Thirteenth-Century Life on the Mississippi

Reading Notes
Chapter 1

Cahokia: Thirteenth-century Life on the Mississippi
Cahokia, a city on the Mississippi River across from present day Saint Louis, was bustling with industry and farming around the mid 1200’s. It had almost 30,000 residents at its peak. People went to work in the various industries such as the manufacturing of pottery, tools, jewelry, and the fashioning of metals. Hundreds of acres of farms grew pumpkins, corns, and beans, all crops native to America, among other things. The textbook states, “Mississippian farmers constructed ingenious raised plots of land on which they heaped compost in wide ridges for improved drainage and protection from unseasonable frosts”. The Mississippians also raised domesticated turkeys in pens attached to their square wood-and-mud houses. There is also evidence that deer was also kept for slaughter. A huge temple rose above any other building in the city, and on top lived the priests and chiefs of Cahokia. They dressed in headdresses made from the plumage of birds. The city flourished from the 10th to the 14th century. By the 14th century, Cahokia was abandoned. When the Europeans arrived, they thought that these were the remains of a much greater, lost society than the Native
Americans, since Europeans considered them to be unable to build structures to this magnitude, and also to be “…adverse to labor…” and only engage in hunting in small bands.
Settling the Continent
This section deals with the origins, individuality, and identity of the Native American peoples. It traces the genetic origin of the Native American people. The prevalent theme is that the Native
Americans are a race phenotypically different from any other race, but also different among themselves. They possess the skills and knowledge of any other race. When Europeans arrived, they puzzled over how the Native Americans arrived in the New World. Many thought that the
Native Americans were a degenerate society cast off from a superior Old World (Europe and Asia) society. Current belief is that the first setters came about 25,000 to 30,000 years ago, about the time that Japan and Scandinavia was being settled. Supporting evidence comes in the form of similar dental patterns and the rarity of some blood types, especially type B (most Asian populations exhibit all three blood types, so the early Native Americans must have left before the “B” gene evolved).
Studies suggest it took 20,000 years for Native Americans to exhibit current traits, and about 25,000 to develop from a common language the nearly 500 different Native American dialects. At the estimated time of migration, the world was experiencing an ice age, so there was a bridge between
Asian and the Americas that could have been crossed. The general area of the bridge was called
Beringia. The climate there, being warm in the summer and cold, dry, and relatively snow-free in the winter, was perfect for large mammals animals such as bison, mammoths, and mastodons. These animals attracted hunters, who are entirely dependent on them for food and shelter.
Archaeologists found evidence of human tool making and rock painting dating at least
12,000 years ago in Chile.
About 25,000 years ago hunting bands crossed from a seasonal land corridor south of the
Rockies into the northern Great Plains.
Clovis: The First American Technology
Earliest tools found in North American archaeological sites are crude bone or stone choppers and scrapers that are similar to ones found in Asia.
Clovis is a new, revolutionary technology allowing users to easily kill animals such as mammoths. Clovis is named after Clovis, New Mexico, a dig site. Clovis artifacts found throughout N.
America. Dated within 1-2 thousand years of each other.
Clovis users were mobile people who traveled in communities from 30-50 people in a group of interrelated families. They returned to the same hunting camps every year, and migrated through several hundred square miles every year.
Blades have been found in mammoths, camels, horses, sloths, and armadillos.
Hunters killed and butchered on spot.
The Beginning of Regional cultures
Effects of
15,000 years ago a global warming trend affected the world. Glaciers melted and ice age receded. Pleistocene epoch ended 8000 B.C.E.

