E.L.D. Cornerstone.  Life in words & pictures

THE AMERICAN INDIANS

First Americans, 30k-5k years ago

The first Americans: 30,000 - 5000 years ago
 

During the most recent of the Ice Ages, lasting from 30,000 to 10,000 years ago, an undersea ridge between Siberia and Alaska emerges from the sea. Known as the Bering Land Bridge, it lies partly south of the ice cap. It develops a steppe-like ecology of grasslands, grazed by large animals such as horses, reindeer and even mammoth. 
 

Gradually, in many separate incursions, the hunter-gatherers of the Siberian steppes pursue their prey across the land bridge and into America. When the melting ice submerges the bridge about 10,000 years ago, these northeast Asians become isolated as the aboriginal Americans; hence North American Indian. 
 

The Siberian hunter-gatherers probably make their way along the north coast of Alaska and down through the valley of the Mackenzie River. Archaeological evidence shows that by about 15,000 years ago the central plains of America are widely inhabited. Traces of human activity at this time are preserved in the remarkable La Brea tar pit in Los Angeles. The glacial conditions further north mean that the central plains are at this time cool and moist. During the next 5000 years, while the glacial period continues, humans penetrate far into South America. The retreat of the ice caps (see Ice Ages) makes northern regions increasingly habitable both for large animals and for the humans who prey on them. By 8000 years ago hunter-gatherers have moved up the eastern side of the continent into Newfoundland and the prairie provinces of Canada. 
 

From about 7000 years ago human groups adapt to the conditions of the northern coast of Canada, living mainly as hunters of sea mammals. They spread gradually eastwards along the edge of the Arctic Circle, eventually reaching Greenland. These hardiest of all human settlers survive today as the Eskimo (or, in their own name for themselves, Inuit - meaning simply 'the people').

The first American farmers: 5000 - 2500 BC
 

The cultivation of crops in America begins in the Tehuacan valley, southeast of the present-day Mexico City. Squash and chili are the earliest plants to be grown - soon followed by corn (or maize) and then by beans and gourds. 
 

These are all species which need to be individually planted, rather than their seeds being scattered or sown over broken ground. This is a distinction of importance in American history, for there are no animals in America at this time strong enough to pull a plough. At first these crops merely supplement the food produced by hunting and gathering. But by 3000 BC the people of this area are settled agriculturalists. In this development they are followed by the hunter-gatherers of South America and then, considerably later, by some in the northern part of the continent. 
 

The earliest known settled community in South America is at Huaca Prieta, at the mouth of the Chicama River in Peru. By about 2500 BC the people here have as yet no corn, but they cultivate squash, gourds and chili. They also grow cotton, from which they weave a coarse cloth.

The first American civilizations: from 1200 BC
 

The earliest civilization in America develops in the coastal regions of the Gulf of Mexico. Dating from around 1200 BC, it is the achievement of the Olmec people. Their culture is contemporary with Mycenae and the Trojan War, with the spread of the Aryans through northern India and with the Shang dynasty in China. At approximately the same time the Hebrew are moving from Egypt through Sinai towards the promised land of Canaan. The Olmecs represent the beginning of civilization in Central America. They are followed, about three centuries later, by the earliest civilization of South America - the Chavin culture of Peru. 

These two first American civilizations, in Mexico and Peru, set a pattern which will last for more than 2000 years. A succession of highly developed cultures, all strongly influenced by the traditions of their predecessors, follows in the same two limited regions of the continent - in Central America (also known as Mesoamerica) and in the strip of land between the Andes and the Pacific. 

Archaeology provides evidence of these various cultures, but the only ones known about in any great detail are those surviving when the Spaniards arrive - to marvel and destroy. These are the very ancient Maya, and the relatively upstart dominant cultures of the time, the Aztecs and the Incas.

The people of North America: 1500 BC - 1500 AD
 

The original people of north America live in a wide range of environments. On the east side of the continent there are woodlands, where they kill elk and deer. On the grass plains of the Midwest they hunt to extinction several American species, including the camel, mammoth and horse. In the desert regions of the southwest human subsistence depends on smaller animals and gathered seeds. In the Arctic north, where there is very much more hunting than gathering, fish and seals are plentiful. 
 

The first trace of settled village life is in the southwest, where by the 2nd millennium BC gourds squash and corn (or maize) is cultivated (see hunter-gatherers). The natives of this region derive their crops from the more advanced civilization to the south, in Mexico. The same cultural influence brings a custom eventually shared by many of the tribes, that of mound building. From about 1000 BC great burial mounds begin to be constructed around tomb chambers of log or wood. 
 

