Missions to the American Southwest

Many recent posts have focused on the events surrounding the founding of colonies on the Atlantic coast, many of which were English. It's important to keep in mind that today the United States is far larger than the colonies which fought in the American Revolution.

As noted in an earlier post, Columbus never stepped foot in the United States, however subsequent Spanish voyages destroyed the Aztec civilization in Mexico. The Spanish Empire was able to colonize the Western Hemisphere including where Mexico is today, and pioneering conquistadors and priests extended the Empire's reach into the American Southwest.

Don Juan Onate ventures into today's Texas and New Mexico in 1598.

"I set out, on the sixteenth of March, with the great multitude of wagons, women, and children...bringing me to these provinces of New Mexico with all his Majesty's army enjoying perfect health....I reached these provinces on the 28th day of May (going ahead with as many as 60 soldiers to pacify the land." - Onate

Two things I'll call out for now. The colonization of the Americas is consistently at least in part a military operation. The Spanish seem to do it a more robust way, but the idea of needing pacify the land isn't unusual. This particular expedition with 60 soldiers sounds more equipped to engage in hostilities when compared to the Plymouth Colony. The other noteworthy thing, is that role of the family here. Colonization is also a family affair. In order for the colony to be perpetuated whether you are settling Massachusetts or New Mexico, you need women and children, otherwise your colony won't survive the current generation. (At some point, I'll need to circle back to this idea specifically)

Other recurring themes of colonization play out for Onate in the Southwest, but the heavier military presences allows for the events to unfold somewhat differently.

"exciting a rebellion among more than 45 soldiers and captains, who under the pretext of not finding immediately whole plates of silver lying on the ground..." - Onate

This mutiny of sorts arrises in August, not quite 6 months into their venture. If he truly set out with 60 soldiers, he's lost whatever connection or credibility he needs with 75% of his soldiers. We also see here the hope or expectations that colonization will return riches quickly, and when they fail to, it leads to tension and unrest.

While all colonization was somewhat religious in nature, it was a main focus for the Spanish mission. Onate indicates that by October, his church was ready to hold mass, "in order to lose not time, at the beginning of October, this first church having been founded, wherein first mass was celebrated on the 8th of September."

Spanish missions such as the Alamo in San Antonio still exist today. One of the oldest examples still standing today is at Acoma Pueblo, the mission of San Estavan del Rey built in 1629. As noted in an earlier post about Native Americans in the American Southwest, the Anasazi culture had been their for long period of time before unrest at Chaco Canyon appears to have given rise to Pueblo culture where more cities were built up higher in the cliffs. Acoma Pueblo has been inhabited for 500 years before the mission church was built.

Of course colonies are expected to turn a profit, and Onate does note that they eventually have some success and there "are places where we recently discovered the rich mines..." Even with these mines, Onate specifically calls out other things which have economic value, "Others wear buffalo hides, of which there is a great abundance. They have the most excellent wool, of whose value I am sending a small sample...It is land abounding in flesh of buffalo, goats with hideous horns, and turkeys...there is game of all kinds" Onate also sends back a sample of ores and honey.

Colonies need a population of people, and part of the Spanish mission was to bring Native Americans into the fold as Catholic subjects of the Crown of Spain, Onate reports on this as well, "to make a conservative estimate, seventy thousand Indians settled after our custom, house adjoining house with square plazas". And Onate comments on local religions of the local people, "Their religion consists in worshipping idols of which they have many, and in their temples, after their own manner, they worship them with fire, painted reeds, feathers, and universal offerings...." And what happens when these cultures collide?

From Onate's own latter, he claims to have met Apaches who were living in pueblos and attempted to compel them to "render obedience to His Majesty, although not by means of legal instruments like the rest of the provinces" Onate goes on to note that after a dozen of his counterparts are killed by the residents of Acoma, "As punishment for its crime and its treason against his Majesty, to whom it had already rendered submission by a public instrument and as warning to the rest, I raised and burned it completely."

In short, Onate expects that the Native Americans should be willing subjects of the Spanish Crown and willing converts to Catholicism and Spanish culture. Resistance met is to be put down as a warning to the other tribes. By his own estimates, Acoma was populated with thousands of people, and if his account is accurate, he had not qualms about committing genocide to put everyone on notice.

Onate closes his letter requesting 500 additional men, preferably married to aid in the settling of and pacifying of the land, and the preaching of the Gospel. Noteworthy here, that at least in his letter, Onate's description of the Spanish colonization sounds somewhat dissimilar to English colonization. Where the Plymouth Colony or Jamestown seem to have a defined border where the colony ends and the Native American lands start, the Spanish colonization reads more like occupation and conversion.

