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North American Societies around 1942, image, image, image, image, image,…
North American Societies around 1942
Diverse Societies
The native groups of North America were as diverse as the environments in which they lived. The North American continent provided for many different ways of life, from nomadic to the kind of fixed, nonmigratory life of farming communities.
NORTHWEST COAST
Peoples such as
the Kwakiutl, Nootka
, and
Haida
collected shell-
fish from the beaches and hunted the ocean for whales, sea otters, and seals.
SOUTHWEST
The Pueblo
built new settlements near waterways such as the Rio Grande,where they could irrigate their farms.
CALIFORNIA
Not one land, but many lands—that’s how
the Kashaya Pomo
and
other native peoples regarded the region that is now California.
EASTERN WOODLANDS
The Iroquois
:Built villages in forest clearings and blended agriculture with hunting and gathering. They traveled by foot or by canoe.
Native Americans Share Cultural Patterns
TRADING NETWORKS
The biggest factors in bringing Native
American peoples into contact with one another.
The Nootka
of the Northwest Coast mastered whaling. The Ojibwa of the
upper Great Lakes collected wild rice. The Taos of the Southwest made pottery.
LAND USE
They regarded the land as the source of life, not as a commodity to be sold. “We cannot sell the lives of men and animals,” animals,” said one Blackfoot chief in the 1800s.
Native Americans disturbed the land only for the most important activities such as food gathering or farming.
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
Some cultures believed in one supreme being,
known as “Great Spirit,” “Great Mystery,” “the Creative Power,” or “the Creator.”
Native American Village Life
THE HOME
Huts, whose sides can be rolled up for ventilation,
are woven from thick plant stems.
HUNTING
Men hunt for deer.
AGRICULTURE
A tobacco field appears to the left of this field, and other corn fields and a pumpkin patch appear below it.
SOCIAL LIFE
Villagers prepare for a community feast.
RELIGION
Residents dance around a circle of idols in a religious cere-
mony.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
The tasks assigned to men and women varied with each society. The basic unit of organization among all Native
American groups was the family.
Some tribes further organized the families into clans, or groups of families descended from a common ancestor.
Kwakiutl:slaves performed the most menial jobs, while nobles ensured that Kwakiutl law was obeyed.
Iroquois: members of a clan often lived together in huge bark-covered longhouses. All families participated in community decision making.
The division of labor according to:
gender, age, or status
