{"id":6388,"date":"2016-11-02T15:02:54","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T15:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation\/?post_type=chapter&p=6388"},"modified":"2019-06-04T22:33:09","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T22:33:09","slug":"2-6-summary","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation\/chapter\/2-6-summary\/","title":{"raw":"2.6 Summary","rendered":"2.6 Summary"},"content":{"raw":"Pre-contact North America was home to a numerous and diverse array of peoples, languages, religions, and cultures. Scientific origin theories such as the Bering land bridge and coastal migration suggest that the ancestors of these groups arrived in the Western Hemisphere at least 14,000 years ago. The origin stories of most of the groups provide\u00a0another, more allegorical view, stressing the intimate relationship between \u201cthe people\u201d and the land in which they lived. Paleo-Indians dominate the history of the period between the great ice ages and the era that began some 8,000 years before now when the Earth entered warmer, more congenial phases\u00a0called the Archaic and Woodland periods.\r\n\r\nThe development of plant domestication and the beginnings of organized agricultural activities occurred in this phase, along with an eruption of village and urban settlements. The great classical civilizations of the Americas arose and the centre of this continent was dominated by an extensive urban farming complex. Many groups across\u00a0North America became horticulturalists and agriculturalists, the latter relying primarily on the Mesoamerican triad of corn, beans, and squash. The surplus of food produced by\u00a0farming\u00a0enabled the development of large and complex communities and material cultures, as well as the ability to weather famine and siege more successfully. Regional geography also played a role in shaping groups; for instance, groups on the Plains came to be characterized by a reliance\u00a0on the buffalo hunt while salmon-dependent communities appeared in the interior of British Columbia, and marine mammal hunters on all three coasts.\r\n\r\nThe Aboriginal\u00a0world that Europeans contacted after 1492 was not static. It was in the midst of ongoing change and historical processes. Societies like the Mississippian cultures had peaked and were now looking to new models\u00a0to survive. Ideas and practices were flowing from one part of the continent to another. Everywhere we look in the Americas we find evidence of modified landscapes -- anthropogenic change -- that were possible only because these were mostly successful and robust societies.\u00a0The era of contact has to be placed in the context of a history of change and adaptation, and of continuities as well.\r\n\r\nNon-Aboriginal peoples in Canada today (and in the United States) continue to hold many mistaken ideas about pre-contact Aboriginal nations. For example, it is commonly believed that at the time of European arrival, the Americas were vast empty lands occupied by handfuls of people who still acquired their food through hunting and foraging, people who could easily just move along to another hunting ground, and then\u00a0another\u00a0and another. The facts are that the Americas were occupied by millions of people, and these people had achieved technological development\u00a0similar to their contemporaries in Europe, Africa, and Asia and had excelled in many specific areas. Their societies, economies, and cultures did not have enormous gaps that were waiting to be filled by foreigners; they were complete and they made sense.\r\n\r\nThey did, however, have a number of weaknesses that\u00a0contact exposed and some newcomers exploited. These shall be considered in the chapters that follow.\r\n
\r\n

