Chapter 2 Exercises: First Peoples — 10,000 Years of Indigenous Life
Exercise 1: Primary Source Analysis — The "Mound Builder" Myth
Read the following excerpts and then answer the questions below.
Excerpt A: From Caleb Atwater, Description of the Antiquities Discovered in the State of Ohio and Other Western States (1820):
"These works are so extensive, and the labor of constructing them must have been so great, that the mind is irresistibly led to the conclusion that they were erected by a people far more numerous and advanced in the arts than the Indian tribes found in possession of the country."
Excerpt B: From Cyrus Thomas, Report on the Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology (1894):
"The mound builders were the Indians... the links connecting the mound builders with the historic Indians are so numerous and so well established that the conclusion appears to be fully justified. The theory of a lost race of Mound Builders is... no longer tenable."
a) What assumptions does Atwater make about the Indigenous peoples he encountered? What evidence does he provide — or fail to provide — for his conclusion?
b) It took seventy-four years for the scientific establishment to officially reject the "Mound Builder" myth. Why do you think the myth persisted so long despite the available evidence? What political, economic, or cultural purposes did it serve?
c) Can you identify modern equivalents of the "Mound Builder" myth — instances where the accomplishments of non-European peoples are attributed to someone else or dismissed as impossible? (Consider: controversies over Great Zimbabwe, claims about Egyptian pyramids, etc.)
d) The chapter describes the "Mound Builder" myth as "one of the earliest examples of a pattern that runs throughout this book — the erasure of Indigenous accomplishment to justify dispossession." Write a paragraph explaining how this pattern connects to the themes of Chapter 2.
Exercise 2: Map Analysis — Trade Networks of Pre-Contact Appalachia
Using the trade goods information provided in Chapter 2, create a map showing the major trade routes and material sources discussed in the chapter. Your map should include:
a) Mark the source locations of the following trade materials: copper (Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan), mica (Spruce Pine, North Carolina), marine shells (Gulf Coast/Atlantic), obsidian (Yellowstone, Wyoming), steatite (Appalachian Piedmont), and galena (Missouri Ozarks).
b) Draw lines connecting these source locations to the sites where the materials have been found (Grave Creek Mound, Kanawha Valley sites, Etowah, Ohio Valley Hopewell sites, Poverty Point). Use the Appalachian mountain chain as a reference feature.
c) Calculate the approximate straight-line distance for the longest trade route on your map. Now estimate the actual travel distance, considering that traders would have followed river valleys and mountain passes rather than straight lines. How much longer is the realistic route?
d) Write a 300-word analysis: What does this map tell you about the sophistication of pre-contact Indigenous societies in and around the Appalachian Mountains? How does it challenge the "empty wilderness" narrative?
Exercise 3: Archaeological Stratigraphy — Reading the Layers
Russell Cave in Alabama preserved approximately 10,000 years of human occupation in its layered deposits. This exercise asks you to think like an archaeologist.
a) Imagine you are excavating a rock shelter in the Appalachian Mountains and you encounter the following layers (from top to bottom):
- Layer 1 (surface): Corn cobs, pottery sherds with stamped decorations, arrowheads
- Layer 2: Pottery sherds with cord markings, smaller projectile points, burned hickory nut shells
- Layer 3: No pottery, large spear points, freshwater mussel shells, fire-cracked rock
- Layer 4 (deepest): Very large fluted spear points, bones of extinct animals
Assign each layer to its likely cultural period (Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Woodland, Mississippian). Explain your reasoning for each assignment.
b) What information can you extract from the absence of materials? For example, what does the absence of pottery in Layers 3 and 4 tell you? What does the absence of extinct animal bones in Layers 1-3 tell you?
c) Why are rock shelters and caves particularly valuable for archaeologists studying the deep history of the Appalachians? What conditions in these environments help preserve materials that would be lost in open-air sites?
Exercise 4: Whose Story Is Missing?
