American History I

1. Original Inhabitants of the New World

2. Native Americans

3. Native Americans
 The term Native Americans refers to those people who
lived in the Americas before the arrival of the
Europeans.
 The term Native Americans also refers to the ancestors
of the original inhabitants.
 In 1492 there was between 8-10 million Native
Americans in North America.
 The Native Americans in North America had
developed into 600 societies and 200 languages.
 It would be the Native Americans that kept the first
Europeans in North America alive.

4. Indians
 The term “Indian” is attributed to Christopher
Columbus who mistakenly believed that he had
reached India. He named the native population “Los
Indios,” which later became Indian.

5. Christopher Columbus

6. Native Americans

7. Native Americans
 Unfortunately, the more Europeans that moved to the
Americas the more conflict there was with the native
population.
 Eventually racism was developed and used as a reason to
wipe out the native populations.
 In the end, it was disease that caused the most damage to
the Native Americans, wiping out 90% of the native
population.
 Native populations did, however, begin to intermix with
European explorers and settlers who arrived in the New
World. This led to a new population group called the Métis.
 The Métis were children of native and non-native heritage.

8. Tribes
 In reference to Native Americans, a tribe is a social
group that is bound by a common culture and history.
 The term tribe also means “peoples” and “nations.”
 A tribe is also a political organization, a group of
Native Americans that have been recognized by the
United States federal government as a political entity.
 The term sachem refers to a tribal leader or chief.

9. Bands
 A band is a political subdivision of a Native American
tribe.
 In some Native American groups a band can translate
to a residential subdivision, like a town.
 For mobile Native American tribes a band is a group of
people who are traveling together in search of
subsistence.

10. Language Family
 A language family is a group of languages that show a
close historical connection among themselves.
 A language family may share a common ancestry and
may have come from the same originating language, or
mother tongue.
 Language families are not mutually intelligible.

11. Language Family
 The Native American language family includes the
following groups:
 Algic (Algonquin)
 Iroquoian
 Muskogean
 Siouan
 Athabaskan
 Uto-Aztecan
 Salishan

12. Native American Language Families

13. Native American Cultures
 There are 8 major Native American cultures in the
United States. They are as follows:
 Arctic and Subarctic
 Eastern Woodlands
 Southeast
 Plains
 Southwest
 Plateau and Great Basin
 Pacific Northwest
 California

14. Native American Culture

15. Plains Indians

16. Native American Women
 In Native American society men did not dominate or
control the women in their tribes.
 Native American women had some influence over the
political process within the tribe.
 In each of the 7 Cherokee clans women played an
important role in the governing of the tribe.
 All 7 of the Cherokee clans were represented to the tribal
council by an Honored Woman.
 The Honored Woman spoke for the entire clan.
 The Beloved Women was the spokeswomen for the
Honored Women.
 The role of Beloved Woman was the highest status a
Cherokee woman could aspire.

17. Beloved Woman of the Cherokee

18. Native American Women

19. Native American Women

20. Native Proverb
 “Children must be taught or they will not know
anything; if they do not know anything, they will have
no sense; and if they have no sense they will not know
how to act.”

21. Algonquian
 “What will it avail you to take that by force you may
quickly have by love, or destroy them that provide you
food?” Wahunsonacock, leader of the Algonquan
Confederacy.

22. Pocahontas

23. Apache
 “I was born on the prairies where the wind blew free and
there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was
born where there was no enclosures.” Geronimo
 “I never do wrong, without a cause.” Geronimo, 1886
 “The soldiers never explained to the government when
an Indian was wronged, but reported the misdeeds of
the Indians.” Geronimo
 “It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more
lightening in the hand.” Apache

24. Apache

25. Cherokee
 “When we look into the history of our race, we see
some green spots that are pleasing to us. We also find
many things to make the heart sad.” John Ross,
Cherokee Chief
 “Don’t let yesterday use up too much today.” Cherokee

26. Cherokee
 “They say the government wanted to put a man on the
moon and it could be done alright, but nobody knew
how to get the guy home again after he landed on the
moon. These guys said that all the government had to
do was put an Indian in that rocketship and tell him he
was being relocated and then, after he got to the moon,
that Indian would find his own way home again and the
government wouldn’t have to figure that part out at
all.” Watt Spade, Cherokee

27. Cherokee

28. Cheyenne
 “A danger foreseen is half-avoided.” Cheyenne Proverb
 “A good soldier is a poor scout.” Cheyenne

29. Cheyenne

30. Navajo
 “Rather than trying to control nature, one should try to
achieve balance with it. White people deal with flooding
on a river by building a dam, while a Navajo would
simply move to higher ground.” Navajo Adage

31. Navajo

32. Sioux
 “God Almighty made [me] an Indian and did not make
[me] an agency Indian, either, and [I do] not intend to
be one.” Sitting Bull, Lakota Chief

33. Sioux Chief Sitting Bull

34. United States/Indian Relations
 There were 7 ways the U.S. government used in
“dealing with” the Indians.
 Treaties
 Removal
 Reservations
 Assimilation
 Reorganization
 Termination
 Self-Determination

35. Native Americans
 There were 5 distinct reasons for the rapid decline of
the Native Americans. They are:
 Diseases from Contagions
 Diseases from Deliberate Infections (Smallpox
infected blankets.)
 Warfare/Battle Losses
 Starvation/Exposure
 Extermination/Slaughter

36. Native Americans
 The Native American population was devastated by
numerous diseases such as the following:
 Bubonic Plague
 Chicken Pox
 Cholera
 Diphtheria
 Dysentery
 Influenza
 Malaria
 Measles

37. Native Americans
 Mumps
 Pleurisy
 Scarlet Fever
 Smallpox
 Typhoid Fever
 Typhus
 Whooping Cough
 Yellow Fever

38. Native American Proverbs
 “After dark, all cats are leopards.” Zuni
 “See how the boy is with his sister and you can know
how the man will be with your daughter.” Plains Sioux
 “We stand somewhere between the mountain and the
ant.” Onondaga
 “All who have died are equal.” Comanche
 “All dreams spin out from the same web.” Hopi

39. Tecumseh

40. Tecumseh
 “Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or
passing a friend, even a stranger, if in a lonely place.”
Tecumseh, Chieftan of the Shawnee Tribe