I'm An American: A Personal Approach to Early American History

INTRODUCTION

Defining America

Citizens by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.

―George Washington (1796)

I did not want to write another history book because I was nearing the end of my long teaching career. However, given that most early American history textbooks suffer from the same unreadability problem as most modern American history textbooks, I felt compelled to put my time and effort into producing another anti-textbook―my first anti-textbook was Making History: A Personal Approach to Modern American History. This book is being written in the same vein to provide a personal and concise approach to surveying early American history in an exciting way that is not afraid to break from the tired mold of the textbooks produced by multi-million-dollar publishers.

Where to begin? Like a circle, the starting point may also be the ending point. Such is the thinking of most Indigenous societies today and from our ancient past. Modern society has taught us to think linearly through never-ending progress and innovation. What if we could get in touch with our ancient selves? According to anthropologists, we are all from the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, right? What if we could re-adopt the wisdom of our ancestors and mesh it with modern technology? Could that make us whole again? As for this book, I’m An American: A Personal Approach to Early American History, our starting point is with the first inhabitants of the continent known as North America and of the land that has come to be known as the nation of the United States, but those ancient people were not always here, they came from somewhere else, so we must go back further.

I’m An American is about identity. When I travel abroad, and someone asks me where I’m from, I usually say the United States. Then, they may ask where in the USA, and I say California. What city? Glendora. Never heard of it, is the usual reply, or they confuse it with Glendale. So, if pressed, I say Los Angeles. But, initially, do I call myself an Angelino? A Californian? No, I say, I’m an American. Race or ethnicity might enter the conversation. Am I a Caucasian American? A European American? A Norwegian American? No, I usually say, I’m an American. But what does that mean? Who am I? This book will explore early American history from the Great Migration of 15,000 years ago through the American Civil War. Here are the components of this book:

Introduction: Defining America

Chapter One: Initiating America

Chapter Two: Discovering America

Chapter Three: Colonizing America

Chapter Four: Revolutionizing America

Chapter Five: Founding America

Chapter Six: Building America

Chapter Seven: Reforming America

Chapter Eight: Dividing America

Conclusion: Claiming America

Additionally, each chapter will have a personal history comic book page relating to the historical era covered. I have found that students enjoyed the comic book pages illustrated by Gary Dumm in Making History, so I figured they would want me to include new ones drawn by the maestro for this new book. Most history textbooks used for the early and modern US history courses are in two volumes with the same title. With this book, I have now written two stand-alone books covering the timeframe necessary for the American history survey courses required for most colleges and universities.

So, how is this book's approach different? Why is it an anti-textbook? It is different than the standard textbook because it is written by one person who is not afraid. I am bound to no one except myself and my students, which is a sacred commitment. I am at the end of my career and not looking for another one. My mission is to continue to inspire and empower young minds for as long as possible. We must not be timid in examining our nation's history. We must be heralds of truth and offer brilliantly inspired perspectives, not philosophical dogma, not socially acceptable dry facts, not an accountant’s truth. Keeping in mind that art is more valuable than such lifeless truth, in the words of German filmmaker Werner Herzog, this is an ecstatic truth. Let us take a chance, take history personally, be bold, mount up, and make history. We ride at dawn!

CHAPTER ONE

Initiating America

Objectives

1. Identify the earliest human civilizations.

2. Understand how humans came to the Americas.

3. Describe pre-Columbian Native American culture.

4. Compare and contrast Native American tribes.

In Ken Burns’ sweeping documentary film The West, Native American anthropologist and director of the Smithsonian Institute’s American Indian Program, JoAllyn Archambault, offers an honest and realistic appraisal of Native American culture before European contact.

You know there’s this marvelous stereotype out there that before white people came, the world here was perfect, that people lived in paradise in which they were the most elegant, the most moral, the most elevated of all humanity. That’s not true. We were human beings, and we did things that all human beings do, and some of it was elevated and marvelous and admirable, and some it was pretty horrible. As historians, we must take a long, hard look at the past and make assessments based on evidence rather than wishful thinking and current popular narratives. I call this process thinking in time.

