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This chapter examines the Amerindian cultures of what will become colonial North America.
Once upon a time . . .
Once upon a time there were no human beings (Homosapien Sapien). Just animals and plants from little fluffy bunnies to behemoth mastodons. People were not indigenous to the Western Hemisphere, well, at least we have no evidence that people were indigenous to the Western Hemisphere. Rather, we believe that people migrated from Asia to what is today Alaska and Canada around 40,000 to 50,000 years ago. Our current archeological evidence (burned bones) suggests that people had settled into North America at least 35,000 years ago. The big lessons you need to understand in this chapter is that there existed some very old and established cultures long, long before the Europeans arrived because one outdated myth was that North America was an empty vessel and Europeans turned it into a venerable Garden of Eden. For the Europeans in general, and the English in particular, there was a right way of doing things and a wrong way of doing this. The right way was the European (English) way and the wrong way was the Indian way, and thus European colonists justified their taking over of Indian land and destroying Indian culture. We believe that most Asian immigrants were hunters and gathers -they got their caloric intake through hunting animals and by collecting naturally-growing roots, tubers, and berries. Hunting and gathering is not the best way to ensure your caloric intake. First, hunting and gathering is very time and caloric intensive, second, relying on nature is sometimes problematic. What do you do in the winter? What if there is a drought? What if a pestilence destroys the wild-growing plants? Thus, we believe that shortly after arriving to North America, Amerindians (the descendants of the original waves of Asiatic immigrants) settled down and thus embraced agriculture. There are four interconnected results to the development of agriculture. First, life becomes more stable as people are less reliant on hunting and gathering for their caloric intake. Second, agriculture is a more reliable and diverse food source. Third, agriculture resulted in the growth of cities or towns -spaces were people collected themselves. And, in many of the Amerindian communities, archeologists have discovered walls surrounding the permanent buildings. Now, there are two reasons for walls: 1) to protect the people inside from the nasty stuff outside; or, 2) to keep people in; to keep them from leaving. Nevertheless, the growth of communities meant the creation of permanent structures, normally built near fresh water sources, and they built canals (for irrigation), dikes, and roads. These work projects tend to imply that there also existed some form of government. A body that makes decisions as to where to build the canals or where to put the roads. Unfortunately, Amerindians embraced an oral tradition of passing down history and thus you will not come across any diaries, papers, or documents that fully tell the story of Amerindian life.Read also:
OpenStax, Us history to 1877. OpenStax CNX. Jan 20, 2013 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11483/1.1
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