American Studies
Lecture 1: Native Americans
Native Americans before 1492 (youtube video)
12 to 14,000 years ago the first Americans arrived in North America by
crossing the Bering Strait along a land bridge between Siberia and
Alaska. The first Americans are called Paleo-Indians and they were
nomadic hunter-gatherers meaning that they hunted and gathered
their food from naturally growing plants and animals. Around 11,500
Paleo-Indians started making stone spear tips which made them more
effective hunters. But as the Ice Age ended and the climate grew
warmer, the large mammals that they were hunting began to
disappear making it unsustainable to keep hunting these animals. Around 9000 years ago people in
the region of central Mexico began to develop crops or agriculture; Natives stopped moving around
so much in search of food. They grew corn, squash, beans, avocado, peppers, tomatoes and
potatoes. Communities couldn’t exist until there was a steady and plentiful supply of food and
water. Farms allowed people to stop moving around so much looking for naturally growing foods
and wild game. The Natives of North America effectively used the resources of the regions in which
they lived. Coastal groups in the northwest relied on fishing. Residents of fertile areas in the East
engaged in agriculture. In places where there was still abundant game, hunting often combined with
gathering was used as a primary mode of substance. Climate and geography determined what food
was available which in turn affected what the culture would look like. The different methods of
getting food then determined other aspects of the society: depending on the different needs of that
society women and men would have different roles. In hunting societies me did the hunting while
women would prepare the food and complete other tasks at home. In agricultural societies the
duties were different from place to place. Sometimes women would farm while men cleared new
land. Other times men would still hunt while women would do farm work. One thing that was
consistent across the Americas despite the food income was that women generally took care of the
kids. Again, depending on the climate of the region, Native Americans lived in different housing and
social groups. Farming villages were popular in the southwest and east. In the northeast people
might live in long houses or in thatch houses. On the other hand Nomadic groups tended to be
much smaller than village groups whose numbers could reach into the thousands. Often these
nomadic groups were small family units wandering the great plains in search of food. Politics work
differently in each culture. Sometimes villages would have a representative council to decide on
matters that affected the whole community. Other times there would be one or just a few leaders at
the very top that would do most of the decision making. The Iroquois, northeast, primarily combined
villages into nations and then had each nations send representatives to a council that would decide
on matters that affected all the Iroquois people. Women and men both had power in these
governments. Native Americans were polytheistic meaning they believed in more than one deity or
God. In agricultural societies deities would often be things that affected crop growth such as the sun
or rain. In hunting societies, animals were far more likely to be revered for example wolves or birds.
Over the course of twelve to fourteen thousand years, the Native Americans created amazingly
complex societies and civilizations without input from Asians, Africans or Europeans. The Native
Americans were fully civilized without the influence of any European.
© ANOUK KARDIJK
,Notes
In 1492 Christopher Columbus was trying to find a sea route from Spain to Asia. When he arrived in
the Americas he thought he was in India, hence the Natives are called Indians. He thought the
Natives to be well-made and loving people. Initially the Europeans were welcomed and admired and
the Natives helped them survive the first winter.
The Native Americans is the term defining many groups and tribes, see the picture above. There are
over 300 different languages spoken. Nowadays only 8 of these languages are still alive. The
Cherokee language is the most widely spoken with around 150,000 people speaking it. There are
various Native words bedded into the English language e.g. tepee, wampum and moccassins.
There is a wide variety among the Native American tribes mainly dependent on the environmental
conditions.
- Living: When tribes were settled in a village i.e. the Powhatan and Pueblo, the Natives
farmed and had time for arts and crafts. When tribes wandered around i.e. Crow and Lakota,
the Natives gathered food and hunted for game, and they usually slept in teepees.
- Politics: There are also differences in how the tribe was run, if it had a democratic system or
a rigid class system.
- Societies:
o Regions with poor food resources: Natives lived in small societies with two or three
couples with children. They moved their camp several times a year in search for
game. Tribes would get together for festivals.
o Regions with plenty food resources: Natives lived in big societies with up to 1000
people living in one place. These societies mostly lived off of agriculture.
- Houses: Dependent on the materials in the area houses were built with wood, straw or clay.
There were various forms of organizations going on. There were alliances between villages and
tribes.
- Siouan: Crow, Mandan and Teton
- Athapascan: Apache and Navaho
© ANOUK KARDIJK
, - Sahaptin: Nez Perce
- Uto Aztecan: Paiute and Shoshone
- Iroquoian: Cherokee, Mohawk an Huron
- Alongquian: Cheyenne, Fox, Chippewa, Dlaware, Blackfoot, Powhatan, Shawnee, Mohican
and Ottowa.
The Native Americans were polytheistic meaning they believed in more than one deity or god. The
Natives lived a very spiritual life and had great respect for nature. They believed in a Spiritual force,
Great Spirit or Evil Spirit. The Sun was the manifestation of the power of the Almighty. They believed
that people should live in harmony with natural and supernatural forces. Among the different beliefs
there is a wide variety of afterlife stories often overlapping the living world or talking about
reincarnation. Part of their religion and belief is that the earth cannot be owned.