The National Park Service describes the Spanish mission thusly: "The Spanish colonization of the southwest and California followed the same patterns and methods, as in Mexico, with the obligatory adaptations as well as abuses and errors of any conquest. All expeditions into unknown lands were guided by the sword of the soldier and the cross of the missionary. In the great expeditions in North America during the mid-1500s, friars marched among hundreds of soldiers."

A history of American colonization shows that both English and Spanish colonization had little regard for the Native American peoples already living in the Americas. At the same time as European civilization is transplanted along the Atlantic Coast, it is spreading into the American Southwest. The history of the Spanish colonization of the Southwest during the 16th and 17th Centuries (and alongside the colonization of the Atlantic Coast) is important to recognize as part of US History, as the decedents of the Spanish colonials become part of the United States when the Southwest annexed into the United States (also a post for a later time). The establishment of these Spanish colonies within what is today the United States is an important part of not only of Latinx or Hispanic heritage but also the history and heritage of the United States as a whole.

Jamestown - Finding Virginia and Violence

After the failure to successfully establish a colony on Roanoke Island, the English don't give up. They make another attempt at establishing a presence in Virginia, it's called Jamestown.

The colony at Roanoke had not gone to plan and a voyage in 1590 found a twice deserted colony; however, this gave the English some time to learn their lessons and to learn from others. As John Smith prepares to set sail for Virginia, drafts a notice ahead of time which suggests a variety of actions from describing a good place to make land to how to defend oneself.


"And to the end that you be not surprized as the French were in Florida by Melindus, and the Spaniard in the same place by the French, you shall do well to make this double provision. First, erect a little stoure at the mouth of the river that might lodge some ten men; with whom you shall leave a light boat, that when any fleet shall be in sight, they may come with speed to give you warning. Secondly, you must in no case suffer any of the native people of the country to inhabit between you and the sea coast; for you cannot carry yourselves so towards them, but they will grow discontented with your habitation, and be ready to guide and assist any nation that shall come to invade you: and if you neglect this, you neglect your safety." - John Smith

As noted in earlier posts, the English Reformation put in England in a difficult spot, especially with regards to Catholic countries. Spain in particular has significant holdings in the Western Hemisphere with claims on Florida, the American Southwest, Mexico, and more. The French have also joined the parade of European nations looking for a passage around or through the Americas to reach India. The City of Quebec is founded in 1608, and serves as a toehold for the French in North America. For English persons headed to the Virginia colony, assistance from England would take time to arrive, and it's clear Smith's first concern is interference from other European nations. In a way, you could almost liken the colonization of the Americas to the space race. European countries attempt to explore and claim land faster than they actually know what they are claiming, mostly to outcompete each other.

His second warning is something of a consistent lesson learned in colonizing the Americas. Initial encounters between local people and Europeans often seem to start well and then become hostile. We established earlier that there was trade between the Native American nations, and we can certainly assume that word travels about the European arrivals. In my last post, I noted that the initial greeting when the English reached Roanoke seemed more aggressive than the greeting Columbus received. Knowing that the first settlers of Roanoke sailed back to England, and that the second group mysteriously disappeared, Smith recommends ensuring that this new group of settlers have a clear path back to the ocean. He also has other advice on their survival:

"In all your passages you must have great care not to offend the naturals, if you can eschew it; and imploy some few of your company to trade with them for corn and all other lasting victuals if you [?they] have any: and this you must do before that they perceive you mean to plant among them; for not being sure how your own seed corn will prosper the first year, to avoid the danger of famine, use and endeavour to store yourselves of the country corn."

The first Roanoke colony had supply problems. Colonization is difficult, you can only carry so much across the ocean, and then you need establish shelter, fortifications, crops, and find some way to produce profit. Smith's suggestion here is to establish good relations with the local people, in particular as a way to attain food.

Other documents from the voyage appear to indicate that initial interactions (accounts from 1602) with Native Americans in Virginia go pretty well. They dine and drink together,

"The seventh, the seignior came again with all his troop as before, and continued with us the most part of the day, we going to dinner about noon, they sat with us and did eat of our bacaleure and mustard, drank of our beer."

 Smith also indicates that other early interactions are agreeable.

"In the midway staying to refresh our selves in little Ile foure or five savages came unto us which described unto us the course of the River, and after in our journey, they often met us, trading with us for such provision as wee had, and ariving at Arsatecke, hee whom we supposed to bee the chiefe King of all the rest, moste kindely entertained us, giving us in a guide to go with us up the River to Powhatan, of which place their great Emperor taketh his name, where he that they honored for King used us kindely" - John Smith

From the early accounts, it sounds as if the Powhatans are willing to guide the English on the river, help them forage for food, and make trade with them. Just after spending a day learning to forage for mussels, Smith claims, "where the first we heard was that 400. Indians the day before assalted the fort, & surprised". The English strengthen their palisade defenses and manage to find peace with their neighbors for a short time after.

