Georgia and the American Experience

1. Georgia and the American Experience Chapter 3: The Land And Its Early People Study Presentation

2. Georgia and the American Experience Section 1: How Did We Learn About the Earliest Peoples? Section 2: Indian Nations in Georgia

3. Section 1: How Did We Learn About the Earliest Peoples? • Essential Question • How did Georgia’s prehistoric Indian tribes live?

4. Section 1: What is Geography? • What words do I need to know? • archeologist • anthropologist • shale • artifact • culture • tribe • antiquities

5. Understanding Ancient Peoples Through Artifacts • Oral Tradition: Elders repeated narratives of events often until the younger generations memorized them • Archeologists dig into earth to find artifacts (items made by people) that tell us about early inhabitants • Shale: Layered rock that can encase ancient animals or birds

6. Understanding Ancient Peoples Through Culture • Anthropologists use artifacts, cave drawings, well-traveled pathways, and oral history to study a group’s culture • Culture: shared beliefs, traditions, music, art, and social institutions of a group of people

7. Cultural Periods in Georgia History: Paleo • Paleo (from Greek, “Very Old”) • Also called Old Stone Age • Lasted about 10,000 years • Nomadic (roaming) hunters • Most tools and spear points made of stone • Used an “atlatl”: stone sling-like implement that threw darts from a longer distance

8. Cultural Periods in Georgia History: Early Archaic • Archaic (means “Old”) • Three time spans: Early, Middle, Late • Early Archaic period: 8,000 B.C. to 5,000 B.C. • Hunted large animals and small game • Invented tools from deer antlers • Moved with each season to find best food resources

9. Cultural Periods in Georgia History: Middle Archaic • Began around 5,000 B.C. • Water levels moved back along rivers and coastal areas • People began making hooks from animal bones • Shellfish was a more common food • Food was easier to find; people moved around less

10. Cultural Periods in Georgia History: Late Archaic • 4,000 B.C. to 1,000 B.C. • Created grooved axes to clear trees and bushes • Began saving and planting seeds for plants and seeds for growing seasons (horticulture) • Made and used pottery for storing, cooking, and serving food

11. Cultural Periods in Georgia History: Woodland • 1,000 B.C. to 1,000 A.D. • Tribe: group of people sharing common ancestry, name, and way of living • Hundreds of families formed tribes • Built domed-shaped huts with trees • Used bow and arrows to hunt • Held religious ceremonies • Improved pottery-making techniques

12. Cultural Periods in Georgia History: Mississippian • Also called the Temple Mound period • Farmed with homemade tools and grew most of their food • Thousands might live in a single settlement, protected by fences and moats • Very religious; used jewelry and body art

13. Archeological Finds • Ancient middens (garbage piles) show what people ate, how they used fire, what they used for cooking • Ocmulgee National Monument near Macon reveals a large ceremonial area with benches and platforms • There are large temple mounds in Early, Bartow, and Bibb counties • Stallings Island near Augusta is a large shell midden Click to return to Table of Contents.

14. Section 2: Indian Nations in Georgia • ESSENTIAL QUESTION • Which Indian nations lived in Georgia and how did they live?

15. Section 2: Indian Nations in Georgia • What peoples do I need to know? • Creek (Muscogee) • Cherokee

16. The Creeks (Muscogee) • Originally from American southwest • Spoke Muskogean • Discovered by early European explorers who called them Creeks • Lived along Ocheese Creek (today’s Ocmulgee River) • Lived in italwa and talofa (large villages surrounded by smaller villages) similar to today’s large city and surrounding suburbs

17. Creek (Muscogee) Lifestyle • Village center featured a plaza and rotunda • Games and ceremonies held in plaza • Rotunda was used for council meetings • Wooden huts or log cabins with chimneys surrounded the plaza • Villages, split from larger villages, helped form a confederacy • Raised livestock and successful farmers

18. The Cherokee • Lived in northwestern mountain region of the state • Called themselves Awi-yum-wija, which meant “real people” or “principal people” • Tribal Clans: groups of Cherokee who believed themselves related by blood • Two tribal chiefs: one for making war and one for making peacetime decisions • Clans governed on the local level

19. The Cherokee Family • Family lines were traced through the mother, not the father • The mother’s brothers took responsibility for raising her children • Mothers handled most domestic chores; fathers often left home to hunt or trade • Children played games that prepared them for adulthood

20. Cherokee Lifestyle • Built homes on high banks or hills along rivers and streams • Shelters were built from available materials, often plastered on the exterior to keep out rain and cold • Log cabins built for winter living • Fishing and raising crops including maize (corn) • Barter: trading goods and services without use of money was an economic system

21. Cherokee Religious Beliefs • Believed Earth was large island resting on water • “This World”: tribe was at center of the earth • “Upper World”: above This World; clean and pure world; Sun and Moon chief gods • “Under World”: in waters below This World; disorder and change • Deer and birds were honored; bears were not

22. Other Cherokee Lifestyle Practices • Drank ginseng potion to shop bleeding or shortness of breath • Smoked tobacco on ceremonial occasions when seeking the gods’ blessings • Green Corn Ceremony held to give thanks for corn, the most important food source • Followed “Law of Retaliation,” avenging a wrong by getting even; this law helped prevent feuds within a tribe Click to return to Table of Contents.

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