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    Chapter 1

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    echonemisis

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    Chapter 1

    Uploaded by

    echonemisis
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    Chapter1

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    4 views1 page

    Chapter 1

    Uploaded by

    echonemisis

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as txt, pdf, or txt
    of 1

    I.

    The Shaping of North America

    Recorded history began 6,000 years ago. It was 500 years ago that Europeans set
    foot on the Americas to begin colonization
    The theory of Pangaea exists suggesting that the continents were once nestled
    together into one mega-continent. They then spread out as drifting islands.
    Geologic forces of continental plates created the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains.
    The Great Ice Age thrust down over North America & scoured the present day American
    Midwest.
    II. Peopling the Americas

    The Land Bridge theory.


    As the Great Ice Age diminished, so did the glaciers over North America.
    The theory holds that a Land Bridge emerged linking Asia & North America across
    what is now known as the Bering Sea. People were said to have walked across the
    "bridge" before the sea level rose and sealed it off; thus populating the Americas.
    The Land Bridge is said to have occurred an estimated 35,000 years ago.
    Many peoples
    Those groups that traversed the bridge spread across North, Central, and South
    America.
    Countless tribes emerged with an estimated 2,000 languages. Notably:
    Incas: Peru, with elaborate network of roads and bridges linking their empire.
    Mayas: Yucatan Peninsula, with their step pyramids.
    Aztecs: Mexico, with step pyramids and huge sacrifices of conquered peoples.
    III. The Earliest Americans

    Development of corn or maize around 5,000 B.C. in Mexico was revolutionary in that:
    Then, people didn't have to be hunter-gatherers, they could settle down and be
    farmers.
    This fact gave rise to towns and then cities.
    Corn arrived in the present day U.S. around 1,200 B.C.
    Pueblo Indians
    The Pueblos were the 1st American corn growers.
    They lived in adobe houses (dried mud) and pueblos ("villages" in Spanish). Pueblos
    are villages of cubicle shaped adobe houses, stacked one on top the other and often
    beneath cliffs.
    They had elaborate irrigation systems to draw water away from rivers to grown corn.
    Mound Builders
    These people built huge ceremonial and burial mounds and were located in the Ohio
    Valley.
    Cahokia, near East St. Louis today, held 40,000 people.
    Eastern Indians
    Eastern Indians grew corn, beans, and squash in three sister farming:
    Corn grew in a stalk providing a trellis for beans, beans grew up the stalk,
    squash's broad leaves kept the sun off the ground and thus kept the moisture in the
    soil.
    This group likely had the best (most diverse) diet of all North American Indians
    and is typified by the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw(South) and Iroquois (North).
    Iroquois Confederation
    Hiawatha was the legendary leader of the group.
    The Iroquois Confederation was a group of 5 tribes in New York state.
    They were matrilineal as authority and possessions passed down through the female
    line.
    Each tribe kept their independence, but met occasionally to discuss matters of
    common interest, like war/defense.
    This was not the norm. Usually, Indians were scattered and separated (and thus
    weak).

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