The earliest burial mounds in North America are those of the Adena culture of the Ohio valley, closely followed by nearby Hopewell tribes. The period of greatest activity is from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD, by which time a vast number of mounds have been built throughout North America. 

During and after this period two regions of North America develop quite advanced farming societies - the Mississippi valley and the southwest. Farming, accompanied by village life, spreads up the east coast, where fields are cleared from the woodlands for the planting of maize. But in most parts of the continent the tribes continue to live a semi-nomadic existence, in the traditional manner of hunter-gatherers, even though they lack the one animal which makes movement on the plains easy. 

Hunted to extinction in America, this useful creature will only become available again to the Indians through the event which destroys their way of life. The Spaniards arrive with horses.

Pre-Columbian Indians: before1492
 

The arrival of Columbus in 1492 is a disaster for the original inhabitants of the American continent. The chief agent of their downfall is disease. With no resistance to new germs, tribes rapidly succumb to unfamiliar illnesses on their first brief contact with Europeans - in many cases vastly reducing the number of the Americans without anyone even firing a shot.

Where the tribes develop a closer relationship with the new arrivals, they are frequently tricked, tormented and massacred by their visitors. Two elements make the Europeans both strong and ruthless - their possession of guns, and an unshakable conviction in the rightness of their Christian cause. The event of 1492, the biggest turning point in the history of America, has had the Eurocentric effect of defining that history in terms of this one moment. Historians describe the previous American cultures as pre-Columbian. And the original people of the continent become known as Indians, simply because Columbus is under the illusion that he has reached the Indies.
 

In recent years 'native Americans' has come into use as an alternative name. But it is a misleading phrase - meaning, but failing to say, aboriginal or indigenous Americans. In spite of its quirky origins, American Indians remains the more direct and simple term.
 

Post-Columbian Indians: after1492
 

The fate of the American Indians varies greatly in different parts of the continent. The regions of the great American civilizations, in Central America and down the western coastal strip of South America, are densely populated when the Spanish arrive. Moreover the Spaniards are mainly interested in extracting the wealth of these regions and taking it back to Europe.

The result is that the Europeans in Latin America remain a relatively small upper class governing a population of Indian peasants. From Mexico and Central America, down through Ecuador and Colombia to Peru and Bolivia, Indians survive in large numbers through the colonial centuries and retain even today much of their own culture.North America, by contrast, is less populated and less developed when the Europeans arrive. No part of the continent north of Mexico has reached a stage which could be defined as civilization. The breadth of the continent offers a wide range of environments in which tribes live as hunter-gatherers, or as settled Neolithic farmers, or - most often - in any appropriate combination of the two.
 

In another significant contrast, the Europeans arriving in these regions (the French, the British, and the Dutch) are primarily interested in settling. Much more than the Spanish, they want to develop this place as their own home. Their interests directly clash with those of the resident population. 

When Europeans begin to settle in North America, in the 17th century, the tribes are spread thinly over the continent and they speak hundreds of different languages. The names by which the tribes are now known are those of their language families.

Each group of Indian tribes becomes prominent in the story of North America as the Europeans spread westwards and compete with them for land. The first to be confronted by the challenge from Europe are the Pueblo of the southwest, reached by Spaniards exploring north from Mexico; and two large tribal groups in the eastern part of the continent, the Algonquians and the Iroquois, whose lands are threatened by English and French colonists. 

Secotan and the English: 1584-1586
 

The Indians with whom the English first make contact in America are from the Algonquian group of tribes. The first encounter is friendly. Two ships sent by Raleigh on reconnaissance reach Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina, in 1584. The local Secotan Indians welcome an opportunity for trade.
 

The Secotan offer leather goods, coral and a mouth-watering profusion of meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. What they want in return is metal implements, for they have no source of iron. Hatchets and axes are handed over by the English. Swords, even more desirable, are withheld. The visitors set sail that autumn for England, taking back to Raleigh a good report of the area for a likely settlement. This first encounter reveals very clearly the interests of the two sides, mutual at first but leading easily to conflict once the Europeans attempt to settle. Many of the Indian tribes are friendly and welcoming by nature, but they also have a passionate desire for the material goods of the west - including, eventually, horses and guns.
 

The settlers at first need the help of the Indians in the difficult matter of surviving. Yet the newcomers are also a nervous minority in a strange place, armed with deadly weapons. In any crisis there is the likelihood that the Europeans will react with sudden and extreme violence.

