History

Many Native Americans stayed neutral in the American Revolution, because they disliked both the English and the American colonists rebelling against them. However, some groups, such as the six Iroquois tribes, took sides. When the war began in 1776, the influential Mohawk chief Joseph Brant allied his people with the English. The Onondaga, Seneca, and … Read more

During the French and Indian War, a group of Great Lakes Indians led by the Ottawa leader Pontiac began attacking British forts in their territory. In one of the most notorious events of Pontiac’s War, the Ojibwa staged a surprise raid on Fort Michilimackinac on present-day Mackinac Island, Michigan. With the permission of the British, … Read more

When Dutch traders built a post at New Amsterdam (now New York City), they did give the Lenape Indians some beads and other trinkets worth about $24. The Lenape, however, did not consider this payment for their land. Like other Indian people, they did not think of land as something that could be bought and … Read more

Wampum were small purple or white beads made from shells. These beads had great value to Indian tribes throughout the Northeast, particularly the Iroquois. The Iroquois believed that holding strings of wampum could give comfort to people grieving the loss of a loved one. They also wove wampum beads together to form belts to commemorate … Read more

One of the most brutal conflicts in, colonial America was the Pequot War (1636-37), during which the English killed hundreds of Pequot Indians, a small tribe in present-day Connecticut. The war nearly destroyed the Pequots. The few survivors tried to keep the tribe alive, but as time passed their population dwindled. By 1930, the two … Read more

In 1643 the powerful Iroquois tribes became the allies of the Dutch (the people of the Netherlands). They promised to give the Dutch furs in exchange for guns, an arrangement that spelled doom for many of the Iroquois’ enemies. In the next decade, they would battle the Petun, the Neutral, and the Erie, but their … Read more

When the fur trade began, European traders most wanted lush pelts of mink, sable, black fox, and ermine, which were used to trim expensive coats worn by the wealthy. By about 1600, though, the fur most in demand was that of the beaver, an animal nearly extinct in Europe. Felt hats were then a very … Read more

Some of the trade goods Native Americans received from Europeans made their work easier and their lives more comfortable. But the fur trade’s bad effects far outweighed the good. As Native Americans became involved in the fur trade, their way of life, if not their lives themselves, were often threatened. One tragic effect of the … Read more

Beginning in the late 1500s, traders from France, England, and the Netherlands flocked to North America to trade with Indians for animal furs. Europeans wanted furs to make warm winter clothing. The demand was so great that European traders could make a fortune by filling their ships with furs and reselling them in Europe. Northeastern … Read more

King Philip’s War was the name the English gave to a series of attacks the Wampanoag and Narragansett Indians made on the Plymouth Colony in 1675. The attacks were led by Metacom, the sachem (leader) of the Wampanoags and son of Massasoit. Unlike his father, Metacom did not trust the English, especially after his brother … Read more

Massasoit, the chief of the Wampanoag, and about 90 of his warriors joined the Pilgrims at Plymouth for a thanksgiving feast in the autumn of 1621. Following Native American tradition, the celebration was held to thank God for a plentiful harvest. The Pilgrims owed their Wampanoag guests a great debt because the Wampanoag had taught … Read more

Pocahontas likely did not save the life of Captain John Smith. This famous legend was written by John Smith himself, whose stories about his dramatic adventures were usually exaggerated, if not completely made up. According to Smith, who was a Jamestown leader, a group of Powhatan’s warriors took him captive in December 1607. They brought … Read more

Born in about 1596, Pocahontas was the favorite daughter of Powhatan, a powerful Indian leader who ruled about 30 tribes in what is now Virginia. When the English built Jamestown on her father’s lands, she was probably about 11 years old. Like many of the Powhatan Indians, she took an interest in the English and … Read more

Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa rallied many Native Americans to their cause. But while Tecumseh was journeying through the Southeast looking for more support, the confederacy was dealt a serious blow. Troops led by William Henry Harrison attacked and destroyed Tippecanoe, the town that served as Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa’s headquarters. Tecumseh’s forces continued to fight until October … Read more

