Native North American Cultures

Northeastern Woodlands

The characteristics of the Northeastern woodlands cultural area include the use of wigwams and longhouses for shelter and of wampum as a means of exchange. Wampum consisted of small beads made from quahog shells.

The main agricultural crops of the region were the Three Sisters: winter squash, maize (corn), and climbing beans.

Prior to contact, native groups in the Northeast generally lived in villages of a few hundred people, living close to their crops. Generally men did the planting and harvesting, while women processed the crops

Southeastern Woodlands

Most Southeastern peoples (excepting some of the coastal peoples) were highly agricultural, growing crops like maize, squash, and beans for food. They supplemented their diet with hunting, fishing and gathering wild plants.

Southeastern Woodlands social traits included having a matrilineal kinship system, marriage only outside clans, and organized into settled villages and towns.

Great Plains

While hunting-farming cultures have lived on the Great Plains for centuries prior to European contact, the region is known for the horse cultures that flourished from the 17th century through the late 19th century. Their historic nomadism and armed resistance to domination by the government and military forces of Canada and the United States have made the Plains Indian culture groups an archetype in literature and art for Native Americans everywhere.

Numerous Plains peoples hunted the American Bison (buffalo) to make items used in everyday life, such as food, cups, decorations, crafting tools, knives, and clothing. The tribes followed the seasonal grazing and migration of the bison. The Plains Indians lived in tipis because they were easily disassembled and allowed the nomadic life of following game.

The semi-sedentary, village-dwelling Plains Indians depended upon agriculture for a large share of their livelihood, particularly those who lived in the eastern parts of the Great Plains which had more precipitation than the western side. Corn was the dominant crop, followed by squash and beans. Tobacco, sunflower, plums and other wild plants were also cultivated or gathered in the wild.

Great Basin

The "Great Basin" is a region located between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, in what is now Nevada, as well as parts of Oregon, California, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. There is very little precipitation in the Great Basin area and the harsh environment affected the lifestyles and cultures of its inhabitants.

Prior to the 20th century, Great Basin peoples were predominantly gatherers who foraged and dug for anything edible - nuts, seeds roots, etc. and were often referred to derogatorily by white settlers as "diggers". In general, the Great Basin tribes had no permanent settlements, and, because of the meager food supplies, traveled in small family groups living a subsistence lifestyle.

Southwest

Often proudly referred to as the "American Southwest", this region has long been occupied by hunter-gatherers and agricultural people. The Pre-Columbian culture of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico evolved into three major archaeological culture areas:

• Ancestral Pueblo peoples, or Anasazi,
• The Hohokam peoples
• The Mogollon peoples

Agriculture in the Southwest was based on the cultivation of maize, beans, squash and sunflower seeds. Foraging for wild foods also played a major role in the diet of Southwestern people. Another important food for indigenous peoples living in mountainous areas of the Southwest are the seeds of the Pinyon pine, known as "pine nuts" or "piñóns" The nuts were a vital source of protein in the winter for the Ute and Paiute peoples

Many contemporary cultural traditions exist within the Greater Southwest, including Yuman-speaking peoples inhabiting the Colorado River valley, the uplands, and Baja California, O'odham peoples of Southern Arizona and northern Sonora, and the Pueblo peoples of Arizona and New Mexico. In addition, the Apache and Navajo peoples, whose ancestral roots lie in the Athabaskan-speaking peoples in Canada, entered the Southwest during the 14th and 15th century and are a major modern presence in the area.

California

Early Native Californians were hunter-gatherers, with seed collection becoming widespread around 9,000 BC. Due to the local abundance of food, tribes never developed agriculture or tilled the soil. Acorns were the principal food and fish shellfish deer were also staples. There was a high degree of isolation among the various small villages with little movement once settled. This may explain why more than 100 dialects were spoken in the area!

Native Californians practiced various forms of sophisticated forest gardening in the forests, grasslands, mixed woodlands, and wetlands to ensure availability of food and medicine plants. They controlled fire on a regional scale to create a low-intensity fire ecology; thus preventing larger, catastrophic fires. By burning underbrush and grass, the natives revitalized patches of land and provided fresh shoots to attract food animals.

Northwest Plateau

Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau, are often referred to as the Plateau Indians. Their territories were located in the inland portions of the basins of the Columbia and Fraser Rivers.

There are several distinguishing features that differentiate the plateau culture from the surrounding native cultures. These include (1) a high reliance on roots as a food source; (2) a high reliance on short duration salmon and eel runs; and (3) long-term habitation of winter villages at fixed locations along rivers or lakes. There was a lack of social stratification and a lack of tribal organization beyond the village level.

Plateau tribes excelled in the art of basketry and their housing included longhouses roofed in the summer with reeds and in the winter with bark. Plateau peoples generally self-identified by their wintering village or band, as opposed to a tribe. Intermarrying between groups was common and in many cases encouraged. Different groups shared hunting and foraging ranges.

Northwest Coast

Northwest Coast regions extends more than 2,000 miles form the northern limits of California to the panhandle of Alaska. The climate is temperate but moist as the mountain barrier blocks mist-laden winds for the oceans The oceans, rivers and lush evergreen forests offered up a plentiful supply of fish and game

The land and waters of the Northwest Coast provided rich natural resources through cedar and salmon, and highly structured cultures developed from relatively dense populations. Within the Pacific Northwest, many different nations developed, each with their own distinct history, culture, and society. Some cultures in this region were very similar and share certain elements, such as the importance of salmon to their cultures, while others differed.

Subarctic

The subarctic region is dominated by the taiga, or boreal forests, an ecosystem of coniferous forest and large flat marshes. The natives of this region had to cope with long harsh winters as well as short summers plagued with clouds of black flies and mosquitos. Most peoples were nomadic and hunted, fished and foraged in small bands. Life revolved around the seasonal migrations of the caribou.

Arctic

The peoples who settled in the upper arctic regions fo North America came relatively late to to the continent somewhere around 3,000 B.C. The region consists of open tundra, where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. Tundra vegetation is composed of dwarf shrubs, sedges, grasses, mosses, and lichens.

Natives draw a subsistence living from hunting, trapping, and fishing. Although Arctic environments are commonly imagined to be barren and inhospitable, but the continuous daylight of the warm Arctic summer, coupled with ample surface water from melting snow, allows for a phenomenal rate of growth of surface vegetation, and this in turn attracts a multitude of animals, many of them of migratory species. The resources available for human subsistence tend to occur in great concentrations at particular times of year, rather than being widely dispersed and continuously available.

Many tribes survived the cold, harsh environment by hunting caribou, musk ox, bowhead whales, and even seals through the ice. They then put all the parts of the animal to use.