A Continent of Villages, to 1500
Settling the Continent
Who are the Indian People?
Migration from Asia
Clovis: The first American Technology
The Beginning of Regional Cultures
Hunting Traditions of the Plains and Forests
Desert Culture in Western America
History and the Land
The Regions of Native North America
Forest Efficiency
The Development of Farming
Mexico
The Resisted Revolution
Increasing Social Complexity
The Religions of Foragers and Farmers
Earliest Farmers of the Southwest
The Anasazis
Farmers of the Eastern Woodlands
Mississippian Society
The Politics of Warfare and Violence
North America on the Eve of Colonization
The Indian Population of America
The Southwest
The South
The Northeast
Images
Maps
Vocabulary
|
Cahokia |
Beringia |
Pleistocene |
Clovis |
Teotihuacan |
|
Archaic |
Archaeological |
Neolithic |
Mayan |
Hohokam |
|
Anasazis |
Athapascans |
Navajo |
Maize |
Hopi |
|
Cheyenne |
Mohawk |
Cherokee |
Pawnee |
Bison |
Review Questions
List the evidence for the hypothesis that the Americas were settled by migrants from Asia.
Discuss the impact of environmental change and human hunting on the big-game populations of North America.
Review the principal regions of the North American continent and the human adaptations that made social life possible in each of them.
Why did the development of farming lead to increasing social complexity? Discuss the reasons why organized political activity began in farming societies.
What were the Hunting and Agrarian Traditions? In what ways did the religious beliefs of Indian peoples reflect their environmental adaptations?
What factors led to the organization of the Iroquois Confederacy?
Recommended Readings
Tom D. Dillehay and David J. Milzer, eds., The First Americans: Search and research (1991).
Thomas E. Emerson, Cahokia and the Archaeology of Power (1997).
Brian M. Fagan, The Great Journey: The Peopling of Ancient America (1987).
Stuart J. Fiedel, Prehistory of the Americas (1987).
Alvin M. Josephy Jr., ed., America in 1492 (1992).
Alice B. Kehoe, North American Indians: A Comprehensive Account (1992).
Robert Siverberg, Mound Builders of Ancient America: The Archaeology of a Myth (1968).
William C. Sturtevant, general editor, Handbook of North American Indians, 20 vols. (1978 -).
Russell Thornton, American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History since 1492 (1987).