Key Terms<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

\r\n\r\nagricultural revolution:<\/strong>\u00a0In the context of the Archaic era, the development of the first farming societies in the Americas.\r\n\r\nanthropogenic<\/strong>: Made or modified\u00a0by humans.\r\n\r\narchaeological record<\/strong>: Any evidence regarding past societies and civilizations (Aboriginal or otherwise) that derives from the use of archaeological techniques and methods.\r\n\r\nArchaic period<\/strong>: The era described by archaeologists and anthropologists as roughly 10,000-3,000 years BPE.\r\n\r\nAztecs<\/strong>:\u00a0A Mesoamerican civilization and polity that\u00a0collapsed in the early 16th century. The Aztecs developed many agricultural techniques and administrative customs that influenced societies around the Gulf of Mexico. Their influence may have spread up the Mississippi River as well.\r\n\r\nBefore the Common Era (BCE):<\/strong> This term, along with CE, align exactly with the Christian dating system, dividing time approximately 2,000 years ago.\r\n\r\nBefore the Present Era (BPE)<\/strong>: a dating system based on\u00a0the use of radiocarbon dating, which\u00a0uses\u00a0January 1, 1950, as its baseline. Therefore, 10,000 years BPE equals 10,000 years before New Year's Day, 1950.\r\n\r\nBering land bridge:<\/strong>\u00a0The land form, made mostly of land that was exposed by falling sea levels, that connected Eurasia and North America between Siberia and Alaska 50,000 to 10,000 years BPE. \u00a0A possible route for human migration from Asia to the Americas. Also called Beringia.\r\n\r\nBeringia<\/strong>: The open plain of land and glaciers that once filled\u00a0the current gap\u00a0between Siberia and Alaska.\r\n\r\nbuffalo jumps:<\/strong>\u00a0Sites on the Plains associated with highly coordinated bison hunts conducted by Aboriginal communities.\r\n\r\nCahokia:\u00a0<\/strong>Thought to be the largest of the Mississippian towns\/cities. Located near present-day\u00a0St. Louis, it is believed\u00a0to have crested\u00a0around\u00a01050 and collapsed around 1350.\r\n\r\nchiefdom<\/strong>:\u00a0A\u00a0form of organization based on a hierarchy of chiefs that followed the leader of the most important group.\r\n\r\nClovis:\u00a0<\/strong>Named for the archaeological site in New Mexico where\u00a0it was first identified, the Clovis culture is identifiable by the kinds of projectile heads it produced.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\ncoastal migration theory:\u00a0<\/strong>An alternative to the Bering land bridge\u00a0theory, which posits that the first human arrivals in the Americas arrived by sea, following the arc of the North Pacific icefield and skirting Beringia.\r\n\r\ncodexes (codices)<\/strong>: Scrolls written by Aztec and\/or Mayan authors and scribes from the period both before and after the arrival of Europeans.\r\n\r\nCommon Era (CE): <\/strong>This term, along with BCE, aligns exactly with the Christian dating system, dividing time approximately 2,000 years ago.\r\n\r\ncontact: <\/strong>The first documented encounter between Aboriginal peoples and Europeans. This is a movable date because first encounters occur in different regions at different times. The contact era for some Arctic peoples, for example, only began in\u00a0the 20th century.\r\n\r\ncounting coup:\u00a0<\/strong>The practice, common among many Aboriginal cultures, of attacking rival groups with the objective of inflicting injury but\u00a0not necessarily death\u00a0and thereby acquiring status commensurate with the humiliation meted out to the foe.\r\n\r\ndiffusion<\/strong>: The transmission of ideas, practices, or beliefs from one society to another.\r\n\r\nexotic diseases: <\/strong>Infectious and highly contagious viruses introduced in the proto-contact and contact eras. Aboriginal people had little in the way of natural immunities to diseases they had never before encountered.\r\n\r\ngrease trails: <\/strong>Trade routes that originated in the pre-contact era in what is now British Columbia,\u00a0used for transporting\u00a0oolichan grease, an important indigenous commodity.\r\n\r\nhypotheses (plural); hypothesis (singular):<\/strong>\u00a0Suggested\u00a0explanations for historical phenomenon, events, or ideas.\r\n\r\nlittle ice age:<\/strong>\u00a0The term given to a hemispheric downturn in average temperatures that lasted from the 1600s (as early as the late 1200s in some locales) to the 1820s. Much of North America and northwestern Europe was affected.\r\n\r\nlonghouse<\/strong>: A style of domestic building that typically accommodates an extended family and serves as a storehouse for equipment, food, and other belongings. Longhouses take many forms in Canadian Aboriginal cultures, use different kinds of materials, and may be fixed, movable, or something in-between.\r\n\r\nmaize:<\/strong> Commonly referred to today as \"corn,\"\u00a0a modified crop form of a grass known as teosinte. Maize was first developed by Mesoamerican societies.\r\n\r\nMaritime Archaic<\/strong>: A variant on the Archaic tradition. Maritime Archaic cultures were found on the Atlantic coast.