The vast diversity of Native American groups probably isn't something you covered all that in-depth in your U.S. history class. But the tribes living in precontact America built cultures as complex and intriguing as the colonizers who displaced them... maybe even more so.
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00:00Inspiring the U.S. Constitution and putting smut on pottery, the Native tribes in the
00:04Americas were a lot more than you learned in your high school history class.
00:09The Haudenosaunee Confederacy has been called the oldest participatory democracy on the
00:13planet, and they may be part of the influence for a certain country you've heard of.
00:18It's really important to note that the Founding Fathers actually came and studied among the
00:22Haudenosaunee.
00:24That's not something you'll find in school textbooks.
00:27So who were the Haudenosaunee?
00:28You've never heard of them?
00:30You actually have.
00:31You see, the French called them the Iroquois.
00:33They started out as a union of five tribes from the northeastern U.S. and southern Canada
00:37— the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca.
00:42They all formed an alliance long before the arrival of European colonists.
00:45In 1722, the Tuscarora joined the alliance, which then became known as the Six Nations.
00:51The nation remained united during the Seven Years' War, which you may know as the French
00:55and Indian War.
00:56They fought on the British side, which was the winning side, more or less.
01:00But when British colonists decided to fight for independence a few years later, the tribes
01:04were split — two for the rebels and four for the crown.
01:07Maybe things would have gone better for them if they'd picked the winning team.
01:10They lost much of their territory and political power when the British were sent packing.
01:14The Comanche were elite horsemen.
01:16Once horses were reintroduced to North America, the Comanche really took off — like, literally.
01:21They rode southeast to hunt buffalo and trade with French colonists.
01:24Although they remained nomadic, Comanche groups dominated a wide area of the Southern
01:28Plains.
01:29And by dominate, we mean it literally — again.
01:32The proud Comanche Nation battled the Republic of Texas and pretty much every other native
01:37group on the Southern Plains, and beat the living tar out of everyone they saw.
01:41They were merciless.
01:42You know how decimates originally meant to take out one-tenth?
01:45Somebody always brings that up in the comments.
01:47Well, the Comanche were more like, take out nine-tenths.
01:51Seriously, they even took advantage of the distraction of the American Civil War to push
01:55back white settlers in Texas.
01:57But it didn't last.
01:58The full brunt of the U.S. Army, plus our old friends' collar-run smallpox, ultimately
02:02did in the Comanche.
02:04By 1875, most of the Comanche were herded onto reservations where they remain today,
02:09based outside Lawton, Oklahoma.
02:11The Natchez were one of the most powerful native groups in the lower Mississippi Valley.
02:15They were mound builders, and several villages of Natchez speakers and Tunica allies joined
02:20together to build the Grand Village.
02:22The name fit, too.
02:23It was the religious and political capital of the area.
02:26Grand Village is located in modern-day Mississippi, right on the Mississippi River.
02:29That also means it borders Louisiana, and back then, the French were in control of that
02:33side of the river.
02:34At first, the tribe made nice with the French, but as more settlers moved into the area,
02:39the Natchez became less chill.
02:41The nerve center of the French colony, Fort Rosalie, was uncomfortably close to the Grand
02:44Village — as in, on the modern-day Mississippi side of the river, right up next to Grand
02:49Village.
02:50Needless to say, the situation was tense.
02:52In 1729, a new commandant ordered the Natchez to move so he could, um, liberate their land
02:58and build a plantation.
03:00His request was received as expected.
03:03A Natchez delegation went to Fort Rosalie to do some routine trading, bartered for a
03:06whole bunch of guns, and used them to shoot the colonists, killing the governor and most
03:11of the adult men and capturing practically all of the women and children.
03:15They also took close to 300 enslaved people, mostly Africans.
03:18In case you're thinking, well, at least they freed the slaves, that would be a no.
03:22The Natchez were big in the slave trade, too, mostly capturing smaller tribes and selling
03:26them to the Europeans.
03:27Needless to say, French Louisiana was terrified.
03:30The destruction of this colony was a bit like a 9-11 moment, you know?
03:36It was such a traumatic event for them.
03:39The French governor of Louisiana massacred an unrelated tribe to make a point that wasn't
03:43news to anyone — well, anyone but the Natchez themselves.
03:47The Natchez did not, uh, understand how many French there were in New Orleans and back
03:52in France.
03:53And so, of course, the French amassed an army.
