An Introduction to Native
North America
Fourth Edition
MARK Q. SUTTON
Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, California State University, Bakersfield
To Little Schmutzy Jean(s)
First published 2012, 2008, 2004, 2000 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Published 2016 by Routledge
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ISBN:9780205121564 (pbk)
Cover Designer: Suzanne Behnke
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sutton, Mark Q.
An Introduction to Native North America / Mark Q. Sutton. 4th ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-205-12156-4
ISBN-10: 0-205-12156-X
1. Indians of North America. 2. Eskimos. 3. Aleuts. I. Title.
E77.S935 2011 970.00497dc23
2011034616
Contents
One of the major goals of this fourth edition was to reorganize and expand the chapter on Contemporary Issues; add some new photos; correct errors; and update all of the other materials in the book, particularly the sections on prehistory. The recently published A Prehistory of North America (Sutton 2010) is also organized by culture area and can serve as a companion volume to this edition of An Introduction to Native North America.
Whats New in This Edition
Revised treatments of prehistory for each culture
A major reorganization and expansion of , Contemporary Issues
Expansion of the section on governmental policies
Addition of new research findings and updating of existing information
Acknowledgments
A number of colleagues have taken the time to suggest improvements to this book, and I am indebted to them for their efforts. Excellent suggestions were provided by the reviewers of this edition: Joseph Wilson, University of Florida; Stephen Saraydar, State University of New York; Jeanne Saint-Amour, Glendale Community College; Alston Thoms, Texas A&M University; Katherine Woodhouse-Beyer, Rutgers University, New Brunswick. In addition, I benefited from the thoughts and advice of Jill K. Gardner, James Helmer, Brian E. Hemphill, Henry C. Koerper, William L. Merrill, and Richard H. Osborne.
M.Q.S.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed west from Spain, looking for a shorter and more direct route to the Indies. Instead, he landed on a small island in the Caribbean and encountered a New World occupied by many millions of people belonging to many hundreds, perhaps as many as a thousand, different cultures. These cultures were incredibly diverse, ranging from very small groups of hunters and gatherers to large groups of farmers living in cities, and having social and political institutions of varying complexities comparable to any in the world.
Europeans wanted to believe that they had discovered a new land, untouched and pristine, a land occupied by wandering, primitive savages who did not properly possess the land. They believed it their duty to drag these native peoples from their state of savagery into the light of civilization. These beliefs served to justify the conquest of the New World and are still widely held today. But despite the onslaught of Europeans, native peoples have survived.
Why are we interested in learning about Native North America? In the abstract, Native American culture is part of the larger human experience. Each culture is unique and the more we know about different cultures, the more we know collectively about all people. Anthropology holds the view that all cultures are valid, that they have the right to exist, and no one has the right to suppress them. Following this, the more that is known about a group, the better it is protected.
Another tenet of anthropology is that no culture is better or worse than any other (with some exceptions such as Nazi Germany) and that cultures should not be judged. We all live in a multicultural world and it is important that everyone comprehend and appreciate cultural diversity so that bias, ethnocentrism, and racism can be conquered. As all cultures are unique, each has lessons to teach others and there is much (good and bad) that Native Americans can offer, such as their environmental practices, philosophy, literature, and the like. Their knowledge is useful to everyone and we can all learn from their successes and failures.
A bit closer to home, American culture has been shaped, in part, by contact and interaction with native peoples over hundreds of years and an appreciation of that history can help to better understand where we all are now and how we got here. It is important for everyone to grasp the issues that surround minorities within a larger dominant culture, and to look for solutions to problems inherent in that situation. Many native peoples have gotten a raw deal and everyone should understand how that happened and what can be done about it. In some cases, the culture and practices of some native peoples were, at least in part, preserved for later generations by anthropologists. Lastly, Native American cultures are not vanished races consigned to natural history museums but modern, active, and vibrant groups. Everyone should celebrate the survival and revival of those cultures.
Prior to 1492, Europeans thought they knew the geography of the world and the location and extent of the various major landmasses and bodies of water. The landmasses known at that time consisted of Europe, Africa, Asia, and many of the islands of the western Pacific. However, when they encountered a huge new landmass full of unfamiliar people, it was seen as a New World, a name that continues to be used today (Fig. 1.1). The world known to the Europeans prior to 1492 was subsequently referred to as the Old World, a term also still used. Today, the New World is also known as the western hemisphere and the Old World is the eastern hemisphere.
FIGURE 1.1 Simplified map of the world, showing both New and Old Worlds
FIGURE 1.2 Major cultural divisions of the New World
The New World is often described as comprising two continents: (1) North America, which extends from the Arctic to Panama, and (2) South America, which runs from Colombia to the southern tip of Chile. However, it is now common for the New World to be thought of as three regions: North, Central, and South America. Many people consider North America to consist of the United States and Canada, Central America to include Mexico and all the countries south through Panama, and South America to extend from Colombia to the southern tip of Chile. A third way to conceptualize the New World is based on broad cultural distinctions, leading to the specification of three somewhat different regions: North America, Mesoamerica (
