Important Facts about Each Group of Native Americans

Plains:

• Bison-hunting. Bison provided food, summer housing, clothing
• Moved around during the summer; lived in villages in winter.
• Worked cooperatively to develop and use buffalo runs.
• Dogs but no horses until Spanish arrived
• Some trade with Mississippi valley.

Basin/Plateau:

• Poor environment (dry, short growing season) made for resource poor area and harsh life focused on getting food
• Gatherers (seed, pine nuts, plant materials for home and baskets) and hunters of small game (rabbits)
• No permanent villages. Small family groupings traveling to get food.

Pacific Coast:

• Many resources meant more than subsistence living. Ample food available in few-day radius (fish, shellfish, deer, roots, berries, acorns (CA))
• Permanent homes of cedar in permanent villages. Communal activities such as salmon fishing/processing, whaling.
• Definite class structure accompanying wealth
• Specialized production of "luxury items" of wood or beads; medicine
• Established trade and monetary system (strings of shells)

Southwest:

• Agricultural: grew corn, beans, squash in irrigated fields (dry climate)
• Houses and storage of earth (clay, adobe)
• Made and trades pottery --better storage than baskets
• Domesticated turkeys

Southeast: Mississippi Valley:

• Rich agricultural lands yielded an agricultural surplus which supported specialized production of "luxury" items and a ruling class
• Urbanized--lived in large, permanent towns that were part of an extensive network of economic (trade) and ceremonial links.
• Hierarchical society with a hereditary leader ("great sun") who was religious and political leader (with supporting noble class) with tax on subjects.

Northeast Woodlands:

• Agriculture (corn, squash, beans) supplemented with meat and fish gathered in annual village trips to winter hunting camps; fishing spots.
• Gift-giving and trade had ceremonial and political functions.
• Tribal territories well-defined (usually defined around river system). Occasional wars with neighboring tribes (ritualistic)
• Selected leaders; less stratified than Southest tribes. Iroquois confederacy a more complex political structure.
• Moderate living (compared to others) but did not emphasize acquiring a lot of goods.

Similarities:

• ALL adapted to their environment and chose to satisfy basic wants (food, housing, shelter) in the most economical way-- by using the resource that was the most abundant in their area (bison (Plains), or shrubby plants (Basin), wood (Coast))
• All made and used tools and other capital to help them produce. All modified their environment.
• ALL developed a political system (chief) though this had limited scope in Basin area and most in the Southeast.

Differences:

• The Coast and Mississippian tribes had the highest standard of living; the Basin tribes the lowest. The first two groups could support people specializing in religious/ceremonial/political functions and/or specialized production (craftsmen).
• Four lived in settled communities for most of the year; Plains and Basin people moved the most, following food sources. Only the Pacific Coast tribes were settled but did not farm.
• Coast and Mississippian tribes were the most stratified and put the most emphasis on acquisition of goods; Basin and Plains, the least.
• Only the Southwestern tribes had domesticated animals for food (turkeys).
• Coastal tribes developed money; others did not.