In 1497, only five years after Christopher Columbus’s voyage to North America, John Cabot, an Italian-born explorer heading an English expedition, sailed to what is now Newfoundland in northeastern Canada. During a second voyage, the next year, he probably came upon Indians of the Beothuk tribe. Cabot was soon followed to the Northeast by a … Read more

During some curing rituals, Iroquois medicine men danced while wearing carved wooden masks called False Faces. Many of these masks featured deep-set eyes, a crooked nose, and a huge mouth twisted into a grimace. Healers wore these False Faces to honor Shagodyowehgowah. According to the Iroquois’ ancient stories, he was a giant who challenged the … Read more

Corn, beans, and squash, the foods the Iroquois relied on most were known as the Three Sisters. Like the northeastern Algonquian tribes, the Iroquois had many food sources, including wild plants, game animals, and fish, but their most important source of food was the crops they cultivated. The Three Sisters were thought to be gifts … Read more

Local problems and disputes were usually settled by village councils. In these councils, each clan was represented by several men. These leaders were chosen by the clan’s most prominent women, known as clan mothers. Although these women could not speak in council, they wielded the real power. Before councils were held, clan mothers met and … Read more

A clan was a group of relatives who all shared the same ancestor. In each village lived people from several different clans. The clans were named after animals the Iroquois valued, the bear, deer, beaver, turtle, wolf, and hawk. A carved image of one of these animals was often placed above a longhouse entrance to … Read more

Hodenosaunee, meaning “People of the Longhouse,” is the name that the Iroquois traditionally used to refer to themselves. The Iroquois believed that their confederacy was like a longhouse. Just as several families dwelled in harmony side by side in the same longhouse, the Iroquois lived peacefully in adjoining nations within the same realm. The confederacy-longhouse … Read more

The Iroquois Confederacy was governed by the Grand Council, which was composed of 49 men with representatives from every tribe. Each council member was given a title, which was the name of one of the 50 leaders who attended the first council. One name, however, was never assigned, that of the great Hiawatha. By refusing … Read more

A longhouse was the traditional Native American Iroquois dwelling. This enormous barn-shaped structure was made from a frame of saplings covered with bark shingles. Several long-houses were built near one another to form small villages. A longhouse was usually about 18 feet wide but could range from 40 to 200 feet long, depending on how … Read more

Although the members of the Iroquois Confederacy pledged not to war with one another, they were often ferocious in battles with other tribes. The Iroquois often fought against neighboring Algonquian and Iroquoian tribes, especially the Huron, whom they considered their greatest enemy. Successful warriors brought captives taken in battle back to their village. A captive’s … Read more

According to Iroquois legend, Hiawatha was an Onondaga man who refused to take revenge on those who murdered his wife and children. He instead looked for comfort in the words of a prophet the Iroquois now call the Peacemaker. The Peacemaker instructed Hiawatha in the Great Law, a set of rules for settling disputes without … Read more

In about 1400, five great tribes, the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca, banded together to form the Iroquois Confederacy. The confederacy was also called the Iroquois League or the Five Nations. A sixth tribe, the Tuscarora, joined the confederacy in 1722. The Tuscarora were a Iroquoian tribe from what is now North and South … Read more

The northeastern Iroquoian tribes lived in what is now central and western New York State and southern Ontario, Canada. These lands were sandwiched between the territory of the Great Lakes Algonquian tribes and that of the Algonquian tribes along the northern Atlantic Coast. Before contact with whites, there were about 12 Iroquoian tribes in the … Read more

The most distinguished healers among the Ojibwa tribe were the members of the Grand Medicine Society, or Midewiwin. To enter the society, men and women had to undergo a lengthy initiation, during which they learned about herbal medicines and were trained in the special songs and ceremonies of the Midewiwin. Achieving all four ranks of … Read more

Many Native American Algonquian tribes favored the type of house known as a wigwam. It was constructed from a frame of saplings bent to form a dome. Over this frame, wigwam builders tied mats of woven grass or reeds or sheets of tree bark. Wigwams were easy to set up and easy to take down, … Read more

