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American Indian language Indian tribes American Indian art
Native American Facts For Kids was written for young people learning about the Menominee tribe for school or home-schooling reports. We encourage students and teachers to visit our mainMenominee website for in-depth information about the tribe, but here are our answers to the questions we are most often asked by children, with Menominee pictures and links we believe are suitable for all ages.

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What kinds of stories do the Menominee Indians tell?
There are lots of traditional Menominee legends and fairy tales. Storytelling is very important to the Menominee Indian culture. Here is a story about

Menominee Tribe

Menominee is pronounced "Me-NOH-muh-nee." It means "wild rice people" inOjibwe. The Ojibwe gave the Menominees this name because wild rice was their major food crop.Menominee and Menomini are both accepted spellings, but the official name of the tribe is spelled 'Menominee.'

The Menominee Indians are original residents ofWisconsin and the upperMichigan peninsula. Today most Menominees live on a reservation in Wisconsin.

The Menominee Indians live on areservation, which is land that belongs to them and is under their control. The Menominee tribe has its own government, laws, police, and services, just like a small country. However, the Menominees are also US citizens and must obey American law. In the past, the Menominee tribe was led by a chief, orokemaw, who was the hereditary head of one of the tribal clans. Today the okemaw is elected by Menominee tribal members, just like a mayor or governor.

Most Menominee people speak English today. Some older Menominees also speak their nativeMenominee language. Menominee is a musical language that has complicated verbs with many parts. If you'd like to know an easy Menominee word, "posoh" is a friendly greeting. You can also read a Menominee picture glossaryhere.

Today Menominee is anendangered language because most children aren't learning it anymore. However, some Menominee people are working to keep their language alive.

Here's a link to theMenominee Nation homepage. On their site you can find information about the Menominee Indian tribe in the past and today.

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They do the same things all children do--play with each other, go to school and help around the house. Many Menominee children like to go hunting and fishing or camp outdoors. In the past, Indian kids had more chores and less time to play, just like colonial children. But they did havedolls, toys and games to play. Here is a picture of aMenominee snowsnake. Menominee Indian kids would throw snowsnakes to see who could make theirs glide the furthest.Lacrosse was also a popular sport among Menominee teenagers. Like many Native Americans, Menominee mothers carried their babies incradleboards on their backs. Here is a website with pictures ofIndian cradleboards.

The Menominee Indians used two different types of dwellings: dome-shaped wigwams, and rectangularlodges with bark covering. Here are some pictures ofwigwams and birchbark houses. Most Menominee villages also included a sweat lodge and a larger great hall. Today, Native Americans only build a wigwam or lodge for fun or for ritual purposes. Most Menominees live in modern houses and apartment buildings, just like you.

Menominee women wore woven skirts. Menominee men worebreechcloths with leggings. Shirts were not necessary in the Menominee culture, but both genders wore mantles in cooler weather. The Menominee Indians also woredeerskin moccasins on their feet. Later, Menominee people adapted European costume such as cloth blouses and jackets, decorating them with fancy beadwork and embroidery. Here some photographs and links aboutNative American regalia in general.

The Menominee Indians didn't wear afeathered headdress like the Sioux. Traditionally, the Menominees wore fur caps or peaked hoods, though important Menominee men sometimes wore a splayed feather headdress. Menominee women wore their hair long, but men, especially warriors, often wore aMohawk hairstyle or shaved their heads except for ascalplock (one long lock of hair on top of their heads). Here is a website withIndian hairstyle pictures. Menominee men and women both painted their faces with bright colors for special occasions. They used different patterns for war paint, religious ceremonies, and festive decoration.

Today, some Menominee people still wear moccasins or a beaded shirt, but they wear modern clothes like jeans instead of breechcloths... and they only wear feathers or roaches in their hair on special occasions like a dance.

Yes--the Menominee Indian tribe used bothbirchbark canoes (made of birch bark stretched over a wooden frame) and dugout canoes (made from hollowed-out logs). Here's a website about the different types ofNative American Indian boats. Canoeing is still popular within the Menominee nation, though few people handcraft their own canoe anymore. Over land, the Menominees used dogs as pack animals. (There were no horses in North America until colonists brought them over from Europe.) The Menominees also used sleds and snowshoes to help them travel in the winter. Today, of course, Menominee people also use cars... and non-native people also use canoes.

What was Menominee Indian food like in the days before supermarkets?
The most important Menominee food was wild rice, which women harvested from their canoes. Menominee men hunted deer and fished for sturgeon and other fish. Menominee Indians also raised squash and beans, gathered nuts and berries, and tapped trees for maple syrup like Wisconsinites do today. Here is a website with more information abouttraditional Native American Indian food.

Menominee hunters and warriors used bows and arrows, clubs, and tomahawk axes. Menominee fishermen used spears and nets. Here is a website with pictures and information aboutAmerican Indian tomahawks and other traditional weapons.

Menominee artists are known for theirquilling,traditional pottery, andfloral beadwork. Like other eastern American Indians, Menominees also craftedwampum out of white and purple shell beads. Wampum beads were traded as a kind of currency, but they were more culturally important as an art material. Thedesigns and pictures on wampum belts often told a story or represented a person's family.

What other Native Americans did the Menominee tribe interact with?

The Menominee Indians belonged to a trading network that stretched from the Great Lakes region into the plains. The Menominee liked to trade wild rice for corn, tobacco, and buffalo hides. The closest allies of the Menominee tribe were theWhat about Menominee religion?
Spirituality and religion were important parts of Menominee life, and some people continue to practice traditional beliefs today. It is respectful to avoid imitating religious rituals for school projects since some Menominee people care about them deeply. You can read and learn about them, however. You can visit this site to learn more aboutChippewa andWinnebago tribes. The Menominees were often at war with theSac and Fox tribes.
Can you recommend a good book for me to read?
You may enjoy
how the porcupine got his quills. Here's a website where you can read more aboutMenominee mythology.

How do I cite your website in my bibliography?
You will need to ask your teacher for the format he or she wants you to use. The authors' names are Laura Redish and Orrin Lewis and the title of our site is Native Languages of the Americas. We are a nonprofit educational organization working to preserve and protect Native American languages and culture. You can learn more about our organization Menominee Indian mythology or this site about thereligion of Native Americans in general.

Speaking Out, which is an inspirational book by a Menominee Indian author about the Native American experience. If you want to know more about Menominee culture and history, two interesting sources are Indian Nations: The Menominee (for younger kids) andMenominee (for older kids). You can also browse through our recommendations of books byNative American writers. Disclaimer: we are an Amazon affiliate and our website earns a commission if you buy a book through one of these links. Most of them can also be found in a public library, though!

here. Our website was first created in 1998 and last updated in 2020.

Thanks for your interest in the Menominee Indian people and their language!

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Menominee Indian Tribe
An overview of the Menominis, their language and history.

Menominee Language Resources
Menominee language samples, articles, and indexed links.

Menominee Culture and History Directory
Related links about the Menominee tribe past and present.

Menominee Word List
Menominee Indian vocabulary lists.

Return to Native Americans for Kids
Return to our menu of Native American Indian culture

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Would you like to help support our organization's work with the Menominee Indian language?

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Facts for Kids: Menominee Indians (Menominees)

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Information about the Menominee Indians for students and teachers. Culture, history, and daily life of the Menominee Indian tribe.

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Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin - Wisconsin First Nations

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Brief History The Menominee Indian Tribe’s culture, history, and residency in Wisconsin, and parts of Michigan and Illinois, dates back 10,000 years. In the 1800s, the Menominee occupied a land [more]

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Menominee, also spelled Menomini, Algonquian-speaking North American Indians who, when first encountered by the missionary-voyageur Jean Nicolet in 1639, lived along the Menominee River, now the eastern portion of the boundary between Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

The traditional Menominee economy was based, in order of importance, on gathering wild rice and other wild plants; cultivating corn (maize), squash, beans, and tobacco; and fishing and hunting. Before colonization the people lived in permanent villages of dome-shaped houses. Menominee people reckoned kinship through clan membership, and individuals from the same clan were not allowed to marry. The clans, in turn, belonged to one of two major divisions, or moieties, within the tribe. After the advent of the fur trade the Menominee spent increasing amounts of time dispersed in mobile bands over a wide territory, particularly for winter hunts.

In 19th-century treaties the Menominee ceded land to the U.S. government yet retained the permanent right to use their former territory for hunting, fishing, and other subsistence activities. In 1852 some 2,000 members of the tribe were removed to a reservation on the upper Wolf and Oconto rivers in Wisconsin. Beginning in 1872, a tribally owned lumber mill operated under government supervision, providing the community with jobs and income. In the early 21st century the tribe remained heavily invested in the mill and was an innovator in the sustainable production of lumber.