\r\n\r\nmatriarchy<\/strong>: A\u00a0political system in which authority resides with females.\r\n\r\nmatrilineal, matrilinear: <\/strong>Familial relations that focus on the mother\u2019s family, with property, status, and clan affiliation being conferred through the female line.\r\n\r\nmatrilocal<\/strong>: A social\u00a0system in which married couples reside in or in close proximity to the home(s) of family\/parents of the wife.\r\n\r\nmegafauna:<\/strong> Large pre-contact animals found globally whose modern descendants are considerably smaller.\r\n\r\nMesoamerica<\/strong>: The cultural zone\u00a0containing some of the largest agricultural and urban civilizations in the Americas prior to contact, Mesoamerica stretches across almost all of Mexico and south through much of Central America.\r\n\r\nMississippian culture:\u00a0<\/strong>An agricultural, town-centred civilization that thrived from\u00a0ca. 500-1400 CE. Located at the heart\u00a0of North America and connected by the river and lakes network to lands from the Rocky Mountains to the Gasp\u00e9, the Mississippian culture had a powerful impact on the societies that followed.<\/span>\r\n\r\nmound builders<\/strong>:\u00a0One of the distinguishing features of the Hopewellian and Mississippian cultures\u00a0was\u00a0the\u00a0erection of large complexes of earthworks.\r\n\r\nMourning Wars:<\/strong>\u00a0Conflicts associated principally with the Haudenosaunee and impacting virtually all their neighbours. This wide-ranging series of conflicts covered much of what is now southern Ontario and the Ohio Valley. One goal was to acquire captives who would be adopted into the captor's community\u00a0so as to replace population lost to epidemics or earlier wars\/raids.\r\n\r\noolichan<\/strong>: An anadromous fish prized on the West Coast for its high oil content.\r\n\r\noral tradition<\/strong>: \u00a0Generally refers to an account of events that took place in earlier generations and which is transmitted by oral storytelling (as opposed to a written version). Distinctions used to be drawn sharply between oral tradition and oral history, which was regarded as accounts of events within the lifetime of the teller. More recently oral history is equated with oral tradition and has been granted\u00a0greater respect for its reliability.\r\n\r\nPaleo-Indian:\u00a0<\/strong>The peoples occupying parts of the Americas until about 8000 BPE.\r\n\r\nPaleolithic:\u00a0<\/strong>The period associated with the concept of \"Stone Age,\"\u00a0referring to human technological development before extensive use of metals. Dates vary from continent to continent and region to region.\r\n\r\npetroglyphs<\/strong>: Images carved into rock.\r\n\r\npictographs<\/strong>:\u00a0Images painted onto rock and other surfaces.\r\n\r\npotlatch:\u00a0<\/strong>A ceremonial event mounted by most Northwest Coast peoples and many in the interior of what is now British Columbia. It involves the giving away of property at an event marking, typically, a succession, a marriage, or a death. Accumulating goods for an impressive potlatch was an important mechanism for attaining social status for the host and also redistributing wealth through a system of related villages.\r\n\r\npost-contact<\/strong>: The years after documented encounters between Aboriginal peoples and Europeans. Post-contact typically describes a relatively short period: although our current society\u00a0is technically \"post-contact\" it makes little sense to use the term that way.\r\n\r\npre-contact:\u00a0<\/strong>The period before first documented encounters between Aboriginal peoples and Europeans. Pre-contact societies may also be proto-contact societies, depending on circumstances.\r\n\r\nproto-contact:<\/strong> The\u00a0period of indirect influence of Europeans on Aboriginal peoples. Some of the effects of contact ran ahead of\u00a0direct encounters.\u00a0For example, diseases and\/or\u00a0trade goods might be passed from one Aboriginal community that had experienced face-to-face contact to a great many others that had not.\r\n\r\nSoutheastern Ceremonial Complex<\/strong>:\u00a0The religion associated with the\u00a0Mississippian cultures. Many features of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex were shared with Aboriginal cultures in southern Canada.\r\n\r\nsun dance<\/strong>:\u00a0A renewal ceremony celebrated by many\u00a0Plains peoples. It was sponsored by an individual who wished to give to his tribe or to thank or petition the supernatural through an\u00a0act of self-sacrifice for the good of the group.\r\n\r\nteosinte:\u00a0<\/strong>A variety of grass that was modified into maize by Aboriginal peoples of Mesoamerica.\r\n\r\ntriad: <\/strong>Also called the \"three sisters,\" the crops of maize, beans, and squash, which were developed in Mesoamerica and diffused across the Americas centuries before contact.\r\n\r\nwinter counts<\/strong>: A record of events recorded in the form of pictures; associated mainly with Siouan cultures.\r\n\r\nWoodland period<\/strong>:\u00a0The\u00a0era described by archaeologists and anthropologists as roughly 1000 BCE-1000\u00a0CE.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n