Northern latitudes conquered by plants, meltwater created rivers and lakes, raised the sea level, flooding Beringia, cutting off the route to Asia.
Clovis civilizations fragmented into different regional patterns.
Different communities developed different ways of life.
Hunting traditions of the Plains and Forests
The developing of useful technologies.
With the passing of the ice age, 32 different kinds of animals such as the mammoth, mastodon, camel and horse (they migrated to Asia) became extinct.
Due to lowered reproduction rates of large animals, hunters doubled efforts creating the “Pleistocene Overkill”.
Great Plain hunters concentrated on Buffalo, and developed the Folsom technology, which were weapon tips that were deadlier but lighter and more delicate. 10,000 Y.O
1927 Archaeologists proved existence of Native Americans in America by finding a spear point thousands of years old in the ribs of a long-extinct bison species.
Folsom evolved into Plano technology with vegetable grinding tools being found.
Folsom and Plano hunters stampeded herds of animals into traps in canyons or off cliffs, suggesting growing complexity of the society.
At a kill site 8500 Y.O. 200 bison were killed; the job required 150 people and a “sophisticated division of labor.”
They had basic preservation technique knowledge, like how to make jerky, dried meat, and pemmican (mix of dried meat, fat, and berries kept in hide container).
Before Beringia melted the Athapascans/Na Dene people crossed. From 7000-4000 years ago they settled forests of the N.W. Navajos and Apaches originated from Athapascans and migrated to the S.W.
Inupiat/Eskimos and Aleuts crossed Bering Strait by boat 5000 Y.A.
Desert Culture in Western America
Theme of technological, social, and political development.
Between 10000-2500 Y.A. desert foraging began in Great Basin, Fishing in N.W. Pacific, and hunting and gathering in forests of the humid eastern half of continent.
In Nevada Indians developed Desert Culture, a way of life based on pursuit of small game and intensified foraging for plant foods. Collected seeds, fiber, and prickly pear, and migrated to high ground to gather acorns, juniper berries, and pinion nuts.
Also speared and netted fish in streams. They made baskets, nets and traps, and stone grinders, knives, hammers and mauls.
Lived in caves and rock shelters. Desert culture persisted until 19th century among the
Shoshoni and Ute. They made a sophisticated adjustment to harsh environment; no longer called “diggers”.
Desert community people very equal; discouraged hoarding, wanted gift giving, sharing etc. Decisions made by adults and leadership was informally based upon achievement and reputation. Men of one band married women of another and wives lived w/ husbands. Created sense of shared ethnic identity.
6000 Y.A. desert culture moved into CA and created first permanent settlements in N.A.
Foraging supplemented intensive hunting.
On NW Pacific coast communities developed based upon fish and sea life.
Forest Efficiency
Theme of life in the early forests and social development
Eastern N.A. was vast land of forests. “Forest Efficiency” developed. Archaic Indians hunted small game and gathered seeds, nuts, and other plants. The practiced burning woodlands to stimulate growth of berries, fruits etc.
Buried males w/ axes, fishhooks, and animal bones, buried females w/ nut-cracking stones, beads and pestles. Reflected social division.
The Development of Farming
Theme of innovations in and dependency on farming
Rice in S.E. Asia, Wheat in W. Asia, Mize, beans cocoa, squash, tomatoes, peppers etc. in
Mexico, Potatoes in Andes.

Maize and Potatoes, “Miracle Crops” fueled European and livestock development 300 years after 1650. Things such as tobacco and cotton and rubber would have never developed w/o this. Cultivation in Mexico began 5000 Y.A.
It takes 100 square miles to support 100 people by foraging, but it takes 1 Sq. Mi. farms to do the same.
Populations needed to remain close to farms so it led to development of villages etc.
Division of labor (toolmakers, priests, farmers etc.) resulted from this. Unequal distribution of wealth led to social classes.
1000 B.C.E, permanent bureaucracies governed in Mesoamerica (Central Mex. to central
America). Complex societies emerged. Characterized by concentration of wealth in priests and rulers. Mathematics, astrology, and some hieroglyphics devlpd.
Warfare between states developed.
The city of Teotihuacan in the valley of Mex. started 100 B.C. Features elite class of rulers and religious leaders. Had specialist division of labor. Declined in 6th century and abandoned by 8th. Had up to 200,000 residents in 500 C.E.
Toltecs dominated Mexico from 10th to 12th century. By 14th century Aztecs developed and settled into Valley of Mex. Imperial giant.
The Maya of the Yucatan pen. Developed city-states. Has a concept of zero.

