A. ARRIVAL IN NORTH AMERICA
1. Most scholars now believe that the first Native Americans reached North America by traveling across a land bridge connecting eastern Siberia and Alaska.
B. KEY ADVANCES
1. Pre-Columbian peoples developed all of the following:
• A mathematically based calendar
• Irrigation systems
• Domesticated cereal crops such as maize
• Multifamily dwellings
• Herbal medical treatments
• Large cities such as the Aztec capital
C. KEY FAILURES
1. Pre-Columbian peoples did not develop the following:
• Wheeled vehicles
• Gunpowder
• Waterwheels
TEST TIP
APUSH exams rarely if ever contain questions on Pre-Columbian peoples.
A. COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE
1. The term refers to the exchange of plants and animals between the New World and Europe following the discovery of America in 1492.
2. New World crops such as corn, tomatoes, and potatoes had a dramatic effect on the European diet. At the same time, Old World domesticated animals such as horses, cows, and pigs had a dramatic effect on life in the New World.
B. DISEASE AND POPULATION COLLAPSE
1. Old World diseases caused epidemics among the Native American inhabitants of the New World.
2. Native Americans suffered severe population declines because they lacked immunity to smallpox and other European diseases.
C. SIMILARITIES BETWEEN NATIVE AMERICANS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLERS
1. Both had agricultural economies.
2. Both lived in village communities.
3. Both domesticated corn and other vegetables.
4. Both shared a strong sense of spirituality.
D. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NATIVE AMERICANS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLERS
1. Native Americans and English settlers had radically different conceptions of property.
2. The English had a very precise concept of private property rights.
3. Native Americans had no concept of private property.
E. INTERACTION BETWEEN NATIVE AMERICANS AND ENGLISH SETTLERS
1. The more Native Americans interacted with the English colonists, the more dependent they became on the fur trade.
2. Political and linguistic differences among Native Americans hindered united opposition to the English.
F. THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY
1. The Iroquois Confederacy was the most important and powerful Native American alliance.
2. The tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy formed the most important Native American political organization to confront the colonists.
3. During the eighteenth century, the Iroquois lived in permanent settlements.
TEST TIP
As a general rule, APUSH test writers do not expect you to know the names of specific Native American tribes. The Iroquois are the one exception to this rule. Be sure that you can identify the Iroquois Confederacy.
A. WORCESTER v. GEORGIA (1831)
1. The Cherokee differed from other Native American tribes in that the Cherokee tried to mount a court challenge to a removal order.
2. In the case of Worcester v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the rights of the Cherokee tribe to their tribal lands.
B. ANDREW JACKSON AND THE CHEROKEES
1. President Jackson refused to recognize the Court's decision; he said, "John Marshall has made his decision: now let him enforce it."
2. Jackson's antipathy toward Native Americans was well known: "I have long viewed treaties with American Indians as an absurdity not to be reconciled to the principles of our government."
C. THE TRAIL OF TEARS
1. Jackson's Native American policy resulted in the removal of the Cherokee from their homeland to settlements across the Mississippi River.
2. The Trail of Tears refers to the relocation of Native Americans to settlements in what is now Oklahoma.
3. Approximately one-quarter of the Cherokee people died on the Trail of Tears.
A. DECLINE OF THE PLAINS INDIANS
1. All of the following factors contributed to the decline of the Plains Indians:
• The slaughter of 70 million buffalo
• The spread of epidemic diseases
• Construction of the railroads
B. PUBLICATION OF CENTURY OF DISHONOR (1881)
1. The book was written by Helen Hunt Jackson.
2. It aroused public awareness of the wrongs that the federal government had inflicted on Native Americans.
C. DAWES ACT OF 1887
1. The Dawes Act was a misguided attempt to reform the government's Native American policy.
2. The legislation's goal was to assimilate Native Americans into the mainstream of American life. It attempted to accomplish this goal by doing the following:
• Dissolving many tribes as legal entities
• Eliminating tribal ownership of land
• Granting 160 acres to individual family heads
D. CONSEQUENCES OF THE DAWES ACT
1. The Dawes Act ignored the inherent reliance of traditional Indian culture on tribally held land.
2. By 1900, Indians had lost 50 percent of the 156 million acres they had held just two decades earlier.
3. The forced-assimilation doctrine of the Dawes Act remained the cornerstone of the government's official Indian policy for nearly half a century.
4. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (often called the Indian New Deal) partially reversed the individualistic approach of the Dawes Act by restoring the tribal basis of Indian life.
TEST TIP
APUSH test writers will not test you on the legendary battles between the Plains Indians and the U.S. Cavalry. However, they will expect you to be able to identify Helen Hunt Jackson's book Century of Dishonor and be able to discuss the Dawes Act.
E. THE GHOST DANCE
1. The dance was a sacred ritual expressing a vision that the buffalo would return and all the elements of White civilization would disappear.
2. Fearing that the ceremony would trigger an uprising, the army attempted to stamp it out at the so-called Battle of Wounded Knee.
3. As many as two hundred Indian men, women, and children were killed in the Battle of Wounded Knee.
A. THE HOMEFRONT
1. Native Americans volunteered to work in defense industries.
B. THE NAVAJO CODE TALKERS
1. Fewer than 30 non-Navajos understood the Navajo's unwritten language.
2. Approximately 400 Navajos served as Code Talkers in the Pacific Theater. Their primary job was to transmit vital battlefield information via telegraphs and radios in their native dialect.
3. The Navajo Code Talkers saved countless lives and played a key role in the battle of Iwo Jima.