Moreover there is a clash of attitudes in relation to land. The English settlers arrive with the firm intention of owning land. But the Indians of eastern America are semi-nomadic. During the spring and summer they live in villages to grow their crops. In the winter they hunt in the thick forests. Land, in the Indian view, is a communal space, impossible to own. The question of land leads eventually to appalling conflicts, with the Indians the inevitable losers.
 

By a happy chance we can glimpse an Indian community before these conflicts develop. When a second English expedition sent out by Raleigh reaches Roanoke Island in 1585, a member of the party is a talented painter, John White. White's drawings give an enchanting picture of the Secotan Indians in their everyday lives. They are seen in their villages, fishing, cooking, eating, and dancing. Beautifully engraved by Theodore de Bry, and published in 1590 in four languages (the English title is A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia), these illustrations rapidly provide Europe with an enduring image of the American Indian.
 

Unfortunately, owing to the effect on the Indians of the disease, alcohol, brutality and treachery associated with European expansion in America, the image lasts rather longer than the reality. 

Meanwhile the first attempts at English colonization in America also end badly. The 1585 settlers in Roanoke Island initially enjoy good relations with the Indians, but by the following spring they are on the verge of war. The English strike first, employing the ancient technique of treachery. On June 1, 1586, the Indian chief Pemisapan and other tribal leaders are invited to a council on the shore of the Croatan Sound. As they approach, they are shot.

Ten days later Francis Drake arrives, on his way home from preying on Spanish ships in the Caribbean. The settlers by now think it wise to abandon their new settlement and return with him to England. But in spite of these experiences, a third group of settlers, this time including women and children, reaches Roanoke Island in 1587. But when the next English ship arrives, in 1590 (the threat of the Armada has altered English priorities in the intervening years), there is no remaining trace either of the settlers or their settlement. 
 

Powhatan and the English: 1607-1644
 

The first successful English settlement, at Jamestown, falls in the territory of the Powhatan confederacy, a group of nine Algonquian tribes. Here the Europeans meet an unfriendly reception. Within two weeks of their arrival, in 1607, they suffer an Indian attack. It is easily fought off with muskets and cannon.
The appeal of trade, and the link made with the settlers by Pocahontas, turns a distinctly uneasy relationship into one which is workable. But the Powhatan are well aware of the threat to their well-being, as the Virginians establish new townships and tobacco plantations along the rivers. 

By 1622 the colonists number more than 1000. In that year a new Powhatan chieftain, Opechancanough, decides upon a sudden attack on the English settlements, killing 347 colonists in a single day. The most discreditable moment in the European reprisals occurs in 1623, when the English organize a peace conference. The Indians attending it are systematically murdered, some by poison and some by gunshot.
 

In 1644 the Powhatan make one final assault on the now thriving colony, still under the leadership of Opechancanough, carried now into battle on a litter. Five hundred colonists die in the surprise attack. Two years later the aged chieftain of the confederacy is captured and executed, ending the last significant Indian threat to Virginia.

Wampanoag and the English: 1621-1676
 

When the Pilgrim Fathers are struggling through their first winter on American soil, from December 1620, they see no sign of any Indians. The reason, they later discover, is that the local tribes have recently been wiped out by a European epidemic. This news reaches them in March 1621, when they are visited by Wampanoag Indians. Living some forty miles away, they are leaders of another Algonquian confederacy. The Wampanoag are friendly. Their territory is not threatened by this small English group. The Indians help the settlers with their agriculture, and join them in their celebration of Thanksgiving. 

The Wampanoag chieftain, Massasoit, makes a treaty of friendship which holds good for forty years, until his death in 1662. During that period Plymouth and the later English colonies thrive. The main effect of Massasoit's peaceful policy is that his tribal lands are steadily whittled away in the face of ever-increasing demands from the newcomers. 

By the time Massasoit dies, there are some 40,000 English settlers in New England. They outnumber the Indian population by perhaps two to one. Indians find themselves working for the settlers as laborers or domestic servants. They are expected to behave according to Puritan standards, and are punished for following their own traditions.

Massasoit's son, Metacom, decides that the only hope is a joint uprising by the Indian tribes of New England. It begins with devastating suddenness in 1675. Of ninety colonial settlements, fifty-two are attacked and many of them burned to the ground. 
 

The chaos spreads throughout New England, but eventually English fire-power proves too strong. By the summer of 1676 English deaths number about 600. The Indian figure is at least five times as large. And hundreds of Indians have been shipped to the West Indies for sale as slaves. Among those sent into slavery are the wife and 9-year-old son of the chieftain, Metacom. The Rev. Increase Mather, minister of a church in Boston, notes with satisfaction that this 'must be bitter as death for him, for the Indians are marvelously fond and affectionate towards their children'.
 