The resisted revolution
Theme of the dependency upon industries.
Development of farming called Neolithic Revolution or the Stone Age. They believed that agricultural communities were so appealing that others that they immediately copied.
Societies that were hunters were too primitive to achieve this breakthrough, and were susceptible to nature.
What most likely happened was that the adoption of farming was gradual, and required hundreds to thousands of years. Ignorance to cultivation was impossible; all hunter-gatherers had knowledge.
Foragers thought of their own method as superior, thinking farmers worked all day to produce tasteless corn while a few hours of foraging can gather a week’s food. Desert culture thought that they were. However, foragers were prone to bouts of hunger.
Farming tied people to a work discipline never before experienced.
In Ca and Pacific NW fish and acorn gathering made farming useless.
In Great Basin, it was farmed unsuccessfully, since it required modern irrigation. Only
Archaic Desert culture was in this environment.
In the SW farming kept population and available resources in balance. When climate favored farming people tried to increase productivity. Urban civilizations developed in Central Mex. and Cahokia.
Increasing Social Complexity
Farms created clans for different social, political, or ritual functions.
Clans were important in binding people into tribes, which were led by a leader from an honored clan.
Councils arbitrated but disputes and crimes were not put forth; they were avenged.
Council supervised economy and to distribute food to each clan. If one clan had too much money it was redistributed. Private ownership of land had not developed.
Hunting was for men, and foraging and maintenance was for women. Originated during the early archaic period.
Development of farming in Mex. forces both men and women to work in fields.
When English colonists saw women working in fields, they thought that they were oppressed, while when Indians saw Colonist males in the fields, they were doing women’s work. N.A. farming communities, men and women were of separate social groupings. Membership was very important. Marriage ties were weak and divorces easy. Children remained w/ mother. Women were free to prevent or abort pregnancy using herbs, or ease childbirth pain. Farming communities were more complex than foraging ones but less stable. Often it let to conflicts and warfare because of need for food to feed growing pop. Suseptible to droughts, erosion, etc.
The religions of Foragers and Farmers
Hunting tradition: centered in relationship of hunters and prey and celebrated existence of a “master of animals” portrayed as a bear. Associated was the vision quest, when young men and women sought out personal protective spirits by going out into the wilderness and elements, fasting, inducing hallucinations and dreams. An individual who developed a special sensitivity to spiritual forces might become a shaman. Strongest in northern latitudes where hunting dominates.
Agrarian Tradition: Emphasized and celebrated notion of fertility in ritual festivals marking change of seasons. Cahokia adhered to Agrarian tradition. Had organized cults and priests.
It had a war-sacrifice-cannibalism ideology sometimes. Originated from Mesoamerican city- states. Pantheism: Belief that people shared a basic kinship w/ animals, plants, inanimate objects, and natural forces. They were generally polytheistic.
The earliest Farmers of the Southwest
Mogollon people: lived in Arizona-N.M border from 250 B.C.E to 1450. Lived in mountain ridges and near streams. Cultivated squash, maize, beans.
Hohokam: 300-1500 C.E. flourished in Salt and Gila River areas in AZ. Build miles of irrigation canals. Produced squash, maize, beans, tobacco, and cotton. Etched shells w/ designs. Snaketown is an excavated settlement found in AZ. 100 pit houses spread over 300 acres. Uncovered rubber balls, pyrite mirrors, copper bells, and ear ornaments.
Anasazis: See attachment.

Farmers of the Eastern Woodlands
Woodland: Farming culture of eastern America. Appeared 3000 Y.A. hunting and gathering w/ cultivation of crops. Permanent settlements but people left to take advantage of resources at different locales. Had sunflowers. Cultivated tobacco (had clay pipes). Maize cultivated during 1-1000 C.E
Adena: Occupied Ohio River basin 1000 B.C.E. to 250.
Hopewell: Settled in Ohio-Mississippi valley 200B.C.E. to 400’s C.E. Had extensive trade network in obsidian, mica, and shells. Climate changes collapsed it.
Mississippian Society
Bow and arrow developed on Great Plains. And maize spread in the ease between 450 and
800.
Indian farmers developed Northern Flint, characterized by large cobs and plentiful kernels that matured in a short time. Flint hoes developed, increasing productivity.
Mississippian culture arose under these new concepts. They were master maize farmers and lived in permanent settlements on the floodplain of the Mississippi. Cahokia was part of it. Characterized by a sophisticated division of labor. Became earliest of city-states N. of
Mexico. They competed for river space. Reached height of civilization between 11th and 13th century. Had traits of Asian and European civilizations except for writing.
The Politics of Warfare
In the late thirteenth century began a cool, dry climate. It lowered the potency of the farms, especially in the SW Anasazis.
Organized violence was rare among hunting bands. Athapascans, however, raided farming communities. There were large conflicts between tribal armies described by Europeans using bow and arrows. Scalping was practiced.
Evidence states that some tribes practiced cannibalism and sacrifice.
There was probably a lot of violence around Cahokia in the 13th and 14th century, since there were heavy log stockades outside the city. The 14th century was a time of conflict.

