Native American Nations,
Empires and Tribes
DO NOW
 Tell me the story of…..(pick one)
 The first Thanksgiving
 Little Red Riding Hood
 Goldilocks and the three bears
 Dominant Narrative – the main perspective
that most people believe and most of society…
(whether it being parents, family, friends, movies,
TV shows, websites, social media, teachers, etc.)
…believes in and sometimes unknowingly
supports.
 What is the dominant narrative regarding
Native Americans?
Agriculture
Mayas – Central America
 Advanced calendars (superior to European)
 Advanced mathematics
Aztecs - Mexico
 Canals
 Compared to largest European cities
 Religious areas/markets that could fit
thousands
Incas - Peru
 Terraced farming
 Network of roads and massive Empire
Incas
 Trapezoidal stones
 Incan construction withstood earthquakes that
crumbled European buildings
Incas
 Irrigation
 Astronomy
Cahokia - Illinois




Largest city north of Mexico in early 1000s
Advanced engineering
Diverted streams and rivers to help city grow
Base of main structure larger than biggest
pyramid in Egypt
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/cahokia/hodges-text/3
Cahokia
 Over 120 mounds
 Largest 10 stories / 22 million ft3 of soil
Ancestoral Puebloans
 Southwest
 Built cities directly into cliffs
Iroquois
 New York
 Union of tribes
 Democratic government
Iroquois
CLOSING QUESTIONS
 How do these primary sources (ruins,
documents, etc.) challenge the dominant
narrative???
 You’ve covered some of this before…why then
do many of us still go back to assuming Native
Americans only lived in tipi’s and ran around
naked with chiefs, deer, forests, etc. ???
 What does this say about how difficult it is to
overcome bias???
If we wanted to trade with them for some of their things, they
would come to the seashore on some rocks where the waves
were most violent, while we remained in the little boat, and
they sent us what they wanted to give on a rope, continually
shouting to us not to approach the land; they would take in
exchange only knives, hooks for fishing and sharp metal. We
found no kindess in them, and when we had nothing more to
exchange and left them, the men made all the signs of scorn
and shame that any brute creature would make [GV footnote:
such as showing their buttocks and laughing.]
Giovanni da Verrazzano
IN FACT…WHEN YOU LOOK AT A MAP OF THE AMERICAS IT WAS
HEAVILY POPULATED
FREEDOM IN NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE
When an Indian child has lived among us, taught our language
and our culture, if he goes to see his Indian family there is no
persuading him to return. But when white persons of either sex
have been taken prisoners at a young age by the Indians, and
lived with them, and later treated with all imaginable kindness
and encouraged to stay among us instead, in a short time they
become disgusted with our manner of life…and at first chance
escape again into the woods to be with the Indians.
Ben Franklin 1753
NATIVE AMERICAN OBSERVATIONS ABOUT
EUROPEANS AND FREEDOM
The Huron were amazed that one man should have more than
another, and that the rich should have more respect than the
poor… they think of Europeans as slaves, and call us miserable
Souls, whose Life is not worth having because we
degrade(lower, ‘diss’) ourselves in subjecting ourselves to one
Man (a king) who possesses the whole Power, and is bound by
no Law but his own Will… Individual Indians value their
freedom above anything that you can imagine, and this is the
reason they always say that one’s as much Master as another,
and since Men are all made of the same Clay there should be
no Distinction or Superiority among them.
-Baron of LaHontan, lived in Canada between 1683 and 1694
RELATION TO OTHER SOURCES
Does the Baron’s and Franklin’s account
of freedom and mobility matchup with
Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda’s account of
class and mobility in Native American
society?
Native Americans in
General
 Trade throughout the Americas
 Numerous advancements!
 Technology included agricultural practices, architecture
and astronomy.