What were some characteristics of American Indian cultures and how and why did people move within the Americas prior to contact with Europeans?

“First contact” describes an initial encounter between cultures that were previously unaware of each other. In the Americas, “first contact” almost always refers to first contact between indigenous peoples and Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries.

In reality, of course, the Americas were populated by millions of people from thousands of culturally distinct communities. There were thousands of “first contacts” between these groups, as well as later European immigrants.

When introducing concepts surrounding first contact in the Americas, groups such as Teaching Tolerance and Native Americans of New England have outstanding resources to help guide your pedagogy.

Here are some tips to keep in mind:

Naming

• How are Europeans and Native Americans identified by name in first-contact stories?
• Why do students think Europeans are likely to be identified by individual names and nationalities?
• Why do students think Native Americans are less likely to be identified as individuals or with their cultural community (such as Inupiat or Aztec), and more likely to be identified with groups on a continental (Native American) or global (indigenous) scale? What impact might this identification have on individuals or communities?
• How are Europeans described in first-contact stories? Discuss words like explorer, discoverer, merchant, immigrant, missionary, sailor, colonialist, colonizer. What associations do students make with these descriptive terms? 
• How are Native Americans described in first-contact stories? Are they described by their actions (“explorer”), status in their own society (“leader”), or by European assumptions about how that society works (“daughter of a chief”)?

Representation

• How are Europeans and Native Americans visually represented in first-contact stories?
• In historic images by later European artists, what are people doing? How are they dressed? What is the physical environment? 
• How have Native American artists depicted first contact? Why do students think there might be significant differences between native and European representations of the same event?
• Most representations of first contact were created decades, and even centuries, after the event. How do students think representations of an historic event change over time?

Legacy

• How are 21st-century identities represented in first-contact stories?
• How are European and American nationalities integrated with earlier imperial or colonial identities? (Is Spain equated with the Spanish Empire? Mexico with the Viceroyalty of New Spain?)
• How are contemporary indigenous identities integrated with first-contact communities sometimes dismissed as “culturally extinct”?

Standards

Concepts surrounding first contact in the Americas are especially relevant for:

• 5th grade: For example, California History-Social Science Content Standard 5-3: Students describe the cooperation and conflict that existed among the American Indians and between the Indian nations and the new settlers.
• 7th grade: For example, California History-Social Science Content Standard 7-7: Students compare and contrast the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the Meso-American and Andean civilizations.

For Students

Consult the “Questions” tab to encourage further inquiry into first contact in the Americas.

During the colonial period, Native Americans had a complicated relationship with European settlers. They resisted the efforts of the Europeans to gain more of their land and control through both warfare and diplomacy. But problems arose for the Native Americans, which held them back from their goal, including new diseases, the slave trade, and the ever-growing European population in North America.

In the 17th century, as European nations scrambled to claim the already occupied land in the “New World,” some leaders formed alliances with Native American nations to fight foreign powers. Some famous alliances were formed during the French and Indian War of 1754–1763. The English allied with the Iroquois Confederacy, while the Algonquian-speaking tribes joined forces with the French and the Spanish. The English won the war, and claimed all of the land east of the Mississippi River. The English-allied Native Americans were given part of that land, which they hoped would end European expansion—but unfortunately only delayed it. Europeans continued to enter the country following the French and Indian War, and they continued their aggression against Native Americans. Another consequence of allying with Europeans was that Native Americans were often fighting neighboring tribes. This caused rifts that kept some Native American tribes from working together to stop European takeover.

Native Americans were also vulnerable during the colonial era because they had never been exposed to European diseases, like smallpox, so they didn’t have any immunity to the disease, as some Europeans did. European settlers brought these new diseases with them when they settled, and the illnesses decimated the Native Americans—by some estimates killing as much as 90 percent of their population. Though many epidemics happened prior to the colonial era in the 1500s, several large epidemics occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries among various Native American populations. With the population sick and decreasing, it became more and more difficult to mount an opposition to European expansion.

Another aspect of the colonial era that made the Native Americans vulnerable was the slave trade. As a result of the wars between the European nations, Native Americans allied with the losing side were often indentured or enslaved. There were even Native Americans shipped out of colonies like South Carolina into slavery in other places, like Canada.

These problems that arose for the Native Americans would only get worse in the 19th century, leading to greater confinement and the extermination of native people. Unfortunately, the colonial era was neither the start nor the end of the long, dark history of treatment of Native Americans by Europeans and their decedent’s throughout in the United States.

What were some characteristics of American Indian cultures?

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How were the native peoples of the Americas living prior to European contact quizlet?

How did natives live before European contact?