Native American Societies Before European Contact TEST

What’s a Clovis point, and what does it tell us about the way the North American continent was settled by human beings?

• Clovis points are the name archaeologists gave to small coin-like tokens made of shells; it suggests that ancient North Americans used trade currencies

• Clovis Point is a mesa in New Mexico that functions as a giant sundial; it tells us that ancient North American peoples used the sun to navigate

• It’s a sharpened stone tool, and it tells us that humans have been on the North American continent for at least 13,500 years

The Oneida, Mohawk, Seneca, Tuscarora, Cayuga, and Onondaga peoples of the Northeast formed a political group known as

• The Iroquois Confederacy

• The Comanche Empire

• The Mohawk Trading Union

Where’s the Bering Strait, and what does it have to do with the history of the North American continent?

• It’s a waterway that separates present-day Siberia from present-day Alaska; historians theorize that humans made their way across a now-vanished land bridge from Asia to North America

• It’s the isthmus that connects Central and South America; anthropologists and paleontologists surmise that human beings originated there

• It’s the shortest distance between the North American continent and Denmark; medieval Vikings made their way to Vinland across the Strait in the 10th century CE

"Three Sisters" farming was an agricultural system of companion planting innovated by the Iroquois-speaking peoples of the Northeast; farmers planted corn, beans, and squash together. The beans used the cornstalks as a trellis to grow on, but how did beans benefit the other two plants in the system?

• Bean shoots reached out and strangled weeds, leaving the way clear for the other companion plants

• Bacteria on the roots of beans ‘fix’ nitrogen from the atmosphere into the soil, fertilizing the earth for the benefit of the corn and squash

• Bean leaves provided crucial shade for the squash, which can be damaged by too much direct sunlight; the shade enabled the squash to develop vital nutrients

Ancestral Pueblo people had a thriving agricultural society, as opposed to more nomadic societies. What’s the big trade-off for prioritizing agriculture over hunting?

• Illness spreads more quickly in sedentary farming communities than it does in nomadic societies

• Hunting societies are better at making war than agricultural societies; the former often conquered the latter in the Southwest

• Agriculture-based societies have a more reliable source of calories, but are more vulnerable to drought

The Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole peoples were called the “Five Civilized Tribes” by Anglo-European colonists. Why did they deem these five groups of people ‘civilized’, and not others?

• They were thought to have the best food and most elaborate art practices

• They had the most advanced weaponry prior to European contact

• They adopted elements of European colonial culture like Christianity, literacy, and slavery

Cahokia, the largest of the settlements of the Mississippian culture, is renowned for

• Monks Mound, an enormous structure similar in size to the Great Pyramid of Giza

• Its precarious perch at the very edge of the Grand Canyon

• The extremely precise and sharp tools created from the volcanic rock that the city was built upon

Mississippian cultures were vast and complex, but which of these is the most accurate brief description of their societies?

• Mississippians were hunter-gatherers and nomads who followed the migrations of bison herds up and down the river valley

• Mississippian peoples cultivated corn on Mississippi Valley floodplains and created pottery and immense earthworks

• Mississippian peoples lived in cliff dwellings along the Mississippi River, building structures in the shadows of cliffs to escape the punishing Midwestern sun

Artist's conception of the city of Cahokia, near modern-day St. Louis. At its peak around 1100 CE, Cahokia had 20,000 residents. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Based on the evidence of Cahokia, which of the following might historians conclude about the Mississippian peoples?

• They had significant social organization, which allowed them to coordinate the construction of large buildings.

• They were deeply religious, worshiping a diverse pantheon of gods.

• They depended on fishing for their main source of food.

• They rarely went to war with other tribes, which gave them time to focus on art and music.

Read the passage and answer the question below.

"Around 7,000 years ago, agriculture emerged in Mesoamerica, including the domestication of maize, beans, and squash, causing major changes in the plants that people cultivated. Three sisters agriculture had spread across Mexico by 3,500 years ago, though they originated at different times."

-Source: Amanda J. Landon, anthropologist, "The 'How' of the Three Sisters," 2008

Which of the following pieces of evidence would best support Landon’s argument in the excerpt?

• archaeological remains of ancient seeds

• oral histories of hunting and gathering

• fossilized animal bones and teeth

• written inventories of annual harvests