Most of the Algonquian lived in a region full of rich, well-watered land, ideal for growing crops, such as beans and squash. Corn was especially important to the Algonquian living along the mid- and southern Atlantic Coast. This one crop made up almost half of their diet. With much of their lands covered by rich … Read more

Many Great Lakes Native American tribes ate the delicious rice that grew wild in their marshlands. But this food was most important to the Menominee, whose very name meant “wild rice people.” Every year, late in the summer, the Menominee took a fleet of canoes through marshes where rice stalks grew up high above the … Read more

The Maya performed many rituals and ceremonies to keep their gods happy. Some involved the shedding of human blood. Captives taken in war were sometimes killed to please the gods. But even powerful people, such as rulers and religious leaders, were expected to make blood sacrifices. Commonly, they drew their own blood by piercing their … Read more

A dugout was a type of canoe used by many Algonquian tribes. To make a dugout, a canoe-maker started by chopping down a cedar or an elm tree and setting the middle of the trunk on fire. Once the trunk was charred and the flame extinguished, the burned wood in the center would be dug … Read more

The Algonquian sought out spots near the water so that they would always be near fish or other water creatures to eat. Tribes on lakes and rivers invented all types of hooks, spears, and nets to catch fish. Those living on the Atlantic shore also gathered oysters, clams, and shellfish. The Wampanoag of present-day Massachusetts, … Read more

The northeastern Algonquian were clustered in two areas. One group lived near the Great Lakes in what is now the north-central United States and south-central Canada. The Great Lakes Algonquian tribes included the Ojibwa (also called the Chippewa), the Menominee, and the Potawatomi. Other Algonquian lived along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean from present-day … Read more

Before non-Natives arrived in North America, the woodlands of the Northeast were the home of some 50 tribes. Anthropologists group most of these peoples as either Algonquian or Iroquoian. The tribes in each group were distant relatives of one another. They also spoke similar languages and shared many of the same customs and ways.

Not all the Aztec were killed by the Spanish. Many Aztec died during the Spanish invasion, and still others were killed in the years that followed by non-Native diseases introduced to them by the Spanish. Those who survived were subjugated by the strangers in their land. Over time, the Spanish forced their children and their … Read more

For the ten years prior to Hernan Cortes’s arrival, odd happenings had haunted the Aztec. Elders had peculiar and upsetting dreams. Lightning struck a temple honoring the god of fire. The waters of the lake surrounding Tenochtitlan turned rough unexpectedly. Religious leaders feared these were omens of impending disaster. When Cortes arrived in their lands, … Read more

Hernando Cortes, a Spanish explorer, arrived at the coast of present-day Mexico in 1519 with an army of about 350 soldiers. Cortes was searching for a great city rumored to be full of riches. As they moved inland, Cortes and his men battled some of the Natives they met, but they were able to persuade … Read more

Quezalcoatl was an honored god of the Toltec and became an important deity for the Aztec as well. To the Aztec, he was the god of corn and of the arts. According to their legends, Quezalcoatl once had been a man. After angering the gods, the human QuezalcOatl had been exiled from the Aztec world, … Read more

Always in fear of droughts that would dry up their food supply, the Aztec people felt their future was uncertain. They believed that the only way to guarantee their survival was to please the gods they worshiped by offering them human sacrifices. During the dedications of temples and other ceremonies, tens of thousands of captives … Read more

According to the Aztec legend, the god Huitzilopochtli led the Aztec to the place where Tenochtitlan would be built. At the site, they found an eagle seated on a cactus holding a serpent in its beak. This image now appears in the center of the Mexican flag. The legend also lives on in the name … Read more

Tribute was food and goods the Aztec ruler demanded from the people he conquered. By collecting tribute, the Aztec Empire financed the splendors of Tenochtitlan and the nobility’s lavish way of life. At the empire’s height, tribute was collected from 489 cities. Farmers were required to give up a certain percentage of their crop. Craftspeople … Read more

By the sixteenth century, Tenochtitlan had a population of about 400,000, making it the largest Indian city ever built in Mesoamerica. The city was originally established on a small island. As Tenochtitlan grew in size, its inhabitants took over a neighboring island, Tlatelolco, and built bridges to make it accessible to Tenochtitlan. In an even … Read more