Cherokee
The Cherokees are part of one of the five civilized tribes and are an agricultural civilization and is the
largest tribe in the Southeast, now located in Oklahoma. Sequoyah (1765-1843) was born to a
Cherokee mother and a European father. He developed the alphabet of 86 syllables which was
important for communicating and is now a great record of history.
Creek
The Creeks were also part of one of the five civilized tribes and were located in Georgia or Alabama -
nowadays in Oklahoma. They had warlike mindsets and do not have a democratic system but nobles
and commoners. Their cabins are made out of logs, grass and mud.
Nez Perce
The Nez Perce tribe is the most numerous and powerful of the Nortwest. The live(d) in long many-
family houses made out of poles covered with mats. They retrieve their food by fishing, hunting and
they gather wild plants. They are famous for spear fishing and are skilful horsemen. Nowadays they
are located in the Idaho reservation.
Sioux
The Sioux Natives are the typical Indians with the (hoofdtooi?). They are well-dressed and decorate
their clothing with beadwork. They also decorated their horses and were skilful buffalo hunters.
They slept in teepees. The Sioux are famous for their moon calendars, peace pipes, sign language
and smoke or fire signals. They are currently located in South Dakota.
Crow
The Crow tribe live(d) in beautiful and big teepees with a length of 8 meters. The teepees were made
out of 20+ buffalo skins which were whitened and decorated. Their huge camps had between 500 –
600 teepees. About 3000 Crow Natives are living on a Montana reservation.
Apache
The Apache tribe is a wandering tribe in Northern Mexico (USA) with a warlike mindset. Apache
means enemy. The Apache live(d) in teepees and ate buffalo, plants, insects and small animals. They
clothed themselves with animal skins and moccasins. Men carried their hair long and loose and wore
decorative jewelry. Nowadays the Apache tribe are cattlemen in Arizona/ New Mexico and are rich
for the oil in their ground.
The five civilized tribes were Creek, Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws and Seminoles.
Native Americans and the Europeans
© ANOUK KARDIJK
, The Native Americans did not belief in ownership of land. They ‘borrowed’ land when occupying it,
and during that time it was their territory. Land was seen as a source of food and shelter. Hunting
tribes needed large areas to support animals and farmers needed less land. From the Indians point
of view the Europeans were greedy and intolerant. They were oblivious to the spirit of nature and
saw nature as a commodity. The Europeans believed in private, individual ownership of land and
farmed that piece of land intensively. Europeans got ownership of land by mutual agreements,
buying land (cheaply) or by military force. The Europeans viewed the Natives as untamed savages
having souls ripe for religious conversion. They used the Natives for labor and saw them as obstacle
to progress; a nuisance. The Europeans justified what they did to the Natives because the Natives
were wild and had to be controlled, they were wasting good land by not using it and living like white
people was better (like the White Man’s burden of the UK). The Europeans also thought their faith
was better than the beliefs of the Natives.
At first the Natives were killed by infections killing approximately 50 – 80% of the population. Later
other factors killed the Natives e.g. slavery, wars, enforced migrations, life on the reservation, lack of
food or alcohol.
Nowadays there are 550 Native American tribes left with 5.2 million Natives. The natives are
officially US citizens since 1924. Natives have the privilege to hunt and fish at all times (according to
their reservation laws). Some reservations are extremely poor while others are very rich because of
oil, uranium, casinos or ranching. The Natives also face issues nowadays. They have the highest
unemployment rate, alcoholism rate, school dropout rate and suicide rate. In general Natives eat
poorly leading to obesity, diabetes and heart diseases. Natives have the lowest life expectancy rate
of 73 years old whereas the average is on 78,5 years. The influences the Natives have had on
American life are Thanksgiving, Pocahontas, totem poles, cowboy movies, ‘Geronimo!’, expressions
and place names.
Reservations
Each reservation has their own governments, police forces and tax laws.
Casinos
The Trail of Tears
In the winter of 1838-1839 17,000 Cherokees were forced to walk 3200 kilometers from Tennessee
to Oklahoma, because the lands in Tennessee was prosperous. Almost 2000 people died, mostly
children and elderly.
The Battle of Little Bighorn
In 1876 General George Custer of the 7 th Cavalry was on a search for Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. At
the Little Bighorn River in Montana came upon the Cheyenne and Sioux tribe. Custer and 259 of his
men were killed.
Wounded Knee
Wounded Knee is a small river in South Dakota. In 1890 the last major battle of the Indian Wars was
at this small river. US Soldiers killed more than 200 Sioux men, women and children. In 1973 a 3
month occupation by the American Indian Movement
Manifest Destiny
It was the clear intention of fate that the territory of the US should stretch across North America
from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
© ANOUK KARDIJK