03:56They and their Choctaw allies attacked the Natchez in 1730, overrunning them and selling
04:00300 Natchez captives into slavery in French Saint-Domingue.
04:04That's a little place called Haiti today.
04:06Yes, that Haiti.
04:08Those who escaped headed north and took refuge with the Chickasaw.
04:11A grand village now in downtown Natchez, Mississippi, stands today as a National Historic Site.
04:17The Cherokee were one of the largest tribes in what became the southeastern United States.
04:21When the British arrived in South Carolina and Georgia, they traded heavily with the
04:25Cherokee.
04:26The tribe maintained a shaky alliance with the British during the Seven Years' War and
04:29American Revolution.
04:30Much like the Iroquois we mentioned earlier, they backed the British in both battles.
04:34That means they picked a loser.
04:36And you know what they say about the victors and the spoils.
04:39When Jefferson looked west, he saw empty space.
04:43He saw a sort of blank slate.
04:46In order to resist the American land grab, the Cherokee consolidated under a Western-style
04:50government with a permanent capital, written constitution, and police force.
04:54They became one of the first Native groups in North America to use written language.
04:57A Cherokee man named Sequoyah created a writing system unrelated to any other world alphabet.
05:02He then had to convince his fellow tribe members that it wasn't witchcraft.
05:05If you've ever heard the term civilized when talking about a North American tribe, what
05:09they mean is more like the European societies of the time, i.e. the Cherokee are recognized
05:14as one of the five civilized tribes.
05:17But if you think that stopped Congress from including the Cherokee in the Indian Removal
05:20Act of 1830, well, you don't understand the drive for profit.
05:25Despite a Supreme Court injunction, most Cherokee were expelled from their homelands to what
05:28became Oklahoma on the forced march now known as the Trail of Tears.
05:33It occurred in the middle of winter, and the deaths from exposure and disease were appalling.
05:38Some Cherokee remained in eastern North Carolina and exist as a separate tribal organization
05:43today.
05:44The Pueblo peoples of New Mexico are not one group, but more of a catch-all for similarly
05:49operating tribes.
05:50About 70 independent Pueblo villages existed before the Spanish showed up.
05:54It's here that they created one of the most highly evolved civilizations ever known.
05:59When the Spanish arrived, they did their usual run of conquering and dominating.
06:03But they crossed the line when they took to whipping the holy men of the tribes.
06:07One of the men who'd been whipped, Pope, returned to Taz Pueblo, determined to drive
06:11the Spanish out.
06:12He sent knotted cords to each Pueblo group that agreed to join the rebellion.
06:16Leaders untied one knot each day, and when the knots were all gone, it was go time — August
06:2110, 1680.
06:22By August 21, the Spanish had fled, leaving behind some 400 dead.
06:27The Pueblo ritually cleansed themselves of the Christian rites they'd been converted
06:31into and enjoyed 12 years of independence.
06:34You already know how the story ends, but they did have 12 years before the Spanish won out
06:37and took over the region.
06:39A number of Pueblo and groups still live in New Mexico, and while they face challenges
06:43when it comes to preserving their history and culture, they endure.
06:47In 1537, the Spanish arrived in what is now Paraguay and northern Argentina to find over
06:51one million Guarani people.
06:53The term Guarani is a bit like the Pueblo, more of a catch-all for closely related tribes.
06:58Initial friendly relations collapsed when the Spanish tried to force a Guarani to work
07:02for them and convert to Christianity.
07:04As you can imagine, many Guarani died of illness or in battle, with the rest forced
07:08into colonial systems.
07:10Some did escape to the forest, and they were able to keep elements of the Guarani culture
07:14alive even to this day.
07:16The legacy of the Guarani is their language.
07:18Today, Paraguay is effectively bilingual in Spanish and Guarani.
07:22This is the only bilingual country in Latin America, perhaps because of the epic resistance
07:28of the native Guaranis to the Spanish conquest.
07:31But Guarani survival has been complicated, and not always in a good way.
07:36Later leaders of independent Paraguay used a native language to keep them down.
07:39In short, those native Guarani speakers were second-class citizens.
07:44Things are certainly better, especially in Paraguay.
07:46In the other countries, well, the continued use of Guarani doesn't go over well.
07:51But overall, things are on the upswing for the Guarani.
