Good morning! At times, it feels like I have been bouncing around through history with his blog lately. Blame YouTube and the uploads for the history channels I follow. This documentary is called 1491: The Story of North America Before Columbus. Dr. Evan Adams narrated this documentary. The run time is 47:25.
The First Nations crossed oceans and settled on the North American Continent. The First Nations people navigated their world by the stars. They crossed mountains and rivers. They built a variety of trade networks. Their people built civilizations. In 1492 their lives changed with the arrival of Christopher Columbus. So what were the stories of the First Nations before Columbus? The first episode covers agriculture and hunting. Throughout time, people all over the world hunted and gathered. Over time, food would become part of the cultural identity of the people. Maize was central to the identity of the First Nations. For thousands of years, maize has become central to the First Nations, particularly to the Mayans. According to Mayan oral history, the gods created the first humans out of cornmeal. The Maize god was known as the first father and the Maize goddess was associated with fertility. Maize has nourished and inspired the Mayan people for thousands of years. The Mayans did not originate the Maize plant, but other indigenous farmers earlier developed Maize. Maize was a wild grass that had been cultivated over the years. It may have been the first experiment in genetic engineering in human history. Maize traveled to South America over ancient trade routes. Maize was easy to transport and store. It was traded for good among the indigenous population. The Mayans used the slash and burn method to cultivate maize. Other methods were used such as raised marshes and stepped terraces. Crop diversification also was used to regenerate the soil. Oftentimes, beans, chili peppers, and squash were grown together. Besides supporting the Mayans, maize cultivation led to the development of the Pueblo, Inca, Aztec, and other indigenous cultures. Maize was a consistent feature of all indigenous civilizations. Maize could be ground into flour that could feed the people. Another food that had an impact on the people of North America: is the potato. The potato was a stable source of food for the people of South America. The potato could grow at high altitudes. It can be left in the ground for a year or more. Lake Titicaca was where the potato was first cultivated. Over five thousand varieties were created, and each had a different flavor and color. Each type of potato had a different cultural role. The Andean cultivation terraced the mountains to grow potatoes. Eventually, the potato would make its way to Mexico and even to Alaska. The potato ended up in Washington and Oregon. In South America, the people lived in small villages along the coastlines and rivers. The population numbered in the millions. They would experiment to domesticate plants and these plants would prove to be high yielding. For thousands of years, the people in the Amazon implemented agricultural methods that did not require the intensive methods of slash and burns. They used the forest for their farming and were highly successful in their farming methods. So what is the story of agriculture and the indigenous nations before the arrival of Columbus? How did farming have an impact on the indigenous people? What other farming methods were used by the first nations? How were these foodstuffs traded throughout the North and South American continent? Continue to watch this episode to find out more. Wow, wow, wow! This was an eye-opening episode and was a good start to this series. It was better than the Nations at War series. I wish the narrator of that series narrated this series. There were interruptions between the segments highlighting insight into the global world. This would be a good episode to show in a geography class as well as food history class. This episode was fairly in-depth went it came to the foods that the indigenous people grew. Overall, it had a good flow to the episode and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this episode. I would highly recommend showing this first episode to the classroom.
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The purpose of this blog is to share information on what can be used in a classroom, private school, or home school setting as well as serve as a portfolio of my personal and professional work. The reviews are my opinions and should be treated as such. I just want to provide a tool for teachers to select documentaries for their classrooms. |