And then another setback, this time instead of Native Americans getting sick, some of the English start getting sick. "Shortly after Captaine Gosnold fell sicke, and within three weeks died, Captaine Ratcliffe being then also verie sicke and weake, and my selfe having also tasted of the extremitie therof," and they pray that God would have their neighbors bring them corn, rather than prey upon them while they are ill. After 46 of Smith's compatriots had died and with their supplies dwindling, "the Indians brought us great store both of Corne and bread ready made". If Smith's accounts are to be taken at face value, he spends much of the summer and fall making trades with different Native American villages to bring supplies into the colony that seems to often be on the verge of collapse.

Smith goes on to tell a tale that sounds vaguely Marco Polo-esque. While out with a couple of Native American guides, he and a few men are attacked. Smith survives and is carried away, and then treated as a sort of royal prisoner, where he ingratiates himself with their king and eventually returned to the fort. "The Empereur Powhatan, each weeke once or twice, sent me many presents of Deare, bread Raugroughcuns; halfe alwayes for my father whom he much desired to see, and halfe for me". His accounts seem quite fantastic, but accounts seem to indicate that Smith presides over a period of time where there was some chance for a stable-ish coexistence. After Smith returns to England, things begin to unravel.

By 1610, again short on supplies, a convoy arrives late, and an an assessment of the Virginia Colony is made which lists a variety of faults from the general character of the men of the colony, to the lack of care in mending and maintaining fishing nets, to even a the story of a grizzly murder whereby a man dismembered his wife. This account is almost as fantastic Smith's but in the opposite direction. After accounting for many of the Englishmen's faults and sins, the author notes:

"The state of the Colony, by these accidents began to find a sensible declying: which Powhatan (as a greedy Vulture) observing, and boyling with desire of revenge, he invited Captaine Ratclife, and about thirty others to trade for Corne, and under the colour of fairest friendship, he brought them within the compasse of his ambush, whereby they were cruelly murthered, and massacred.".

The relationship between the English settlers and Powhatans stays sour at this point and devolves into violence. An account from 1614 claims, "Being thus justly provoked, we presently manned our boats, went ashoare, and burned in that verie place some forty houses, and of the things we found therein, made freeboote and pillage." Peace is only able to be brokered after the English are able to hold the chief's daughter, Matoaka or Pocahontas, hostage:

"two of Powhatans sonnes being very desirous to see their sister who was there present ashore with us, came unto us, at the sight of whom, and her well fare, whom they suspected to be worse intreated, though they had often heard the contrary, they much rejoyced, and promised that they would undoubtedly perswade their father to redeem her, and to conclude a firme peace forever with us"

Pocahontas marries John Rolfe, in what feels like a feudal marriage, a marriage to help create a peace between kingdoms. The first interracial marriage in Virginia brings about a short period of peace between Powhatan and the English. Rolfe is able realize the potential of planting tobacco in Virginia, and England begins to see a return on investment. Pocahontas dies in 1617, and the future events are somewhat predictable. The English and Powhatan return to fighting, but the fate of the colony is already decided, a letter from 1619 notes, "All our riches for the present doe consiste in Tobacco". The letter foreshadows other events of 1619, John Rolfe's notes from the same year highlight the coming of colony's first slaves, a "free" labor source to help make cropping in the colonies profitable.

Jamestown might be a lesson in what could have been. Perhaps there was a window of opportunity for Europeans peoples and Americans peoples to chart a path together. Or perhaps Jamestown is simply a foreshadowing of future events with English settlers arriving on the coast, working their way inland, taking whatever land they can, and then using slave labor to work stolen land.

The First Colony of Virginia Starts in North Carolina

Queen Elizabeth I reigns during a time of unrest in England after her father, Henry VIII, broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in order to secure a divorce; her brother Edward doesn't last long on the thrown; her sister, Mary becomes queen and tries to reverse the course of the English reformation and attempts by force to bring the country back to the Catholic Church. After Mary's death, Elizabeth is now queen of England and Ireland and her church...

