NATIVE AMERICANS - AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES

• name: appeared as a result of mistake - in 1492 Christopher Columbus discovered America and he though he reached the India so he called the people “Indians”;

• Amerindians = Native Americans

• about 40 00 years ago: migration of people from Asia to America through the ice bridge via Beringia;

• numerous tribes speaking over three hundred separate languages

• strong position of women

• various lifestyle: nomadic hunters, warriors, farmers - cultivation of wild grass which became Indian corn (maize), beans, peppers and squash

PUEBLO INDIANS

• southwestern states (New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado)

• the best organized of the Amerindian farming people

• live in stone houses (pueblos) - uses ropes and ladders to get inside

• called “dry farmers” - they created a network of canals across the desert to bring water to their fields

• made pottery, clothes, blankets

• lived in groups of villages built on sides and tops of rocky cliffs - for safety reasons and better organization

THE APACHE

• southwestern states (New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Great Plains)

• extended families living together - they created “local groups”:

• chief - leader of local group

• shaman - medicine man and spiritual leader

• were nomadic tribes - lived in teepees, hunted wild animals, gathered wild plants, nuts and roots

• were warlike people - often raided their neighbors and stole food (they attacked pueblo people)

THE SIOUX /su:/

• northern states (Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota) - grassy plains

• called themselves Dakota, but other called them Sioux (= enemies)

• were nomadic warriors (lived in teepees)

• followed and depended upon the buffalo: food, clothing, shelters (horns and hide)

• they were devastated and shocked when white people killed buffalos just for killing

THE IROQUOIS /ɪrkwəɔɪ/

• northern states (mainly in New York)

• were association of several tribes

• were skilled farmers - in fields cleared from the forest they growing together beans, squash and maize

• they gathered wild berries, nuts, roots and herbs, hunted mainly deer and were fishermen

• they used birch bark canoes to carry them along the rivers and lakes

• lived in permanent villages in long wooden huts (called longhouses - each for at least 20 families)

• were warriors:

• they built strong wooden stockades to protect their villages from enemies

• they aimed to create an empire by incorporating conquered tribes (empire of Amerindians)

• they gave themselves the right to revenge

• they were ambitious

• they had strict and demanding training of young boys

THE AZTECS

• lived in today's Mexico

• around 1325 A.D. build a city on an island called Tenochtitland (now: Mexico City)

• had a strong and well-organized government headed by emperor

• Aztec Empire (in the 16^th century) - stretched from the Pacific to Atlantic

• there were loyal and fearless army

• they imposed taxes on conquered people

• they had cruel religious ceremonies (sacrificing men to the Aztec gods)

• by the mid-1400's Tenochtitland had a population of about 300 000 people - the largest city in the world at that time. That civilization:

• had a highly-civilized culture

• used pictographic writing

• created schools which were obligated for all children

• created class structure

• sophisticated irrigation system - successful farming

• arrival of the Spanish

• 1519 - 1521 - Herman Cortes - conquered the Aztecs and destroyed their capitals (bring with them: guns, horses, dogs and diseases - smallpox and measles)

• city of gold - Aztecs used a lot of gold in their everyday life - for them it was not so valuable

THE MAYAS

• around 900 B.C. settled the Yucatan Peninsula

• civilization reached its peak around 250 A.D.

• they had no central government - people shared the same language, culture, traditions and were led by their own local authorities

• political leaders = spiritual leaders

• they built stepped pyramids which were used as temples

• they developed ballgames

• scientific achievement:

• medicine, mathematics

• astronomy - they could predict the eclipses, their calendar had 360 days (to plan harvest and religious ceremonies)

• complex written languages (alphabets and symbols)

• by A.D. 900 the Mayan Culture began to decline - one of theories says that was a civil war between royal member - it caused hunger and diseases

THE INCAS

• 
  around A.D. 1200 civilization developed in the Andes Mountains in South America (now: Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador)

• believed to be the “Children of the Sun” - they worshiped gods of nature

• had well-planned capitals: Cuzco

• 15^th century - the Sapa Inca (emperior) Topa created one of the largest empire in the world

• powerful central government

• passed and recorded laws with were the same throughout the empire

• everybody had to speak common language

• 
  system of paved roads and bridges facilitated trade and communication (roadrunners) - delivered messages

• invention of terraced farming on sides of the mountains, irrigation system

• the Incas did not invent: the wheel and their own system of writing

• 1531 - 35 - the Spanish leaded by Francisco Pizarro invaded and conquered the Incas

• most for gold and silver

• hunger for new lands and converts of Christianity

• the Incan Empire disappeared completely but Incan people remained in the region, and some of them even cultivate Incas tradiotons

• many descendants are in Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador

• Machu Picchu - the last city

---