Native American Society on the Eve of British Colonization

In Renaissance times, Europeans were not the only ones accomplishing great things. No one can deny the beauty of Michelangelo's brushwork or the brilliance of Shakespeare's verse. But societies elsewhere also flourished. As the modern world turned 1600, it seems as though each corner of the globe had its own "renaissance." The Native American societies of North America were no different. They had diverse cultures and languages, much like Europe.

When the British staked their claim to the east coast of the modern United States, they could not have dreamed of the complexity of the peoples they were soon to encounter.

There are between 140 and 160 different American Indian tribes. There is no single Native American language. It would be as difficult for the Mohawk Indians of the East to converse with Zuni Indians of the West as it would be for Germans to converse with Turks.

Before Europeans arrived in North America, Native peoples inhabited every region. This map shows Native American tribes, culture areas, and linguistic stocks.

Twenty-seven states derive names from Indian languages. Native Americans turned wild plants such as corn, potatoes, pumpkin, yams, and lima beans into farm crops for human consumption. More than half of modern American farm products were grown by Native Americans before British colonization.

Medicine was not an unknown science in the Western Hemisphere. Most natural herbs used for medicinal purposes in the modern world had also been used by Native Americans before European contact. Archaeologists have learned that North American Indians made salt by evaporation and mined a great many minerals including copper, lead, and coal.

Despite myths to the contrary, not all Native Americans were peaceful. Like Europe, the American continent faced tribal warfare that sometimes led to human and cultural destruction.

As you read this section, keep in mind the following questions:

1. How did European explorers respond to the language, clothing, customs, dwellings, and food of the Native American peoples?
2. How did the Native Americans respond to the language, clothing, and customs of the explorers?
3. What are some of the difficulties in trying to understand someone from a different culture?
4. Why was it difficult for European explorers of the 15th and 16th centuries to understand the diversity of the native peoples who lived in the Americas?
5. How do historians and archaeologists know what the explorers experienced? How do they know what the Native American peoples experienced?
6. What do you want to know about the Americas prior to the era of European exploration? How can you find out?

Since 1492, European explorers and settlers have tended to ignore the vast diversity of the people who had previously lived here. It soon became common to lump all such groups under the term "Indian." In the modern American world, we still do. There are certain experiences common to the survivors of these tribes. They all have had their lands compromised in some way and suffered the horrors of reservation life.

Language Lessons

The Natchez chief, known as "Great Sun," was a powerful Indian leader. Unlike some Indian leaders, "Great Sun" ruled as an absolute monarch.

Stereotyping Indians in this way denies the vast cultural differences between tribes. First, there is the issue of language. The Navajo people of the Southwest and the Cherokees of the Southeast have totally unrelated languages.

There were over 200 North American tribes speaking over 200 different languages. The United States used the uniqueness of the Navajo language to its advantage in World War II. Rather than encrypting radio messages, it proved simpler to use Navajos to speak to each other in their everyday language to convey high-security messages. It worked.

Navajo Code Talkers

Between 1942 and 1945, about 400 Navajos served as code talkers for the U.S. Marines. They could encode, transmit, and decode a message in a fraction of the time it took a machine to do the same. And unlike with machine codes, the Japanese were never able to break the Navajo code.

"In the beginning, this place was only darkness and water until the time when a woman fell from the sky world." Thus starts the Oneida creation story. Every Native American tribe has their own history, culture, and art.

Different Strokes for Different Folks

Lifestyles varied greatly. Most tribes were domestic, but the LAKOTA followed the buffalo as nomads. Most engaged in war, but the Apache were particularly feared, while the Hopis were pacifistic. Most societies were ruled by men, but the Iroquois women chose the leaders.

Native Americans lived in WIGWAMS, HOGANS, IGLOOS, TEPEES, and longhouses. Some relied chiefly on hunting and fishing, while others DOMESTICATED crops. The Algonkian chiefs tried to achieve consensus, but the Natchez "Sun" was an absolute monarch. The TOTEM POLE was not a universal Indian symbol. It was used by tribes such as the Chinook in the Pacific Northwest to ward off evil spirits and represent family history.

It is important that students of history explore tribal nuances. Within every continent, there is tremendous diversity. The tribal differences that caused the Apache and Navajo peoples to fight each other are not so different from the reasons Germans fought the French. Recognizing tribal diversity is an important step in understanding the history of America