Elizabeth's reign is an interesting time for both English history and world history, and whole sets of college coursework can be found on Elizabethan England, the Tudor-Stuart House, and early modern Britain & Ireland. There's exactly 0 chance of me unpacking all of that here. What's most important  to be aware of is that:

• On the continent of Europe the Protestant Reformation is playing out. England's in a tricky spot because Ireland, France, and Spain are Catholic. The English crown is currently Anglican, which while not Catholic, it isn't really seen as truly protestant either as opposed to Lutherans or Calvinists. (Reformation as being played out by German and Dutch reformers and Scottish Presbyterianism)
• The global picture has Spain as the dominant naval force. At about the same time as Elizabeth was born, Pizarro massacres the Incans and executes their emperor. Spain is extracting goods for trade (tobacco) and gold out of the New World. Stolen New World gold is filling Spanish coffers. The Spanish Empire is very much on the rise and Spain's Armada (navy) is the means. European kingdoms become quickly aware of the need to explore and colonize in order to keep pace.
• Domestically, Elizabeth has her hands full. She isn't married, she's the "Virgin Queen". Rulers from outside England and the English nobility are all interested suitors. She also has religious affairs to attend to and anyone not participating in the Anglican church like Catholics is a potential threat to her rule.

Enter Sir Walter Raleigh, whose name will one day be given to the capital of North Carolina. As noted above, Queen Elizabeth has plenty to keep her eye on during her reign, including Irish Catholics (subjects to the English crown, despite not being English or Anglican, or having much say in the matter) connect with Spanish and Italian Catholics in common cause. The rebellion takes places on Irish soil where English gentry had been given rights to Irish lands and turned these into plantations (If this sounds a bit like American history, that's because it is.) This particular uprising in 1580 takes place in Munster, where Spanish and Italian forces had joined Irish Catholics in revolt. Walter Raleigh was an officer in the English response and appears to have participated in the Massacre at the Siege of Smerwick. Raleigh ends up being one of Queen Elizabth's closest allies and suitors and is granted the rights to colonize part of the Americas.


The language used in granting these rights is worth noting specifically: "discover, search, finde out, and view such remote, heathen and barbarous lands, countreis, and territories, not actually possessed of any Christian prince, nor inhabited by Christian people, as to him, his heires and assignes, and to every or any of them shall seeme good, and the same to have, holde, occupy".


In short, Raleigh has the go ahead to go adventuring. Any land he finds that is populated by non-Christian (probably means non-Anglican based on the religious events of the day) is his to keep because those currently in possession are just barbarians anyway. Queen Elizabeth is well aware that the Spanish encountered nations across the ocean. She certainly expects that Raleigh will as well, and she's given him the go ahead to dispossess these nations of their land.

The plan for the English colonization of the Americas is something being tested out in Ireland, and which Walter Raleigh already some experience of from his time Ireland during the Munster rebellion.

Walter Raleigh funds and assembles the expedition to establish a colony in the Americas, ultimately be called Virginia, named after her majesty the Virgin Queen. The first attempt at colonization is led by John White who lands at Roanoke Island (in modern day North Carolina).

The initial encounter between the English and local Algonquins is described like this:

"Inhabitants therof as soone as they saw us began to make a great and horrible crye, as people which never befoer had seene men apparelled like us, and camme a way makinge out crys like wild beasts or men out of their wyts. But beeng gentlye called backe, wee offred them of our wares, as glasses, knives, babies, and other trifles, which wee thougt they deligted in. Soe they stood still, and percevinge our Good will and courtesie came fawninge uppon us, and bade us welcome. Then they brougt us to their village in the iland called, Roanoac, and unto their Weroans or Prince, which entertained us with Reasonable curtesie, althoug they wear amased at the first sight of us."

This interaction sounds roughly similar to Columbus' first interaction with the Taino. Europeans arrive on ships. The people already living there come out to greet them (arguably in a more aggressive fashion this time), and they are start with an amicable meeting, sharing goods and greeting the local village and leaders. The attire of the local people is one of the first things noted including descriptions of hair, robes, and jewelry made of pearls and copper.

The village where the English arrive is described thusly:

"Their townes that are not inclosed with poles are commonlye fayrer then suche as are inclosed, as appereth in this figure which livelye expresseth the towne of Secotam. For the howses are Scattered heer and ther, and they have gardein expressed by the letter E. wherin groweth Tobacco which the inhabitants call Uppowoc. They have also groaves wherin thei take deer, and fields wherin they sowe their corne"

The local people are planting and harvesting corn which as noted in an earlier post was a staple food crop in the Americas. What's also noteworthy here is the description of growing tobacco in a garden. Tobacco had become known to the Europeans as the Spanish began to bring it back. This is a new world plant which we are familiar with today, and like today it was used for smoking. The English at this point don't know it but the writing is already on the wall for Virginia.

Unlike the Spanish who encountered civilizations that had amassed some gold which the Spanish stole to fill their coffers, and then used to pay for their Armada; there is no gold, just the copper and pearl jewelry. The future success of the colony won't be in repossessing Native American gold, the English are eventually going to need to learn to grow Native American crops for a profit.

