Native American Society

For thousands of years before the Europeans landed on the continent, Native Americans settled all across the Americas. Beginning with the crossing of a land bridge 12,000 years ago that stretched from Asia to North America, approximately 10 million people would settle in the area that would later become the United States. With the arrival of the Europeans in 1492, war, slavery, and disease would eradicate almost 90-95% of the Native population in only 100 years. To this day, Native American people still struggle with high rates of assault, abuse, and violence due to the past hundreds of years of genocide, dislocation, and forms of physical, mental, and social abuse. Keep reading to learn more about the Native American Society before European contact, their destruction, and more.

Native American Society before European Contact

Anthropologists can divide the North American Native people into ten separate groups called "cultural areas." These were places where the people shared similar habitats and cultural characteristics.

1. The Arctic - The Arctic area is cold, flat, and treeless. Due to these conditions, the Natives who inhabited these areas (Alaska, Canada, and Greenland) were small, scattered groups that followed the migration of seals and polar bears. One of the major groups in this area was the Inuit.
2. The Subarctic - The Subarctic area is mainly swampy, forested land that sits inland of Alaska and Canada. Like the Inuit, those who inhabited the inner areas of the land were also nomadic and followed the migration patterns of the caribou. Small family groups moved together via toboggans, snowshoes, and lightweight canoes. Two of the major groups from this area were the Cree and the Ojibwa. Fig 1: This map shows the different Native American cultures by region.
3. The Northeast - The Northeast was much more sustainable for agriculture and the groups who lived in this area grew beans, corn, and vegetables. They lived in small farming or fishing villages along the coasts of North America. These groups were also the first to come into contact with the European settlers. Having both the Iroquois and the Algonquin often in conflict with each other made these Native people much more aggressive regarding the Europeans.
4. The Southeast - The Southeast lands were humid and packed with fertile soils for agriculture. The people who settled here were expert farmers, growing staple crops like maize, beans, squash, tobacco, and sunflower. They were able to be sedentary people and lived in small villages called "Hamlets". The "Five Civilized Tribes" of the area were the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole people.
5. The Plains - The Plains were made up of the Crow, Blackfoot, Cheyanne, and more. Before European contact, the people here were settled, hunters and farmers. However, once the Spanish colonists introduced horses, the tribes became more nomadic.
6. The Southwest - The Southwest was made up of both sedentary (Hopi and Zuni) and nomadic peoples (Navajo and Apache). The settled farmers, such as the Hopi, grew corn, beans, and squash. These are also known as the "Three Sisters". Their permanent settlements are referred to as "Pueblos"
7. The Great Basin - The Great Basin is made up of brackish lakes, salt flats, and deserts, forcing the people who inhabited the area to be foragers for roots, seeds, and nuts. The people also hunted snakes, lizards, and other small mammals. Examples of the tribes here were the Bannock and Ute.
8. California - The temperate lands of California were made up of the largest numbers of Native American groups on the continent, with an estimated 100 tribes and around 200 different dialects. Despite the amount of diversity, the tribes lived quite peacefully alongside one another.
9. The Northwest Coast - The abundance of natural resources in this area, such as salmon, sea otters, and seals, enabled the people to create large settlements of hundreds. They had implemented rigid social structures that were extremely sophisticated; with social statuses being shown via blankets, shells, and animal skins.
10. The Plateau - The majority of the Plateau people lived in small, peaceful villages alongside the streams and rivers. They gathered wild berries, roots, and nuts while also fishing for salmon and trout.

Before the arrival of the Europeans, most native tribes had become expert agriculturalists. With their populations growing rapidly due to higher amounts of food, Indigenous peoples began to create large, thriving, and civilized cities (despite European belief).

The Destruction of Native American Societies

Upon Columbus's "discovery" of North America in 1492, the Indigenous population began to plummet. Violence, dislocation, and especially disease, killed thousands of people, starting with the East Coast. Influenza, Smallpox, Measles, and Typhus fever ripped through Native cities, causing population numbers to decrease by around 90-95% over the course of only 100 years.

As the European settlers continued to push into the West, the Natives were also forced to move from their homelands, and their territories grew smaller and smaller with each passing year. During the mid-18th century, two powerful events happened for both the settlers and the Native Americans; the first was the creation of the United States in 1776, and the second was the creation of the Native "Warrior Horse Culture." The Plains "Indians" (a term used by Columbus to refer to the Natives, as he believed he had landed in India) that had survived the initial outbreak of diseases, began to make use of the wild horses that the Spanish had left behind during the "Pueblo Revolt". This made their hunting of buffalo much more efficient, leading to another population increase and a rise of nomadic Native groups.

Fig 2: "Pope" (Po'Pay), Pueblo Leader

The Pueblo Revolt was an uprising in 1680 of the Pueblo people against the Spanish implemented religion, economy, and political institutions. The Spanish had previously called for the murder of several Pueblo holy men and the public whipping of many more. It is the only Native uprising against a colonial power that was successful in North America. The Revolt kept the Spanish out of New Mexico territory for 12 years and is credited for the preservation of the Pueblo language, culture, tradition, and lands.

Native American Society vs. European Society

With the forced implementation of European society onto Native Society, life changed in many ways. Along with disease, Europeans also began the imposition of slavery on Native peoples, with many being captured and sent away for the slave trade in Europe. Though Native tribes had clashed in the past, none of them were prepared for the Europeans' level of brutality, as not even children were exempt from slavery.

The impact on Native cultures and their political systems was also great, as the Europeans demanded the implementation of Christianity and the ending of Native spirituality. Many tribes' leaders were stripped of their power or even killed in order to implement government control of the colonizing country (France, Spain, England, etc.). Indigenous languages, traditions, and ways of life that had been carried on for hundreds of years became lost.

Fig 3: This map shows Native American Territories in 1774 compared to Native American Reservations in 2022

Native American Society Today

Native American people still face many challenges today, ranging from lack of access to good education and health care, to difficulties with land/property-owning to the loss of their culture and identity. One of the most dangerous problems facing the Native communities is the high number of missing and murdered indigenous women. Indigenous women are assaulted and killed at a much higher rate than any other group of women in the US and not nearly enough media attention is brought to it. Along with pipelines being built on treaty land, Native people continue to face the loss of sacred places due to the industrial expansion of the US.

Luckily, with the rise of social media, Indigenous voices can be heard more loudly and by larger groups of people. Not only are they teaching about what is happening to themselves and their cultures, but they are also given the ability to educate people on the beauty and rich history of the tribes they come from.