Native Americans

The North American continent has many kinds of land and climate. In each area nature provided special plants, animals, and raw materials. Indians in different places had different food, clothing, and shelter. They worked out different ways of life.

The Importance of Nature

Since the Indians depended upon nature, they studied its ways. They knew the habits of the animals. They found out which plants were good to eat and which ones were poisonous. They knew signs that told the changing of the seasons and the changes in the weather.

They believed spirits controlled the sun, rain, and other forces. They worshiped animals, plants, the sun, rain, and wind with ceremonies and prayers. They believed that evil spirits caused disease. They used charms and magic to remove the evil. The magic was usually performed by those supposed to have the power to control spirit forces, called shaman. White people called them medicine men. Some treatments included the use of herbs and roots as medicines. Different tribes used different charms and ceremonies. For instance, the Navajos made sand paintings. Iroquois False Face Society members wore masks carved from a living tree.

Indian Cultures

Sociologists study the way groups of people live. They call the way of life of a people, including its arts and crafts, its culture. There were seven great culture areas in North America. The Indians of each area shared similar natural surroundings and had much the same kind of culture. In each area the Indians had special ways of getting clothing, food, houses, and utensils. One thing they had in common was the use of stone tools. All made a variety of hammers, scrapers, knives, arrowheads, and spear points from stone. They did not have metal tools.

Eastern Woodlands Indians

The Eastern Woodlands Indians lived where there was plenty of rainfall. Forests spread over mountains and valleys. There were many lakes and streams. The Woodland tribes depended on the trees, the animals that lived in the woods, and the fish and shellfish from the streams and the sea. They used tree bark and branches to make their wigwams and longhouses, many of their weapons and utensils, and their birch bark canoes. They made clothing from the skins of game. They did not have to wander around looking for wild food. Since they knew how to grow crops, they could live in villages beside a lake or stream. They drove sharpened poles into the ground to make a high fence, or palisade, around the village to protect it from attack. Outside the palisade, women planted corn, pumpkin, squash, beans, tobacco, and gourds. The plants grew well in the warm, rainy summers.

These were the first Indians the English colonists saw. At first the settlers thought the Indians were ignorant savages. Then they found that there was much the Indians could teach them. They learned to grow corn and to bury a fish in each hill for fertilizer. They used the Indian's bark canoe for water travel. They found out how to hunt and make war Indian style.

From the beginning, the American people used Indian methods and equipment when living in the forests of the east. The fur traders lived like the Indians. They traveled in canoes and on snowshoes, wore moccasins and other clothing of deerskin, and ate Indian foods. Later, the pioneer settlers often wore buckskin too, and housewives followed many Indian recipes in their cooking.

The Indian tribes in Alabama were Eastern Woodland Indians. The main groups were the Chickasaw, the Cherokee, the Choctaw, and the Creek. The Chickasaw were the most peaceful. The Creek were the strongest warriors.

The Plains Indians

In the Midwest, the Plains Indians lived on a vast rolling plain. There was enough rain for a thick carpet of grass but not enough to grow many trees. Trees grew only beside the rivers. Huge herds of grazing animals fed on the grass. The most important of these was the buffalo, or bison. These Indians followed the herds. After the Spanish brought horses to America, the Plains Indians became great hunters. Hunting was usually a tribal activity. With horses they could chase a herd of buffalo and kill all the animals they needed. They would often drive large numbers of buffalo off a cliff.

The buffalo gave the Indians almost everything they needed. They ate the meat. They made tents, called tepees, boats, utensils, baggage, and some of their clothing, from the skin. Horses and dogs pulled their belongings from place to place on a travois. They also hunted other animals, such as elk, deer, and antelope.

The Southwest Indians

The Southwest Indians lived on land that was high, dry, and cut by mountains and canyons. The little rain they had came mostly in summer when it could help plants grow. Snow fell on the mountains in winter and supplied water for streams, springs, and water holes. The Pueblo Indians learned to irrigate their fields. Good crops gave them a dependable food supply. They built large dwellings, like apartment houses, from stone and adobe (sun-dried clay). A whole village, or community, lived in one of these huge pueblos.

Nomads, people who move from place to place, also lived in the Southwest. The Navajos were hunters and raiders of the settled villages, until the Spaniards brought sheep and goats. They gradually began tending flocks of these animals. They moved over the dry, rocky land looking for grass for their flocks. They made homes, called hogans, of stone, logs, and clay.

The Seed Gatherer Indians

The Seed Gatherer Indians had an even drier homeland. They were nomads in the dry parts of California and in the dry basins and plateaus between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. There were not enough animals to hunt to feed them, so they roamed in the desert. The women gathered berries, nuts, seeds, and roots. They ground the seeds into flour for gruel. Their shelters were huts covered with grass. Their greatest skill was basketry. They wove the baskets so closely that they would even hold water. The women cooked the gruel, a cereal a little like oatmeal or grits, in them.

The Northwest Coastal Indians

The Northwest Coastal Indians lived along the northern Pacific coast, where the rainfall is heavy. The ocean and rivers were full of fish. The forests were tall and thick. Their stone tools could split the straight grain of the giant red cedar trees. They built large houses by tying big slabs of cedar to wooden frames. They made dugout canoes for river travel, as well as seagoing whaleboats.

The men were skillful wood-carvers. They carved and painted faces on a pole representing the owner's totem animals. These animals were his mythical ancestors who gave him power in war, hunting, or whaling. The designs were carved to represent human and animal faces rather than to look exactly like them.

Hunters added game to the fish supply. The women gathered bulbs, berries, and seeds. They wore raincoats made from the inner bark of the cedar. One interesting custom of these Indians was a special party, called a potlatch. Instead of the guests bringing presents, the host gave presents.

The Far North Indians

The Mackenzie-Yukon Valley Caribou Hunters and the Inuit (Eskimos) lived in the cold North. The Caribou Hunters depended upon the caribou and other northern game just like the Plains Indians depended upon the buffalo. They made their tents and clothing of caribou or other deer hides. In winter they tracked their game on snowshoes. They used dogs to pull their belongings on sleds.

The Inuit today still live along the freezing northern edge of the continent. Many depend upon seal, whale, walrus, caribou, polar bear, Arctic birds, and other Arctic animals. They make warm clothing of the animal skins turning the fur inside to hold the body's warmth.

Thousands of different tribes lived in North America. Where they lived and what they had to do to survive determined their cultures. Studying the Native Americans helps us to understand an important part of our country’s heritage and inspires us to use our resources more wisely.

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