Early Native Americans Lecture (YouTube Video Transcript)

(00:00:00) Your YouTube transcript will appear here (00:00:00) there are several course themes that we (00:00:03) would be discussing over this semester (00:00:06) the first is immigration people coming (00:00:10) to the new world as you know that's a (00:00:12) hot topic button topic issue today (00:00:16) there's also multicultural diversity (00:00:20) democracy and expansionism while the (00:00:24) United States won in the expansion there (00:00:27) were losers in the process as well (00:00:31) humans reached North America probably (00:00:33) twelve to fourteen thousand years ago v (00:00:35) a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska (00:00:38) which covered today's Bering Strait (00:00:40) they were nomadic people in search of (00:00:43) food and settled throughout the Americas (00:00:45) this group adapted to their different (00:00:48) environment and developed different (00:00:50) cultural identities with language and (00:00:52) socialization over time they settled in (00:00:55) specific locations around villages and (00:00:57) planted vegetables and hunted for a (00:01:01) stable life on this map you can see that (00:01:06) the origins are from northern Japan as (00:01:10) well as Mongolia in Siberia and they (00:01:14) migrated north this had been a theory (00:01:17) for many years but due to modern science (00:01:20) and DNA technology scientists have (00:01:23) examined the livers of people from Japan (00:01:26) and Mongolia and they saw that their DNA (00:01:29) was almost identical to that of Eskimos (00:01:33) so as they would migrate into Alaska (00:01:36) Alaska has a harsh environment so some (00:01:39) settled along the sea and as people grew (00:01:44) in population size they migrated further (00:01:47) south and if you would settle for (00:01:49) example in the northwest here you see a (00:01:55) map of a number of different tribes that (00:01:58) settled throughout the Americas most (00:02:01) civilizations were in Central America (00:02:04) and South America as opposed to North (00:02:07) America where many of these tribes would (00:02:10) war against each other and because they (00:02:12) would war against each other (00:02:13) a sustained civilization never really (00:02:17) took hold in this map you see in the (00:02:24) Great Plains there was an area called (00:02:27) Cahokia also in the Southwest the (00:02:30) Anasazi will explain a little bit more (00:02:33) about the early Native Americans prior (00:02:37) to becoming these different settled (00:02:40) Native American tribes in this area of (00:02:47) the United States you can see what each (00:02:50) area had focused on as far as (00:02:53) agriculturally in the northwest there (00:02:57) was an abundance resources of salmon (00:02:59) salmon usually spawn around August so (00:03:03) this is a major period for Native (00:03:08) Americans in the northwest they harvest (00:03:11) the salmon they dry them they smoked (00:03:13) them so they have enough for the winter (00:03:16) months and then in the southwest (00:03:19) it's very arid there isn't a large (00:03:22) population so they will be using (00:03:25) irrigation methods to plant corn and (00:03:29) other different vegetables in the (00:03:33) Northeast again it's a little bit better (00:03:37) climate as far as resources more (00:03:39) abundance of water so different Native (00:03:42) Americans adapted to the different (00:03:45) environments as I mentioned before there (00:03:50) were advanced civilizations the Aztecs (00:03:53) in what is present-day Mexico the Incas (00:03:57) in Peru and the Mayans in Central (00:04:00) America this is a rendering of the (00:04:06) capital city of the Aztecs just outside (00:04:09) of present-day Mexico City tenet Deline (00:04:14) population of 250,000 250,000 people (00:04:19) lived in this city there was a landmass (00:04:22) in the center with a number of different (00:04:25) temples and it was connected (00:04:27) via the mainland the Atlantia bridges (00:04:30) over a lake this was in an extinct (00:04:34) volcano and in the water there was an (00:04:38) abundance of fish as well as they had (00:04:42) floating gardens for producing (00:04:45) vegetables and other foodstuffs by being (00:04:48) on the middle of the lake it would (00:04:49) afford the Aztecs safety from outside (00:04:54) invaders and they would be warriors and (00:04:56) actually subdued their neighbors the (00:05:00) Incas was another major civilization in (00:05:04) centered in what is Peru today there are (00:05:07) populations of