CHAPTER ONE: A NEW WORLD
I. Columbian Exchange
II. The First Americans
A. The Settling of America
1. “Indians” settled the New World between 15,000 and 40,000 years ago, before the
glaciers melted and submerged the land bridge between Asia and North America.
B. Indian Societies of the Americas
1. North and South American societies built roads, trade networks, and irrigation
systems.
2. The South American societies were grander in scale and organization than the North
American societies.
a. North American Indians lacked literacy, wheeled vehicles, metal tools, and
scientific knowledge necessary for long distance navigation.
C. Mound Builders of the Mississippi Valley
1. The community, centered on a series of giant semicircular mounds on a bluff
overlooking the Mississippi River and known today as Poverty Point, was built
approximately 3,500 years ago.
2. It is believed to have been a center for trade along the Mississippi and Ohio River
valleys.
D. Western Indians
1. Hopi and Zuni ancestors settled around present day Arizona and New Mexico and built
large planned towns with multiple-family dwellings, trading with peoples as far away as
Mississippi and central Mexico.
2. Indians in the Pacific Northwest lived primarily by fishing and gathering, while on the
Great Plains, the Indians hunted the buffalo or lived in agricultural communities.
E. Indians of Eastern North America
1. Indian tribes living in the eastern part of North America sustained themselves with a
diet of corn, squash, and beans and supplemented it by fishing and hunting.
2. Tribes frequently warred with one another; however, there were also many loose
alliances.
3. Indians saw themselves as one group among many; their sheer diversity when the
Europeans arrived was remarkable.
F. Native American Religion
1. Religious ceremonies were often directly related to farming and hunting.
2. Those who were believed to hold special spiritual powers held positions of respect and
authority.
3. Indian religion did not pose a sharp distinction between the natural and the
supernatural.
G. Land and Property
1. The idea of owning private property was foreign to Indians.
2. Indians believed land was a common resource, not an economic commodity.
3. Wealth mattered little in Indian societies and generosity was far more important.
H. Indian Gender Relations
1. Women could engage in premarital sex and choose to divorce their husbands, and
most Indian societies were matrilineal.
