American Indians

We turn now back to the Indians, who have been mostly unaware of all the exploration. They are more familiar with the occasional small English vessels, which come each year to fish for cod off the coast.

Indians inhabiting the eastern half of America live in a land of plentiful rainfall, where game animals can be found almost everywhere, and hunted throughout the year. They live in permanent villages thinly sprinkled about.

These villages contain clusters of rounded huts, usually covered in bark. They are often enclosed within wooden stockade fences, much like those erected by the Europeans who will soon be arriving.

The Plains Indians inhabit a different, dryer land, and live in camps of teepees, as they follow the buffalo herds so necessary for survival. The herds move each year from summer to winter feeding grounds, and the Indians follow.


	Indian Homeland Indians live all over the North America and South America for thousands of years before the arrival of the first Europeans. They don't yet have horses, and won't until the Spanish bring them. The Great Plains, where many western Indians live, receive little annual rainfall. By contrast, the dense woodlands of the eastern half of the country typically get plenty of rain. The difference is so dramatic that you can see it on the satellite image of America, above. The West is brown, while the East is green.



	Easterners Indians of the eastern woodlands don't live in teepees, which are only used in the West, where camps need to be moved when herds move. Instead, they live in semi-permanent huts covered with bark or straw mats (lower left). Hunting and fishing are key sources of food, but Indians also keep small garden plots of corn, squash and other vegetables.


	Midwesterners The Midwest is the middle of America, occupying the region around and below the Great Lakes. It contains most of America's best farmland, and is often called the nation's breadbasket. Indians in this area are mostly peaceful. Several of today's Midwestern states have Indian names, adopted from local tribes.


	Southerners The southern tribes include the Cherokee, who live in the Appalachian region of Georgia and North Carolina. They are among the five 'Civilized Tribes' who attempt to assimilate into white culture. Even so, white settlers eventually force them out of their homeland, to be resettled in far-away Oklahoma.


	Prairie Dwellers The Plains Indians are the ones most familiar to modern Americans, from their appearances in dozens of Westerns. They are typically depicted in fully-feathered war bonnets, leaping upon their horses to ravage settlers. In fact, most Indian attacks are small-scale raids until after the Civil War, when the US Cavalry begins relentlessly hunting down all remaining free Indians. The Plains Indians are totally dependent upon the immense herds of buffalo which roam the Great Plains.


	Pacific Coast Indians Some western Indian tribes, like the Paiute and Shoshoni, spread out over large areas, where rainfall is meager. Elsewhere, tribes are much more compact. Northwest Indians enjoy plentiful rainfall, and rich coastal fishing. Indians in the Desert Southwest face a more hostile environment. Harvesting from a giant cactus may seem extreme, but it can be simple survival for the Indians.