Short Answer Exercises<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

\r\n
    \r\n \t
  1. What kind of records exist that provide Aboriginal accounts of the past?<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. What are some of the limitations of the archaeological record?<\/li>\r\n \t
  3. What are the principal theories and\/or explanations that describe the original populating of the Americas by humans? What are the weaknesses and strengths of these theories?<\/li>\r\n \t
  4. What factors contributed to substantial Aboriginal population growth in the pre-contact era?<\/li>\r\n \t
  5. What are the limits of using language groups to understand Aboriginal communities in the past?<\/li>\r\n \t
  6. What are some of the issues involved in estimating pre-contact population numbers?<\/li>\r\n \t
  7. What are some of the major differences that distinguish the various native peoples of what is now Canada?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

    Suggested Readings<\/h2>\r\n
      \r\n \t
    1. Mann, Charles C. \"1491.\"<\/a>\u00a0The Atlantic, <\/em>1 March 2002. <\/em>http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2002\/03\/1491\/302445\/.<\/li>\r\n \t
    2. Neylan, Susan. \u201cUnsettling British Columbia: Canadian Aboriginal Historiography, 1992-2012.\u201d History Compass<\/em>\u00a011, no.10 (2013): 845-58.<\/li>\r\n \t
    3. Prins, Harold E.L. \u201cChildren of Gluskap: Wabanaki Indians on the Eve of the European Invasion.\u201d \u00a0In\u00a0American Beginnings: Exploration, Culture, and Cartography in the Land of Norumbega<\/em>, edited by Emerson W. Baker, Edwin A. Churchill, Richard D\u2019Abate, Kristine L. Jones, Victor A. Conrad, and Harald E.L. Prins (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994), 95-117.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

      Attributions<\/h2>\r\nThis chapter contains material taken from\u00a0Native Peoples of North America <\/em><\/a>by Susan Stebbins. It is used\u00a0under a CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 unported<\/a> licence.\r\n\r\nThis chapter contains material taken from History in the Making: A History of the\u00a0People of the United States of America to 1877<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by Catherine Locks, Sarah K. Mergel, Pamela Thomas Roseman, and Tamara Spike. It is used\u00a0under a\u00a0CC-BY-SA-3.0 US<\/a> licence.\r\n\r\nThis chapter contains material taken from the Wikipedia page, \"The History of the Native Peoples of the Americas\/Mesoamerican Cultures\/Aztecs<\/a>\", is used under a\u00a0CC-BY-SA 3.0 unported<\/a> license.\r\n\r\nThis chapter contains material taken from the Wikipedia page, \"Aboriginal Peoples in Canada<\/a>,\" is used\u00a0under\u00a0a<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>CC-BY-SA 3.0 unported<\/a> license.<\/span>\r\n\r\nThis chapter contains material taken from the Wikipedia page, \"Population History of American Indigenous Peoples<\/a>,\" is used\u00a0under\u00a0<\/span>a<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>CC-BY-SA 3.0 unported<\/a> license.<\/span>","rendered":"

