http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz

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ECOLOGICAL CHANGE AND THE FRONTIER
Zoltan Grossman Geography/ Native American
Studies The Evergreen State College Olympia,
Washington

• http//academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz

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Culturaldiversity

• Waves of migration
• produced diversity
• Languages
• Economies
• Customs/rituals
• Family systems
• Religious systems
• Resource use systems

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CulturalAreas
Arctic Subarctic Northwest Coast Plateau Great
Basin California Plains Southwest Southeast Northe
ast
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EASTERN PLAINS (tall-grass prairie)

• Major river valleys / flood plains
• Semi-sedentary farming
• Corn, beans stored underground
• Seasonal hunting/gathering
• Deer, bison, elk, etc.
• Multifamily lodges
• Hereditary leaders from high-ranking families

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Mississippian Culture(800-1110 AD)

• Mound builders
• City dwellers (plazas)
• Floodplain farmers
• Accumulation of corn
• Mesoamerica similarities
• Long-distance trade
• Ritual, prestige goods

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CAHOKIA(900-1400 AD)In Illinois across
Mississippi R. from St. Louis
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Largest most complexcity north of Mexico Up
to 40,000 people at height
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Cahokia larger than early New York.City centered
on Monks Mound ceremonial plaza
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Monks MoundLargest platform mound north of
Mexico, built on 14 acres to 100 feet over 300
years
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Woodhenge Circular sun calendar48 cedar posts
in 410-foot circlearound central post to mark
seasonal cycles
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Cahokia declined 1200-1400 due to ecological
changes conflicts

• Descendants
• of culture
• unknown

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WESTERN PLAINS (semi-arid / short grass prairie)

• Big game (bison) hunting
• Nomadic hunting on foot
• (within defined territory)
• Ritual emphasis on hunt
• Less social stratification

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• Hunting and worship of bison

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• American image of Indians in tipi

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SOUTHEAST

• Extensive agriculture / vegetable gardens
• Large towns
• Complex hierarchies (nobility)
• Mound builders
• Reliance on shellfish

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Etowah, Georgia 1200-c. 1500s
Class of chiefs and religious leadership ruled
from platform mounds, behind defensive palisades
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Trade Networks
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SOUTHWEST

• Adopts corn agriculture early along streams
• Irrigation later Athabascans migrate adopt
• Adaptation to desert with flexible movements
• Trade with Mesoamerica (Aztecs to Mexico)
• Sedentary multiroom
• planned villages, roads
• Little formal social stratification

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Southwest,1000-1500 AD

• Hohokam
• Anasazi
• Later Pueblos
• Mogollon

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Mesa Verde Anasazi site, CO, 500-1300 AD
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Chaco Canyon, NM, 900-1150 AD
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Evolution to Pueblos
Taos Pueblo
Puyé Cliffs near Santa Clara Pueblo
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Acoma Pueblo (Sky City)
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Santa ClaraPueblo Feast Day
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Navajo (Diné) Apache migration(Southern
Athabascans)
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NORTHEAST (Eastern Woodlands)

• Fixed villages and seasonal camp areas
• Kinship (clan structures) main social
  organization
• Some agriculture in southern areas
• Family lodges and longhouses
• Seasonal cycles of hunting,
• fishing, gathering

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OtstungoMohawk village in New Yorkbased on
clan longhouses.
Mohawk later one of Six Nations in the
Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee)
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Mining
Small-scale stone, copper, lead, pipestone
production used for trade and ceremonies
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SEASONS OF THE WOODLANDS(Ojibwe or Anishinaabe
in the north mobile, ceremonial cycles)
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EARLY SPRINGSugar Bush (Maple Syrup)
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EARLY SPRINGSugar Bush (Maple Syrup)
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SPRING (northern ice thaw)Spearfishing(also
bear and turkey hunting)
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SPRING (northern ice thaw)Spearfishing
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SPRING (southern edge woodlands)Planting corn,
beans, squash in intertillage mounds(mainly by
women)
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SUMMERVillage gardening, local
fishing/gatheringceremonies dances
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SUMMER
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FALL (north)Ricing
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FALL (north)Ricing
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FALL (southern edge)Harvesting corn, beans,
squash, etc.
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FALL (southern edge)Harvesting corn, beans,
squash, etc.

• Oneida girl with
• corn husk doll

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WINTERDeer hunting / trapping / ice fishing
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WINTERDeer hunting / trapping / ice fishing
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GREAT BASIN

• Nomadic small game hunting with fire
• Deer, elk in mountains
• Gathering seeds/nuts, berries, roots
• Piñon, acorns
• Semi-sedentary in base camps
• Seasonal water availability, wetlands

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CALIFORNIA

• Perfect Mediterranean climate for
• diverse agriculture, gathering
• Rich coastal and riverine fishing
• Incredible diversity of tribes,
• mostly small, self-sufficient
• Art centered on plants
• (basketry)

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CALIFORNIA
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NORTHWEST COAST

• Temperate rainforest, poor soils
• Highly populated coastal villages
• Seasonal migrating salmon
• trout, sea mammals
• Family use territories for fishing/hunting
• Stratified kinship society
• But not single leader

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Northwest

• Multifamily plank houses with totem poles
• Accumulating, giving away wealth (potlatch)

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OzetteMakah villagein Washington
Whaling at center of spiritual values Whale
gives to people
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PLATEAU (Northwest Interior)