In the mid-20th century the U.S. government instituted a movement known as "termination," in which tribes lost federal recognition and the benefits and protections associated with that status. The Menominee reservation was terminated in 1961. The former reservation lands became a county within the state of Wisconsin, and a corporation, Menominee Enterprises, Inc., was created to hold and administer tribal assets. Soon after termination many tribal members became concerned about the loss of services and self-determination that had been ensured by reservation status. Issues of particular concern included the elimination of subsidized health care, which left the community with no hospital and no resident physician, and the sale of former reservation lands to non-Indians. The Menominee began agitating for the restoration of federal status, which was granted by the U.S. Congress in December 1973.

Population estimates indicated more than 9,500 individuals of Menominee descent in the early 21st century.

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Menominee, Algonquian-speaking North American Indians who lived along the Menominee River in what is now the boundary between Wisconsin and Michigan.

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Early Life in Wisconsin

The Menominee, an Algonkian-speaking people, are the only present-day tribe in Wisconsin whose origin story indicates they have always lived in Wisconsin. The Menominee refer to themselves as Mamaceqtaw (pronounced ma-ma-chay-tau), meaning "the people." Other Indians called them Menominee (also spelled Menomini), derived from manomin -- an Algonkian word for wild rice -- because it is a major food source for the tribe. The Menominee lived around Green Bay when the French explorer Jean Nicolet arrived there in 1634. The French called the Menominee Folles Avoines -- "the wild oats people." Prior to the coming of the French, the Menominee settled in village sites at the mouth of the Menominee River. Their main village, called Menekaunee, was located near present-day Marinette, Wisconsin.

After Nicolet's visit, Indian tribes from southern Michigan fled to Wisconsin because of the encroachment of Iroquois tribes from New York. The Iroquois sought to monopolize rich Midwestern fur-bearing lands, and sent war parties as far west as the Mississippi. The Menominee did not have direct contact with the Iroquois but, along with other refugee tribes, they suffered starvation, disease, and intertribal warfare, thus reducing their population.

In 1667, the French began to trade for furs with the Menominee. This encouraged the Menominee to abandon their large permanent villages and instead live in bands that spent spring and summer in semi-permanent villages of several hundred people. By the early 1800s, Menominee villages existed along the Fox, Wolf, and Oconto Rivers, Lake Winnebago, Green Bay, and even as far west as the Wisconsin River. In the winter months, the Menominee dispersed into small winter hunting camps to gather furs to trade for guns, knives, cloth, metal cooking utensils, and other European goods. Besides traders, the French also sent Jesuit missionaries among the Menominee. In 1669, the Jesuits established the mission of St. François Xavier at Green Bay and two years later moved it to nearby DePere.

Wars of the Midwest

In the early 1700s, the Fox (or Mesquaki) Indians rose up against French authority in Wisconsin. The Menominee sided with the French against the Fox during what are known as the Fox Wars. Jesuit missionaries left the area in 1728, but French soldiers and traders remained in Wisconsin throughout the 1700s. The Menominees retained strong ties to the French and fought alongside them during the French and Indian War. Having lost the war, the French gave up Canada and the Midwest to Great Britain in 1763. Many Great Lakes tribes did not want the British to replace the French as the colonial overlords. The Ottawa chief Pontiac at Detroit led a general uprising against the British in 1763, and sent envoys to the Menominee to ask them to join him. The Menominee refused and became allies of the British.

The Menominee, like most tribes in Wisconsin, fought alongside the British during the American Revolution. The United States won the war and gained possession of the Midwest, including Wisconsin. Despite this, the Menominee maintained strong ties to British and French traders in Canada. When Tenskwatawa (the Shawnee Prophet) began preaching his doctrine of resistance to American encroachment in 1805, some Menominee traveled to Ohio to hear his teachings. His brother, Tecumseh, assembled a pan-Indian military force to fight the Americans. Tomah, one of the most influential Menominee chiefs, refused to support Tecumseh, but did not stop other Menominee from joining Tecumseh and the British against the United States during the War of 1812. This was the final war for control of the Midwest, and the United States gained undisputed sovereignty over the region.

Treaties

The Menominee were initially reluctant to make peace with the United States, but finally did so in 1817. Soon afterward, the Menominee became embroiled in a disagreement with the Oneida, Stockbridge-Munsee, and Brothertown Indians. These three tribes emigrated from New York to escape settler encroachment. With the federal government's sanction, the New York tribes negotiated two treaties with the Menominee and Ho-Chunk for lands in Wisconsin. The first, in 1821, ceded a small tract along the Fox River, but the second in 1822 ceded over 6.7 million acres.

The Menominee and Ho-Chunk later argued these agreements were invalid because they had not been informed of all of the treaties' provisions. Between 1831 and 1832, the federal government negotiated three new treaties, which ceded about 3.5 million acres of Menominee land. While some of this land went to the three New York tribes, the United States retained a significant portion.

In two subsequent treaties, the 1836 Treaty of the Cedars and the 1848 Treaty of Lake Poygan, the Menominee sold their remaining lands to the United States. In exchange, the government offered them about 600,000 acres along the Crow Wing River in Minnesota. Oshkosh, the Grand Chief of the Menominees, was to lead his tribe there, but he and other tribal leaders asserted they had signed the 1848 Treaty under pressure. In 1852, the President allowed the Menominee to stay on a temporary reservation on the Wolf River in northeastern Wisconsin. An 1854 treaty made this quarter-million acre reservation permanent, and in 1856, about 46,000 acres in the reservation's southwest corner were granted to the Stockbridge-Munsee.

Government Policies

The reservation era brought about new challenges and disruptions. In the 1860s, epidemics of smallpox, dysentery, and other diseases introduced from Europe killed hundreds of Menominee. White-owned logging companies, known as the "Pine Ring," coveted rich reservation timber. The Pine Ring received federal permission to harvest dead and downed trees on the reservation, but illegally cut standing timber as well. By 1872, the Menominee gained temporary federal permission to harvest and sell their own timber. This soon became a success, but the Pine Ring continued their efforts to purchase tribal timber lands. To protect Menominee forests, Congress made a permanent provision in 1890 for the Menominee to harvest their timber under government supervision. Waste, inefficiency, and fraud marred the effort and the Menominee lost substantial revenues. In 1951, the tribe received $8.5 million from the federal government as compensation for these losses.

Within three years of this decision, the Menominee became one of the first tribes in the United States to undergo a new federal program called Termination, signed by President Dwight Eisenhower in June of 1954. This policy terminated the United States jurisdiction over the Menominee Tribe and ended their tribal sovereignty. The Menominee underwent Termination early because the federal government felt the tribe possessed the economic resources necessary to succeed without governmental supervision. On April 30, 1961, the reservation ceased to exist and became Menominee County. All tribal property and assets were held by Menominee Enterprises, Incorporated.

All federal services ended with the assumption that the tribe could service itself. The reservation hospital at Keshena closed due to the lack of federal funds. Only one other tribe, the Klamath in Oregon, had been terminated by Congress, and the problems that they and the Menominee faced convinced other tribes to resist the government's policy. Termination of the Menominee Tribe led to a drastic decline in tribal employment, increased poverty, and brought about devastating reductions in basic services and health care.

The Menominee's greatest fear was that without federal protection, their tribal lands would pass into the hands of non-Indians. In 1970, a few Menominee banded together and created the Determination of Rights and Unity for Menominee Shareholders (DRUMS) group, which sought to end termination and restore the Menominee status as a federally recognized tribe. Under the direction of Ada Deer, a Menominee woman, DRUMS pushed for the restoration of the Menominee federal status. On December 22, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon signed the Menominee Restoration Bill into law. In April 1975, the lands of Menominee County reverted back to reservation status, and in 1976, the Menominee approved their new tribal constitution. The new tribal legislature took over governance of the tribe in 1979.

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Menominee History | Milwaukee Public Museum

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The Menominee, an Algonkian-speaking people, are the only present-day tribe in Wisconsin whose origin story indicates they have always lived in Wisconsin.

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Oneota
1,000 to 350 years ago

Before Europeans arrived in Wisconsin, the Oneota people built large farming settlements here. The Oneota may have evolved from the local Woodland people or they may have been a new people moving into our area from the south. Among their distinct artifacts is pottery made with crushed shell from local mollusks. They were very successful in this region.

The Oneota established Wisconsin's first large farming communities along rivers and lakes including Lakes Winnebago, Butte des Morts, Winneconne and Poygan. They had many distinct artifacts like shell tempered pottery, shell artifacts, disc pipes and scapula bone hoes. The Oneota eventually spread throughout much of the Midwest and are ancestral to the Ho-Chunk and Menominee as well as other tribes.
Click Here to Start the Exhibit.

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Oneota 1,000 to 350 years ago Before Europeans arrived in Wisconsin, the Oneota people built large farming settlements here. The Oneota may have evolved from the local Woodland people or they may have been a new people moving into our area from the south.

