Honors US History
September 13, 2023
American Yawp Ch. 1 Sections I-II Notes
Introduction:
● Before European settlers, humans lives in the Americas for over ten thousand years
● Columbian Exchange: the arrival of European settlers and the global exchange of
people, animals, plants and microbes.
● This bridged more than ten thousand years of geographic separation, released violence
and unleashed the greatest biological terror the world had ever seen
The First Americans:
● All the different Native American groups had different creation stories on how they
started
● Different groups include:
○ The Salinan
○ Lenape
○ Choctaw
○ Nahua
● The Bering Strait connected Asia and America, in which Native ancestors crossed the
ice and exposed the lands between the two continents
● After the ice age, people moved down south toward places like modern day Chile.
○ It is suggested that human activity began here around 14,500 years ago.
● All the evidence illustrates a great deal of diversity: Dental, Archaeological, Linguistic,
Oral, Ecological, Genetic
● Agriculture arose sometime between nine thousand and five thousand years ago
● Corn and maize can hold a spiritual and cultural place in many Native communities
● Three sisters: corn beans and squash
● The rich solid and use of hand tools enabled effective farming and high yields without
overburdening the soil
● Agricultural allowed for dramatic social change, but for some, it also may have
accompanied a decline in health
● Page 5 shows specific examples of natural influence with practice, culture, and life
● An extreme fifty-year drought began in 1130 and because of this, the Chaco Canyon was
deserted
● These native communities were huge and surpassed the population of European cities
until after the American Revolution
● Native American slavery was not based on holding people as property, instead they
understood slaves as people.
● North American communities were connected by kin, politics and culture
● Fishing had a huge significance on many native peoples
● By the time Europeans were poised to cross the Atlantic, Native Americans spoke
hundreds of languages and lived in keeping with the hemisphere’s many climates.
● All Natives had long histories and the Europeans changed everything with their arrival
September 13, 2023
American Yawp Ch. 1 Sections I-II Notes
Introduction:
● Before European settlers, humans lives in the Americas for over ten thousand years
● Columbian Exchange: the arrival of European settlers and the global exchange of
people, animals, plants and microbes.
● This bridged more than ten thousand years of geographic separation, released violence
and unleashed the greatest biological terror the world had ever seen
The First Americans:
● All the different Native American groups had different creation stories on how they
started
● Different groups include:
○ The Salinan
○ Lenape
○ Choctaw
○ Nahua
● The Bering Strait connected Asia and America, in which Native ancestors crossed the
ice and exposed the lands between the two continents
● After the ice age, people moved down south toward places like modern day Chile.
○ It is suggested that human activity began here around 14,500 years ago.
● All the evidence illustrates a great deal of diversity: Dental, Archaeological, Linguistic,
Oral, Ecological, Genetic
● Agriculture arose sometime between nine thousand and five thousand years ago
● Corn and maize can hold a spiritual and cultural place in many Native communities
● Three sisters: corn beans and squash
● The rich solid and use of hand tools enabled effective farming and high yields without
overburdening the soil
● Agricultural allowed for dramatic social change, but for some, it also may have
accompanied a decline in health
● Page 5 shows specific examples of natural influence with practice, culture, and life
● An extreme fifty-year drought began in 1130 and because of this, the Chaco Canyon was
deserted
● These native communities were huge and surpassed the population of European cities
until after the American Revolution
● Native American slavery was not based on holding people as property, instead they
understood slaves as people.
● North American communities were connected by kin, politics and culture
● Fishing had a huge significance on many native peoples
● By the time Europeans were poised to cross the Atlantic, Native Americans spoke
hundreds of languages and lived in keeping with the hemisphere’s many climates.
● All Natives had long histories and the Europeans changed everything with their arrival