A colony is setup on the island in 1585, and the colony fails to thrive. The situation is described like this:

"They answered him that they lived all; but hitherto in some scarsity: and as yet could heare of no supply out of England: therefore they requested him that hee would leave with them some two or three ships, that if in some reasonable time they heard not out of England, they might then returne themselves.".

Their supplies and food are low, and they ask Francis Drake to leave ships (when he stops by apparently in the midst of other voyages) so they can return to England if they want.

Colonization is hard. Some small number of people need to find or grow food successfully, build their own housing, and craft whatever tools or parts they need without the usual resources. They also know that any help from England is a long time away. Colonization is even harder if you thought that you were going to land and immediately find gold which could be funneled back to Walter Raleigh and the Queen of England, but you fail to find any.

The first colony is abandoned by the English who return with Drake bringing corn, tobacco, and potatoes back to England.

A more famous second attempt is made which plays out more like an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. The Lost Colony continues to be the one taught in US History classes as it's the one that captures our imaginations.

However the story of the first colony teaches a number of valuable lessons: First, we can see clearly that the English intention is clearly to repossess whatever land they can from whatever people are already living there. Second, we can also see that this isn't a first attempt at this kind of colonization, it's something these same figures were trying in Ireland. Third, we can see the foreshadowing that colonization of North America is going to take longer to fetch a real return on investment; it will have to grow up around trade and farming rather than looting temples and cities of their gold.


But at the end of the day, the first of the 13 colonies is effectively established.

Wampum Belts and the Haudenosaunee Confederation

Americas first peoples arrived at the end of the last Ice Age, eventually cultivated a wide variety of food crops which we still enjoy today, and built some impressive cities which you can still visit today...

It's important to keep in mind that America's first peoples were in fact peoples. While previous posts have noted common themes like cities planned out along celestial lines or the importance of maize as a staple food; the Native Americans were divided into distinct nations. Previously, we explored parts of the Southwest and Midwest, so tonight we'll turn out attention eastward.


A previous post touched on food as a part of culture, but artistry and craftsmanship shouldn't go ignored. The Wampum Belt is an exquisite example of fine craftsmanship, attention to detail, making use of available resources, and the ability of art to convey a message. Not long ago, I watched a show where this art form was being passed on to a younger generation, I believe using glass beads, but the original beads had been made of shells. What's most interesting about the belt isn't the skill of turning shells into beads or even weaving them together, it's the care and attention that is spent on conveying a message. The belts aren't just a piece of art; they are a record like a Medieval tapestry or the plaid patterns of the Celts. Important stories and messages are written into these belts.


Perhaps the most famous of these Wampum Belts is the Hiawatha Belt. This belt symbolizes the union of the five tribes who became the Haudenosaunee (aka Iroquois) Confederation. There's an oral history of the Great Peacemaker bringing the 5 tribes together to form the Confederation which you can enjoy by clicking here.


The people of the Confederation shared a common language, and lived in modern day New York and Pennsylvania. From reading various articles and interpretations of the oral history; it's hard to pin down an exact date for the forming of the Haudenosaunee Confederation. The range appears to be from after 1100 AD to before 1500 AD which is the kind of gap history textbooks aren't typically comfortable with. The Haudenosaunee lived in wooden long houses, and the population estimates vary between 5,000 and 20,000 people in the nation. Note this is a big difference when compared to the more urban societies of Cahokia or Teotihaucan, which had as many people in a single city.


According to the oral history, the Great Peacemaker traveled with Hiawatha, leader of the Onondaga people, and Jigonhsasee, a woman known for counseling warriors. After a period of wars between the Onondaga, Seneca, Mohawk, Cayugas, and Oneida; the leaders are brought together to broker peace. Each group is able to maintain their own leadership structure but these leaders also meet as a council to decide on common causes. It should be noted that part of the law under which the Haudenosaunee Confederation operated share commonalities with our US Constitution. In the 18th Century as the colonies tried to chart a way forward in unison, they looked to the Haudenosaunee Confederation as an example of cooperation to follow.


Today, we still rely on symbolic or artistic representation to understand and communicate about past events. The 50 stars on the US flag represent a union of 50 states; in the same way the 5 tribes are represented on the Hiawatha Belt. But what you may not realize is that the bundle of arrows held in the bald eagle's talon under the banner reading "E Pluribus Unum" was a metaphor shared by a Haudenosaunee chief, Canassatego. Our culture and history today are influenced by the Americas original inhabitants even if that history has gone unnoticed in the past. I write this post knowing that I've brought us eastward for a reason, future posts will start looking at interactions of Europeans and the people already living on America's Atlantic coast.