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Native American art - Midwest, Plains, Culture

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Native American art - Midwest, Plains, Culture: The existence of rich textile art in the prehistoric Middle West is known, but its range and development are lost in hundreds of years of history from which few examples survive. Examples of basketry and wood are similarly rare. Enough of these perisha…

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Hunters, Gatherers, Fishers and Farmers
1000 to 1650 A.D.

The Oneota and Mississippian traditions are the first full scale farmers in Wisconsin, over 500 years before the arrival of the first Europeans in the state! What caused the southern Woodland people to adapt to this new lifeway? For the answer to that question we need to look outside Wisconsin to southern Illinois. The center of Mississippian tradition was a site called Cahokia across the Mississippi River from the current city of St. Louis, Missouri. Mississippian people in southern Illinois lived in large planned permanent towns with ceremonial centers. Large urban populations were supported by intensive farming of corn, beans and squash.

Mississippian people had ahierarchical societywith political and religious structures.Platform moundswere used for ceremonies or possibly high ranking individuals lived there. These Mississippian ideas were dispersed from the center of Mississippian culture in Cahokia to other areas including Wisconsin. Two major Mississippian sites in Wisconsin are Aztalan, located in the center of the state, and a site near Trempealeau, but other Mississippian campsites or villages are also located in Grant and Vernon counties.

Another tradition in the southern part of Wisconsin was the Oneota. In some ways the Oneota culture was much like the Mississippian culture found in Illinois. Oneota is considered the local version of Mississippian. Both traditions had large villages involved in farming. Archaeologists do notice differences in some of the artifacts that people left behind. The pottery of the Oneota is different from that made by the Mississippians. Archaeologists also do not find as many of the exotic goods that are found at Mississippian sites. This causes archaeologists to think that the Oneota weren't involved as extensively in the long range trading that the Mississippian people were. These things tell archaeologists that the Oneota and Mississippian people did things a little differently.

Archaeologists have differing views on where the Oneota came from. Some archaeologists think that new people who came into Wisconsin brought the new Oneota ways. Other archaeologists think that the Oneota tradition was adapted from the Mississippian tradition. Archaeologists will have to continue working to find the answers to where the Oneota tradition came from or how it developed.

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Mississippian & Oneota Traditions Introduction

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The Oneota and Mississippian traditions are the first full scale farmers in Wisconsin, over 500 years before the arrival of the first Europeans in the state! What caused the southern Woodland people to adapt to this new lifeway? For the answer to that question we need to look outside Wisconsin to southern Illinois.

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Watch La Crosse: Oneota on PBS Wisconsin

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The ancient Oneota culture formed a densely populated area in La Crosse.

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Mississippian American Indians

Mississippian people were Native Americans that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1600.

They are known for building large, earthen platform mounds in their settlements. The largest was Cahokia in present-day southern Illinois.

Mississippian culture is usually divided into three chronological eras: Early, Middle, and Late.

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The Mississippian American Indian Culture

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Facts about the Mississippian Native American groups of North America, including a timeline of their eras.

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Learning Objective

Describe the economies of Mississippian cultures

Key Points

Mississippian cultures lived in the Mississippi valley, Ohio, Oklahoma, and surrounding areas.

The "three sisters"-corn, squash, and beans-were the three most important crops.

Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto brought diseases and cultural changes that eventually contributed to the decline of many Mississippian cultures.

Terms

three sisters

Corn, squash, and beans. The three most important crops for Mississippian cultures.

mounds

Formations made of earth that were used as foundations for Mississippian culture structures.

The Mississippian Period lasted from approximately 800 to 1540 CE. It's called "Mississippian" because it began in the middle Mississippi River valley, between St. Louis and Vicksburg. However, there were other Mississippians as the culture spread across modern-day US. There were large Mississippian centers in Missouri, Ohio, and Oklahoma.

A number of cultural traits are recognized as being characteristic of the Mississippians. Although not all Mississippian peoples practiced all of the following activities, they were distinct from their ancestors in adoption of some or all of the following traits:

The construction of large, truncated earthwork pyramid mounds, or platform mounds. Such mounds were usually square, rectangular, or occasionally circular. Structures (domestic houses, temples, burial buildings, or other) were usually constructed atop such mounds.

Maize-based agriculture. In most places, the development of Mississippian culture coincided with adoption of comparatively large-scale, intensive maize agriculture, which supported larger populations and craft specialization.

The adoption and use of riverine (or more rarely marine) shells as tempering agents in their shell tempered pottery.

Widespread trade networks extending as far west as the Rockies, north to the Great Lakes, south to the Gulf of Mexico, and east to the Atlantic Ocean.

The development of the chiefdom or complex chiefdom level of social complexity.

A centralization of control of combined political and religious power in the hands of few or one.

The beginnings of a settlement hierarchy, in which one major center (with mounds) has clear influence or control over a number of lesser communities, which may or may not possess a smaller number of mounds.

The adoption of the paraphernalia of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC), also called the Southern Cult. This is the belief system of the Mississippians as we know it. SECC items are found in Mississippian-culture sites from Wisconsin to the Gulf Coast, and from Florida to Arkansas and Oklahoma. The SECC was frequently tied in to ritual game-playing.

Although hunting and gathering plants for food was still important, the Mississippians were mainly farmers. They grew corn, beans, and squash, called the "three sisters" by historic Southeastern Indians. The "sisters" provided a stable and balanced diet, making a larger population possible. Thousands of people lived in some larger towns and cities.

A typical Mississipian town was built near a river or creek. It covered about ten acres of ground, and was surrounded by a palisade, a fence made of wooden poles placed upright in the ground. A typical Mississippian house was rectangular, about 12 feet long and 10 feet wide. The walls of a house were built by placing wooden poles upright in a trench in the ground. The poles were then covered with a woven cane matting. The cane matting was then covered with plaster made from mud. This plastered cane matting is called "wattle and daub". The roof of the house was made from a steep "A" shaped framework of wooden poles covered with grass woven into a tight thatch.

Mississippian cultures, like many before them, built mounds. Though other cultures may have used mounds for different purposes, Mississippian cultures typically built structures on top of them. The type of structures constructed ran the gamut: temples, houses, and burial buildings.

Mississippian artists produced unique art works. They engraved shell pendants with animal and human figures, and carved ceremonial objects out of flint. They sculpted human figures and other objects in stone. Potters molded their clay into many shapes, sometimes decorating them with painted designs.

The Nashville area was a major population center during this period. Thousands of Mississippian-era graves have been found in the city, and thousands more may exist in the surrounding area. There were once many temple and burial mounds in Nashville, especially along the Cumberland River.

Decline of the Mississippians

Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer who, from 1539-43, lived with and spoke to many Mississippian cultures. After his contact, their cultures were relatively unaffected directly by Europeans, though they were indirectly. Since the natives lacked immunity to new infectious diseases, such as measles and smallpox, epidemics caused so many fatalities that they undermined the social order of many chiefdoms. Some groups adopted European horses and changed to nomadism. Political structures collapsed in many places.By the time more documentary accounts were being written, the Mississippian way of life had changed irrevocably. Some groups maintained an oral tradition link to their mound-building past, such as the late 19th-century Cherokee. Other Native American groups, having migrated many hundreds of miles and lost their elders to diseases, did not know their ancestors had built the mounds dotting the landscape. This contributed to the myth of the Mound Builders as a people distinct from Native Americans.

Mississippian peoples were almost certainly ancestral to the majority of the American Indian nations living in this region in the historic era. The historic and modern day American Indian nations believed to have descended from the overarching Mississippian Culture include: the Alabama, Apalachee, Caddo, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, Guale, Hitchiti, Houma, Kansa, Missouria, Mobilian, Natchez, Osage, Quapaw, Seminole, Tunica-Biloxi, Yamasee, and Yuchi.

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Describe the economies of Mississippian cultures Mississippian cultures lived in the Mississippi valley, Ohio, Oklahoma, and surrounding areas. The "three sisters"-corn, squash, and beans-were the three most important crops. Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto brought diseases and cultural changes that eventually contributed to the decline of many Mississippian cultures.

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Mississippian people used tools similar to those used in the past to hunt and gather the many plant and animal resources around them. These included deer, elk, bison, fish, small mammals, and many wild plants such as fruits, berries, and nuts.

A big change for Mississippian people was beginning to farm crops of corn. The introduction of farming provided a more stable food source than just hunting and gathering. In good years, farming provided surplus food that could be stored for lean years. Woodland peoples had grown some corn but did not rely on it as did the Mississippians.

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Mississippian people used tools similar to those used in the past to hunt and gather the many plant and animal resources around them. These included deer, elk, bison, fish, small mammals, and many wild plants such as fruits, berries, and nuts. A big change for Mississippian people was beginning to farm crops of corn.

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Mississippian Earth Lodge
NPS

Not all mounds served as platforms. The Funeral Mound, as its name suggests, contains more than 100 burials. Some were complex log tombs, a few contained elaborate copper and shell ornaments suggesting high status, but most were simple pits with no accompanying artifacts. The Mississippians built more than just mounds. Excavations uncovered several earth lodges, the most elaborate of which has been reconstructed. The 1,000-year old floor contains a bench with 47 molded seats and a bird-shaped platform with three additional seats. The Earth lodge would have been used by important members of society to either discuss politics or perform ceremonies, or perhaps a combination of both.