      Pre-contact North America was home to a numerous and diverse array of peoples, languages, religions, and cultures. Scientific origin theories such as the Bering land bridge and coastal migration suggest that the ancestors of these groups arrived in the Western Hemisphere at least 14,000 years ago. The origin stories of most of the groups provide\u00a0another, more allegorical view, stressing the intimate relationship between \u201cthe people\u201d and the land in which they lived. Paleo-Indians dominate the history of the period between the great ice ages and the era that began some 8,000 years before now when the Earth entered warmer, more congenial phases\u00a0called the Archaic and Woodland periods.<\/p>\n

      The development of plant domestication and the beginnings of organized agricultural activities occurred in this phase, along with an eruption of village and urban settlements. The great classical civilizations of the Americas arose and the centre of this continent was dominated by an extensive urban farming complex. Many groups across\u00a0North America became horticulturalists and agriculturalists, the latter relying primarily on the Mesoamerican triad of corn, beans, and squash. The surplus of food produced by\u00a0farming\u00a0enabled the development of large and complex communities and material cultures, as well as the ability to weather famine and siege more successfully. Regional geography also played a role in shaping groups; for instance, groups on the Plains came to be characterized by a reliance\u00a0on the buffalo hunt while salmon-dependent communities appeared in the interior of British Columbia, and marine mammal hunters on all three coasts.<\/p>\n

      The Aboriginal\u00a0world that Europeans contacted after 1492 was not static. It was in the midst of ongoing change and historical processes. Societies like the Mississippian cultures had peaked and were now looking to new models\u00a0to survive. Ideas and practices were flowing from one part of the continent to another. Everywhere we look in the Americas we find evidence of modified landscapes — anthropogenic change — that were possible only because these were mostly successful and robust societies.\u00a0The era of contact has to be placed in the context of a history of change and adaptation, and of continuities as well.<\/p>\n

      Non-Aboriginal peoples in Canada today (and in the United States) continue to hold many mistaken ideas about pre-contact Aboriginal nations. For example, it is commonly believed that at the time of European arrival, the Americas were vast empty lands occupied by handfuls of people who still acquired their food through hunting and foraging, people who could easily just move along to another hunting ground, and then\u00a0another\u00a0and another. The facts are that the Americas were occupied by millions of people, and these people had achieved technological development\u00a0similar to their contemporaries in Europe, Africa, and Asia and had excelled in many specific areas. Their societies, economies, and cultures did not have enormous gaps that were waiting to be filled by foreigners; they were complete and they made sense.<\/p>\n

      They did, however, have a number of weaknesses that\u00a0contact exposed and some newcomers exploited. These shall be considered in the chapters that follow.<\/p>\n

      \n
      \n

      Key Terms<\/p>\n<\/header>\n

      \n

      agricultural revolution:<\/strong>\u00a0In the context of the Archaic era, the development of the first farming societies in the Americas.<\/p>\n

      anthropogenic<\/strong>: Made or modified\u00a0by humans.<\/p>\n

      archaeological record<\/strong>: Any evidence regarding past societies and civilizations (Aboriginal or otherwise) that derives from the use of archaeological techniques and methods.<\/p>\n

      Archaic period<\/strong>: The era described by archaeologists and anthropologists as roughly 10,000-3,000 years BPE.<\/p>\n

      Aztecs<\/strong>:\u00a0A Mesoamerican civilization and polity that\u00a0collapsed in the early 16th century. The Aztecs developed many agricultural techniques and administrative customs that influenced societies around the Gulf of Mexico. Their influence may have spread up the Mississippi River as well.<\/p>\n

      Before the Common Era (BCE):<\/strong> This term, along with CE, align exactly with the Christian dating system, dividing time approximately 2,000 years ago.<\/p>\n

      Before the Present Era (BPE)<\/strong>: a dating system based on\u00a0the use of radiocarbon dating, which\u00a0uses\u00a0January 1, 1950, as its baseline. Therefore, 10,000 years BPE equals 10,000 years before New Year’s Day, 1950.<\/p>\n