The Aztec created perhaps Mesoamerica’s greatest ancient empire. When their ancestors first came to central Mexico, however, they were little more than barbaric hunters. Early on, these people were under the control of more powerful Chichimeca tribes, for whom they sometimes served as warriors in exchange for pay. To escape from the demands of these … Read more

While the Maya civilization was in decline, the Toltec came to power in what is now central Mexico. United under the leader Mixcoatl, they established a vast empire in the region. A warlike people, the Toltec not only dominated other groups, they also set about building a great civilization. Led by Mixcoatl’s son, Topiltzin, Toltec … Read more

At their most prosperous, the Maya’s cities featured more than 400 ball courts. These playing fields were the site of spirited and often violent games. Like basketball, a team scored when one of its players made a rubber ball fall through a hoop. Like soccer, though, players could not throw the ball with their hands, … Read more

In about 900, the Maya civilization began to decline. The reason for this decline is not clear. The Maya may have overfarmed the land, leaving the soil barren. They may also have fallen victim to epidemics or been ruined by constant warfare. The descendants of the Maya lived on, but with little of their former … Read more

The Mound Builders didn’t come into contact with European settlers. By the eighteenth century, when whites began crossing the Appalachians into the Mississippians’ lands, their villages were gone. We can only guess at the Mound Builders’ fate. Their great settlements may have been laid low by widespread disease or by other Native American invaders. Changes … Read more

The Maya had 4 Gods that they worshiped. Itzamna: The lord of the heavens and the god of learning and writing. ltzamna was often depicted in Maya art as a two-headed serpent. Ix Chel: The wife of Itzamna and the goddess of medicine and childbirth. All other gods were the children of lx Chel and … Read more

Possibly the Maya’s most spectacular achievement was their calendar. Based on their sophisticated astronomical research, their calendar was very complicated and very precise. In fact, it was more accurate than the Gregorian calendar we use today. The Maya calendar was closely tied to their religious beliefs. They thought that an understanding of time was necessary … Read more

The Maya were amazing astronomers. From observatories atop their great pyramids, they charted the path of Venus and calculated solar and lunar eclipses with an accuracy that would not be matched for many centuries. They were equally skilled as mathematicians. Maya scholars developed a number system that used only three symbols: a line for five, … Read more

The Popul Vuh is a sacred book that tells the story of how the Maya were created. According to the Popul Vuh, the gods first made people from mud. Their bodies were too soft and flexible, so the gods destroyed them. Next, they made humans from wood. Their bodies were too hard and stiff, so … Read more

Until recently, scholars thought that the Maya were peaceful. But new research into the records the Maya left behind suggests that they were often at war, often among themselves. At their height, the Maya lived in about 100 separate cities, each with its own ruler. These cities were often trading partners, but just as frequently … Read more

The Maya developed one of the most advanced ancient civilizations in Mesoamerica. At its height from 300 to 800, Maya cities spread over what is now southern Mexico and portions of Belize and Guatemala. The Maya had much in common with the Olmec. Their skilled farmers grew enough food that many of their people could … Read more

Unlike most Native American groups, the Maya developed a form of writing to record their history and their religious beliefs. The Maya wrote in hieroglyphs, pictures that symbolized things, ideas, or sounds in their spoken language. They used these symbols to write on stelae (stone tablets) and in codices, books made of long strips of … Read more

Among the greatest achievements of Olmec art are the great sculptures found at the site of San Lorenzo. Carved from giant blocks of basalt (a volcanic rock), these works depict enormous human heads wearing tight-fitting helmets and probably were meant to be portraits of specific Olmec rulers. Each sculpture measures as tall as five feet … Read more

Teotihuacan was a city that grew up near what is now Mexico City. Between 300 and 900, Teotihuacan was the largest urban area in Mesoamerica. Laid out on an enormous grid, the city featured great open plazas, temples, and palaces. Rising high above the city was the Pyramid of the Sun. Constructed in about 125, … Read more

Olmec artists crafted beautiful ornaments from obsidian and mica. Although they did not have metal tools, they also carved sculptures from granite and jade. Many of these works depicted supernatural beings in the form of alligators, toads, and snakes. The were-jaguar, whose face had features of both a jaguar and a human being, was the … Read more