The extensive mound construction suggests that the Mississippians had a complex social structure. A strong leader would be necessary in order to carry out the planning and execution of building projects. The prominence of the temple mound also implies a strong religious component to the society. Some archaeologists speculate that Mississippian society was organized into "chiefdoms", which consisted of several towns. Each town had a chief, perhaps subservient to a more powerful Priest-Chief.

The people of the Macon Plateau town were sedentary farmers. They carried out extensive cultivation using tools of wood, bone and stone. Major crops included squash, pumpkins, sunflowers, and tobacco, but predominantly corn and beans. They stored excess food in baskets and pottery, and the surplus allowed them to devote time to other aspects of life.

The Mississippians hunted to supplement their diet, concentrating on small game such as raccoon, turkey, rabbit, beaver, squirrel, turtles, and deer. No part of the animal would be wasted - skins were tanned to make clothing, bone became jewelry, fishhooks, and projectile points. Hunters used several techniques to find game, but the bow and arrow was essential for a successful hunt.

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Mississippian Culture - Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)

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Not all mounds served as platforms. The Funeral Mound, as its name suggests, contains more than 100 burials. Some were complex log tombs, a few contained elaborate copper and shell ornaments suggesting high status, but most were simple pits with no accompanying artifacts. The Mississippians built more than just mounds.

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Mississippian culture, the last major prehistoric cultural development in North America, lasting from about 700 ce to the time of the arrival of the first European explorers. It spread over a great area of the Southeast and the mid-continent, in the river valleys of what are now the states of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, with scattered extensions northward into Wisconsin and Minnesota and westward into the Great Plains. The culture was based on intensive cultivation of corn (maize), beans, squash, and other crops, which resulted in large concentrations of population in towns along riverine bottomlands. Politically and culturally each large town or village dominated a satellite of lesser villages; government was in the hands of priest-rulers. Thus the complexes might be called theocratic village-states. Moreover, warfare, which was apparently frequent, produced larger alliances and even confederacies.

A central ceremonial plaza provided the nucleus of a Mississippian town, and each settlement had one or more pyramidal or oval earth mounds, surmounted by a temple or chief's residence, grouped around the plaza. This settlement pattern was typical of most of Middle America (central and southern Mexico and Guatemala) since as early as 850 bce, but it had not diffused into North America until the advent of the Mississippian culture. The scale of public works in the Mississippian culture can be estimated from the largest of the earthworks, Monks Mound, in the Cahokia Mounds near Collinsville, Illinois, which is approximately 1,000 feet (300 metres) long, 700 feet (200 metres) wide, and 100 feet (30 metres) high. The magnitude of such public works and the distribution of temples suggest a dominant religious cult and a cadre of priest-rulers who could command the services of a large, stable, and docile population, as well as several artist-craftsman guilds.

Craftwork was executed in copper, shell, stone, wood, and clay and in such forms as elaborate headdresses, ritual weapons, sculptured tobacco pipes, effigy pottery, effigies, and masks of wood or copper-jacketed wood. The elaborate designs included feathered serpents, winged warriors, swastikas, spiders, human faces with weeping or falcon eyes, as well as human figures and many geometric motifs. These elements were delicately engraved, embossed, carved, and molded.

The Mississippian culture had begun to decline by the time European explorers first penetrated the Southeast and described the customs of the people living there. The Natchez are the best-known of the Mississippian cultures to have survived French and Spanish colonization; they numbered about 500 members in the early 21st century.

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Mississippian culture | History, Facts, & Religion

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Mississippian culture, the last major prehistoric cultural development in North America, lasting from about 700 CE to the arrival of the first Europeans. It spread over a great area of the Southeast and the mid-continent, as far south and east as Georgia, as far north as Minnesota, and as far west as the Great Plains.

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The Eastern Woodlands Indians were native American tribes that settled in the region extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Mississippi River in the west and from Canada in the north to the Gulf of Mexico in the south. (The Woodlands Indians are sometimes divided further into the Northeastern Indians and the Southeastern Indians.) A majority of Eastern Woodlands tribes spoke Iroquoian or Algonquian. The Iroquois speakers included the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, and Huron. The Iroquoian tribes were primarily deer hunters but they also grew corn, squash, and beans, they gathered nuts and berries, and they fished. The Algonquian speakers included the Abenaki, Chippewa (or Ojibwa), Delaware, Mohegans (or Mohicans), and Pequot. The Algonquian tribes also cultivated corn, beans, and squash. While the northerly tribes relied more heavily on hunting, the tribes that settled in the fertile region of the Ohio River Valley and southward through the Mississippi Delta (the Cherokee, Choctaw, Natchez, and Seminole) developed a farming and trading economy. These groups were also Mound Builders they erected huge earthworks as burial grounds.

The Eastern Woodlands Indians traveled on foot and in birch-bark canoes. In the north, they wore deerskin clothing and they painted their faces and bodies. In the southern region, they wore little clothing and they often tattooed their bodies. The Eastern Woodlands Indians of the north lived predominately in dome-shaped wigwams (arched shelters made of a framework of poles and covered with bark, rush mats, or hides) and in long houses (multi-family lodges having pole frames and covered with elm shingles). The tribes in the south lived in wattle and daub houses (wooden framed houses covered with reed mats and plaster). The Eastern Woodlands Indians built walls and fences around villages for protection. Warfare sometimes broke out among the tribes. The Indians used bows and arrows as well as clubs to defend themselves and their lands.

The Eastern Woodlands tribes that lived along the Atlantic Coast were the first native Americans that had contact with Europeans. Friendships were made; alliances forged; land deals struck; and treaties signed. But as settlers in increasing numbers encroached on tribal lands, conflicts arose. These conflicts were between white settlers and the Indians and between Indians and other Indians, as native inhabitants took sides in the conflicts. The Huron and some Algonquian groups allied themselves with the French. The fierce Iroquois League (made up of the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca tribes) sided with the British. When the American colonies waged a battle for freedom from Great Britain, the American Revolution (177583) divided the tribes of the Iroquois League. All but the Oneida allied themselves with the British. In the 1800s many Eastern Woodlands tribes were forced off their native lands by the U.S. government and were settled in Oklahoma and other western states. The 183839 migration of the Cherokee Nation is known as the Trail of Tears because not only did the Indians reluctantly leave their homeland, but many died along the way.

See also: Choctaw, Corn, Iroquois, Trail of Tears

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eastern woodlands indians
the eastern woodlands indians were native american tribes that settled in the region extending from the atlantic ocean in the east to the mississippi river in the west and from canada in the north to the

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EASTERN WOODLANDS INDIANS The Eastern Woodlands Indians were native American tribes that settled in the region extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Mississippi River in the west and from Canada in the north to the

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The history of the Woodlands-the United States and southern Canada east of the Mississippi River and along the shores of the Great Lakes-spans a remarkable depth of time. The oldest objects shown here-two re-fluted Clovis points found in upstate New York-date to 11,000 BC and are among the earliest evidence of Paleoindian culture to be seen in any museum collection.

The long-distance trade that occurred among peoples in the eastern Woodlands 6,000 to 1,000 years ago is among the most striking examples of regional interchange in all of Native North America. Bannerstones-weights tied to atlatls (spear-throwers) to make it possible to throw spears farther-are often found great distances from where their stone was quarried. Their widespread use indicates that Native peoples bridged vast distances from a remarkably early date.

Between AD 900 and 1600, complex chiefdoms that built monumental architecture-large platform mounds and open plazas-emerged in the South. Chiefdoms' large population centers were supported by corn agriculture. Their societies, termed Mississippian, were highly stratified. In addition to controlling long-distance trade in ritual objects and materials as diverse as marine shell, wood, copper, pottery, and stone, ceremonial leaders controlled the exchange of knowledge beyond, as well as within, the Southeast. The shared symbolism on art found at Mississippian and other ancient sites speaks to the broad dissemination of knowledge throughout the Woodlands and farther west.

George Heye's Legacy: The Woodlands

Several of the pieces shown here were assembled by Clarence Bloomfield Moore, an amateur archeologist who excavated ancient Native sites in the Southeast from 1891 to 1918. When the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences sent Moore's 35,000-piece collection to storage, Heye offered cash to bring the assemblage to New York and made an impassioned appeal. "I will do anything in the world to help along the transaction," he told Moore. "I know positively this is the place for your magnificent collection, where it will be taken care of properly, will be of use to science, will not be neglected, and will be personally loved."

When Heye's people arrived to collect the objects, they encountered Harriet Wardle, the academy's curator for archeology. Irate that Heye had arranged to spirit the collection to New York without her knowledge, Wardle resigned immediately. Heye considered the acquisition a great personal coup, but Wardle never forgave him or his associates. As one of Heye's successors recalled, Wardle "never met a member of the Heye Foundation without a glitter in her eye and a tightening of her lips." Click here to read more...

