American Indian Studies

Peoples of the Piedmont

In Prehistory, contact, and the Lost Colony, page 2.4

In the years between 1000 and 1200 CE, Native life in the north and central Piedmont hadn’t changed much from prior Woodland times. People still lived in small hamlets whose houses strung out along river and stream banks. At times, the hamlets sat empty when people left to hunt and gather wild foods. But times were about to change. Around 900 CE, corn agriculture began. As a result, population began to grow, people began gathering in larger villages, and conflicts erupted.

Format: article

Peoples of the mountains

In Prehistory, contact, and the Lost Colony, page 2.5

During the Mississippian period, corn agriculture became more important in the mountains of North Carolina. More productive agriculture supported larger populations and provided opportunities for accumulating wealth. This brought about increased social ranking and political centralization. The Mountain region was creating its own identity -- an identity that archaeologists tie to the modern-day Cherokee. Archaeologists have given the names Pisgah and Qualla to these Cherokee ancestors.

Format: article

Peoples of the Coastal Plain

In Prehistory, contact, and the Lost Colony, page 2.6

When Europeans arrived in the late 1500s, North Carolina’s northern Coastal Plain was home to two different cultures. Speakers of Algonkian languages lived closest to the Atlantic edge, in the Outer Coastal Plain or Tidewater. Iroquoian speakers lived more inland, on the Inner Coastal Plain. Based on the distinctive items each group left, archaeologists call the Algonkian speakers Colington and the Iroquoian speakers Cashie.

Format: article

Maintaining balance: The religious world of the Cherokees

In Prehistory, contact, and the Lost Colony, page 2.7

In the 1880s, Cherokee elders in the North Carolina mountains allowed a white man named James Mooney to observe and record information about their culture. The Cherokee myths that Mooney gathered and wrote down in English help explain the world of the Cherokees. These myths show that, for the Cherokees, the world was primarily a relationship of proper balance.

Format: article/primary source

By Karen Raley.

The importance of one simple plant

In Prehistory, contact, and the Lost Colony, page 2.10

In Colonial North Carolina, page 6.1

The natives of America could trace the history of maize to the beginning of time. Maize was the food of the gods that had created the Earth. It played a central role in many native myths and legends. And it came to be one of their most important foods. Maize, in some form, made up roughly 65 percent of the native diet. When European settlers reached the New World, they learned to cultivate Indian corn from their native neighbors.

Format: article

By Terry L. Sargent.

Cherokee women

In Prehistory, contact, and the Lost Colony, page 2.8

In North Carolina History: A Sampler, page 2.2

Before the arrival of Europeans in North America, women enjoyed a major role in the family life, economy, and government of the Cherokee Indians. Cherokee society was organized according to a matrilineal kinship system, and women were the heads of households. Women also did most of the farming and had a voice in government.

Format: article/primary source

By Theda Perdue.

Resources on the web

Other worlds: The voyage of Columbus

Using the internet, students observe the events of 1492 from this dual vantage-point, exploring the two worlds that made contact when Columbus stepped ashore. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 9 and 11–12 Social Studies)

Provided by: National Endowment for the Humanities