The Americas were home to thriving Indigenous cultures thousands of years before European contact. Each of those Native American societies adapted to their environment and created rich civilizations that would be forever changed with the arrival of the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. The subsequent encounters between the Old and New Worlds became known as the Columbian Exchange. A worldwide exchange of knowledge, technology, culture, animals, people, plants, and disease has had both positive and negative effects and has left a lasting impact on our historical development—terrible things cannot all be blamed on Columbus. For instance, as Native American societies grew and began farming and living closer together, disease began to take its toll on Indigenous societies long before Columbus arrived. Before we delve into early Native American culture, let us travel further back in time.

As many people have done, I submitted my DNA sample to a company that traces human ancestry. I was not surprised to learn that my ancestry is primarily Scandinavian. I already knew that my relatives on both sides were all from Northern Norway and a few from Northern Sweden, going back to the mid-1600s. However, DNA testing allowed me to see migration maps for my haplogroup. On my mom’s side, my ancestors came from East Africa, through Egypt, the Middle East, and Turkey, and finally into Europe. On my father’s side, we came from East Africa, Mesopotamia (Iraq), Persia (Iran), Central Eurasia, and finally into Western Europe. What impacted me the most was that we are all from the same original human ancestors, a human family. We may vary in size, shape, race, ethnicity, culture, language, and religion, but we are all human—brothers and sisters.

According to anthropologists and archeologists, modern humans evolved in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa approximately 300,000 years ago. Those humans, who were hunter-gatherers, migrated out of Africa, eventually forming major civilizations and ultimately reaching North, Central, and South America. The first human civilizations developed between 4000 and 1200 BC.

Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) from 4000–3500 BC

Indus Valley (modern-day India and Pakistan) from 3300 BC

Egypt from 3100 BC

China from 2000 BC

Peru, 1200 BC

Mesoamerica (modern-day Mexico) around 1200 BC

The first humans arrived in North America, possibly 16,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age, when the continent of Asia was connected to North America via the Bering Sea Land Bridge. Some recent research points to an even earlier arrival, but those theories are still not generally accepted (e.g., the trans-Pacific migration theory and the Solutrean hypothesis, which holds that humans came to North America from Europe across the Atlantic ice pack).

Many consider the pre-Columbian era (before the arrival of Christopher Columbus) to be prehistory because of the absence of written documents. Still, pre-Columbian civilizations (i.e., Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas) had some of the world's best engineers, mathematicians, and astronomers. The surviving ruins of those civilizations stand as a testament to their knowledge and skill.

Before Norwegian explorer Leif Erikson arrived in present-day Newfoundland, Canada, around the year 1000, and before Columbus arrived in 1492, over 500 distinct Native American cultures lived in the geographic area of the United States. For centuries, tribal culture tended to be similar in that most people were hunters and gatherers living in small bands. Due to climate change, the extinction of species, and the advent of agriculture, culture and geographic diversity began to develop. The Native American tribes before Columbus were incredibly diverse. The variations of culture, language, and social structure wove a rich tapestry of life in the Americas. Here is a breakdown of some of the major regions:

The Arctic: The Inupiat and Aleut tribes hunted game across the tundra, subsisted on seals resting on the ice floes, and hunted whales.

The Subarctic: The Cree, Tsattine, and Gwich’in tribes lived in pine forests and tundra in this region.

The Northeast and Southeast: Home to the Iroquois, Cherokee, and many others who practiced farming and had permanent villages.

The Plains: The Sioux, Cheyenne, and Comanche were nomads who followed the great buffalo herds and lived in tepees.

The Southwest: The Navajo and Hopi built cliff pueblos and other complex dwellings. They were skilled in agriculture despite the arid land.

The Great Basin: The tribes of this region, like the Shoshone and Paiute, adapted to a desert environment and were nomadic hunter-gatherers.

California: Among many other tribes, the Chumash and Miwok subsisted on fishing, hunting, and gathering nutrient-rich acorns.

The Pacific Northwest: With abundant forests, fish and game, and other foods, tribes like the Tlingit and Haida were known for their totem poles, long canoes, and the potlatch ceremony.

The Plateau: The Nez Perce and Yakama tribes were known for their underground homes and subsisted on abundant fish and game.

The Hawaiian Islands: The Native Hawaiians were known for their rich culture, language, and sea navigation skills.

Figure 1.1 below shows a map of tribes in the Americas.