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Woodlands | Infinity of Nations: Art and History in the Collections of the National Museum of the American Indian - George Gustav Heye Center, New York

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Infinity of Nations: Art and History in the Collections of the National Museum of the American Indian is a spectacular, permanent exhibition of some 700 works of Native art from throughout North, Central, and South America. This exhibition will demonstrate the breadth of the National Museum of the American Indian's renowned collection and highlight the historic importance of many of these iconic objects.

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Pottery - Pre-European People | UW-La Crosse

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Another new technology for Wisconsin’s Woodland people was pottery. Woodland people made their pots from local clays. They learned that if they added temper, small ground up rocks or sand, to their clay it would help prevent shrinkage and cracking during drying and firing.

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The food quest of the Woodland Indians was based primarily on hunting, fishing, and gathering wild crops.

They practiced some agriculture, but it was definitely of secondary importance and consisted mostly of the Indian staples -- corn, beans, and squash. Wresting a living from the forest and prairie demanded a great deal of time and effort. It necessitated considerable mobility, with outlying camps and special purpose gathering and processing stations. Native people operated out of fairly permanent villages and within a radius of perhaps a hundred miles, but their seasonal cycle kept them on the move much of the time as they cycled between different harvesting areas and processing points.

Since different foods were available seasonally, a ceremony -- the Offering of the First Fruits or Game -- was observed with the first preparation of each seasonal food. When the first sugar of the year was cooked, the people always offered a small amount to the Great Spirit, or Manido. The manidog (spirits) were asked to insure good health, long life, and the safety of everyone at the feast. Small portions of the first fruits were also carried to the graves as offerings to those who had passed on.

Diverse Food Sources

The Woodland Indians were extremely knowledgeable concerning the properties and uses of trees and other plants, and they exploited that knowledge to the fullest. Foods such as wild rice, nuts, berries, and fruits were an essential part of their diet. The Woodland area had an abundance of wild food, including cranberries, gooseberries, juneberries, blueberries, black and red raspberries, grapes, cherries, and chokecherries. Nuts were also important, including acorns from the pin oak and the white oak, hickory nuts, hazelnuts, beechnuts, and butternuts. A variety of vegetables were also gathered and eaten, including wild potatoes, wild onions, milkweed, and the root of the yellow water lily. A great variety of medicines were concocted from plants, some of them being used today in our own medicines.

The forests also provided every kind of animal life. The food secured by hunting and trapping formed a considerable part of Woodland diet. Deer and moose were hunted, as were several kinds of fox-the red, the black, and the silver gray. Timber wolves, a large prairie wolf, and a smaller prairie wolf were also hunted. The bear was not killed without a special ceremony and apology, for this animal was greatly revered by the Woodland Indians. In addition to those animals which were regularly eaten, smaller animals were valued for their furs, including otter, beaver, mink, marten, muskrat, raccoon, wolverine, lynx, and rabbit. Partridges, turkeys, geese, ducks and other birds were trapped or hunted.

Reliance on Fishing

To the Woodland Indians, fishing was a year-round occupation. With plenty of streams and lakes to draw from, they depended on fish for a great part of their diet. A wide variety of methods were used by nearly all the Woodland groups including the use of fishhooks, nets, spears, traps, lures, bait, and a line for trolling. Important fish included trout and other small fish, walleye, sturgeon, and others. Turtles of various kinds were also eaten.

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The food quest of the Woodland Indians was based primarily on hunting, fishing, and gathering wild crops. They practiced some agriculture, but it was definitely of secondary importance and consisted mostly of the Indian staples -- corn, beans, and squash. Wresting a living from the forest and prairie demanded a great deal of time and effort.

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Woodland Potters & Gardeners 2,500 to 350 Years Ago

A great lifestyle transition occurred about 2,500 years ago with the introduction of agriculture, pottery making and mound building. These practices, probably originating from Mexico, slowly replaced the subsistence way of life. Scattered mounds along the Little Eau Pleine River prove that Woodland Indians lived here.

Corn, beans, squash and gourds were grown in summer villages, usually near streams and lakes that offered travel by canoe and fishing with gill nets.

Hunting and gathering supplemented their diet, especially the harvest of wild rice, nuts and berries.

The bow and arrow was a major innovation that improved accuracy from the earlier atlatl.

Recent archeological digs in mounds on the Little Eau Pleine have uncovered small stone arrowheads and pottery sherds from these woodland people.

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George W Mead and McMillan Marsh Wildlife Areas

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Scattered mounds along the Little Eau Pleine River prove that Woodland Indians lived here about 2,500 years ago with the introduction of agriculture, pottery making and mound building.

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The Mississippian Period began about 1,000 years ago. It's called "Mississippian" because it began in the middle Mississippi River valley, between St. Louis and Vicksburg. This culture spread over most of the Southeast. There were also large Mississippian centers in Missouri, Ohio, and Oklahoma.

Although hunting and gathering plants for food was still important, the Mississippians were mainly farmers. They grew corn, beans, and squash, called the "three sisters" by historic Southeastern Indians. The "sisters" provided a stable and balanced diet, making a larger population possible. Thousands of people lived in some larger towns and cities.

A typical Mississipian town was built near a river or creek. It covered about ten acres of ground, and was surrounded by a palisade, a fence made of wooden poles placed upright in the ground. A typical Mississippian house was rectangular, about 12 feet long and 10 feet wide. The walls of a house were built by placing wooden poles upright in a trench in the ground. The poles were then covered with a woven cane matting. The cane matting was then covered with plaster made from mud. This plastered cane matting is called "wattle and daub". The roof of the house was made from a steep "A" shaped framework of wooden poles covered with grass woven into a tight thatch.

Platform Mound At The Mound Bottom Site Near Nashville

Mississippian Indians built pyramid-shaped platform mounds out of earth. They conducted their political and religious affairs on top of these mounds. Some platform mounds were 100 feet high and contained millions of cubic feet of earth. Conical burial mounds were still built, similar to those of the Woodland Period.

Mississippian artists produced unique art works. They engraved shell pendants called "gorgets" with animal and human figures, and carved ceremonial objects out of flint. They sculpted human figures and other objects in stone. Potters molded their clay into many shapes, sometimes decorating them with painted designs.

The Nashville area was a major population center during this period. Thousands of Mississippian-era graves have been found in the city, and thousands more may exist in the surrounding area. There were once many temple and burial mounds in Nashville, especially along the Cumberland River. One temple mound was still standing as late as the 1980's. Unfortunately, the mounds in the city have all been destroyed, but there are a few left in the surrounding counties.

Stone Figure-Wilson County

Pottery Jar-Davidson County

The Mississippian People were no longer living in the Nashville area when the first white explorers passed through. Many archaeologists believe the area experienced a sharp population decline around 1450 A.D.. Why this happened is a mystery. A change in climate may have affected their crops, or neighboring cities may have started fighting over land in the fertile river bottoms. An epidemic of some illness may have broken out, spread from town to town on the trade networks. There may have been a combination of several reasons. No one knows for sure.

Exactly where the people went when they left the cities isn't known, so it's hard to say who the descendants of Nashville's Mississippian People are. No direct evidence linking them to any historically known Indian nation has been found. Some archaeologists think they may have migrated to east Tennessee. The population there seems to have increased just when the population in the Nashville area declined. But this is just an educated guess - no one knows for sure where Nashville's Mississippian People went.

However, it is fairly certain that most Southeastern Indian nations are the descendants of Mississippian people in general. Some symbols found in Mississippian art seem to show up in the oral traditions of some Southeastern Indians. The Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek and other nations built platform mounds for their council houses. And they still regard mounds found in their ancestral territory as sacred places.

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A synopsis of the Mississippian Period in Middle Tennessee.

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NATIVE HISTORY ASSOCIATION - The Woodland Period

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A synopsis of the prehistoric Woodland Period in Middle Tennessee's Native American history.

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NATIVE HISTORY ASSOCIATION - The Paleoindian Period

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A brief overview of the Paleoindian period in Middle Tennessee.

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About 12,000 years ago, the world's climate warmed up, ending the last Ice Age. As a result, the big-game animals that the Paleo- Indians lived on died out around 10,500 years ago, forcing the People to change the way they made their living. This was the beginning of the Archaic Period, which lasted about 7,000 years. Many Archaic Period sites have been found in Nashville.

The change in climate allowed forests to grow in many areas, including Tennessee. Smaller game animals such as bear, deer, rabbit, wild turkey, and others thrived in the new environment. Forests also produced edible nuts, fruits, roots, berries, and other plants. The Archaic People hunted these animals and gathered these plants for food.

