spirit world” (14), sustained local economies and wide spread trade networks. It’s been estimated that as many, or even more, people lived in the Americas before Columbus than were present in Europe at the time. There are numerous examples of just how differently Natives actually lived before Columbus.
In California the hunter-gathers that were there cultivated the forest, used fire to control the land so they could grow crops. In the Northwest coast their main food source was salmon, which there was a large amount of, they were able to control the river, built technology to catch the fish, had permanent villages, and even had concepts of land ownership. Plateau Indians would move with the seasons, to the rivers to hunt the buffalo, deer and bison during the rainy seasons. Great Basin Indians, ones in Nevada, for most of the year resided in stationary communities, and in other areas “people harvested wild plants and small game, a subsistence strategy that required intimate knowledge of the land and its animals, regular movement to take advantage of seasonal diversity and changing conditions, and careful exploitation of the environment (24).” In the Southwest they cultivated maize, and developed canals and irrigation systems for the flood plains. Northeast/Southeast Indians grew maize, beans, squash, fruits, and also used fire to clear out areas to cultivate it. In the Southeast they had big settlements, large chieftains, and influential
rulers. However, in the Northeast there was no centralized seat of power, and it consisted of thinner populations. One prime example that defies the stereotype is the cultures that resided in what is now Mississippi. The rate of growth of the towns and large cities was based on agriculture and their ability to grow multiple crops. Their urban centers were made up of pyramids and temples. They had an extensive trade that was based on water transportation, a highly stratified society with rulers and priests at the top, and burial and ceremonial mounds as well as fortifications. Another main example is Cahokia, which was a central city that was six square miles with a population of an estimated 20,000 (located in Missouri). It was centered around a pyramid that was a hundred feet high and covered fifteen acres, and was surrounded by large towns and smaller villages that covered 125 square miles. It consisted of a trading center in which the extracted taxes, a burial mound that contained a man of high status, a platform made of 20,000 small beads, just a countless number of items that prove that they weren’t savages or uncivilized. People just wanted to believe that there was hardly anyone here, and those that were here lived in destitute, so that when it was “invaded” it looked like they were getting help and were learning to become civilized. They wanted to believe what they were told, and went about their daily lives feeling like they were making the world a better place. The thing that I think is the most important to remember about these cultures is that we will never be able to discover their complete history and fully understand it: but we discover new pieces here and there every so often that helps us piece together just what life was like before everything was destroyed. Even though we will never fully comprehend their history we definitely have a deeper understanding of it than we did even twenty years ago. Although it wasn’t a specific subject taught in my high school I know that what I’m learning now is certainly different from what I learned in my general American History class.
Question 2 Native American populations and societies declined rapidly after 1492 mainly due to what the Columbian Exchange brought: war and conflict, diseases, the destroying of native agriculture/land, the domesticated animals would compete with native species, and drove out game that was crucial to the Natives survival. When any “new” area is discovered with indigenous people that are slightly different than what is considered normal, conflicts always occur. In the case of Native Americans, they had multiple languages, drastically different ways of living, bizarre rituals, and unusual customs. So of course wars would breakout between the Natives and the newcomers and even between groups Natives because depending on who they aligned with they would fight other tribes. Diseases were the most detrimental to the Natives; smallpox, measles, chicken pox, the plague, and influenza did more damage than any war/conflict. Just from diseases the mortality rate among Natives was a staggering fifty to ninety percent. The alteration of the land, destroying of native crops, and eliminating native game forced Indians to adapt to this new environment, as if their lives weren’t difficult enough already. This drove them to find new places to live, change the ways they hunted, and just overall altered the way they lived, and in return they lost a lot of their heritage. Pertaining to the French, and their commerce: “Indians played crucial roles in establishing the patterns and terms of that empire” (pg. 90). One example of this is when Champlain would send youthful merchants into Indian villages to gain an understanding of their languages, customs, and rituals. He also made alliances with multiple tribes in order to obtain entry to far west territories that were abundant in fur. The Indians also sought alliances with the French for the same reason, to acquire trade goods from Europe. Of course these alliances weren’t beneficial to everyone, especially the Iroquois; they saw it as a threat to their power, and an increased chance of being attacked. During a conflict between the Iroquois and a group of Algonquins, Hurons, and Champlain, guns were introduced, which would alter the way Indians fought forever. The French, wanting to sustain the fur trade, “offered their religion and metal goods in the hope of winning Indian converts, customers, and allies” (pg. 92). Of course the Indians thought the rituals of the French were pointless and held no meaning to them: but eventually they would adopt some aspects of Catholicism, and in return the Jesuit priests would learn some of the Native’s rituals. Over time some Indians converted to Catholicism, or Christianity, moved into French mission villages, attended prayer, and even wore crucifixes. Now the “English were relative latecomers in the invasion and colonization of North America” (pg 95), but they definitely weren’t new to colonizing new areas. So the ways that they dealt with the Irish and Scottish, they used the same strategies to deals with the Indians. Of course they formed alliances, negotiated agreements and made treaties, but they were easily shattered, and would usually result in open conflict. When the settlers started to come over the Indians were again forced off their lands, stripped of game, and deceived in trades. The Pequot war is just one example of the violence between the English and Indians. Puritan soldiers torched the Pequot’s buildings, shot/cut down anyone trying to escape, and any survivors were either murdered, or sold into slavery (women and children). Another war that changed everything was King Philip’s War, with both sides suffering major casualties. There weren’t many options that the Indians had when the English, French, Dutch and Spanish came, it was kill, be killed, adapt to the changes, or suffer. Native Americans were historical agents in the way that they kept peace between groups of settlers and Native tribes, negotiated the aspects of trade and land ownership, and sometimes became translators (most of the time against their will). Although some believed that if they acclimated to the colonists’ way of life that they would be spared, and sometimes it did work, but most of the time it did not.