07:54The exact origins of the Inca states are difficult to establish, but their dramatic rise began
07:58in 1438 when they exploded out from their Cusco Valley homeland in the mood to conquer.
08:03They occupied an area that went from modern Ecuador to central Chile.
08:07They created a sophisticated government and established a network of roads along with
08:11the tax code to pay for them.
08:13They were master road builders.
08:16Perhaps some 14,000 miles of roads throughout the Inca Empire they maintained.
08:22When the Spanish arrived in the 1520s, the Inca were the largest and most centralized
08:26state in South America.
08:28And they did it all without either the wheel, written language, or money, relying on llamas
08:32to get around.
08:33The Inca might have been well-equipped to fight off the Spanish, but an ill-timed civil
08:37war weakened them, and Spain swooped in and took over.
08:40Ultimately, the Spanish would not be stopped in their quest for gold.
08:44What survives is Quechua, a descendant of the Inca language, still among the most widely
08:48spoken indigenous languages in South America.
08:51Before the Inca, the Moche were the major power in what became northern Peru.
08:55They were master potters, architects, and engineers.
08:57Flourishing from about 81 to 800, their culture is one of the most distinct and impressive
09:02of all pre-contact Native American groups.
09:05Moche artifacts are so detailed and numerous that they allow researchers to piece together
09:09significant information about their lives, even though the Moche didn't have written
09:12language and went into decline before anyone could record their beliefs or history.
09:17Archaeologists found evidence that the cities had been abandoned, and this extraordinary
09:22civilization seemed to vanish into the desert.
09:26You know what made them most extraordinary?
09:29Two words.
09:30Erotic pottery.
09:31You can tell a lot about a society by the amount of smut they put on household items.
09:35And let me tell you, the Moche would practically require you to prove you're 18 just to have
09:39a bowl of soup.
09:41After the Spanish and their prudish Inquisition-minded ways came in, the vast majority of Moche works
09:45were suppressed.
09:46So go get your hands on some Moche sex pots.
09:49Yes, that's a real term, because they are very valuable and collectible.
09:53Initially wanderers, the Aztec, or the Mochica, as they called themselves, established what
09:57would become their state in 1325, after an omen appeared to their leader.
10:02An eagle eating a snake perched on a cactus in the middle of Lake Texcoco in central Mexico.
10:07A sign from the gods that they had found their new home.
10:12That same symbol graces the Mexican flag, kind of like how Mexico got its name from
10:16the Aztec.
10:17Not to go too far afield, that's one theory on how Mexico got its name.
10:21Anyway, this ancient Aztec settlement became the capital of Tenochtitlan, which is modern
10:26Mexico City today.
10:27Aqueducts, palaces, pyramids, and temples stood as a tribute to their gods.
10:34The Aztec were incredibly powerful in the region.
10:36Those human skulls didn't just rack themselves.
10:39They ruled smaller tribes by fear and military force.
10:42Talk about irony.
10:43Like their counterparts, the Inca, the Aztecs might have been able to resist the Spanish
10:47onslaught if not for two factors, diseases like smallpox and measles, and those same
10:52local tribes who didn't like their heads and hearts ripped out all the time.
10:56Despite what Neil Young sang about, the Aztecs weren't all sunshine and rainbows.
11:00The empire fell in 1521, but the Aztec legacy remains.
11:04Novel told, the Aztec language still has about a million and a half speakers, and more Aztec
11:09artifacts are being discovered and preserved as Mexico City grows.
11:13The Maya rose in about AD 250 and flourished for centuries before their dramatic collapse
11:17shortly after 900.
11:19Located on the Yucatan Peninsula and adjacent parts of Mexico and Guatemala, the Maya weren't
11:24a politically unified group.
11:25They organized themselves into independent city-states who sometimes traded and other
11:29times fought with each other.
11:31While Mayan society never rebounded after its mysterious contraction, the Maya were
11:35far from extinct.
11:37Several hilltop cities remained powerful until the Spanish showed up, and their religious
11:40practices continued among the farmers and villages in the lowlands.
11:44Today, the Maya are best remembered by their remarkable ruins, notably Tulum and Chichen
11:48Itza.
11:49Remarkably, Chichen Itza was an incredibly diverse city and major trading spot for the
11:53Maya, which makes their collapse even more perplexing.
11:56Between Mexico and the upper countries of Central America, there are approximately 10
11:59million Mayan living there today, about half of which still speak their native tongue.