Who discovered America? First Americans / Native Americans / Amerindians

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Who discovered America?First Americans / Native
Americans / Amerindians
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Who discovered America (for whom)?
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Nomenclature

• Amerindians
• Native Americans
• First Nations

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Sources of knowledge on pre-Columbian America

• pre-history no written records
• archeology
• anthropology
• ethnography
• linguistics
• oral tradition

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Archelology and its problems
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Linguistics as archeology's auxiliary science

• nearly 30 language families
• plus nearly 30 isolates
• in total nearly 300 languages spoken north of
  Mexico
• Europe 2 families and 1 isolate
• Total of all Indian languages approx. 2000

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Major linguistic families
Iroquoian Kalapuyan kalapúyan Kiowa-Tanoan
Maiduan Muskogean mskdjían Palaihnihan
(Achumawi-Atsugewi) Pomoan pómo, pomóan
Sahaptian Salishan sélish Shastan Siouan-Cata
wban Siouan Catawban Tsimshianic Utian Miwok
Costanoan Utaztecan

• Algic
• Algonquian
• Wiyot
• Yurok
• Na-Dene
• Eyak-Athabaskan
• Eyak
• Athabaskan
• Tlingit
• Caddoan
• Chimakuan
• Chinookan
• Chumashan chúmash
• Comecrudan
• Coosan kus
• Eskimo-Aleut
• Eskimoan
• Aleut Unangan

• Numic
• Tübatulabal
• Takic
• Tepiman
• Taracahitic
• Tubar
• Corachol
• Aztecan
• Wakashan
• Kwakiutlan
• Nootkan
• Wintuan
• Yokutsan
• Yuman-Cochimi
• Yuman
• Cochimi

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Names of American States of Native American origin

• Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho,
  Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts,
  Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, North
  South Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee,
  Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming

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Navajo Codetalkers
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Problems with studying pre-Columbian America

• cultural / race bias
• noble savage bias
• 'white-washing' of Indian history and revisionist
  histories of Amerindians

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First wave of migration Paleo-Indians

• Beringia / Bering Land Bridge
• Wisconsin Ice Age (Glaciation)

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Second and third wave of migration Inuits,
Yupik, Aleuts

• anorak
• goggles
• igloo
• kayak
• umiak

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South America / Latin America

• Mayas
• Teotihuacan
• Incas
• Olmecs
• Aztecs

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Significant archeological sites North America
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A mosaic of cultures / varied ratio of development

• big game hunting
• mastodons
• mammoths
• hunters gatherers
• nomads
• nearly no farming
• why?
• no traction animal
• various cultural forms throughout pre-historic
  period
• various forms of social and political
  organization
• North American Indian civilizations

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North American Indian civilizations

• Archaic Tradition
• Woodland Tradition
• Mississippi Tradition
• Basketweavers
• Burial Mounds Tradition
• Temple Mounds Tradition

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Pueblo
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Eurpoean motives for colonization

• Age of geographical explorations
• New ways of life
• Conversion of natives to Christianity
• Hope of wealth

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Columbian Exchange

• the totals of the mutual influences on the
  natural environment and human habitat brought
  about by the Columbus expedition
• great number of animals, plants, diseases moved
  from one continent to the other, nearly every
  society on Earth affected by the Columbian
  exchange.
• diseases brought from Europe caused major
  depopulation of America
• Syphilis, in turn, proved more deadly in Europe
  than in America