9781422283561

NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D

Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com

© 2016 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America. First printing

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Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3529-4 ISBN: 978-1-4222-3536-2 ebook ISBN: 978-1-4222-8356-1

Cataloging-in-Publication information from the Library of Congress is on file with the publisher.

On the Cover: The scenic beauty of the Rocky Mountains; Native Americans once controlled most of the continent; the Mounties help keep the vast lands of Canada safe; George Washington was the first president of the United States.

Exploring World History A frica A ustralia C hina

I ndia J apan

L atin A merica N orth A merica P olar R egions

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Contents

1 Introduction The Land Early Peoples

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2 Native American Cultures People of the Far North

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The Northeast The Southeast The Great Plains The Southwest

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The Great Basin and the Northwest

B uffalo Bull’s Back Fat was chief of one of the Blackfoot nations. The Blackfoot lived in the north of the Great Plains.

3 The Savage Invasion The First Explorers

The Spanish Search for Gold

Early Settlers

Mapping the Interior Down the Mississippi 4 Colonization European Rivalries The Defeat of France

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Independence

5 The Fight for Land Further West Through the Plains

The Last Stand

6 Recent Times New Treaties

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Regrowth

Time Chart

Glossary

Index

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Native American Cultures

1 Introduction

The Land

Why America? If Columbus was the first European to reach the Americas, why are the two continents called America? In 1494 another Italian, Amerigo Vespucci, sailed to Venezuela and explored the coasts of South America. He sent letters and maps back to Europe, and, through these, his name became linked with this “New World.”

T he huge landmass of North America is now divided into the United States and Canada, two separate countries. Mexico is also considered part of North America, but its history is covered in the Latin American book in this series.

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Introduction

T he massive continent of North America stretches from the Arctic Circle to the north almost as far south as the Equator . The land has five major geographical regions. In the far north there is the cold tundra , a treeless and shelterless area; in Canada the land is covered with forests and woods; the wide, flat plains of North America start in Canada and almost reach the Gulf of Mexico; finally there are two major mountain ranges, the Rockies on the west coast and the Appalachians on the east. The Climate All these geographical areas have four seasons. In the north the winters are long and very cold while summers are short, and in the south the summers are hot and dry while winters rarely produce snow. Now imagine the kinds of people who lived in North America 500 years ago. Scattered over this vast and varied continent, they had very different ways of life depending on where they lived. They must have been very strong to survive in areas that might have been freezing cold or desperately hot and dry. In 1500 there were many different peoples in North America and more than 500 languages were spoken. The Europeans In 1492 Columbus sailed into the history books as the “discoverer” of the Americas. At the time no one realized how dramatic the results of his landing would be. The events of the past 500 years tell the story of the effect colonization has had on the inhabitants of North America. Exploring this Book This book is divided into six chapters. The first one describes the migration of peoples to North America–the first explorers. The second looks at the different nations of the Native Americans. The next two chapters relate the exploration of North America by Europeans and the impact their arrival had on the Native Americans. Finally we look at North America today and the lives of modern- day Native Americans.

A huge totem pole made by the Native Americans of the Northwest (see page 19). Totem poles stood outside the family’s house; some of them were as tall as 50 feet (15 m).

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Introduction

Early Peoples

P eople have inhabited North America for thousands of years. The idea that this continent was a New World was thought up by those who arrived by ship from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean 500 years ago. The civilizations in North America were like those on the other side of the world. They had their own societies, customs, laws, religions, arts,

N orth America has many different climates. In Idaho, spring flowers bloom in the valleys while there is snow on the mountain tops.

and rivalries. But where did they come from?

Migrating Peoples The earliest human fossil remains found in North America are Homo sapiens , ancestors of ours who lived about 200,000 years ago. During an

Ice Age about 50,000 years ago the ocean between Siberia and Alaska was probably bridged by a

A 19th-century engraving of an imaginary mammoth hunt. The people who migrated to North America were probably following the large animals they hunted for food.

huge glacier which allowed people to migrate from one continent to the other.

T he Bering Strait as it might have been during the Ice Age when peoples moved from Siberia to Alaska. The outline shows where the ice may have covered the ocean.