Archaic hunters used a spear-throwing weapon called an atlatl. This was a grooved wooden handle from three to six feet long. A piece of bone or antler formed a hook on one end. To use the atlatl, a hunter would lay a spear on the handle with the blunt end against the hook. Gripping the handle and raising his throwing arm behind his head, he threw the spear by quickly bringing his arm forward, snapping his wrist at the end of the throw to release the spear from the handle. The atlatl had the effect of increasing the length of the hunter's arm, adding force to his throw.

The Archaic People lived in small villages of about 15 or 20 houses. They built their houses by cutting small sapling trees of about six inches in diameter, which were then placed upright in the ground in a circular pattern. The trees were bent inward until they met at the top. Covering this framework with woven mats or sheets of bark made a small dome-shaped house. The illustration below is a reconstruction drawing of an Archaic Period house excavated at a site in southern Middle Tennessee.

Archaic Period House (from The Bailey Site, Charles Bentz, Jr.)

Archaic villages were usually located next to a river or creek. Fish and shellfish harvested from the rivers and streams were an important food source. Many villages were inhabited for long periods, sometimes hundreds of years. The people threw the remains of their shellfish meals onto piles along the river or creek banks. Over the years these mounds of shell could grow to cover several hundred square feet. Several large shell mounds still exist along the Cumberland River in the vicinity of Nashville.

The Archaic People made tools out of stone, bone and wood. They made clothing from the hides of animals, and wove plant fibers into baskets, mats, and robes. Most foods were boiled in water-tight baskets. Dropping red-hot rocks in the basket would quickly bring the water to a boil. They also cooked over open fires and in roasting pits. During the later Archaic Period people began making pottery.

Long distance trade networks began during the Archaic Period. People in Tennessee traded for copper from the Great Lakes region and large marine shells from the Gulf coast. They used these materials to make beads, pendants and other ornaments.

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The Archaic culture period in Middle Tennessee.

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The Ice Age came to an end quickly in Illinois. Warmer encouraged the growth of new plants. Deciduous trees replaced spruce and pine, which continued to grow in more northerly latitudes. Animals also changed their way of life, because most animals depend on plants for food. Ice-Age mammals such as the mastodon became extinct, due, in part probably, to changes in the availability of food. They were unable to adjust to the new environment. Other animals moved to habitats with familiar plant foods, some ending up hundreds of miles from Illinois. Animals accustomed to deciduous forests became more common in Illinois. With all of these changes, Paleo-Indian people also had to change their way of life to survive in this new world.

Archaeologists identify this new way of life as the Archaic period of Native American culture. This period began about 10,000 years ago and lasted until 3,000 years ago. It is divided into three sub-periods: Early (10,000 to 8,000 years ago), Middle (8,000 to 5,000 years ago), and Late Archaic (5,000 to 3,000 years ago). Each sub- period represents a similar, but slightly different way of life.

The Archaic period was a time of change. Early Archaic people in Illinois continued a hunting and gathering way of life, but they invented new tools to do so. Middle Archaic people were less nomadic. For at least part of the year, they lived in villages. Late Archaic people still hunted and gathered, but they also cultivated native plants to supplement their food supply.

You have to dig deep into the past to find out how and why the Archaic way of life developed.

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The Ice Age came to an end quickly in Illinois. Warmer encouraged the growth of new plants. Deciduous trees replaced spruce and pine, which continued to grow in more northerly latitudes. Animals also changed their way of life, because most animals depend on plants for food.

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Atlatl
NPS Photo

Around 6000 B.C., at the beginning of the Archaic period, the climate became drier and Ice Age mammals had become extinct.

The Archaic people that called the Texas Panhandle home lived in an environment that was rich in various plants and animals. These people were active gatherers of various types of plant materials: seeds, roots, berries, and anything else that was edible. In order to maximize the nutrition from many plants they would grind the seed into meal. This also made the food more palatable. The type of mano and matate used for this endeavor typically were made out of sandstone or dolomite.

By the end of this time period the weapon of choice began to change; the Atlatl and dart would begin the slow process of being phased out and was replaced by the bow and arrow. One way archaeologists know this is the size difference in the projectile points. The larger points were used as dart points, whereas the smaller points (arrowheads) were used with the bow and arrow. The large straight-horned bison was now extinct and these people hunted game that we could recognize today such as deer, rabbit, and turkey. These people were on a slow transition from exclusively being nomadic hunter-gatherers to farmers. This transition can be seen by the introduction of pottery. Typically, cultures that produced pottery were farmers. The next few cultures to make their way into the Texas panhandle would take pottery and farming to new heights.

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Archaic Indians (6000 BC to 750 AD) - Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)

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Around 6000 B.C., at the beginning of the Archaic period, the climate became drier and Ice Age mammals had become extinct. The Archaic people that called the Texas Panhandle home lived in an environment that was rich in various plants and animals.

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Beginning about 6000 bce, what had been a relatively cool and moist climate gradually became warmer and drier. A number of cultural changes are associated with this environmental shift; most notably, bands became larger and somewhat more sedentary, tending to forage from seasonal camps rather than roaming across the entire landscape. Fish, fowl, and wild plant foods (especially seeds) also become more apparent in the archaeological record, although this may be a result of differential preservation rather than changes in ancient subsistence strategies. Finally, various forms of evidence indicate that humans were influencing the growth patterns and reproduction of plants through practices such as the setting of controlled fires to clear forest underbrush, thereby increasing the number and productivity of nut-bearing trees. In aggregate, these changes mark the transition from Paleo-Indian to Archaic cultures.

The duration of the Archaic Period varied considerably in Northern America: in some areas it may have begun as long ago as 8000 bce, in others as recently as 4000 bce. Between 6000 and 4000 bce the wild squash seeds found at archaeological sites slowly increased in size, a sign of incipient domestication. Similar changes are apparent by about 5000 bce in the seeds of wild sunflowers and certain "weedy" plants (defined as those that prefer disturbed soils and bear plentiful seeds) such as sumpweed ( Iva annua) and lamb's-quarters ( Chenopodium album). Northern Americans independently domesticated several kinds of flora, including a variety of squash (c. 3000 bce) unrelated to the those of Mesoamerica or South America, sunflowers Helianthus annuus (c. 3000 bce), and goosefoot Chenopodium berlandieri (c. 2500 bce).

Many prehistoric Native American peoples eventually adopted some degree of agriculture; they are said to have transitioned from the Archaic to subsequent culture periods when evidence indicates that they began to rely substantively upon domesticated foods and in most cases to make pottery. Archaeologists typically place the end of the North American Archaic at or near 1000 bce, although there is substantial regional variation from this date. For instance, the Plains Archaic continued until approximately the beginning of the Common Era, and other groups maintained an essentially Archaic lifestyle well into the 19th century, particularly in the diverse microenvironments of the Pacific Coast, the arid Great Basin, and the cold boreal forests, tundras, and coasts of Alaska and Canada.

Pacific Coast Archaic cultures

Archaic peoples living along the Pacific Coast and in neighbouring inland areas found a number of innovative uses for the rich microenvironments of that region. Groups living in arid inland locales made rough flint tools, grinding stones, and, eventually, arrowheads and subsisted upon plant seeds and small game. Where there was more precipitation, the food supply included elk, deer, acorns, fish, and birds. People on the coast itself depended upon the sea for their food supply, some subsisting mainly on shellfish, some on sea mammals, others on fish, and still others on a mixture of all three.

In contrast to the larger projectile points found elsewhere in North America, many Pacific Coast Archaic groups preferred to use tools made of microblades; sometimes these were set into handles to make knives composed of a series of small individually set teeth rather than a long, continuous cutting edge. However, in the Northwest Coast culture area, the people of the Old Cordilleran culture (sometimes called the Paleoplateau or Northwest Riverine culture; c. 9000/8500-5000 bce) preferred lanceolate points, long blades, and roughly finished choppers.

During the postglacial warming period that culminated between 3000 and 2000 bce, the inhabitants of the drier areas without permanent streams took on many of the traits of the Desert Archaic cultures ( see below), while others turned increasingly toward river and marsh resources. In the 1st millennium bce the Marpole complex, a distinctive toolmaking tradition focusing on ground slate, appeared in the Fraser River area. Marpole people shared a basic resemblance to historic Northwest Coast groups in terms of their maritime emphasis, woodworking, large houses, and substantial villages.

Desert Archaic cultures

Ancient peoples in the present-day Plateau and Great Basin culture areas created distinctive cultural adaptations to the dry, relatively impoverished environments of these regions. The Cochise or Desert Archaic culture began by about 7000 bce and persisted until the beginning of the Common Era.

Desert Archaic people lived in small nomadic bands and followed a seasonal round. They ate a wide variety of animal and plant foods and developed techniques for small- seed harvesting and processing; an essential component of the Desert Archaic tool kit was the milling stone, used to grind wild seeds into meal or flour. These groups are known for having lived in caves and rock shelters; they also made twined basketry, nets, mats, cordage, fur cloaks, sandals, wooden clubs, digging sticks, spear-throwers, and dart shafts tipped with pointed hardwood, flint, or obsidian. Their chopping and scraping tools often have a rough, relatively unsophisticated appearance, but their projectile points show excellent craftsmanship.

