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Columbian exchange culture
Civilizations on the rivers
Columbian exchange culture
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2000 years before Europeans began to arrive in the New World, the last era of the pre-Columbian development began. North American cultures such as the Mississippian culture, the Hopewell Tradition, and the Hohokam culture experienced growth and environmental adaptation throughout this era. Major contributions and innovations of Native Americans have developed and been passed on through generations of ancestors. Originating in 700 A.D., the Mississippian culture expanded through the Mississippi Valley and out into the southeastern states of Alabama, Georgia and Florida. For 800 years, until the 1550s, the Mississippian culture prospered. They cultivated a substantial amount of corn, by means of intensive farming, and other crops, such as squash and beans. Their trade networks with other native Americans extended across the New World in all directions, as far west as the Rocky Mountains, north as the Great Lakes, south as the Gulf of Mexico and east as the Atlantic Ocean. They manufactured an abundance of stone, shell and copper products. Some scholars believe that the Mississippian culture evolved as a result of climate conditions and their own strength and ability to grow, though others argue that Mexico influenced their agricultural techniques and religious practices. Native Americans of the Mississippian culture were nicknamed Temple Mound Builders because they built earthen temple mounds that were several stories high and had flat tops. The significant buildings, such as their wooden temples, council houses and chief’s house, were built atop these mounds. The cultural hub of the Mississippian culture was Cahokia, which occupied over 8000 people and was the first metropolis of America. Constructed near present day... ... middle of paper ... ...w.exploratorium.edu/chaco/HTML/canyon.html>. Major Pre-Columbian Indian Cultures in the United States. 3 Sep. 2008 . Nash, Gary B., and Julie R. Jeffrey. The American People. 5th ed. Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc, 2001. 1 Sep. 2008. Schroedl, Gerald F. Mississippian Culture. 1998. Tennessee Historical Society. 3 Sep. 2008 . Sharp, Jay W. Desert People of the Past. 2001. 2 Sep. 2008 . Stein, Anthony. The Mississippian Moundbuilders and their Artifacts. 1 Mar. 2000. 3 Sep. 2008 . Radonjic, Brankica . The Hopewell Culture. Ed. Kristian A. Werling. 25 Sep. 1996. WebChron. 3 Sep. 2008 .
Secondly, it is important to discuss the people of the state. According to Wikipedia, the 2010 U.S. census stated, “ Mississippi is an ethnic diverse state with 59% of the residents being White, 37% African American, 0.5% American Indian, 0.9% Asian American and 2% other. With this many ethnic group, the area is filled with cultural activities to promote their ethnic backgrounds. Prior to the 1830s there were many tribes of Indians in Mississippi. However, in the 1830s the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, most of the Indian population was moved to Oklahoma. Now, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is located in Philadelphia, Mississippi and the surrounding counties”. According to the same census, “Mississippi has the highest proportion of African American in the nation.
Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi, by Timothy R. Pauketat, is on the history, society, and religious customs of the Cahokian people. Consisting of twelve chapters, each chapter deals with a different aspect of Cahokian society. Chapter one opens up by telling the reader how the stars in the sky played an important role in the Native American belief system. The Planet Venus was the key figure in all of this, in fact the ancient Maya believed Venus to be a god. According to the Cahokians , Venus had a dual nature, in the daytime Venus was viewed a masculine, and in the evening it was seen as feminine. In the same chapter, Pauketat lets us know about the discovery of, two hundred packed-earth mounds constructed in a five-square mile zone represented the belief systems of the Cahokian people. Historical archeology was the main reason for the discovery of two hundred earth packed mounds. At its peak, Cahokia had a population of over ten thousand, not including the people who lived in the towns surrounding the city. By the time the 1800s came around, the European Americans had already been living in North America for some time; however, many Europeans refused to acknowledge the Native American role in building these ancient mounds. Instead, they believed the mounds to been built by a race of non-Indians. Due to the preservation of Cahokia within a state park and modern highway system, many things became lost. Since many things became lost, very few archaeologists have a good understanding of Cahokia. While there may be a loss of a complete picture, archaeologists are still making progress with numerous discoveries. These discoveries bring into question long-held beliefs such as a people who were peaceful an...
Boyer, Paul S. The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People. D.C. Heath and Company, Mass. © 1990
"Creole Materialities: Archaeological Explorations Of Hybridized Realities On A North American Plantation. " Journal of Historical Sociology 23.1 (2010): 16-39. Academic Search Complete. 27 Apr. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. Web.
Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.
Henretta, James A., and David Brody. America: A Concise History. Vol. 1. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009.
Danzer, Gerald, J. Jorge Klor de Alva, Larry Krieger, Louis Wilson, and Nancy Woloch. The Americans. 1. 1. McDougal Little, 2005. 1121. Print.
Zinn, H. (1980). A people's history of the united states. (2003 ed.). New York, NY: HarperCollins.
Flannery, Kent V. "Archeological Systems Theory and Early Mesoamerica." Anthropological Archeology In The Americas. (1968). http://www.neiu.edu/~circill/hageman/anth396/archaeologicalsystems.pdf (accessed March 17, 2014).
Kinsella, Kate , Colleen Stump, Joyce Carrol, Kevin Feldman, and Edward Wilson. The American Experience. California ed. Monrovia, California: Prentice Hall, 2002. print.
The Native Americans of the southeast live in a variety of environments. The environments range from the southern Appalachian Mountains, to the Mississippi River valley, to the Louisiana and Alabama swamps, and the Florida wetlands. These environments were bountiful with various species of plant and animal life, enabling the Native American peoples to flourish. “Most of the Native Americans adopted large-scale agriculture after 900 A.D, and some also developed large towns and highly centralized social and political structures.” In the first half of the 1600s Europeans encountered these native peoples. Both cultures encountered new plants, animals, and diseases. However, the Indians received more diseases compared to the few new diseases to the Europeans. The new diseases resulted in a massive loss of Native Americans, including the Southeast Indians which had never encountered the new diseases. Three of the main tribes in the southeast were the Cherokee and the Creek. They were part of a group of southeast tribes that were removed from their lands. These tribes later became known as “The Five Civilized Tribes because of their progress and achievements.”
Roark, James L., Michael P. Johnson, Patricia Cline Cohen, Sarah Stage, Alan Lawson, Susan M. Hartmann. Understanding the American Promise, Volume I, Chapter 14. Bedford/ St. Martin’s.
Henson, Margaret, 1993, The Cartwrights of San Augustine, Austin, Texas, Austin Texas State Historical Association
A single group of indigenous people or single Native American group does not exist but many. Early America had many groups of Native Americans that can be organized by regions: Eastern Woodlands, Southwest, Pacific Northwest, and Great Basin. This analysis will focus on the Southwest Native Americas. The Southwest refers to modern day Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Northern Mexico. This region consisted of three major cultures, the Mogollon, Hohokam, and Anasazi people. In the Southwest, all three groups engaged in extensive farming more than groups in the Eastern Woodlands. This extensive farming proved that these Native Americans were settlers created pueblo villages complete with dwellings. The Hohokam peoples constructed canals as an irrigation system in now modern Arizona. This differed from several other groups of Native Americans usually in the Great Basin that were nomadic, following their food, the bison. Specialization in sophisticated crafts such as ceramics, pottery, and basket weaving emerged in the Southwest. Especially important and distinctive to Southwest Native Americans was maize, co...
Nash, G. B., Jeffery, J., Howe, J., Winkler, A., Davis, A., Mires, C., et al. (2010). The American people: creating a nation and a society. (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education