This title expires January 31st, 2027

Subject(s): Anthropology, Canadian World Studies, Documentary, First Nations Studies, History, Indigenous Issues, Indigenous Peoples, Science, Social Studies, Sociology
Grade Level: 3 - 5, 6 - 8, 9 - 12, Post Secondary, Adult

Each Indigenous nation developed its own unique governance model to manage their citizens and expand their territories. These systems ranged from patriarchal and matrilineal-based societies to complex political systems governing multi-nation empires. Complex trade networks developed to satisfy political, social and economic goals.

Program Five contains the following chapters:  

• Governance and Trade
• Inka Civilization
• Maya Trade
• Hopewell Exchange
• Cahokia
• Aztec Empire
• Potlatch Society
• Pipe Ceremony

Running Time: 44:41 Country of Origin: Canada Captions:

Producer: 1491 Productions Inc. Copyright Date: 2018 Language: English

1. Haudenosaunee Confederacy - 1491  10:29
   The Americas before 1491 were home to thousands of societies...
   The Americas before 1491 were home to thousands of societies, each with its own distinct social, cultural, and political structure. Throughout the two continents, Indigenous People formed clans, confederacies, alliances, and even empires. Indigenous People interacted between these communities through a complex network of trade that connected every region of the Americas. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy was formed nearly 900 years ago, making it one of the oldest representative democracies in the world. Before the five founding Iroquoian Nations came together in peace, they were locked in an endless cycle of retribution and intertribal war.
2. Inka Civilization - 1491  6:30
   The ancestors of the ambitious Inca rulers were farmers in the...
   The ancestors of the ambitious Inca rulers were farmers in the Andean Highlands. 600 years ago, their descendants founded the largest indigenous society in the Americas. According to oral histories, the first Inca family left their birthplace in search of a perfect location to establish a homeland. They carried a golden staff, testing the soils, until in Cusco it sank into the ground as predicted. Cusco had been the home of the Quechua people for hundreds of years, and the Inca had to dispossess the local inhabitants. Cusco was organized into four quadrants and leaders from throughout the empire were required to build a house and live in Cusco part of the year in their assigned quadrant. The Incan royals believed their emperors were blessed with immortality and were mummified. Priests, governors and tax collectors, farmers, herders, servants, and slaves rounded out the social structure. They had an incredible abundance of different crops that were stored, supporting the armies while on campaign, and sustaining the communities during periods of drought.
3. Maya Trade - 1491  2:30
   Mayan society was made up of city states that dotted the...
   Mayan society was made up of city states that dotted the landscape in Mesoamerica. Moving goods and services to a population in the millions was done through a highly evolved system of trade and commerce. They were bringing in shell from both coasts, green obsidian from Pachuca and turquoise from the American southwest. They travelled mountainous and lowland regions on foot, and they traded jade and other commodities in return. The Maya also had ships, multiple canoes lashed together into platforms, that sailed up the coast with products such as rubber, chocolate, vanilla and maize.
4. Hopewell Exchange - 1491  2:34
   Around the same time that the Maya were the dominant trading...
   Around the same time that the Maya were the dominant trading centre in Mesoamerica, indigenous people in North America were transporting materials for trade by boat and foot along a huge trade network known as the Hopewell Exchange, from the Great Lakes to the mouth of the Mississippi River. Obsidian from Wyoming, iron ore from Oklahoma, shells from the gulf, and mica from North Carolina were all brought to the Ohio River Valley and turned into finished products. The artisans in these communities created intricate art pieces: pottery items, pipes, and tools. People were interacting on a continental scale. This highway system of rivers and lakes connected the peoples and cultures of the northern continent for over 500 years and was one of the most extensive trade networks in the world.
5. Cahokia - 1491  5:03
   A thousand years ago, indigenous people built the largest urban...
   A thousand years ago, indigenous people built the largest urban center north of Mexico, near today's city of St. Louis. Cahokia became one of the most influential trading centers in North America at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, with a large dirt pyramid at its centre. Cahokia has one of the greatest concentrations of indigenous burial and ceremonial mounds in North America. Excavations of Cahokia have revealed a range of treasures: mother of pearl from Mexico, silver from Ontario and copper from Lake Superior. By the 14th century, these people started to become separate groups: Choctaw, Chickasaw, the Okmulgee or the Creek Peoples.
6. Aztec Empire - 1491  4:00
   The Aztec empire, founded six hundred years ago, soon became one...
   The Aztec empire, founded six hundred years ago, soon became one of the largest societies in the Americas. They had complex spiritual beliefs that played a role in every part of their culture and day to day life. Their oral tradition said they came from somewhere in the north and by conquest, they wiped out over 40 major kingdoms, becoming Mesoamerica’s dominant force. The Aztec rulers demanded military support and resources from each city in its domain. If you paid tribute, you were allowed autonomy, your system of agriculture and your local rulers. The capital of the Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlan, was a sprawling city of canals, pyramid markets, residential neighborhoods and artificial islands on what is now the site of Mexico City. They believed that lives had to be sacrificed to their gods, with blood being a sacred liquid. The Aztec rulers built a society that in many ways was unparalleled in the world.
7. Potlatch Society - 1491  2:50
   In the Pacific Northwest, coastal indigenous people developed a...
   In the Pacific Northwest, coastal indigenous people developed a complex society that was governed by the ownership and passing down of songs, dances, titles and names. These laws and privileges were embedded in a ceremony known as the Potlatch, when people from neighboring villages were invited to witness a ceremony and gifts were distributed as a sign of wealth and power by the host chief and his family. Alliances, loyalties and trust were created through those interactive connections. Naming the children, honoring the children when they come of age, lifting them up into adulthood with dignity, with the teachings of their responsibilities, were entrenched into the potlatch system. Villages along the coast were all interconnected, and harmony was key to survival.
8. Pipe Ceremony - 1491  4:55
   From societies as large as the Inca Empire in South America, to...
   From societies as large as the Inca Empire in South America, to the smallest hunting communities on the Great Plains of North America, rituals were created to heal and protect the people, to bring the rains, and to resolve conflicts. For thousands of years, the people of the central plains in North America smoked tobacco, kinnikinnick, and other leaves in ceremonial pipes. This was their link between the earth and the sky, a sacred ritual for connecting the physical and spiritual worlds.

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