mid-13th century through the 16th century. The Aztecs history is one of most famous, rich, and tragic histories in the world.

A book that fundamentally changes our comprehension of North America prior and then afterward the landing of Europeans Encounters at the Heart of the World concerns the Mandan Indians, notable Plains individuals whose overflowing, occupied towns on the upper Missouri River were for quite a long time at the focal point of the North American universe. We are aware of them for the most part since Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1804-1805 with them, yet why don't we know more? Who were they truly? In this unprecedented book, Elizabeth A. Fenn recovers their history by sorting out imperative new revelations in archaic exploration, human studies, topography, climatology, the study of disease transmission, and dietary science. Her strongly unique

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles offers a surface level depiction of Mesoamerican civilization and culture. It excludes essential information and instead gives a shallow representation that offers implications of a barbaric civilization.

Over the course of thousands of years, groups of people temporarily set up camp a valley in what is now Goshen County, Wyoming (Irwin-Williams et al. 1973; Larson, Kornfeld, and Frison 2009). Small-scale occupations and campsites, which make up the 27 Paleoindian components at the four localities of the site, named Hell Gap after the valley is lies in, provide insight into the lifeways of the individuals who chose to take refuge therein (Larson, Kornfeld, and Frison 2009). The semi-montane environment of the valley, at an elevation of around 1525 meters, opens to the east onto the High Plains, and as such, the resources of the valley and of the plains were easily accessible to the inhabitants (Irwin-Williams et al. 1973).

Starting in the 1400s, the Native American tribe called the Dineh occupied the territories of now Arizona and New Mexico. In their language, Dineh means “the people”, in which they call their homeland Dinetah. They got the name Navajo from the Spanish so that they wouldn 't get confused with the Apache tribe, for they looked very much alike. The Navajo had a unique lifestyle and focused on art, religion, and farming. They had many conflicts with their neighbors and especially the United States Army. When they were relocated to different parts of the South, they had the integrity and unification to presume their traditions, especially their art and religion.

Agricultural based societies began to develop like the Mayans and Aztecs in the South and Moundbuilders and Mississippians in the Midwest (Mintz & McNeil, 2013). At this time people have been living in this new land for more than 10,000 years and living in this newly developed land had become easier and more sophisticated with the increasing amount of crops being used. During this time period many of the cultures developed large complex farms that were being used as a main source of food along with hunting. While hunting and gathering was still heavily used being able to rely on the food they grew was more reliable and they could generate large amounts without having to move around. While become less nomadic the size of the tribes grew and became very bonded together this meant more people working together. The growing amount of local people meant many people knew and lived together and this gave way to large ceremonies and rituals when a person died. At these ceremonies many people came together and would bury the dead and they would smoke herbs and roots out of hand crafted pipes during the burial rituals (Museum of Native American History, n.d.). With less moving they had more time to craft and make objects like pipes and hunting

“How advanced was the Anasazi culture in the southwestern regions of North America?” Most Amerindian people lived by hunting or food gathering west of the Mississippi River basin. Agriculture knowledge spread up the rivers to the Great Plains during the first millennium C.E. Farming was practiced far west. The Anasazi culture was really advanced in the southwestern regions of North America. An agricultural community was established by the Anasazi people from northern New Mexico and Arizona southwestern Colorado and southern Utah.

Charles C. Mann’s seminar and the summer readings changed the way I viewed Native American society before the Europeans arrived in the New World. I knew some of the native tribes were advanced such as the Aztecs and Incas, but I did not think they were very developed yet because of how easy the Spanish were able to knock their empires down. However, I know realize how advanced the Native Americans actually were. In some ways, they were more advanced than the Europeans. For example, the natives in Tenochtitlan had created their own artificial floating gardens, large canals for trading, and advanced irrigation systems. These innovations even surpassed some of the Europeans at the time.