The archaeological record is, by its nature, incomplete. It preserves some kinds of evidence and loses others.
a) Make a list of aspects of Indigenous life that are well-preserved in the archaeological record (examples: stone tools, pottery, shell middens, mound earthworks, carbonized plant remains). Then make a list of aspects that are poorly preserved or invisible in the archaeological record (examples: oral traditions, songs, languages, social relationships, spiritual beliefs, wooden structures, textile clothing).
b) How does this preservation bias affect our understanding of pre-contact Indigenous life? What aspects of daily life, culture, and thought do we know the least about? How might this bias lead to an incomplete or distorted picture?
c) What other sources of knowledge — beyond archaeology — can help fill in the gaps? Consider: oral traditions preserved by descendant communities, ethnohistorical accounts from early European contact, linguistic analysis, ethnographic analogy, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge. What are the strengths and limitations of each?
d) The chapter notes that the "Mound Builder" myth attributed Indigenous achievements to a vanished race. In what ways might modern archaeological interpretation unintentionally erase or diminish Indigenous perspectives? How can archaeology be practiced in ways that center Indigenous voices?
Exercise 5: The Eastern Agricultural Complex — Independent Invention
The chapter describes the domestication of plants in the river valleys of the mid-South as an independent invention of agriculture, separate from the better-known agricultural revolutions in Mesoamerica, the Fertile Crescent, and East Asia.
a) Research one of the other independent centers of agricultural origin (Mesoamerica, the Fertile Crescent, the Yangtze Valley, or the highlands of New Guinea). What crops were first domesticated there? How does the process compare to the domestication of the Eastern Agricultural Complex in the Appalachian mid-South?
b) Why do you think the Eastern Agricultural Complex is less well-known than these other agricultural origins? Is the relative obscurity of this achievement related to the broader pattern of erasing Indigenous accomplishments described in the chapter?
c) The chapter describes plant domestication as "a slow, cumulative process of human selection and landscape management that unfolded over millennia." How does this description challenge the popular image of agriculture as a sudden "revolution"? What are the implications of understanding agriculture as a gradual process?
Exercise 6: Then and Now — The Managed Forest
Then: Before European contact, Indigenous peoples throughout the Appalachian region used prescribed fire to manage the forest landscape. The result was an open, park-like forest dominated by fire-adapted species (oak, chestnut, hickory) with minimal undergrowth — a landscape described by early European observers as magnificent and almost garden-like.
Now: After centuries without Indigenous fire management, the Appalachian forest has grown denser and more tangled. Shade-tolerant species have invaded the understory. The U.S. Forest Service and state agencies now use prescribed fire as a management tool, in part to restore the open forest conditions that existed before — conditions that were, in fact, the product of Indigenous management.
a) What does the history of Indigenous fire management tell us about the concept of "wilderness"? If the forest that Europeans encountered was shaped by human activity, was it truly "wild"?
b) Modern land managers are, in effect, attempting to replicate what Indigenous peoples did for thousands of years. What are the ethical implications of using Indigenous management techniques without acknowledging their origin? How should Indigenous knowledge be credited and incorporated in modern forest management?
c) The chapter argues that "the cessation of Indigenous burning after European contact and Cherokee removal" changed the forest. In what other ways did the removal of Indigenous peoples alter the Appalachian landscape? Consider both ecological and cultural dimensions.
Exercise 7: Oral History Prompt — What Stories Were Told About the First Peoples?
Interview an elder (a grandparent, a neighbor, a community member over age 65, or a tribal elder if you have access) and ask the following questions:
- When you were growing up, what did you learn — formally or informally — about the Indigenous peoples who lived in your area before European settlement?
- Were there any local stories, legends, or traditions associated with Indigenous peoples? (For example: stories about arrowhead finds, mound sites, trails, or place names)
- Did your education — in school, in church, in your community — present Indigenous peoples as part of the ongoing story of your region, or as something from the distant past?