The Olmec lived primarily along the Gulf Coast east of what is now Mexico City. They built small urban areas, such as those at sites now known as San Lorenzo and La Venta. There, people gathered to trade and attend religious ceremonies. These urban centers featured great public buildings constructed by huge teams of workers. … Read more

The area known as Mesoamerica was the first place in the Americas where Native Americans learned to grow their own food. The most important crop was corn, which grew wild in Mesoamerica. These wild corn plants, however, were scrawny, the ears were small, and the corn kernels were tough. It took thousands of years of … Read more

The Olmec established the first great civilization in Mesoamerica, which flourished from about 1200 to 400 B.C. It is sometimes called the mother civilization because it had such a great influence on the cultures of later Mesoamerican people, including the Maya and the Aztec. Like the Olmec, these later groups were organized into social classes, … Read more

When Native Americans could grow large amounts of corn, they no longer had to spend every moment trying to find food. They were free to put time into other pursuits. Eventually they developed complicated religious rituals and became skilled craftspeople. Becoming farmers also meant that Native Americans had to live in large, permanent settlements to … Read more

The word “civilization” is used to describe a society with a complicated political and social structure and distinguished by great achievements in art, architecture, scholarship, and technological know-how. The word civilization comes from the Latin civilis, meaning civil, related to the Latin civis, meaning citizen, and civitas, meaning city or city-state. The level of advancement … Read more

Mesoamerica is an area that includes central Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and portions of Honduras and Nicaragua. From about 1200 B.C. to A.D. 1500, the region was home to many of the greatest Indian civilizations, including the Olmec, Maya, Toltec, and Aztec. As a cultural area, Mesoamerica is defined by a mosaic of cultural … Read more

Before non-natives arrived in North America, Cahokia was the largest urban center north of present-day Mexico. Located near what is now St. Louis, Missouri, this Mississippian town was at its height in about 1100. It then stretched across more than 200 acres and was the home of nearly 40,000 people. The center also was visited … Read more

The Adena and Hopewell built mounds as sites to bury their dead. The Mississippians continued this tradition, but they also built a new type of mound, large pyramids with flat tops. The tops of the mounds were places where religious leaders lived and performed rituals. Some later mounds were made as fortifications to keep enemies … Read more

The Northwest Passage was a waterway rumored to run through northern Canada and connect the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. Beginning in the sixteenth century, Europeans wanted to use the Northwest Passage as a short route to China, where traders could make a fortune selling European goods. In the late 1500s, the first of a series … Read more

Hernando de Sow was a Spanish explorer who came to the Southeast in 1539 looking for gold and other riches. He and his 600 men were the first non-Indians to meet most of the tribes there. The encounters were often violent. De Soto’s men tried to kill or enslave many of the Indians they came … Read more

The most famous and well-preserved effigy mound, called the Great Serpent Mound, is located near present-day Peebles, Ohio, where it can still be seen today. Dating from the time of the Adena Culture, the mound is about 5 feet tall, 20 feet across, and nearly a mile long. From the air, it looks like a … Read more

The Adena were the first Mound Builders. From about 500 B.C. to A.D. 200, they lived in a large area that covered much of present-day Ohio and Pennsylvania and portions of what are now Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and New York State. They built villages of cone-shaped houses made from poles and bark and obtained … Read more

The Mound Builders were the people of three early Native American cultures, the Adena, Hopewell, and Mississippian, that grew up in what is now the central United States from between 500 B.C. and A.D. 1500. They are called Mound Builders because of the most spectacular feature of their villages, enormous structures made by piling earth … Read more

In about 1300, the Anasazi suffered a severe drought. Without enough rainfall to grow crops, small groups in search of food gradually left their large villages. Over time, many resettled along the Rio Grande and its tributaries. The descendants of these people are the Pueblo Indians, who still live in New Mexico and Arizona. Anasazi … Read more