Metacom himself is captured and killed in August 1676. He is known to the English colonists as King Philip, with the result that this last Indian uprising against colonial rule in New England has entered the history books under the name King Philip's War. 
 

Pueblo and the Spanish: 1540-1680
 

The most successful Indian uprising against colonial intrusion occurs in 1680 in the region which is now New Mexico. The arid territory around the Rio Grande has been, from about 2000 years ago, the home of the distinctive Anasazi culture. The Spanish give the name Pueblo to this tribal group of American Indians.
 

The Pueblo live in elaborate towns of multi-storied mud houses, often clustered in rocky inaccessible places. It is their misfortune that the rumor spreads among the Spaniards of Mexico, from the 1530s, that these mysterious towns are places of fabulous wealth, full of gold, jewels and fine cloth. Spanish expeditions to find this wealth - particularly those of Coronado in 1540 and of OÑate in 1598 - inflict great cruelty on the Indians and bring a large province under Spanish rule. A colonial administration is established from 1610 in a new capital founded at Santa Fe.
 

With no riches discovered in the region, the Spanish settlers remain few in number (only about 2000). But the friars are busy here, as elsewhere, with vigorous efforts to replace the rituals of the Indians with those of Christianity. Eventually Spanish provocation, both secular and religious, is such that in 1680 the normally passive Pueblo kill twenty-one missionaries and some 400 colonists. 
 

After this disaster of 1680 the Spanish withdraw to Mexico for twelve years. When they eventually return, in 1692 with a large army, a more responsible era of Spanish rule begins. A new respect is shown for the Indians of the region. Royal grants are produced to give the Pueblo guaranteed rights in their ancestral territories.
 

This sequence of events, combined with the relatively inhospitable region which they inhabit, has enabled the Pueblo Indians to preserve more of their distinctive religion and their culture - in particular pottery and weaving - than other tribal groups among the American Indians. 

Iroquois and Huron: 16th - 17th century
 

The Indian tribes of greatest significance to the early French and British colonists are the Iroquois and a rival group, the Huron (part of the same Iroquois linguistic family). The Huron are the Indians first encountered along the St Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534. But by the time Samuel de Champlain returns to claim the region for France, in 1603, the Huron have been driven west by the Iroquois.
 

The two tribal groups are fierce competitors in the developing fur trade. In the late 16th century both sides establish protective confederacies. The Huron confederacy brings together the Bear, Cord, and Rock and Deer tribes into an alliance numbering some 20,000 people. 

The Iroquois derive from south of the Huron territory, in the region stretching from the eastern Great Lakes down through the Appalachian Mountains into what is now the state of New York. Their confederacy, also formed in the late 16th century, is an alliance between five tribal groups - Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca. Together they become known as the Iroquois League.
 

The Iroquois League is no larger than the Huron equivalent, but it is better organized and more aggressive. In 1648-50 Iroquois raiding parties kill and capture thousands of Hurons, driving the survivors west towards Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. As a result the Iroquois gain control of a region of great strategic significance in the expansion of European colonial interests. 
 

The Iroquois territory lies between the coastal colonies of the English and the fur-trading empire of the French, stretching from the Great Lakes down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The friendship of the Iroquois League becomes an important factor in the new-world struggle between the two European powers. It is the misfortune of the French that they have from the start befriended the Huron, ancient enemies of the Iroquois. The Iroquois incline for this reason to the English. From 1664 the town of Albany (acquired in that year by the English from the Dutch) becomes the Iroquois' main link with the colonists - both in terms of trade and diplomacy.

Albany and the Iroquois: 1689-1754
 

Representatives of the Iroquois League are present at a gathering in Albany in 1689 which is one of the first joint assemblies of English colonies. Delegates from New York, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth and Connecticut discuss with the Iroquois a plan for mutual defense.
 

The Iroquois are again present at the much more significant Albany Congress of 1754. On this occasion the topic is a very specific threat of war. Even while they talk, George Washington is skirmishing with French troops in the Ohio valley. It is the opening engagement in what becomes known as the French and Indian War. Each European side is eager to secure the support of its traditional Indian allies. The Iroquois are particularly important as they control the Appalachian Mountains which separate the British colonies from the Ohio valley.

There are 150 Indian representatives at the congress, negotiating with twenty-five commissioners from the colonies of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. The Iroquois are sent away with presents and with promises (later disregarded) that English settlers will not encroach on their lands. In the event Iroquois support for the English is not solid in the coming conflict, but this does not affect the outcome. 
 