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Introduction

As these original settlers traveled south through North America, they followed the herds of animals that were their prey. There were bison, mammoths, mastodons , giant sloths, and beavers. These people (who are called Paleo-Indians by anthropologists) were big game hunters, particularly on the Great Plains and in the northeast. The enormous variety of arrowheads from this time show that they were very good at hunting. By 6000 bce the immigrants had probably spread throughout the whole of North and South America. From about 8000-1000 bce people were settling down: they built villages and domesticated animals. Around the continent different peoples developed skills such as metal-working, art, trading, and, by 1000 bce , farming in the east. Why Indians? Two and a half thousand years later when Columbus reached the Americas, he named the people he met los Indios wrongly believing that the land he had found was India. This name became popular throughout Europe and has been used ever since, even though Indians have their own names. In this book when Indians are referred to as a group they are called Native Americans.

The Mound Builders Two groups of people formed the Adena and Hopewell cultures. They lived in the northern part of the Mississippi Valley. They probably arrived there from the south around 3500 bce . They farmed the land and hunted, building their houses on circular mounds of earth. The Adenas and Hopewells also made burial mounds, some of which are still visible today. The most famous Adena mound is the serpent mound in Ohio. The Hopewell group were great traders; their goods have been found in areas ranging from the Gulf of Mexico up to the Great Lakes.

A frog pipe made by a member of the Hopewell culture.

T he painting on these rocks in Arizona is ancient picture writing done by prehistoric Native Americans. This example is called the Newspaper Rock.

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2 Native American Cultures People of the Far North

T he far north of North America is often seen as a land of ice and snow. This is partly true, because the land is covered in snow for eight months of the year. The summers are short, but long enough for flowers to bloom and streams to run. The Inuit people live in this harsh environment, hunting seals and fishing in the freezing Arctic waters. Their way of life is totally adapted to life in the cold: they build houses from ice; travel on sledges pulled by hardy dogs and fish in boats (called umiaks and kayaks) made from animal bone and skin. The Inuit have always been strong believers in spirits that they think control and guide their lives. They pass down their beliefs from generation to generation through many stories and legends.

L ieutenant Hood, a British naval officer, painted this picture in 1820. It shows a Cree tent which has meat drying in the traditional way above a fire, as well as a more modern metal cooking pot.

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Native American Cultures

Living in the Tundra Just below the frozen Arctic is the vast tundra of northern Canada and central Alaska. The landscape is flat and almost treeless: most of the year temperatures are below freezing and very few plants grow. Although it may seem impossible, two separate groups of people live in this wasteland. The Athabaskans live to the west of central Alaska and in areas of northern Canada west of Hudson Bay. To the south and west of Hudson Bay are Algonquian -speaking people, who are linked to people living further south around the Great Lakes. Hunting and Farming The two groups survived in very different ways. The Athabaskans, whose major nations included the Chipewyan, Hare, and Dogrib, hunted caribou, moose and bighorn sheep. They ate little vegetation because there was so little growing. The Algonquian-speaking nations, such as the Cree and Ojibwa

T his photograph was taken in 1904 and shows a family of Alaskans. The father’s name was Ethlota. These people lived much as the Athabaskans did, hunting for a living during the long winter and short summer

(Chippewa), lived further south in more sheltered parts among the forests north of the Great Lakes. As well as

Inuit Spirit World The Inuit believe in a great number of spirits and demons. Some spirits are friendly, but most of them are hostile to humans. The Inuit therefore carve their spirits to look terrifying, as this model (left) shows. In order to keep themselves safe from these wicked spirits, the Inuit follow rituals that are conducted by shamans, medicine men. They make regular offerings to the spirits and say prayers over their dead and the animals that they hunt. For example, seals or whales that are killed are given a drink of water so that they can go to the spirit world saying that they were treated with respect. The shamans are also able to heal the sick.

hunting for deer, they also fished in

the rivers with canoes they built from bark, like their cousins further south.

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Native American Cultures

The Northeast

T he Northeast extends from the Atlantic to and around the Great Lakes. The land is variable and so is the climate. There are stretches of rocky coastline, as well as fertile meadows, and rivers and streams spring from the Appalachian Mountains. The many nations in this area had much in common. They were hunters and farmers, as well as being excellent warriors. The Iroquois The Iroquois nations evolved around 1300 ce . They were the most able warriors of the region and often fought among themselves and against the Algonquian-speaking nations. Under the guidance of the famous Mohawk chief Hiawatha, five Iroquoian nations, the Onondaga, Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, and Cayuga, formed the League of Five Nations around 1560. This league encouraged peace among the Iroquois and created a united force against their enemies, such as the Huron nation. Shared problems and issues were discussed and dealt with by the Great Council, a group of 50 officials from each nation. What was unique about the League of Five Nations was that women held great power. They oversaw all the activities of the Great Council and chose those who were to enter the council, although the men made the final decisions.

