The Lives of American Indians

In the

Nineteenth Century

(1800’s)

Lesson 2(b)

Town and City Dwellers• Indian towns and cities were never haphazardly constructed.  They were carefully

planned to meet the social, political, economic, and ceremonial needs of their people.

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Town and City Dwellers

• Cohokia was a thriving urban market center that was established about 700 A.D. and covered 2,000 acres. Close to the confluence of the Missouri, Mississippi, and Illinois rivers, it flourished for about 700 years with its population ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 at its height  - about equal to the population of medieval London.  It was the largest settlement north of the Rio Grande before the end of the 18th Century when it was surpassed by New York and Philadelphia (its population was only 23,000 as late as 1763).   We'll learn more about Cahokia later in our class.

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Park, courtesy of State of

Illinois

Artists rendition of how Cohokia would have looked at it’s

peak.

Town and City Dwellers

• Pueblo Bonito (Beautiful Town) was the largest of the towns built in Chaco Canyon and was home to about 1,200 people between 919 and 1085.

•    It was a planned, multi-storied community of between 650-800 rooms laid out as a giant D-shaped amphitheater around a central plaza covering three acres.  The wall were constructed of stones and filled with rubble; thousands of wooden roof beams were made from logs carried from almost 50 miles away.

Images found at: http://www.jqjacobs.net/southwest/pueblo_bonito.html

Town and City Dwellers• Mesa Verde in

southeastern Colorado had people living in many small villages on top of the mesa as early as A.D. 700. 

• By 1150, most of the inhabitants were living in large cliff houses constructed within the huge caves in the canyon alls, which provided security against attack. 

• As many as 7,000 people may have lived in the area.  Cliff Palace was the largest cliff dwelling in the area with 200 rooms and 20 kivas.  

Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MesaVerdeNationalParkCliffPalace.jpg

Tribal Confederacies

• Some nations worked together to form alliances prior to European contact.  The most well-known is the Iroquois confederacy.

Flag of the Iroquois Confederacy

Tribal Confederacies

• No one knows exactly when the confederacy or league was formed, but a committee of Six Nations chiefs in 1900 estimated that to occurred around 1390. 

• Some Iroquois assert that it was earlier, while some archeologists claim it was not formed until 1450.  Regardless, it was in existence prior to European contact.

Image found at: http://www.nativewiki.org/IroquoisIroquois, in Buffalo, New York, 1914.

Tribal Confederacies• Before its formation,

tradition claims that the people lived in a constant state of warfare.  

• One Onondaga chief known as Hayenwatha or Hiawatha, lost three daughters.  While mourning his loss and preparing to assuage his grief by taking the life of an enemy, Hayenwatha decided to break the cycle of violence and vengeance and thus composed the laws of a great peace that would restore order and preserve harmony in Iroquois country.

Click here forPeacemaker Video Clip (1 min.)

Image found at: www.pleasancepages.co.uk/node1836

Tree of Peace

Click here to learn about The Legend of the Peace maker.

Tribal Confederacies

• Five nations accepted the teaching of peace - the Onondaga, Mohawks, Cayugas, Senecas,  and Oneidas.  

• In 1722, the Tuscaroras joined the league so that they became known as the League of Six Nations.  They agreed to stop fighting among themselves and unite in common defense.

Images found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois_confederacy

Tribal Confederacies1) The individual tribes retained control of their own affairs at

the local level, but acted through the Grand Council in matters of common concern.

2) Fifty council chiefs or sachems were selected by clan mothers from the member tribes.  The names of the original chiefs passed as titled from generation to generation.

3) Matters were discussed back and forth between the five tribes until consensus was reached or the subject was dropped.  The sachems possessed no power of coercion: the chiefs had to be “of one mind.”  People who could not abide by general consensus were free to go their own way as long as their actions did not threaten the league as a whole.

Click hereto view The Great Lawof Peace

Tribal ConfederaciesThe Great Law of the League was preserved for

generations through oral tradition and was not written down until 1851.  However, it was well known among Indian peoples, as well as among Euro-Americans.

1) Some believe the Great Law served as a

model for the US Constitution.  Benjamin Franklin did ask, if the Six Nations could create “such a Union,”  why couldn’t the colonies do likewise.

2) Whether it was used as a model is not known for certain.  But in 1987, the US Senate passed a resolution acknowledging “the historical debt” which the US owed to the Iroquois “for their demonstration of enlightened, democratic principles of government and their example of a free association of independent Indian nations.”

Go to: 8th grade Handoutsat roundvalleyschools.orgto find Handout for“Iroquois ConfederacyInfluence on Democracy.Use this handout to learnmore.

Discussiona. What commonalities do we see in these various Indian nations prior

to European contact?•     A great deal of political, social, economic, and spiritual

sophistication.  Rather than the Indian Peoples being uncivilized savages, it is clear that they were quite civilized.

b.  What does it mean when a society is civilized?

c. What specific words describe the lives of Indian peoples prior to European contact? How do these words contrast with those that are usually used in history books?

d. Why is it that for almost 400 years, our history lessons on American Indians have portrayed them as savages, heathens, filthy, bloodthirsty?

•   To justify the manner in which Euro-Americans dealt with them - and still deal with them

Summary of Part 1 ofThe Lives of American Indians in

the 1800’s

• 1. At the time of European contact in the early 1600s, the North American continent was populated by hundreds of Indian tribes that were culturally spiritually, and politically diverse.   Additionally, the Indian people were quite civilized, even by European terms, and had achieved a great deal of technological, agricultural, and political sophistication.

Summary of Part 1 ofThe Lives of American Indians in

the 1800’s• 2. Each of the tribes were inherently sovereign

at the time of European contact.  Such sovereignty was reinforced when colonial governments signed government-to-government treaties with various Indian nations.  Indian sovereignty was further reinforced when the US government was established, especially through the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution which created two sovereign entities: the federal governments and tribal governments.

Summary of Part 1 ofThe Lives of American Indians in

the 1800’s

• 3. Despite Indian diversity and tribal sovereignty, most European settlers had little understanding of the cultural, spiritual, and political beliefs and sophistication of Indians.  Thus, they believed the Indians were "uncivilized heathens" and "savages" who needed to be civilized and Christianized.

Summary of Part 1 ofThe Lives of American Indians in

the 1800’s

• 4. Although some Indian tribes became culturally, spiritually, and politically assimilated into Nineteenth Century American society, they were never accepted as equals within the Euro-American population.