Pontiac: 1763-1766
 

The victory of the British in the French and Indian War is followed by the departure of the French from all their forts. This leaves their Indian allies at the mercy of the British, whose interests are very different from those of the French.
 

The French colonists, consisting mainly of soldiers and traders, have established an easy relationship with the tribes. There is no direct rivalry, and both sides benefit from the trade in fur. Indians have traditionally been welcome in French forts and have been given presents, including even guns and ammunition. By contrast the British, interested in settled agriculture, are a direct threat to the Indians' territory. 

Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawa Indians, responds to the new situation by planning an uprising of the Indian tribes. Skillfully synchronized to begin in May 1763, with each tribe attacking a different fort, the campaign has an early and devastating success. Many garrisons are overwhelmed and massacred, in an attempt to drive the British back east of the Appalachians. But a ferocious counter-offensive is launched by the governor-general, Jeffrey Amherst.
 

Amherst lacks any form of moral scruple in his treatment of tribes whom he regards as contemptible savages. He even suggests spreading smallpox by gifts of infected blankets (and Indians given blankets by the British, in a peace conference at Pittsburgh in 1764, do develop the disease). 

In the first flush of Pontiac's success, in 1763, the British government is so alarmed that a royal proclamation is issued; all land between the Appalachians and the Mississippi is to be reserved as hunting grounds for the Indians. But two years later the British army regains control of the situation. Pontiac makes formal peace in 1766, whereupon the royal proclamation is soon forgotten. 
 

Settlers press west in increasing numbers into the Ohio valley. With the threat from both French and Indians removed in the recent wars, the colonists are now in buoyant mood. Soon they even feel sufficiently confident to confront the British crown. 

The Northwest Territory: 1787-1795
 

When the American colonists win their war of independence against the British, the resulting treaty of Paris in 1783 transfers to the new state not only the thirteen colonies but also the territories west of the Appalachians to which various colonies lay claim. These regions around the Ohio River, the hunting territories of many Indian tribes, have already been the scene of violent conflict in the French and Indian War.

Now, in the 1790s, there is a desperate Indian attempt to resist the westward pressure of American settlers. The Indians are dangerously misled in their campaign by British encouragement, which is never transformed into any degree of practical help. Before independence four colonies (Virginia, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts) have claims under their original charters to parts of the Ohio region. During the 1780s they cede these claims to the federal government. In 1787 Congress defines the region as the Northwest Territory. All land within it is to be sold in lots, either to individuals or companies. 
 

It is expected that as many as five states will eventually emerge from this area. Meanwhile separate parts of it are to be administered as territories. Once a territory has a population of 60,000 free inhabitants, it will have the right to draw up a state constitution and to enter the union on equal terms with the original thirteen states. These careful proposals pay scant attention to the interests of the Indians. They rely on disputed treaties, virtually imposed on the tribes by American delegates in 1784-5 and rapidly repudiated by the Indians themselves. In 1789 the government builds Fort Washington (the kernel of the future Cincinnati) on the north bank of the Ohio River. Meanwhile violent Kentucky frontiersmen have been creating mayhem in raids on Indian villages. The result is equally violent reprisals, led by the chiefs of the Miami and Shawnee tribes who are determined to keep the American intruders south of the Ohio River.

Two expeditions sent by George Washington against the tribes are complete disasters. The second, in 1791, is led by a personal friend of Washington, Arthur St Clair. His 1400 men are surprised by the Indians at dawn in their camp beside the Maumee River. Three hours later more than 600 are dead and nearly 300 seriously wounded. Indian casualties are 21 killed and 40 wounded. It is one of the worst days in US military history.
 

The Americans have their revenge in 1794, once again in the region of the Maumee, when an army commanded by Anthony Wayne defeats a force of Shawnees and other tribes at a woodland location which becomes known as Fallen Timbers. In the aftermath of Fallen Timbers, representatives of the defeated tribes assemble for peace talks in Fort Greenville in 1795. Their leaders accept a treaty which cedes to the United States much of present-day Ohio. 
 

This concession, giving the green light to a surge of new land speculation and settlement, is only the first of many in the region. Eventually the Northwest Territory yields five states, joining the union between 1803 and 1848 (Ohio 1803, Indiana 1816, Illinois 1818, Michigan 1837, Wisconsin 1848). In the early years, until 1813, Indian resistance to this encroachment is gallantly continued by Tecumseh. But the beginning of the National Road in 1811 is a powerful sign of American determination to open up the region.