      Bering land bridge:<\/strong>\u00a0The land form, made mostly of land that was exposed by falling sea levels, that connected Eurasia and North America between Siberia and Alaska 50,000 to 10,000 years BPE. \u00a0A possible route for human migration from Asia to the Americas. Also called Beringia.<\/p>\n

      Beringia<\/strong>: The open plain of land and glaciers that once filled\u00a0the current gap\u00a0between Siberia and Alaska.<\/p>\n

      buffalo jumps:<\/strong>\u00a0Sites on the Plains associated with highly coordinated bison hunts conducted by Aboriginal communities.<\/p>\n

      Cahokia:\u00a0<\/strong>Thought to be the largest of the Mississippian towns\/cities. Located near present-day\u00a0St. Louis, it is believed\u00a0to have crested\u00a0around\u00a01050 and collapsed around 1350.<\/p>\n

      chiefdom<\/strong>:\u00a0A\u00a0form of organization based on a hierarchy of chiefs that followed the leader of the most important group.<\/p>\n

      Clovis:\u00a0<\/strong>Named for the archaeological site in New Mexico where\u00a0it was first identified, the Clovis culture is identifiable by the kinds of projectile heads it produced.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      coastal migration theory:\u00a0<\/strong>An alternative to the Bering land bridge\u00a0theory, which posits that the first human arrivals in the Americas arrived by sea, following the arc of the North Pacific icefield and skirting Beringia.<\/p>\n

      codexes (codices)<\/strong>: Scrolls written by Aztec and\/or Mayan authors and scribes from the period both before and after the arrival of Europeans.<\/p>\n

      Common Era (CE): <\/strong>This term, along with BCE, aligns exactly with the Christian dating system, dividing time approximately 2,000 years ago.<\/p>\n

      contact: <\/strong>The first documented encounter between Aboriginal peoples and Europeans. This is a movable date because first encounters occur in different regions at different times. The contact era for some Arctic peoples, for example, only began in\u00a0the 20th century.<\/p>\n

      counting coup:\u00a0<\/strong>The practice, common among many Aboriginal cultures, of attacking rival groups with the objective of inflicting injury but\u00a0not necessarily death\u00a0and thereby acquiring status commensurate with the humiliation meted out to the foe.<\/p>\n

      diffusion<\/strong>: The transmission of ideas, practices, or beliefs from one society to another.<\/p>\n

      exotic diseases: <\/strong>Infectious and highly contagious viruses introduced in the proto-contact and contact eras. Aboriginal people had little in the way of natural immunities to diseases they had never before encountered.<\/p>\n

      grease trails: <\/strong>Trade routes that originated in the pre-contact era in what is now British Columbia,\u00a0used for transporting\u00a0oolichan grease, an important indigenous commodity.<\/p>\n

      hypotheses (plural); hypothesis (singular):<\/strong>\u00a0Suggested\u00a0explanations for historical phenomenon, events, or ideas.<\/p>\n

      little ice age:<\/strong>\u00a0The term given to a hemispheric downturn in average temperatures that lasted from the 1600s (as early as the late 1200s in some locales) to the 1820s. Much of North America and northwestern Europe was affected.<\/p>\n

      longhouse<\/strong>: A style of domestic building that typically accommodates an extended family and serves as a storehouse for equipment, food, and other belongings. Longhouses take many forms in Canadian Aboriginal cultures, use different kinds of materials, and may be fixed, movable, or something in-between.<\/p>\n

      maize:<\/strong> Commonly referred to today as “corn,”\u00a0a modified crop form of a grass known as teosinte. Maize was first developed by Mesoamerican societies.<\/p>\n