Figure 1.1: Map and List of the Indigenous People of the Americas

All Native American cultures had their own spiritual belief systems, history, art, and culture. Each tribe adapted to and impacted its environment. It should also be noted that the harsher the environment and the more difficult it was to gain resources, the fiercer and more warlike the culture was. That is why the Pacific Northwest tribes, with their abundant natural resources, were some of the most peaceful groups. Next, we will closely examine tribes that I have had experience with from a few of the regions mentioned above.

The Arctic People

The Inupiat (also known as Eskimo) people of the high north have a long and rich history dating back 4000 years. They are perfectly adapted to the harsh Arctic environment on the North Slope of Alaska, where the ice shelf is almost always fixed to the shoreline, making it difficult to reach by sea. They deeply understand their place in the environment and the proper use of natural resources. Culturally, they pride themselves on their cooperation and sharing. The traditional way of life includes hunting seals, caribou, and bowhead whales. Whale hunting is necessary for their survival and for building community and cooperation in their culture. The whale is at the center of their culture, and when the Inupiat have a successful whale hunt, they thank the whale for its life and spirit, and the food is distributed to the entire community. British explorers contacted the Inupiat on the North Slope in 1826, choosing Barrow for the town name (the northernmost settlement in North America). However, the natives called it Ukpiaġvik, the place for hunting snowy owls. The commercial whaling ships came later in the mid-1800s and dramatically impacted life for the Inupiat (e.g., guns, alcohol, sugar, and diseases). The oil and gas industry descended upon the North Slope in the 20th century, bringing even more changes. The Inupiat still head out to the sea ice to hunt, and the Arctic provides 24 hours of sunlight in the summer and 24 hours of darkness in the fall and winter. Polar bears are a constant threat. People have lived in Barrow for 4,000 years, currently with a population of 4,400 residents. I had a unique experience in Barrow, which I will now share with you, dear reader.

My dream of college teaching came true when I started as a part-time instructor at Seattle Central Community College in the Fall of 1992, but I continued to apply for full-time work. One full-time job that I interviewed for was in Barrow, Alaska. Precisely 15 years after that short summer that I worked in South Naknek, Alaska, I arrived in the North Slope, the ice frontier. When my plane landed in Barrow, I was shocked at the condition of the place. My first impression was that Barrow was the most run-down, messy town I had ever seen. The houses were little more than glorified shacks with no paint, just worn and weathered boards. Junk was strewn everywhere, and old cars, washers, and other assorted pieces of trash were just a few items. The roads were dirt, and dust blew over everything, leaving a faint light brown coating on the town. Later, I figured out that the severe weather would strip paint off the walls of the buildings, so it was useless to spruce up your house.

Barrow is the northernmost town in North America. The Arctic ice hugged up against the beach year-round. Barrow had grown remarkably since the 1970s with the North Slope oil drilling opening at Prudhoe Bay. The townspeople were mostly Inupiat (who used to be called Eskimo). One of the teachers at the college met me at the airport. He told me a little about the town and put me in the Arctic Hotel. It looked like a hotel from an old Western movie. My window overlooked the beach and the ice. The Inupiat people I had seen since my arrival impressed me with their calmness and smiles.

It was about 11:30 p.m. when I decided to take a walk. It would be light all night, so I didn’t have to worry about darkness. I walked down by the shoreline and noticed the sand’s dark coarseness. I wandered the beach for a while, leaning into the gusty, freezing wind. My thoughts drifted back to my walks around the abandoned canneries at South Naknek. Then, I heard a voice from the sandy ledge above. An Inupiat man with a black baseball cap smiled down at me as he sat cross-legged on the ledge.

Where you are standing was the old village, he said.

Really, I said, what happened to it?

The sea takes away what it gives sometimes, he said with a grin that revealed several missing teeth.

Come up here and sit for a while, he said.

I climbed the ledge and stood next to the Inupiat man. He was about 45 years old, short, and had black horn-rimmed glasses. He told me his name was Willy.

Are there polar bears around here? I asked. Willy looked at me with another big grin.

There is a big one about one hundred yards away sniffing you now. You were polar bear bait for sure on the beach, Willy said. We shared a laugh, although mine was a bit nervous.

Here, I'll share this spot. The turf keeps you warm, he said, pointing to the grass patch where he sat. I sat down next to him cross-legged and felt warmer. I had a strange feeling that he knew that I was coming. After I told him my name, he began to