Plains Archaic cultures

The Plains Archaic began by about 6000 bce and persisted until about the beginning of the Common Era. It is marked by a shift from just a few kinds of fluted Paleo-Indian points to a myriad of styles, including stemmed and side-notched points. The primary game animal of the Plains Archaic peoples was the bison, although as savvy foragers they also exploited a variety of other game and many wild plant foods.

As the climate became warmer, some groups followed grazing herds north into present-day Saskatchewan and Alberta; by 3000 bce these people had reached the Arctic tundra zone in the Northwest Territories and shifted their attention from bison to the local caribou. Other groups moved east to the Mississippi valley and western Great Lakes area.

Eastern Archaic cultures

The Eastern Archaic (c. 8000-1500 bce) included much of the Eastern Subarctic, the Northeast, and the Southeast culture areas; because of this very wide distribution, Eastern Archaic cultures show more diversity over time and space than Archaic cultures elsewhere in North America. Nonetheless, these cultures are characterized by a number of material similarities. The typical house was a small circular structure framed with wood; historical analogies suggest that the covering was probably bark. Cooking was accomplished by placing hot rocks into wood, bark, or hide containers of food, which caused the contents to warm or even boil; by baking in pits; or by roasting. Lists of mammal, fish, and bird remains from Eastern Archaic sites read like a catalog of the region's fauna at about the time of European contact. Game-gathering devices such as nets, traps, and pitfalls were used, as were spears, darts, and dart or spear throwers. Fishhooks, gorges, and net sinkers were also important, and in some areas fish weirs (underwater pens or corrals), were built. River, lake, and ocean mollusks were consumed, and a great many roots, berries, fruits, and tubers were part of the diet.

Over time, Eastern Archaic material culture reflects increasing levels of technological and economic sophistication. A large variety of chipped-flint projectiles, knives, scrapers, perforators, drills, and adzes appear. The era is also marked by the gradual development of ground and polished tools such as grooved stone axes, pestles, gouges, adzes, plummets (stones ground into a teardrop shape, used for unknown purposes), and bird stones and other weights that attached to spear throwers.

Eastern Archaic people in what are now the states of Michigan and Wisconsin began to work copper, which can be found in large nodules there. Using cold-hammer techniques, they created a variety of distinctive tools and art forms. Their aptly named Old Copper culture appeared about 3000 bce and lasted approximately 2,000 years. Its tools and weapons, particularly its adzes, gouges, and axes, clearly indicate an adaptation to the forest environment.

In the area south of James Bay to the upper St. Lawrence River about 4000 bce, there was a regional variant called the Laurentian Boreal Archaic and, in the extreme east, the Maritime Boreal Archaic (c. 3000 bce). In this eastern area, slate was shaped into points and knives similar to those of the copper implements to the west. Trade between the eastern and western areas has been recognized; in addition, copper implements have been found as far south as Louisiana and Florida and southeastern marine shells have been found in the upper Mississippi-Great Lakes area. This suggests that transportation by canoe was known to Eastern Archaic peoples.

Along the southern border of the central and eastern boreal forest zone between 1500 and 500 bce there developed a distinctive burial complex, reflecting an increased attention to mortuary ceremonies. These burials, many including cremations, were often accompanied by red ochre, caches of triangular stone blanks (from which stone tools could be made), fire-making kits of iron pyrites and flint strikers, copper needles and awls, and polished stone forms. The triangular points of this complex may have represented the introduction of the bow and arrow from the prehistoric Arctic peoples east of Hudson Bay.

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Native American - Archaic Cultures: Beginning about 6000 bce, what had been a relatively cool and moist climate gradually became warmer and drier. A number of cultural changes are associated with this environmental shift; most notably, bands became larger and somewhat more sedentary, tending to forage from seasonal camps rather than roaming across the entire landscape.

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Turtle Mound on Observatory Hill, ca. 1910

Elevated view of a double-tailed turtle effigy mound on Observatory Hill on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Early archaeologists devoted study to Native American effigy mounds prior to the discovery of Paleo-Indian artifacts. View the original source document: WHI 34547

Much of the earliest archaeological activity in America focused on identifying and documenting the Native American effigy mounds throughout the country. But by 1860, effigy mound research began to share the spotlight with the quest for the First Americans. Archaeologists established that American Indians had been in the Americas for thousands of years longer than previously thought. The work of these pioneer researchers did not answer all the questions concerning the First Americans, but it set the stage for new exploration.

Paleo-Indians

Archaeologists refer to the First Americans as Paleo-Indians. These communities followed the retreat of glacial ice northward across Wisconsin. They developed a mobile lifestyle that allowed them to follow the ebb and flow of game and changes in the availability of plant foods and other resources. These small communities were often isolated, though groups did sometimes interact.

Paleo-Indian communities were not unchanging. They were shrewd and capable of adapting to changing social and environmental conditions. Paleo-Indian communities adapted so effectively that they sustained themselves for nearly five thousand years, from approximately 10,500-6000 B.C.E. Archaeologists have not distinguished specific Paleo-Indian clans, but it is clear that different groups lived in Wisconsin. Unique classes of spear points recovered throughout the state indicate the presence of distinct clans throughout history. The different point styles may also reflect the changes the Paleo-Indians made as they adapted to new conditions.

An Incredible Discovery

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Mastodon, 1972

A Mastodon Americanus Cuvier skeleton on display in the Science and Natural History Museum in Science Hall on Langdon and Park Streets at the University of Wisconsin Madison. This skeleton was discovered in 1897 near Boaz, and was restored in 1915 by Professors M.G. Mehl and G. M. Schwartz. View the original source document: WHI 35980

Paleo-Indian sites came to broad public attention in 1897, when members of the Dosch family saw the bones of a large animal in an eroded stream bank. Digging unearthed a mastodon skeleton. Two spear points were recovered with the bones at the site near Boaz, Wisconsin. This spectacular find was widely publicized, prompting others to look for similar sites.

More Paleo-Indian spear points were discovered and their locations identified. Many were donated to the Wisconsin Historical Society and other museums. The recovery, reporting and analysis of these points revealed that Paleo-Indians had lived in all corners of the state. The spear point collections became the core of a base of information on the first residents of Wisconsin, and are still analyzed today.

Ancient and Expansive Culture

Wisconsin remains an important resource for answers about the Paleo-Indians. Five sites were discovered in southeastern Wisconsin containing bones from mammoths that exhibited evidence of butchering. At two locations, stone tools were found as well. The sites are estimated to be 12,000-12,500 years old, indicating the presence of humans in present-day Wisconsin thousands of years earlier than previously believed. The discovery shocked the archaeological community and made front-page news. Research continues throughout Wisconsin and North America.

Learn More
Ojibwe Place Names in Wisconsin, ca. 1890 Ancient copper mines are discovered in 1848 Menominee Vocabulary, 1893 Copper tools from Northern Wisconsin, 4000-1,200 B.C. An Oneota ceramic vessel, ca. 1500-1625 Statistics on government schools for Indians, 1899 Explore the Turning Points in Wisconsin History Collection
[Sources: Birmingham, Robert A. and Leslie E. Eisenberg. Indian Mounds of Wisconsin (Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, c2000). Theler, James L. and and Robert F. Boszhardt. Twelve Millennia: Archaeology of the Upper Mississippi River Valley (Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, c2003). The History of Wisconsin: volume 1, From Exploration to Statehood by Alice E. Smith. (Madison, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1973)]

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First Peoples | Wisconsin Historical Society

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Learn about the Paleo-Indians who first inhabited the Wisconsin territory and the archaeological excavations that have revealed their culture.

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Colorado Experience
Season 5 Episode 5 | 26m 39s |

Evidence of prehistoric mammals and early humans have been discovered across Colorado. Lamb Spring in Douglas County is home to the largest collection of Colombian mammoth bones in the state, offering archaeological insight into these prehistoric dwellers. The discoveries of Lindenmeier near Ft. Collins and Mountaineer in Gunnison reveal much about the people who lived here over 10,000 years ago.

Aired: 11/16/17

Rating: NR

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Colorado Experience | Paleo Indians | Season 5 | Episode 5 | PBS

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Travel back in time, to investigate the legacy of Paleo Indians

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Paleoindian people hunted and gathered food. They depended on foods available seasonally, but may have supplemented their winter diet with dried foods. To the best of our knowledge, they did not cultivate plants. Archaeologists have yet to find a Paleoindian site in Illinois with evidence of their food choices, but they did make an important discovery in eastern Missouri just south of St. Louis in 1979. While unearthing the pelvis of a mastodon at the Kimmswick Site, a team of archaeologists and paleontologists discovered a Paleoindian spear point. The position of the point suggests that it was lodged in the mastodon's leg muscle. How would you interpret this discovery?