Your Favorite Foods are Probably American in Origin

Modern cuisine benefits greatly from food crops originating in the Americas

Do you enjoy German chocolate? What about going out for Italian, there's nothing like pasta with tomato sauce? Enjoy bangers and mash? And of course Thai food often leverages peanuts? And in November, we sit down to a large meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberries, pumpkin pie, and corn.

The majority of the foods listed above have in part their origins in Native American agriculture. Here's a short list for you to take in (warning you might become hungry as you review): Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Tomatoes, Squash, Pumpkin, Corn, Avocado, Green Beans, Cacao, Peanuts, Peppers, and Cranberries.

Corn was arguably the most important crop of the Americas, it was grown and eaten not only by city-dwelling Native Americans like the Cahokians, but corn or maize was a staple crop across the Americas from Mexico to the American Southwest to the Midwest. It was domesticated from a wild grain around 9,000 years ago. Corn is still a major crop in the United States today, from popcorn, to high fructose corn syrup, to animal feed; the United States exports over a billion bushels of corn.

Many of these food crops in the Americas became incredibly valuable when grown in Europe. The potato supported the Incan Empire and later became the staple crop of Ireland. Tomatoes got their wild start in or near Peru as well, but appears to have been cultivated further north near the Yucatan. The tomato like the potato made its way to Europe, and oddly enough made it's way back across the ocean such that most of our garden varieties are ancestors of European breeds of tomato.

Today it's hard to imagine Italian cuisine without the tomato or Irish or German cuisine without the potato. In the Americas a wide variety of produce was being grown without the benefit of horses or oxen to pull plows.  Native peoples innovated new ways to grow crops to minimize depleting the soil; Three Sisters Planting combines growing corn, with beans, and pumpkin or squash together. Legumes like beans or peanuts put nitrogen back into the soil; it's the same reason farms in the Midwest rotate corn and soy today. The Three Sisters method provides other benefits, the corn acts as a pole or terrace for the beans to climb, and the leaves of the pumpkin or squash plants help keep the soil cool to retain water.

I've saved dessert for last. Cacao is a seed or nut which can be made into chocolate or cocoa. In the ancient Americas, it was turned into a drink. While the plant grew in South America, as it does today,  like today it was enjoyed elsewhere. In my last post, I touched on trade between ancient American cities, and cacao was no exception. Artifacts from Cahokia indicate that Cahokians were enjoying the same Cacao beverage enjoyed by their South American neighbors.

In short, the food crops of the Americas are not only delicious but they continue to impact our daily lives and economies around the world. Food is certainly a part of culture, and while we don't often reflect on the origins of our food, maybe the next time you sit down for a meal, you'll think about how America's first peoples cultivated it thousands of years before your meal.

From Nomads to City Life

Americas first peoples spread out across North and South America at the end of the Last Ice Age...

And unfortunately we don't know quite as much about these people as we'd like. It's the tricky thing with hunter-gatherers; they certainly leave clues behind: flint tools, arrow or spear heads, fossils, and petroglyphs (rock art), but a nomadic lifestyle does not lend itself to being materialistic, so they don't have quite as much stuff to leave behind. The information from the time of their first arrival to the development of better understood cultures like the Maya, Olmec, Aztec, Anasazi, or Mississippians is patchy.

The oldest known petroglyphs in the United States can be found in the southwest, in Nevada, dating back between 11,000 and 15,000 years ago. Agriculture in the Americas may date back to around 10,000 years ago with earliest domesticated plants coming from the squash family.

The history of agriculture has been typically intertwined with the development of the city, almost like the age old question of the chicken and the egg. One might say that people developed agriculture, then had a steady food source, and this allowed them to settle down and build cities; OR people found a place to successfully hunt, a place worth defending, built the city and then needed to support it with agriculture. Ultimately the truth may lie somewhere between these two theories. There's no reason to believe that people wouldn't have settled near places with plentiful hunting and wild grains. Evidence in Turkey seems to suggest that hunter gathers were capable of banding together to build Gobekli Tepe. The construction of this temple may turn the preconceived notion about the need for agriculture, urbanization, and specialization to build monuments on its head. It isn't an accident that that Americas first peoples settled in places where food crops like wild rice grew naturally. Evidence in the Americas suggests that people eventually settled where food was abundant and likely developed certain agricultural practices before building cities.