• Semi-arid environment with rivers
• Gathered by river for fishing cycle
• Spearing, netting salmon from platforms
• Dispersed as small bands for hunting cycle

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Columbia River Tribal Fishing
Celilo Falls destroyed by The Dalles dam, 1957
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SUBARCTIC

• Heavy reliance on
• hunting, fishing
• Small semi-nomadic groups
• similar to Northeast
• Long-distance canoe travel
• Clan structures, lived
• in small lodges, tents
• Little social hierarchy

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Dene, Cree, Innu
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ARCTIC

• Main reliance on fishing, hunting sea mammals
• Small nomadic bands
• Adaptation to harsh environment
• Zero agriculture
• Very little social hierarchy

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Inuit (Eskimo)
E. Siberia, Alaska, Nunavut (Canadian territory),
N. Quebec, Greenland (Danish territory)
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Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)

• Derived from historic intimate relationship to
  land
• Often held by specific
• tribal members for
• spiritual purposes
• When to share
• intellectual property
• with outsiders?
• Outsiders can exploit
• for curiosity or profit

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Leisure Time

• Work not linked to time
• If shortage, work long hours
• But if work done, kick back
• Sports
• LaCrosse, ball games, etc.
• Gaming
• with sticks, shells ,bones, etc.

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Myth of the Ecological Indian

• Perception of wasteful harvesting/hunting
• But Native Americans did not have same value
• of wilderness (without human presence)
• Postmodernist view
• that Native Americans
• copied environmentalists
• created ecological/
• sacred site myths

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European doctrine of Higher Land Use
America as sparsely Inhabited virgin
wilderness (wild) Agriculture (sedentary)
higher than hunting/ gathering
(nomadic) Justification for taking unused land
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Columbian Exchange
NEW Corn Tomato Beans Potato Peanut Vanilla Choc
olate
OLD Cattle Pigs Horses Sugar Tea Coffee
Old World ahead in animal domestication
Brought disease transportation to Americas
New World ahead in crops Brought greater
nutrition population to Europe Africa
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New World as virgin soil for
germs biological expansion of Europe Native
lack of natural resistance to Old World
(domestic animal) diseases Early Euro.
fishermen brought disease, worsened with
introduction of pigs
Ecological Imperialism (Crosby)
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Population of North America (1491 by Charles
Mann)

• Larger, richer and more populous
• than Europe (Wilson)
• Range from 1.2 million (Mooney)
• to 18 million (Dobyns) and above
• Depopulation from huge early
• epidemics in Native cities, villages
• Historical implications of debate over
• unoccupied empty land

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Smallpox Measles Flu Plague Typhus Cholera Chick
en pox Malaria
Disease Epidemics
Europeans contained own epidemics, but not among
American Indians
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Social economic devastation End of the
world Urbanized tribes hit worst (1539 vs.
1682 in Southeast) Europeans see as Gods
Will Many Natives react by converting
Effects of Disease
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Demographic Crash in North America Main reason
disease. Also famine and war / genocide.Different
regions had different reductions (65-95).
Estimates range to millions more in 1492
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Fur Trade
Merchants created Euro. market for American
fur Native market for Euro. manufactured
goods -Beads, guns, alcohol, metal pots,
cloth Euro. dependency on Native labor Native
dependency on Euro. goods.
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Russian Fur TradeAleut sealers in Alaska
California
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Fur Trade Era (1600s-1700s)
Economic Interior trading posts, mutual
dependency Political Alliances vs. European
rivals Encouragement of intertribal
rivalries
Cultural Natives adopt material culture
seasonal cycles disrupted Ecological Human
disease spreads, animals depleted
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Middle Ground (Richard White)
Fur Trade in Great Lakes region transformed both
sides Native culture influenced French, English
too Métis as middle men Euro.-American
slowly gained dominance, esp. as animals
disappeared
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Stimulation of intertribal wars
Refugees from Iroquois Wars, European
settlement Pushed west in domino effect Wars
more intense over control of fur trade
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Horse Gun Frontier Spanish brought horses from
Mexico French brought guns from
Quebec Overlapped by 1750 in Northern Plains
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Changes in the Land (Cronon)
Disease emptied landscape gave false
impression of wilderness Grazing transformed
plant life Animals damaged Native crops New
crops, timbering changed land and patterns of
ownership
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Changes in Hunting
Bounding of landscape restricts hunting/gathering
territories Fur Trade wars enforced
sedentary villages, competition for fur
areas Mobile seasonal harvesting cycles and
flexible hunting territories end When furs ran
out, only commodity left for survival was
land
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Changes in Forestry
Deforestation to clear farmland, provide fuel and
fencing Dried soil, increased erosion/siltation,
changed tree species and soils Faster snowmelt,
floods in spring, reduced flows later in
year Fire suppression closed up open areas
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Pristine Myth

• Western view of American nature untouched by
  humans
• But Native Peoples managed landscape
• Native uses of fire to shape land

Settlers cut forest, but also created forests
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Uses of Fire

• Hunting tactic
• Created edge conditions for game
• Enrich soil for agriculture
• Open up landscape
• Instrument of warfare

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Native Land Losses
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1620
1850
1990
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Bison/NativeParallelsNative land lossBison
range lossStrategy to control land,using
railroadsNo buffalo left onreservations by 1890
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Dependency on Rations
Beef Issue on Pine Ridge Reservation to replace
Lakotas buffalo meat
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