1301 First Short Response: The First Americans

1301 First Short Response: The First Americans

For this first short response, you will examine America’s first peoples, who established complex societies centuries before the arrival of the Europeans in the late 15th century. An estimated 2 to 5 million people lived in what is now the United States, with diverse populations stretching from the Pacific coast and across the west to the many cultures existing along the East coast.
Though it is true that many Native Peoples were semi-nomadic, many others established communities with agriculture and large buildings, including the Pueblo tribes of the desert Southwest and the Mound Builders of the vast Mississippi-Illinois region.
Using the video clips below as well as Chapter 1 in the Eric Foner book, describe America’s original inhabitants. Foner describes some of the belief systems and cultural aspects of these people, as well as the diversity of culture based on region and geography (see page 11). In very general terms, what were their beliefs regarding religion and perhaps most importantly land (see pages 12-13)? Is there anything in these clips or the Foner book that surprised you about these people, or that you think is seldom acknowledged by historians or by most Americans today? In short, what was America like before the European invasion?

The Clips:

Crash Course in U.S. History #1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E9WU9TGrec&t=22s

A short clip on the city of Cahokia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vN4S1jFUp0

A New Mexico True segment on Chaco Canyon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzmLnsljAKo

So write at least 150 words (and no more than 2 pages) on your response to these clips and the Foner reading. While I always want to see your reaction and thoughts, in order to receive full credit your response must quote from at least one of the film clips and once from the Foner book.
A good quote will be a full sentence from either the Foner book or the film clips and have something to do with what you are writing about and responding to. Please see the Writing Tips in Blackboard for more on how and what to quote. You must say where you got the quote, so you can just say “According to the film clip on Cahokia…” or “On page 11, Eric Foner explains that “ the people of the west…” So in other words, a full sentence and attribution.
I am not grading on grammar but these responses do need to be accurate and show me you watched the clips and did the reading.
You will submit this and all writing assignments here on Blackboard. If you’re unclear how to do this, here’s a link to a quick video:
Submit an assignment tutorial https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cv1KOhABlBE

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