North America on the Eve of Colonization
More than 350 native societies populate N. America.
The Indian Population of America

The population of America is uncertain, but it is estimated to be about 7 to 10 million people. 25 million were in the Mexican highlands. The people of the Western Hemisphere numbered 60-70 million when first contact with Europeans.
The Great Basin, Great Plains, and Sub arctic were sparsely populated, and the NW and CA were densely settled. The SW, S, and NE had largest pops.
The Southwest
Arid. 10-20 in. summer rain, and much of the dry desert cultivation impossible. Several rivers flow southward out of mountain plateaus into Gulf of Mex.
Before colonization, Indian farmers cultivated good land for about 3000 years. Pimas and
Papagos lived in floodplain of the Salt and Gila rivers.
The Yuman cultivated squash, corn, beans, sunflower, and cotton, which they traded in the floor of the Grand Canyon. They lived in dispersed settlements, Rancherias, which were governed by councils of adult males. Decisions required unanimous consent. A headman was chosen to maintain irrigation works. Ceremonies focused on rainmaking, in which everyone drank cactus wine.
The Pueblo People lived in stacked, interconnected apartments. Spoke several different languages. Had strict laws enforced by matrilineal clans and religious societies. Ceremonies feature colorful impersonations. Clowns mimicked those who did not conform to the communal ideals. Inhabits oldest towns in America. Orabi, AZ dates back to the 12th century. The Pueblo established 70 other villages during the next 200 years.
There were nomadic hunters in the deserts and mountains. Athapascan people who developed the Pueblo ideals in farming became the Navajos. The Apaches were influenced by the hunting and gathering of the Great Basin and Plains, and were nomadic.
The South
Mild, moist climate with short winters and long summers, ideal for farming. Appalachian mountains separate the coast from the plains. Upper courses of the waterways from the
Appalachians offered ample rich bottomland for farming, and the forests offered abundant animals. In the 16th century, lots of people farmed this area with hunting and fishing to add meat to their diet.
Lived in communities ranging from villages to cities with thousands of citizens.
Indians of FL lived in sophisticated chiefdoms. They farmed the land. They were vulnerable to conquest.
Farming was less important in the highlands than in the coast.
The Cherokee: Women controlled household and village life, and were influential in matrilineal clans that linked communities. Elderly men governed by they were joined by clan matrons at the central council house, and could last days since anyone could speak.
Husbands moved in with their wife’s clan.
All people of the south celebrated a common round of agricultural festivals, they all hunted and grew the same stuff, and they pusified themselves by drinking the Black Drink, a vision inducing libation made from the leaves with the cassina plant.

The Northeast
Varied geography of costal plains and mountain highlands, great rivers, lakes, and valleys.
Indian populations were large and dense. Cultivation became the main support of the economy. The Iroquois were the first to adopt cultivation there. Iroquois women grew squash, corn, beans, and sunflowers. They built longhouses that housed a matrilineal family.
Villages surrounded by wooden walls.
Iroquois oral history records reports of violence were probably true. The Iroquois confederacy was made to solve this problem. It outlawed warfare among the nations and established forms of gift exchange and payment. Chief Deganawida founded it. Apparently he had a demonstration by blocking out the sun, but that was probably due to a solar eclipse.
Hiawatha, a great orator, who convinced the nations to join, supported him. Women played major roles in the Iroquois. Iroquois spoke Iroquoian. They did not suppress violence against other tribes like the Eires and the Hurons. The Algonquian (language) people were made up of tribes who hunted with patrilineal ties. The speakers belonged to at least 50 different ethnic groups. They were the first to become involved in the fur trade. Farming led to dense settlements. They began to also form confederacies in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Conclusion
Indian peoples developed hundreds of different cultures since landing in the Americas. The cultures were fine-tuned to their geographic surroundings. “Columbus did not discover a new world, he established contact between both worlds, both already old” (J.H.Perry).