Before Contact

1
Before Contact

• The Native Americans

2
Mississippian Culture

• As DeSoto traveled from the Gulf coast of Florida
  northward, he encountered an area well populated
  by a predominately agricultural society.
• However, the peoples he encountered had already
  suffered from disease spread previous European
  contact with the American continent.

3

• Development of the Mississippian culture
  probably began around 700 c.e.
• Its center was Cahokia, a city on the east bank
  of the Mississippi, near St. Louis.
• At its height, it covered 6 square miles and had
  a population of over 40,000.

4

• Between 900 and 1200 the Mississippian culture
  developed into a network of communities spread
  across the southern mountains.
• The introduction of northern flint corn around
  1200 contributed significantly to the cultures
  success, and increased its dependence on
  agriculture.

5

• The principal field crops were the three
  sisters of corn, beans, and squash, grown in the
  rich river valleys.
• There were semi-cultivated orchards of fruit
  trees and abundant nut trees, dominated by the
  American chestnut.

6

• The Mississippian culture and most of the
  remnants which de Soto encountered were
  matriarchial, matrilocal, and matrifocal.
• Women were primarily responsible for the crops
  and for most governance.
• Men would participate in the clearing of land.
• Otherwise, they hunted, made war, or played ball.

7

• There was a system of tribute, maintained by war
  or threat of war. This supported the major towns.
• Artifacts indicate that trade extended as far as
  Mexico, the Rockies and the Great Lakes.

8

• There was extensive use of river cane in home
  construction, furniture, and baskets.
• Controlled burns were probably used to clear land
  for crops, control underbrush in the forests, and
  encourage the spread of cane patches.
• Trees were felled for home construction and for
  fortifications.

9

• Crop production was nearly no-till. Corn, pole
  beans and squash were planted together. The beans
  provided nitrogen for the corn and the squash
  shaded out the weeds.
• Rivers were major food sources, and quite
  different than what we see today.

10

• the average depth of the Tennessee River, the
  largest stream course in the southern Appalachian
  region, was less than 1.3 feet, and during
  high-water seasonits average water level rose
  only to 3 feet.
• Fish, eels,mussels and turtles were in abundance,
  taken by spear or trap.

11
Woodlands-era village (artistic interpretation
from archaeological evidence)
12
(No Transcript)
13
5 Major Languages found in Southeast and thus in
Appalachia PLUS ONE 1 Muskogean 2) Iroqoian 3)
Caddoan 4) Siouan 5) Algonkian PLUS Mobilian
(universal) for trade
14
Map of pre-contact cultural regions
From the Perry-Castañeda LibraryMap Collection,
University of Texas
15
Before 1675
Settlement by 1800
Settlement by 1820
From the Perry-Castañeda LibraryMap Collection,
University of Texas
16
Conquest Trails
17
Long-distance routes of early Appalachia Will
iams, p. 36
18

• What de Soto and other early explorers left
  behind was European diseases to which the natives
  had little resistence.
• The most likely to survive those waves of
  epidemics were young girls not yet weakened by
  childbirth.
• When the English and Dutch begin to settle from
  the east, and the French from the west, the
  people they meet have already met disaster.