millions connected the (00:05:10) roads along the Andes Mountains and they (00:05:12) had large cities this was the capital of (00:05:16) the Incas Machu Picchu again about ten (00:05:20) thousand feet in the air so they would (00:05:22) have to adapt to their climate notice (00:05:24) that the terraces that they would use to (00:05:27) farm and as far as I said before North (00:05:31) American tribes were less advanced they (00:05:34) did adapt to their environment but due (00:05:36) to constant warfare they were less (00:05:39) stable and did not advance as well as (00:05:43) the Aztecs and the Incas this is an (00:05:48) artist rendition of one early (00:05:51) civilization maybe around the Year 1000 (00:05:55) called Cahokia it is near the city of (00:05:58) Saint Louis Missouri and it was near the (00:06:03) Mississippi River this is what remains (00:06:07) of Cahokia today actually many people (00:06:10) just thought that this was some type of (00:06:13) herb earthen mound they didn't realize (00:06:16) that this was perhaps a temple that (00:06:19) Native Americans had built a thousand (00:06:21) years ago but as archaeologists are (00:06:23) digging in the area they're finding out (00:06:25) a little bit more of kokia nobody knows (00:06:28) what happened to the people perhaps they (00:06:31) were raided by another Native American (00:06:34) tribe or perhaps the Mississippi River (00:06:37) due to different types of flooding (00:06:40) course every once in a while and perhaps (00:06:43) they were this mound was very close to (00:06:47) the Mississippi River and the (00:06:48) Mississippi River shifted therefore the (00:06:51) population shifted as well again nobody (00:06:54) knows it's believed that the population (00:06:56) of Cahokia was about 30,000 in the year (00:07:01) 1000 which would be very comparable to (00:07:04) the city of Philadelphia in the 1700s (00:07:08) the Anasazi are located near Santa Fe (00:07:13) New Mexico (00:07:15) they were the precursors to the pueblos (00:07:18) and again they adapted to their (00:07:20) environment they lived near the Rio (00:07:22) Grande River so they used the waters for (00:07:26) irrigation to plant corn and notice that (00:07:30) they carved their homes in the limestone (00:07:33) cliffs again this would afford them (00:07:35) protection they would be high up so that (00:07:37) if a neighboring Native American tribe (00:07:40) tried to attack they had the advantage (00:07:44) because they had the height over their (00:07:46) aggressors this is a play blow of the (00:07:52) Pueblo Indians again in New Mexico they (00:07:56) have adapted to their environment (00:07:58) they've used clay it keeps the inside of (00:08:01) their homes cool and the entrance to (00:08:04) these facilities are in the top again a (00:08:07) way of protecting themselves and finally (00:08:11) in the Northeast we will be talking (00:08:13) about the Iroquois Indians the Iroquois (00:08:16) are a group of five different tribes (00:08:19) around the Great Lakes in upstate New (00:08:25) York they or less signed a peace pact (00:08:29) amongst the five tribes so they would (00:08:31) not war against each other and they (00:08:33) would be known for trading with the (00:08:36) French as the French established there (00:08:38) and get involved in the Seven Years War (00:08:41) between the French and the English which (00:08:45) again we will talk about in a future (00:08:47) chapter as far as gender roles there was (00:08:51) quite a difference (00:08:52) between Native Americans and Europeans (00:08:56) Native Americans differed from Europeans (00:08:59) on several levels Native Americans were (00:09:01) more spiritual and superstitious and (00:09:04) view the land as sacred while Europeans (00:09:07) viewed the land as a natural resource (00:09:09) for development Europeans believed in (00:09:12) land ownership and individualism while (00:09:15) the natives believes in communal (00:09:16) ownership with limited social (00:09:18) stratification Indian families were (00:09:21) matrilineal whereas the European society (00:09:23) was dominated by men meaning you are (00:09:26) traced back through your ancestors on (00:09:29) your father's side if your European (00:09:31) whereas the Native Americans would focus (00:09:35) on the mother's side Europe leans (00:09:38) believed in one God and look down upon (00:09:40) the Native Americans for their devil (00:09:42) worship and they were either to be (00:09:44) converted to Christianity or destroyed (00:09:47) so that was the feeling between Native (00:09:50) Americans and Europeans