How did Native Americans’ conceptions of the spiritual world influence their daily lives?Most Native North Americans were animists who believed that the natural world was suffused with spiritual power. They interpreted dreams and visions to understand the world, and their rituals appeased guardian spirits to ensure successful hunts and other forms of good fortune. Although their views were subject to countless local variations, certain patterns were widespread.Women and men interacted differently with these spiritual forces. In farming communities, women grew crops and maintained hearth, home, and village. Native American ideas about female power linked their bodies’ generative functions with the earth’s fertility, and rituals like the Green Corn Ceremony — a summer ritual of purification and renewal — helped to sustain the life-giving properties of the world around themFor men, spiritual power was invoked in hunting and war. To ensure success in hunting, men took care not to offend the spirits of the animals they killed. They performed rituals before, during, and after a hunt to acknowledge the power of those guardian spirits, and they believed that, when an animal had been killed properly, its spirit would rise from the earth unharmed. Success in hunting and prowess in war were both interpreted as signs of sacred protection and power.Ideas about war varied widely. War could be fought for geopolitical reasons — to gain ground against an enemy — but for many groups, warfare was a crucial rite of passage for young men, and raids were conducted to allow warriors to prove themselves in battle. Motives for war could be highly personal; war was often more like a blood feud between families than a contest between nations. If a community lost warriors in battle, it might retaliate by capturing or killing a like number of warriors in response — a so-called mourning war. Some captives were adopted into new communities, while others were enslaved or tortured.

Today, Native American writers commonly use themes of nature and environment in their books and stories. This focus is partly an effort to draw a greater awareness to global environmental concerns. Historically, the foundation of Native American cultures has been grounded in the relationship between the natural environment and the people. Ancient beliefs teach that the survival of both the people and the land is dependent on a mutual respect for one another. Both the people and the land are alive and in a continuous state of habitation and coexistence. In fact, the Earth is perceived as being just as alive and animated as any person or animal. This kinship still influences numerous aspects of life for many Native American cultures across the nation.12Which statement correctly describes the purpose of the passage above? A. The passage persuades readers to be more environmentally aware. B. The passage informs readers about themes used by certain writers. C. The passage describes how to be more environmentally conservative. D. The passage entertains the reader with a story about the Earth.

How did landscape, climate, and resources influence the development of Native American societies?Expansive trade networks tied together regions and carried valuable goods hundreds and even thousands of miles. Trade goods included food and raw materials, tools, ritual artifacts, and decorative goods. Trade enriched diets, enhanced economies, and allowed the powerful to set themselves apart with luxury items.In areas where Indians specialized in a particular economic activity, regional trade networks allowed them to share resources. Thus nomadic hunters of the southern plains, including the Navajos and Apaches, conducted annual trade fairs with Pueblo farmers, exchanging hides and meat for maize, pottery, and cotton blankets. Similar patterns of exchange occurred throughout the Great Plains, wherever hunters and farmers coexisted. In some parts of North America, a regional trade in war captives who were offered as slaves helped to sustain friendly relations among neighboring groups. One such network developed in the Upper Mississippi River basin, where Plains Indian captives were traded, or given as diplomatic gifts, to Ottawas and other Great Lakes and eastern woodlands peoples.Rare and valuable objects traveled longer distances. Great Lakes copper, Rocky Mountain mica, jasper from Pennsylvania, obsidian from New Mexico and Wyoming, and pipestone from the Midwest have all been found in archaeological sites hundreds of miles from their points of origin. Seashells — often shaped and polished into beads and other artifacts — were highly prized and widely distributed. Grizzly bear claws and eagle feathers were valuable, high-status objects. After European contact, Indian hunters often traveled long distances to trade for cloth, iron tools, and weapons. Historians debate the extent to which such long-distance connections helped to create deeper cultural ties. Powerful leaders controlled much of a community’s wealth and redistributed it to prove their generosity and strengthen their authority. In small, kin-based bands, the strongest hunters possessed the most food, and sharing it was essential. In chiefdoms, rulers filled the same role, often collecting the wealth of a community and then redistributing it to their followers. Powhatan, the powerful Chesapeake Bay chief, reportedly collected nine-tenths of the produce of the communities he oversaw — “skins, beads, copper, pearls, deer, turkeys, wild beasts, and corn” — and then gave much of it back to his subordinates. His generosity was considered a mark of good leadership. In the Pacific Northwest, the Chinook word potlatch refers to periodic festivals in which wealthy residents gave away belongings to friends, family, and followers

How did landscape, climate, and resources influence the development of Native American societies?

How did Native Americans incorporate progressive practices to their own ends?

Although the idea of “America” today carries with it features and values of a modernized, technologically sophisticated society very remote from the life of continent’s aboriginal peoples, there exists some intriguing arguments for these people having been archetypically American.Like all subsequent inhabitants of North America, the Indians were immigrants.Second,...they were a mobile people.Finally, like Americans of later time, the Americans were extraordinarily varied in the cultures they developed...Because of this remarkable cultural and religious diversity stretched over both space and time, it is difficult to be both general and meaningful in discussing Native Americans.Williams, Peter W. America's Religions: Traditions and Cultures. Macmillan,1998 p. 3-4Which of the following statements BEST supports the author's argument about Pre-Columbian cultures?Elimination ToolSelect one answerANative American societies were economically isolated and tended not to trade with each other.BNative American societies often developed cultures that had characteristics dependent upon the nature of their specific geography.CNative American societies often developed complex writing systems.DNative American societies never waged war or conducted diplomacy with each other.