One of the oldest known cities in the Americas can be found in Guatemala. The Mayan city of Kaminaljuyu appears to date back to around 800 BCE. To give you some sense of the timeline, this is around the same time as the Phoenician civilization founded the City of Carthage. Like other urban sites, Kaminaljuyu is filled with the assortment of artifacts one would expect at a major dig site: specialized tools, workshops, pottery, agricultural products, and refuse. The development of agriculture and cities is really quite the amazing thing. The city restructures a society in incredibly important ways. It is in cities where you find an increase in job and skill specialization. This allows for focused development on further specializing tools. It encourages the development of social constructs: farm laborers vs artisans vs a priestly caste or ruling elite. Cities give rise to the development of mathematics and writing because working people need to know how much their work is worth and laws are put in place to maintain order.

One of the oldest cities in the Americas which best represents this development of specialization is Teotihuacan in Mexico. This is a well known, often visited UNESCO World Heritage Site adorned with large stone pyramids. The city dates back to the first century CE and at one point was home to an estimated 25,000 citizens. Simply feeding a population of 25,000 would have required a significant labor force of farmers, but in order to create the infrastructure found in the city, the city needed engineers, artisans, and probably some less skilled workers for mining the stone and moving it. And of course the development of the city also means, you have those who live in the city and those who live outside of it which is a different kind of social stratification.

So arguably I've diverged some from a history of the United States. Why focus in on the cultures developing near the Yucatan? Cahokia is why. American History textbooks often dive into the Aztecs and the Incas as a precursor for talking about Spanish exploration. My intention here is simply to use the earliest cities in the Americas as an example of how cities develop. Cahokia formed significantly later than Kaminaljuyu or Teotihuacan; the city was built near St. Louis MO on the Illinois-side of the great Mississippi River around 800 CE. Again for reference, to orient yourself on Earth's timeline, this is around 350 years after the Fall of Rome and around the time of Charlemagne's rule. Cahokia is built around a series of mounds of various heights. These mounds are highly reflective of the pyramids built at Teotihuacan; it's a comparable urban design. It has been speculated and evidence seems to support that the design of these cities is lined up as a greater celestial calendar. And this shouldn't be a surprise. Cahokia is home to wood henges, very much like the more famous Stonehenge. For an agricultural society, knowing when spring was coming, when to plant crops, when to harvest, these are the most important things, and they can be known by understanding the Sun and stars in the sky. Mississippian culture spread out from Cahokia and evidence of it can be found in Aztalan, WI as well as the Natchez in Mississippi. Between 1100 AD and 1200 AD, Cahokia erects palisade walls and eventually the city declines. The creation of fortifications suggests there was someone worth keeping out. That's one of the great challenges faced by many great cities, how do you interact with the folks outside of the city? The current theory about the fall of Cahokia points a collapse in agricultural (corn) production driven by climate change, and as food became more scarce, the social order collapsed, sometimes violently. Before the Spanish fleet ever set sail, Cahokian civilization had collapsed. Today you can visit Cahokia in IL; it's a pretty fantastic site, and if you are otherwise in the Midwest, there are other mound sites for you to visit such as Aztalan in WI.

A post on the development of cities in the Americas would be remiss if it did not touch on the American Southwest. The Anasazi people, the ancestors of today's Pueblo peoples (the Hopi and Zuni) also took to constructing cities. There's a distinctly southwestern feel to the clay brick structures built up along cliffs overlooking the desert. These cities look like formidable fortifications and certainly give the appearance of being defendable. What's somewhat odd is that these people don't appear to have started off living in the cliffs. Anasazi culture appears to have developed around 1500 BC. Chaco Canyon is preserved as a national park today and was home to people for nearly 10,000 years. Between 800 and 1200 CE, massive stone Great Houses were built at Chaco, possibly felling 200,000 trees to complete the construction. The buildings in Chaco like the structures in Cahokia and Teotihaucan are oriented with celestial bodies. A system of roads connected the people of Chaco, and there is evidence that this civilization was trading with other peoples like the Cahokians. Trade amongst cities should not be surprising, as noted earlier, specialization develops within cities, such that if your city is really great at making pottery, the next city over might produce a food product you really want, then these cities become interconnected via trade. Oddly enough at around the same time as the decline of Cahokia, the Anasazi appear to retreat from Chaco Canyon and move up into the fortified cliffs. During the 12th century, Chaco Canyon also experiences forces of climate change becoming drier, and it had been potentially deforested in the efforts to build the Great Houses. There is also evidence of violence being a part of the collapse with fossil remains which appear to have been butchered and boiled. If the land in Chaco Canyon was no longer able to support sustained agriculture and violence erupted, this may explain why people split off into smaller groups, building impressively fortified cities hidden upon the cliffs.

