Native Americans Flashcards
What century did the Europeans arrive in North America
In fact, by the time European adventurers arrived in the 15th century .
How did Native Americans arrive in North America?
the nomadic ancestors of modern Native Americans who hiked over a “land bridge” from Asia to what is now Alaska more than 12,000 years ago.
How many people were living in America, when the Europeans arrived?
A.D., scholars estimate that more than 50 million people were already living in the Americas
How many native americans lived in The United States Area, when Europeans arrived?
Of these, some 10 million lived in the area that would become the United States.
How did people classify and group Native Americans?
As time passed, these migrants and their descendants pushed south and east, adapting as they went. In order to keep track of these diverse groups, anthropologists and geographers have divided them into “culture areas,” or rough groupings of contiguous peoples who shared similar habitats and characteristics.
The Arctic Region housed what Native Americans?
The Arctic culture area, a cold, flat, treeless region (actually a frozen desert) near the Arctic Circle in present-day Alaska, Canada and Greenland, was home to the Inuit and the Aleut
What dialects did in the Inuits and Aleuts speak?
Both groups spoke, and continue to speak, dialects descended from what scholars call the Eskimo-Aleut language family
Describe life in Arctic Region for an Inuit or Aleut
Because it is such an inhospitable landscape, the Arctic’s population was comparatively small and scattered. Some of its peoples, especially the Inuit in the northern part of the region, were nomads, following seals, polar bears and other game as they migrated across the tundra. In the southern part of the region, the Aleut were a bit more settled, living in small fishing villages along the shore.
How many Native Americans and Alaska Natives live in North America today?
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are about 4.5 million Native Americans and Alaska Natives in the United States today. That’s about 1.5 percent of the population.
Describe homes for the Inuits and Aleuts
The Inuit and Aleut had a great deal in common. Many lived in dome-shaped houses made of sod or timber (or, in the North, ice blocks).
Describe clothing and boats for Inuits and Aleuts
They used seal and otter skins to make warm, weatherproof clothing, aerodynamic dogsleds and long, open fishing boats (kayaks in Inuit; baidarkas in Aleut).
When did the US purchase Alaska
By the time the United States purchased Alaska in 1867,
Why did the population of Native Americans in Alaska drop by 1867
decades of oppression and exposure to European diseases had taken their toll: The native population had dropped to just 2,500; the descendants of these survivors still make their home in the area today.
Describe the SubArctic Region
The Subarctic culture area, mostly composed of swampy, piney forests (taiga) and waterlogged tundra, stretched across much of inland Alaska and Canada.
What were the main languages of the Subarctic region
Athabaskan (western)
Algonquian (eastern)
Describe life in the SubArctic (travel/settlements/hunting)
In the Subarctic, travel was difficult—toboggans, snowshoes and lightweight canoes were the primary means of transportation—and population was sparse. In general, the peoples of the Subarctic did not form large permanent settlements; instead, small family groups stuck together as they traipsed after herds of caribou. They lived in small, easy-to-move tents and lean-tos, and when it grew too cold to hunt they hunkered into underground dugouts.
When did fur trade really take off?
17th & 18th century
After the growth of the fur trade in the 17th/18th centuries, what did the Native Americans focus on in the Subarctic region?
The growth of the fur trade in the 17th and 18th centuries disrupted the Subarctic way of life—now, instead of hunting and gathering for subsistence, the Indians focused on supplying pelts to the European traders—and eventually led to the displacement and extermination of many of the region’s native communities.
What was the Northeast Area considered?
The Northeast culture area, one of the first to have sustained contact with Europeans, stretched from present-day Canada’s Atlantic coast to North Carolina and inland to the Mississippi River valley.
Name some Iroquoian speakers from the Northeast region
Iroquoian speakers (these included the Cayuga, Oneida, Erie, Onondaga, Seneca and Tuscarora), most of whom lived along inland rivers and lakes in fortified, politically stable villages,
Describe and list the Algonquian speakers of the northeast region
and the more numerous Algonquian speakers (these included the Pequot, Fox, Shawnee, Wampanoag, Delaware and Menominee) who lived in small farming and fishing villages along the ocean. There, they grew crops like corn, beans and vegetables.
Describe Iroquoians
Life in the Northeast culture area was already fraught with conflict—the Iroquoian groups tended to be rather aggressive and warlike, and bands and villages outside of their allied confederacies were never safe from their raids—and it grew more complicated when European colonizers arrived.
What constantly caused the Iroquois and Algonquians to take sides?
Colonial wars
Describe the Southeast Area
The Southeast culture area, north of the Gulf of Mexico and south of the Northeast, was a humid, fertile agricultural region