A Native American village camped on the edge of the Lake Huron, painted by Paul Kane in the 19th century. The nations in the northeast traveled the lakes in canoes.

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Native American Cultures

A n engraving of the Mohawk chief Hiawatha, who founded the Iroquois League of Five Nations.

Village Life The Algonquian-speaking nations such as the Delawares in the south of this area relied on farming for their living. But the men of these nations were also hunters, fishermen, warriors, and healers. The women were the farmers and the cooks. Their villages consisted of a central Big House, with their homes scattered around it. Each village also included a sweat house, which was used to cure all kinds of sickness. All Algonquians relied on wild rice in their diets, and they also grew tobacco , which was used during rituals and when socializing. These peoples had an all-powerful god called Manitou. During the summer months they held festivals in Manitou’s honor.

T he Iroquois were famous for their “false face” society. Members of this group were asked to heal the sick, wearing masks like this one which were said to have healing powers.

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Native American Cultures

The Southeast

T he geographic area of the southeast reaches to the Mississippi River on the west, the Atlantic on the east, the present states of Tennessee and West Virginia, in the north and the Gulf of Mexico in the south. The climate is mild, with plenty of rain to help plants grow. The rivers and coastline provide good fishing. The Native Americans who lived in this area became farmers, cultivating the lush land first with local plants such as sunflowers and persimmon . Later they grew staple foods such as potatoes, pumpkins, watermelons, maize (corn), and tobacco. Heavily Populated This part of North America was the most densely populated by Native Americans: between 150 and 200 nations lived here. The main nations were the Iroquoian- speaking Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Tuscarora in the north, the Powhatan and Chatawba on the coast, the Creek, Natchez, and Choctaw towards the south and the Seminole in what is now called Florida.

Tobacco Smoking Tobacco grew very well in the warm climate of the southeast. The habit of smoking tobacco became popular throughout North America and each nation had their own design of pipe, made from wood, stone, or clay. The ritual of smoking pipes also developed, probably changing from a healing role to a peacemaking one.

A soapstone pipe of a warrior and his victim.

T he Mississippi River delta lies to the west of this region. Because of the river the land in the southeast is fertile and good for growing, but there are also swamp areas.

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Native American Cultures

N ative Americans throughout the east

A Cherokee chief called Stalking Turkey, painted in London by F. Parson in 1762 (below).

Five Civilized Tribes The larger nations of this area were the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, Choctaw, and Seminole who became known by the European settlers as the Five Civilized Tribes. This was because their societies were organized in a way that was familiar to Europeans. For example, in the Creek nations town councils met every day to discuss problems and affairs. They had a very strong clan system, which meant that families were loyal to each other. Creek towns were set out around a public square, with summer and winter council houses, a hot house for winter activities and an open yard for games in summer. Their houses were rectangular and built from wood with walls plastered in mud and grass. There was always a hole in the roof to allow smoke from the fire to escape. Each house was occupied by several families of one clan. Cherokee Villages A Cherokee village surrounded a huge, seven-sided, domed council house. It could hold up to 500 people and was used during ceremonies and council meetings. Around it were the games fields and farming land for the whole community. On the edges of this land were the Cherokees’ small rectangular houses.

played team games. This one, painted by Charles Deas in 1843, shows an early form of lacrosse.

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Native American Cultures

The Great Plains T he Great Plains stretch from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to the tundra in the northernmost part of the continent. They start in the west at the Rocky Mountains and stop in the east at the Mississippi River. This is a land of blazing hot summers which reach temperatures of 100°F (38°C) and bitterly cold winters with heavy snow in winter, when temperatures fall to – 40°F/C. The Wandering Life The people who lived in this area were hunters and farmers. They grew com, beans, and squash , and hunted animals such as the enormous bison and birds. They traveled everywhere on foot (the Native American horse had died out in prehistoric times). There were many different nations in this vast region and they can be

Hunting the Bison The horse in North America died out shortly after the last Ice Age, so the nations of the plains hunted bison on foot. In this painting by George Catlin (dating from 1832) two men covered in wolf skins attempt to frighten the bison towards another group of men (out of the picture) who lie in wait ready to spear the bison. There is also evidence of another hunting method used by the Native Americans. They frightened and then chased a herd of bison over a cliff.

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