While neither of the high societies of Chaco or Cahokia were in place to meet the European explorers in the 15th of 16th Centuries, their descendants would encounter the Europeans with consequences no less disastrous than the fall of these civilizations. (That's a post for another day) There are also lessons to be learned today in understanding how these cities rose to power and fell. Cities, even today, are dependent on a steady source of food, on agriculture. It must be grown in sufficient quantity to be brought in and sustain the city's population. Food scarcity is a fast track to social disorder. And agricultural production can be threatened by climate change. Perhaps this is the most important lesson for us to learn today, as scientists continue to warn us about climate change and places like California (which supplies much of our produce) have suffered repeated years of drought and wildfire.

Coming to America

The Last Ice Age

Our story begins somewhere in the neighborhood of 15,000 years ago. It's possible at this point that I've lost you already, either because you are surprised by how far back American history goes or because you don't believe the Earth is that old. Today, the best tangible, archaeological evidence we have for humans reaching the Western Hemisphere points to the end of the Last Ice Age. A fundamental assumption of this post and all future posts is that science is real and that science is subject to change as new observable facts become available. So let's continue...

By the end of the last Ice Age, the human race, homo sapiens sapiens, had spread out of Africa, into Europe, across Asia, and sailed out to Australia.

In other words, the Eastern Hemisphere was populated with humans, and the Western Hemisphere was effectively a New World.

For much of human prehistory, the time before written histories were recorded, humans lived as hunter gathers. This means many humans lived largely nomadic lifestyles following herds and looking for new or better sources of food. Edible plants like fruits, wild grains, and tubers would have been important in addition to hunting and fishing. And this nomadic lifestyle is assumed to be the key driving factor for humans spreading out over the known continents.

Assumption: It may also be safe to assume that there is a natural sense of curiosity and exploration that is simply part of the human condition. Otherwise, why build the dug-out canoe and set sail from New Guinea or Indonesia to Australia? It's an incredible risk to simply feed one's family. To assume that ancient humans weren't just as curious as we are today is to discredit our own species. We look to the Moon, to Mars, or to the ocean's depths, as our ancestors looked across the seas to the next island.

Whether hunger or a natural curiosity or both led the first people to cross the Pacific to the Americas is not something we can know for certain, but it does appear that during the Last Ice Age, the sea levels were lower. One theory suggestions that ancient Siberians crossed a land bridge which covered the Bering Strait following herds of animals. This has been the most widely accepted theory of how the first peoples migrated from Asia to the Americas.

The more recent theory suggests that instead of completing the crossing entirely by land, that the crossing like other future voyages to the Americas was done by sea. There are a variety of possibilities here: the first nomads from Asia could have been coastal, canoe-piloting people from the start following marine life along the coast north and around to the Americas, or maybe the journey to Beringia started on land and later took to the sea. Humans are adaptable and clever; if they could canoe their way to Australia, boating to and along the New World is certainly a possibility.

So they made it to the Western Hemisphere...so now what?

There is ample evidence of humans spreading out relatively quickly across both North and South America. Scientists continue to regularly discover new sites, fossils, and tools of America's prehistoric peoples. Arguably the most important and well known are from the Clovis Point culture. In the absence of written language or major cities, prehistoric people can often be identified by unique toolsets. Clovis Points may have been part of a generalized toolkit used to hunt game, spear fish or scrape bones, and these points have been found in over 1,500 sites in North America.

One of the earliest North Americans studied by scientists has been dubbed Kennewick Man or the Ancient One. His remains are some of the oldest remains studied by scientists in the Americas. Kennewick Man appears to be around 9000 years old, and scientists were able to sequence his genome and compare it to modern peoples. Ultimately the study discovered that his closest living relatives are Native North Americans.

It's important to note that these first peoples to cross the Pacific into the Americas did not stay put in North America. Like other ancient humans, they continued to explore. Much like the first people who left Asia for Australia, these people migrated south. The oldest American rock art can be found in Brazil. This and other South American sites indicate that humans arrived in South America somewhere between 9,000 and 12,000 years ago. Other archaeological sites in Chile have scientists and historians questioning the currently constructed timeline altogether suggesting that humans could have been in South America between 18,000 and 15,000 year ago.

Regardless of exactly when Kennewick Man and others, like Anzick Child, or their ancestors arrived in the Americas, evidence at this point suggests that pioneering Siberians seeking better hunting grounds and arguably a better life for their families were the first American immigrants. Their children and grandchildren would spread out across North and South America, developing into distinct societies and cultures, founding great cities, and inventing their own forms of agriculture, religion, and technology independent from their cousins in the Eastern Hemisphere. There is currently little evidence to suggest that when the Last Ice Age came to end that there was still contact between people in the Americas and the peoples of Eurasia.