      Maritime Archaic<\/strong>: A variant on the Archaic tradition. Maritime Archaic cultures were found on the Atlantic coast.<\/p>\n

      matriarchy<\/strong>: A\u00a0political system in which authority resides with females.<\/p>\n

      matrilineal, matrilinear: <\/strong>Familial relations that focus on the mother\u2019s family, with property, status, and clan affiliation being conferred through the female line.<\/p>\n

      matrilocal<\/strong>: A social\u00a0system in which married couples reside in or in close proximity to the home(s) of family\/parents of the wife.<\/p>\n

      megafauna:<\/strong> Large pre-contact animals found globally whose modern descendants are considerably smaller.<\/p>\n

      Mesoamerica<\/strong>: The cultural zone\u00a0containing some of the largest agricultural and urban civilizations in the Americas prior to contact, Mesoamerica stretches across almost all of Mexico and south through much of Central America.<\/p>\n

      Mississippian culture:\u00a0<\/strong>An agricultural, town-centred civilization that thrived from\u00a0ca. 500-1400 CE. Located at the heart\u00a0of North America and connected by the river and lakes network to lands from the Rocky Mountains to the Gasp\u00e9, the Mississippian culture had a powerful impact on the societies that followed.<\/span><\/p>\n

      mound builders<\/strong>:\u00a0One of the distinguishing features of the Hopewellian and Mississippian cultures\u00a0was\u00a0the\u00a0erection of large complexes of earthworks.<\/p>\n

      Mourning Wars:<\/strong>\u00a0Conflicts associated principally with the Haudenosaunee and impacting virtually all their neighbours. This wide-ranging series of conflicts covered much of what is now southern Ontario and the Ohio Valley. One goal was to acquire captives who would be adopted into the captor’s community\u00a0so as to replace population lost to epidemics or earlier wars\/raids.<\/p>\n

      oolichan<\/strong>: An anadromous fish prized on the West Coast for its high oil content.<\/p>\n

      oral tradition<\/strong>: \u00a0Generally refers to an account of events that took place in earlier generations and which is transmitted by oral storytelling (as opposed to a written version). Distinctions used to be drawn sharply between oral tradition and oral history, which was regarded as accounts of events within the lifetime of the teller. More recently oral history is equated with oral tradition and has been granted\u00a0greater respect for its reliability.<\/p>\n

      Paleo-Indian:\u00a0<\/strong>The peoples occupying parts of the Americas until about 8000 BPE.<\/p>\n

      Paleolithic:\u00a0<\/strong>The period associated with the concept of “Stone Age,”\u00a0referring to human technological development before extensive use of metals. Dates vary from continent to continent and region to region.<\/p>\n

      petroglyphs<\/strong>: Images carved into rock.<\/p>\n

      pictographs<\/strong>:\u00a0Images painted onto rock and other surfaces.<\/p>\n

      potlatch:\u00a0<\/strong>A ceremonial event mounted by most Northwest Coast peoples and many in the interior of what is now British Columbia. It involves the giving away of property at an event marking, typically, a succession, a marriage, or a death. Accumulating goods for an impressive potlatch was an important mechanism for attaining social status for the host and also redistributing wealth through a system of related villages.<\/p>\n

      post-contact<\/strong>: The years after documented encounters between Aboriginal peoples and Europeans. Post-contact typically describes a relatively short period: although our current society\u00a0is technically “post-contact” it makes little sense to use the term that way.<\/p>\n

      pre-contact:\u00a0<\/strong>The period before first documented encounters between Aboriginal peoples and Europeans. Pre-contact societies may also be proto-contact societies, depending on circumstances.<\/p>\n

      proto-contact:<\/strong> The\u00a0period of indirect influence of Europeans on Aboriginal peoples. Some of the effects of contact ran ahead of\u00a0direct encounters.\u00a0For example, diseases and\/or\u00a0trade goods might be passed from one Aboriginal community that had experienced face-to-face contact to a great many others that had not.<\/p>\n

