Larger societies in early North Americas

AMSCO

NEWMAN J. NEWMAN AND SCHMALBACH, JOHN M. (2010) Second Edition, United States History: Preparing For The Advanced Placement Examination, Logan, Iowa, AMSCO.

Larger societies in early North Americas

The text review continues...

Chapter 1: Exploration, Discovery, And Settlement, 1492-1700

Cultures

The authors estimate the Northern Americas population (North of Mexico) as being from under one million to ten million. (1). This in the 1490's, in the era of the Columbus voyages. (1).
It is reasoned the native men were hunters and tool makers (1) and the native women farmed with crops such as corn, beans and tobacco. (1). As is a traditional view, many of the tribes were nomadic; but some more than others (1). On the legendary Great Plains the Sioux and the Pawnee followed Buffalo herds.

However, contrary to common thought, there were some larger societies. (2). The Pueblos in the Southwest lived in multistoried buildings. They also developed complex irrigation and farming systems. (2).

There were other larger societies mentioned as well, but notably, in the now New York area, the Iroquois tribes formed a political confederacy, the League of Iroquois, which battled other native tribes from the Americas and also European colonizers during the 17th and 18th centuries. (2).

This text is enlightening in emphasizing the existence of well-documented larger societies that existed in the earliest development of North America. My grade school education (British Columbia), for example, heavily emphasized the nomadic nature of Native North Americans, but this textbook provides another perspective.

Based on my first two entries, this is an enlightening textbook.

It is important to on many issues, actually check and review academic sources, as opposed to accepting commonly held views, such as that the tribes of the Native Americas were all nomadic to the exclusion that some formed larger societies.