The Anasazi were called Cliff Dwellers because some of their largest buildings were built into the walls of cliffs. The most impressive was at Mesa Verde in what is now southwestern Colorado. The great Cliff Palace there was home to about 250 people. One of the first non-natives to see the ruins of Cliff Palace, … Read more

The Anasazi lived in many villages separated from one another by deep canyons. Although the villages were fairly isolated from one another, the Anasazi built a great system of roads so that they could gather together at Chaco Canyon to trade. By about 1050, this massive village was the home of nearly 5,000 people. Much … Read more

The Anasazi developed the most advanced early Native American culture in the Southwest. Beginning in about a.d. 100, they lived in the Four Corners area, where the present-day states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet. Archaeologists call the earliest stage of Anasazi culture the Basket Making period. During this time, the Anasazi learned … Read more

By about 1500, the Hohokam had abandoned their large villages. Although no one knows why for sure, a drought probably made it impossible to grow enough corn to feed large village populations. The Hohokam likely broke into smaller groups who became the ancestors of the Akimel O’odham and Tohono O’odham (also known as the Pima … Read more

Casa Grande, meaning “great house” in Spanish, was built by the Hohokam in about 1325. Located near what is now Florence, Arizona, it was a huge four-story building with a 35-foot tower in the center. The walls were made from bricks of clay called adobe, and the roof was reinforced with great wooden beams that … Read more

In about A.D. 300, people now known as the Hohokam first established large villages along the Gila and Salt Rivers in what is now southern Arizona. They became successful farmers by digging hundreds of miles of trenches to draw river water to their fields. Their crops included corn, beans, squash, and cotton. Originally, the Hohokam … Read more

The first Native Americans farmers lived in what is now Mexico. In about 5500 B.C., they learned how to grow squash, avocados, and beans. But their greatest achievement was crossing several strains of wild corn to create a new type of corn plant, one that could grow tall and strong in their hot climate. By … Read more

A culture is a collection of customs and beliefs that make up a group’s way of life. It includes the language the people speak, the beings they worship, the ways they obtain food, the houses they build, the clothing they wear, and the weapons they make to defend themselves and their culture from outsiders. People … Read more

As the final ice age came to an end, the weather in North America became warmer. Over many centuries, the descendants of the people who crossed the Bering land bridge traveled farther and farther south, then east. They were always searching for new animals to hunt, in part because the weather changes were causing the … Read more

According to the creation story of the Navajo tribe, the Navajo passed through three worlds, the Black World, the Blue-Green World, and the Yellow World, before coming to their southwestern homeland, the Glittering World. Some scholars believe this story confirms their own theory that these early people traveled through the Arctic to central Canada and … Read more

The first Native Americans in North America were hunters who roamed in small bands following their prey. North America then was the home of many huge beasts, including elephant-like mastodons, great woolly mammoths, and saber-toothed tigers. Humans became adept at chipping stones to make razor-sharp spear points and arrow points that could penetrate the rough … Read more

Scientists believe that the first Native Americans came from Asia about 12,000 to 60,000 years ago, when the earth experienced a series of ice ages. With each, much of the earth’s waters froze, and in some places the land underneath was exposed. One such area was the Bering Strait. Now a strip of water between … Read more

One source of information about the first Native Americans is the work of archaeologists and anthropologists (scholars who study human societies). Archaeologists digging in areas where the first North Americans lived have found bones, tools, and other things the Native Americans left behind. By examining these objects, archaeologists and anthropologists have been able to piece … Read more

The word throne is simply a euphemism for toilet, and we have plenty of them for subjects that are considered unmentionable. There are many more names for the toilet, such as: hopper, Johnny, janey, loo, potty, or privy. This particular euphemism, throne, is said to have come from none other than King Louis XIV, who … Read more

In the 1820s, workers who were digging the Erie Canal got paid from about 37 cents to $1 a day. This was for a 10 hour day, and they were expected to work six days a week. They also got up to a quart of whiskey each a day, given in a series of four … Read more

A baby boomer is someone who was born after soldiers of the Second World War had come home and up to eighteen years later, so the period differs in some countries. In the U.S. and Canada, 20 million babies were born during the boom between 1946 and 1964. North America’s first baby boomer, Kathleen Casey … Read more