      Southeastern Ceremonial Complex<\/strong>:\u00a0The religion associated with the\u00a0Mississippian cultures. Many features of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex were shared with Aboriginal cultures in southern Canada.<\/p>\n

      sun dance<\/strong>:\u00a0A renewal ceremony celebrated by many\u00a0Plains peoples. It was sponsored by an individual who wished to give to his tribe or to thank or petition the supernatural through an\u00a0act of self-sacrifice for the good of the group.<\/p>\n

      teosinte:\u00a0<\/strong>A variety of grass that was modified into maize by Aboriginal peoples of Mesoamerica.<\/p>\n

      triad: <\/strong>Also called the “three sisters,” the crops of maize, beans, and squash, which were developed in Mesoamerica and diffused across the Americas centuries before contact.<\/p>\n

      winter counts<\/strong>: A record of events recorded in the form of pictures; associated mainly with Siouan cultures.<\/p>\n

      Woodland period<\/strong>:\u00a0The\u00a0era described by archaeologists and anthropologists as roughly 1000 BCE-1000\u00a0CE.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

      \n
      \n

      Short Answer Exercises<\/p>\n<\/header>\n

      \n
        \n
      1. What kind of records exist that provide Aboriginal accounts of the past?<\/li>\n
      2. What are some of the limitations of the archaeological record?<\/li>\n
      3. What are the principal theories and\/or explanations that describe the original populating of the Americas by humans? What are the weaknesses and strengths of these theories?<\/li>\n
      4. What factors contributed to substantial Aboriginal population growth in the pre-contact era?<\/li>\n
      5. What are the limits of using language groups to understand Aboriginal communities in the past?<\/li>\n
      6. What are some of the issues involved in estimating pre-contact population numbers?<\/li>\n
      7. What are some of the major differences that distinguish the various native peoples of what is now Canada?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

        Suggested Readings<\/h2>\n
          \n
        1. Mann, Charles C. “1491.”<\/a>\u00a0The Atlantic, <\/em>1 March 2002. <\/em>http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2002\/03\/1491\/302445\/.<\/li>\n
        2. Neylan, Susan. \u201cUnsettling British Columbia: Canadian Aboriginal Historiography, 1992-2012.\u201d History Compass<\/em>\u00a011, no.10 (2013): 845-58.<\/li>\n
        3. Prins, Harold E.L. \u201cChildren of Gluskap: Wabanaki Indians on the Eve of the European Invasion.\u201d \u00a0In\u00a0American Beginnings: Exploration, Culture, and Cartography in the Land of Norumbega<\/em>, edited by Emerson W. Baker, Edwin A. Churchill, Richard D\u2019Abate, Kristine L. Jones, Victor A. Conrad, and Harald E.L. Prins (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994), 95-117.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Attributions<\/h2>\n

          This chapter contains material taken from\u00a0Native Peoples of North America <\/em><\/a>by Susan Stebbins. It is used\u00a0under a CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 unported<\/a> licence.<\/p>\n

          This chapter contains material taken from History in the Making: A History of the\u00a0People of the United States of America to 1877<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by Catherine Locks, Sarah K. Mergel, Pamela Thomas Roseman, and Tamara Spike. It is used\u00a0under a\u00a0CC-BY-SA-3.0 US<\/a> licence.<\/p>\n

          This chapter contains material taken from the Wikipedia page, “The History of the Native Peoples of the Americas\/Mesoamerican Cultures\/Aztecs<\/a>“, is used under a\u00a0CC-BY-SA 3.0 unported<\/a> license.<\/p>\n

          This chapter contains material taken from the Wikipedia page, “Aboriginal Peoples in Canada<\/a>,” is used\u00a0under\u00a0a<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>CC-BY-SA 3.0 unported<\/a> license.<\/span><\/p>\n

          This chapter contains material taken from the Wikipedia page, “Population History of American Indigenous Peoples<\/a>,” is used\u00a0under\u00a0<\/span>a<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>CC-BY-SA 3.0 unported<\/a> license.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"menu_order":6,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":"cc-by-nc-sa"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[65],"class_list":["post-6388","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","license-cc-by-nc-sa"],"part":6367,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/6388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/6388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6909,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/6388\/revisions\/6909"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/6367"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/6388\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=6388"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=6388"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=6388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}