- Has your understanding of Indigenous history changed over your lifetime? If so, how?
Write a 500-word summary of the interview, connecting what you learned to the themes of Chapter 2 — particularly the "empty wilderness" myth and the erasure of Indigenous history from the Appalachian narrative.
Note: See Appendix F (Oral History Guide) for detailed guidance on conducting and recording oral history interviews, including informed consent protocols.
Exercise 8: Population and the Politics of Numbers
The chapter discusses the debate over pre-contact population estimates and notes that the numbers matter politically: "If the land had been empty, then settlement was not displacement."
a) The range of scholarly estimates for the pre-contact population of North America north of Mexico extends from approximately 1 million to 18 million. Research the scholars associated with the "low count" (Alfred Kroeber, 1934) and the "high count" (Henry Dobyns, 1966, 1983). What evidence does each use? What assumptions does each make about the impact of European diseases?
b) Why is it so difficult to establish accurate pre-contact population figures? What kinds of evidence are available, and what are the limitations of each?
c) The chapter notes that epidemic diseases often traveled ahead of European explorers, reaching communities before any European observer was present to count them. How does this fact complicate all population estimates based on early European accounts?
d) Consider this question carefully: Does it matter whether the pre-contact population was 1 million or 18 million? Would either number change the moral status of what happened to Indigenous peoples after contact? Write a paragraph reflecting on the relationship between population numbers and moral arguments about colonization.
Exercise 9: Connecting the Land to the People
Chapter 1 described the geological forces that created the Appalachian landscape. Chapter 2 describes how Indigenous peoples adapted to and shaped that landscape over 10,000 years.
a) Choose one of the four anchor locations (Harlan County, KY; the New River Valley, VA; McDowell County, WV; or Asheville, NC). Using information from both Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, write a 500-word essay connecting the geological features of your chosen location to the Indigenous uses of that landscape. How did the terrain, the rivers, and the resources described in Chapter 1 shape the Indigenous activities described in Chapter 2?
b) The chapter describes the Appalachian Mountains as "a crossroads, not a barrier" for trade networks. How does this characterization connect to the physiographic provinces described in Chapter 1? Which provinces would have been easiest to travel through, and which would have been more difficult? How might the gaps and passes described in Chapter 1 have functioned as trade corridors?
Exercise 10: Discussion Questions
Discuss the following in small groups or as a full class:
a) Chapter 2 describes the Paleo-Indian way of life as requiring "an extraordinary range of knowledge and skill" and states that "their knowledge was their technology." Do you find this argument convincing? Is knowledge a form of technology? What are the implications of defining technology broadly versus narrowly?
b) The chapter covers 10,000 years of history in a single chapter. What is gained and what is lost by this compression? How does the fact that pre-contact Indigenous history is typically compressed into a prologue — while European-American history is spread across dozens of chapters — reflect the priorities and biases of traditional historical narratives?
c) The Hopewell Interaction Sphere connected communities across thousands of miles without centralized political authority, standing armies, or written communication. How was this possible? What held the network together? Can you think of modern analogies — networks that function without centralized control?
d) The chapter ends by describing the understanding of deep Indigenous history as "an act of justice." Do you agree? Can historical knowledge be an act of justice? What would it mean to truly integrate 10,000 years of Indigenous history into the Appalachian story — not as a prologue, but as a central part of the narrative?
Exercise 11: Community History Portfolio — Indigenous Foundations
Complete Checkpoint 2 of your Community History Portfolio as described at the end of Chapter 2. Your submission should include:
- Identification of Indigenous peoples associated with your county
- Known archaeological sites and evidence (or documentation of absence)
- Possible trade network connections
- Surviving Indigenous place names and their meanings
- A 500-word reflection on the "empty wilderness" myth in the context of your county
Due date: as specified by your instructor. This checkpoint will be incorporated into your final portfolio at the end of the semester.