The discovery of the spear point with the leg bone is evidence that Paleoindian people hunted this mastodon. There is also evidence that they hunted white-tailed deer and smaller animals. They also may have fished, and they probably gathered a variety of seasonally available foods such as fruits, seeds, and nuts, but we have yet to find evidence for these foods in Illinois or at the Kimmswick Site.

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Paleoindian people hunted and gathered food. They depended on foods available seasonally, but may have supplemented their winter diet with dried foods. To the best of our knowledge, they did not cultivate plants. Archaeologists have yet to find a Paleoindian site in Illinois with evidence of their food choices, but they did make an important discovery in eastern Missouri just south of St.

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Paleo-Indians were the first people to enter the Americas and Mississippi. Originally, it was thought that these people came across an ice-free corridor from Asia about thirteen thousand years ago. Now, however, some archaeologists believe that the first people arrived around twenty thousand years ago, and a few push the date as far back as [...]

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PALEO-INDIANS

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Paleo-Indians were the earliest people to inhabit the Americas. Between 30,000 and 11,000 years ago, small, highly mobile groups of hunter-gatherers extended their hunting areas throughout Beringia (the landmass that joined Siberia and Alaska) and into the Western Hemisphere. This "bridging landmass" emerged slowly from beneath the Bering Sea as more than nine million cubic miles of glacial ice accumulated over southern Alaska, Canada, Labrador, and Greenland. About 20,000 to 18,000 years ago an immense "ice dome" (the Laurentide glacier) towered more than one mile over present-day Hudson Bay. Two lobes of ice spread southward over the eastern edge of the Dakotas and deeper into the Midwest. The Central and Southern Great Plains remained unglaciated at this time, yet the mountains of glacial ice to the north exerted pronounced influences upon the everyday lives of the Paleo-Indians throughout the region.

Archeologists believe that Paleo-Indians expanded into certain ice-free areas of North America's interior, or along its coastal margins. The timing of the arrival of Paleo-Indians in the Great Plains and in North America, in general, is under renewed investigation. Recent genetic studies based on mitochondrial DNA suggest that a founding population composed of four distinct genetic lineages appeared in the Western Hemisphere between 37,000 and 23,000 years before present (B.P.). It appears that all contemporary Native Americans are descendants of these Paleo-Indian lineages, including the hunter-gatherers who made their appearance in the Great Plains 18,000 years ago or earlier.

During the last Ice Age, the Great Plains was inhabited by a diverse array of animals, including the Columbian mammoth, musk oxen, caribou, horse, camel, bison, elk, lion, wolf, arctic ground squirrels, arctic shrews, and lemmings. Around 14,500 B.P. the Northern Hemisphere began to warm and the glaciers began to shrink. The ice over North America essentially disappeared by 6,500 B.P. Mosaic communities of plants and animals were reshuÄed and sorted into their characteristic zonal patterns of today. Many large herbivorous and carnivorous mammals were unable to make the necessary shifts in diet, reproduction, and morphology and became extinct between 12,000 and 10,000 B.P. Some scientists have attributed the disappearance of many larger mammals to the superior predatory abilities of the Paleo-Indians themselves. There is little reason to believe that Paleo-Indian hunter-gatherers had any significant role in these global animal extinctions; such extinctions had occurred many times before, particularly during abrupt shifts from colder glacial to warmer interglacial periods.

The most abundant physical evidence for Paleo-Indians in the Plains consists of a diverse array of carefully made chipped stone projectile points that were given geographical placenames like Clovis, Goshen, Folsom, Midland, Plainview, Cody, Alberta, Hell Gap, Scottsbluff, and Eden. Hunting weapons were probably constructed from interchangeable parts that were frequently repaired and recycled. Certain chipped stone points (e.g., Clovis, Folsom, and Goshen) were attached to short, fletched "dart" shafts and thrown with the use of a leverlike spear thrower, or atlatl. Paleo- Indian flint knappers developed an extremely efficient eleven-step method for transforming a large flake of high-quality stone into a multipurpose cutting implement and, later, into a Folsom point, two "razor blades," and a "lathe" tool. Larger stone points (e.g., Scottsbluff, Hell Gap, and Alberta) functioned as thrusting spears for dispatching bison that had been driven into natural traps created by parabolic sand dunes, deep gullies, or snowdrifts. Paleo- Indian tool kits also included chipped stone tools required to skin and butcher game, scrape skins and hides, and fashion specialized tools and component parts (e.g., foreshafts, shaft straighteners, and delicate eyed needles) of bone, antler, ivory, and wood.

One of the first documented discoveries of Paleo-Indian stone tools found together with the bones of extinct Ice Age animals in North America was made by H. T. Martin and T. R. Overton in 1895 near Russell Springs, Kansas. A similar find was made by George McJunkin-a cowboy, naturalist, and former black slave-in 1908 near Folsom, New Mexico. But it was not until August 29, 1927, that a fluted spear or "dart" point (Folsom) was found by archeologists among the bones of extinct bison ( Bison antiquus) at McJunkin's Folsom site. Paleontologists, archeologists, and anthropologists were called to inspect this find in its undisturbed context, and only then did the scientific community agree that humans had lived contemporaneously with these now-extinct animals at the end of the last Ice Age.

These accidental finds sparked the initial systematic studies of the Paleo-Indian presence in the North American Great Plains. In the 1930s Clovis projectile points (dated 11,200-10,900 B.P.) were found with the remains of extinct Ice Age elephants (mammoths) and also bison near Clovis, New Mexico. Later Paleo-Indian occupations (10,000- 8,800 B.P.), including the Cody complex on the Northern Plains and the Firstview complex on the Southern Plains, featured a number of chipped stone projectile points. With the development of radiocarbon dating in the 1950s, as well as the excavation of "layer-cakelike" sites at Blackwater Draw, New Mexico, and Hell Gap, Wyoming, archeologists outlined the time frame for Paleo-Indian life in the Great Plains that is used today.

Paleo-Indians left a scant "trail" throughout the Great Plains. Geographer Vance Holliday has estimated that archeologists have found roughly two Paleo-Indian campsites for each century of their currently documented 2,400- year-long stay in the Great Plains. In the Southern High Plains, this means that there is one Paleo-Indian campsite per 667 square miles (1,733 square kilometers). Yet Paleo-Indian sites are still being discovered, including campsites (e.g., Mill Iron, Montana; Lake Ilo, North Dakota; and Cattle Guard, Colorado), animal kill sites (e.g., Waugh and Cooper sites in Kansas), tool caches (e.g., Anzick, Montana; Fenn, Wyoming; and Ryan, Texas), and tool stone quarries and/or workshops (e.g., Alkali Creek, North Dakota, and Hanson, Wyoming).

Researchers have also intensified their efforts to revise and to reformulate their reconstructions of past environments and Paleo-Indian life. Archeologists had generally assumed that the Great Plains during the late glacial period supported a widespread boreal forest composed predominantly of spruce trees. This spruce forest reconstruction is not supported by a fossil record that is dominated by grazing and browsing mammals. Also, paleoecologists now suggest that much, if not all, of the spruce and pine pollen was not endemic and had actually been deposited over the Plains by westerly winds.

Recent studies suggest that Paleo-Indian hunter-gatherers, specifically Folsom people, lived in small, multifamily groups. These groups or hunting bands may have established from twelve to thirty-six camps per year throughout an area of more than 52,000 square miles (slightly less than the area of North Dakota). Folsom-age projectile points have been found more than 300 miles (500 km) from their geological source. It appears that Paleo-Indians quickly located sources for the highest-quality tool stone in the Plains, including Knife River flint (western North Dakota), Niobrara jasper (Nebraska), and Edwards chert (Texas).

The Great Plains has played, and continues to play, a central role in the study of Paleo- Indian lifeways in the Western Hemisphere. Recent work by Steve Holen (Nebraska State Museum) at mammoth death sites may push the initial human occupation of the Great Plains back to more than 18,000 years ago. Such recent research also suggests that the earliest Paleo-Indians may have scavenged food from large mammal carcasses. Archeologists are making use of refined radiocarbon dating methods and more dynamic views of prehistoric technology to reassess the static Paleo- Indian "culture histories" that once dominated their thinking. Archeologists working in the Great Plains have now begun to bring the faint outlines of Paleo-Indian existence into better focus.

See also PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT: Glaciation; Paleoenvironments.

Alan J. Osborn

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Frison, George C. Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains. New York: Academic Press, 1991.

Holliday, Vance T. Paleoindian Geoarchaeology of the Southern High Plains. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997.

Stanford, Dennis J., and Jane S. Day, eds. Ice Age Hunters of the Rockies. Niwot CO: University Press of Colorado, 1992.

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View larger Paleo-Indians were the earliest people to inhabit the Americas. Between 30,000 and 11,000 years ago, small, highly mobile groups of hunter-gatherers extended their hunting areas throughout Beringia (the landmass that joined Siberia and Alaska) and into the Western Hemisphere.