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ysabetwordsmithThese are the notes for "Ever Evolving, Changing, and Becoming."
Oceans
Foggy Ocean (Pacific Ocean)
Windy Ocean (Atlantic Ocean)
Hot Ocean (Indian Ocean)
Frozen Ocean (Arctic Ocean)
Cold Ocean (Antarctic Ocean)
Sun Gulf (Gulf of Mexico)
Palm Sea (Caribbean Sea)
Continents
Turtle Island (North America)
Spearhead Island (South America)
Shaking Land (Europe)
Silk Land (Asia)
Drumland (Africa)
Big Sandy Island (Australia)
Blue Island (Antarctica)
Civilizations of the Americas
Knotmakers (Caral-Supe or Norte Chico) 3,700 BCE – 1,800 BCE
Moundbuilders (Mound Builder cultures: Adena, Hopewell, Mississippian) 800 BCE-1500
Sky People (Nazca in Peru) 500 BCE-1500 CE
Children of the Earth (Mapuche) 600 BCE-present
Jaguar People (Maya) 250 BCE- 900 CE
Sand People (Southwest culture: Hohokam, Anasazi) 300-1400 CE
The White Land (Aztec) 1200-1521 CE
Lords of the Four Parts (Inca) 1438-1535 CE
Cultural Groups of Turtle Island
Snow Folk (Eskimos and other arctic tribes)
Evergreen People (Cree and other subarctic tribes)
Salmon People (Salish and other northwest tribes)
Mountainclimbers (Nez Perce and other Rocky Mountain tribes)
Horseriders (Crow and other Sea of Grass / great plains tribes)
Moundbuilders (Illinois and other eastern woodland tribes)
Redwood People (Pomo and other California tribes)
Sand People (Pueblos and other southwest tribes)
The White Land (Aztec Empire)
Big Wind Kinship (Taino and other Caribbean tribes)
Moundbuilder Cities
Long Rapids (Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung in Minnesota in the Laurel Complex)
Goosefoot (northeastern Canada on the coast beyond Goose Bay)
Maple Ridge (in the Point Peninsula Complex on the border of Maine)
Serpent's Egg (Serpent Mounds Park in the Point Peninsula Complex)
Falling Water (Niagara Falls in the Point Peninsula Complex)
They Make Tools There (confluence of Iowa and Mississippi Rivers in Havana)
The City of Built Hills by the Big River (Cahokia) is usually called Built Hills.
Potter's Bridge (Kansas City in Kansas City Hopewell)
The Terraces (in Crab Orchard Culture at Illinois-Indiana border)
Paint City (in Ohio Hopewell)
Birdstone (western Michigan in Goodall Focus)
Other Locations
Fat Rock on Frozen Island (on Greenland)
Moose Knee (Moosonee on Hudson Bay in Canada)
Thunderbird Bay (Thunder Bay in Ontario, Canada)
Island of the White Wolves (Newfoundland)
Wolf's Tail (St. Anthony in Newfoundland)
Wolf's Nose (St. John's in Newfoundland)
East Hook (Provincetown) at the tip of Curving Arm (Cape Cod in Massachusetts)
The tribes relate closely to the biomes and the geography of Turtle Island.
The Island of the White Wolf (Newfoundland) has several settlements, notably Wolf's Nose (St. John's) and Wolf's Tail (St. Anthony). It is named after the white wolves that live there.
East Hook (Provincetown) lies at the tip of Curving Arm (Cape Cod in Massachusetts).
The geography of Spearhead Island, along with resulting climates and biomes, relate to local-South American countries. The elevation determines much of the land use. Natural hazards include unpredictable weather patterns like El Niño. Estimated population of local-Latin America in 1492 was 50-100 million Native Americans. The levels of civilization varied.
Thunderbirds
This setting has thunderbirds, a genus of giant birds classified as Ailornis. They share some traits with raptors, vultures, and even storks but belong to their own group. Some are hunters, the crowned thunderbirds with feathered heads; others are scavengers, the bald thunderbirds with naked heads. The smallest species has a wingspan around 10-12 feet and the largest 20-25 feet wide. Most are soaring birds like condors, conserving energy by jumping off tall structures and using thermals to gain height. The stormrider species also surf the leading edge of wind ahead of storms, watching for prey flushed by the thunder or carcasses struck down by lightning. Most are black or dark brown, sometimes with contrasting patches, but the turquoise thunderbird is iridescent blue and the alpine thunderbird is white, while the giant sunbird and little sunbird are gold.
Hang Gliding and Aviation in the Americas
Hang gliding developed first in the Americas. People would run with kites and catch a headwind from the ground, or jump off a high place, then glide. They built taller and taller mounds or towers, which they used for various purposes. One was to launch hang gliders, or thunderwings, because the higher the starting point the better. The Sky People (Nazca in Peru, 500 BCE-1500 CE) developed hang gliders. Before that, some other people had simpler kites.
Pilots studied thunderbirds and other large birds to learn how they flew. Observant pilots noticed that the birds sought out thermals, and followed them, learning how to ride the warm currents and eventually how to find their own. They studied the shape of wings, how the air flowed over the surfaces, how the birds used their feathers and tails to change direction. Since the thunderbirds flapped their wings only when necessary, preferring to glide, American pilots were not distracted by the attempt to make a flapping machine. They built better and better hang gliders, learning about lift and gravity and airfoils.
From there it was just a matter of adding thrust. People experimented with all sorts of methods, from rubber band launchers to pedaled fans. Eventually they hit on the idea of motors, and transitioned from gliding to powered flight.
Native Americans used hang gliders for war in various ways. First the pilots used them as scouting tools to spy on the enemy -- a devasting advantage if the other side didn't have air power. As the hang gliders grew stronger, they started dropping dangerous things. A favorite trick was to capture a wasp nest at night when the insects were sleeping and seal it up. Dropped onto a battlefield, it would break open and release a swarm of outraged wasps like a self-propelling biological cluster bomb.
Timeline of Aviation
See timelines of general aviation and military aviation from local-Earth.
It was 109 years between the first recorded use of balloons in warfare and the use of heavier-than-air flight. It was only 3 years from the first flight to the U.S. Army's purchase of an airplane. 1 year after that, the first aerial bombing occurred in Mexico. It was 11 years between the first flight and the first major use in WWI.
It was 24 years between the first powered heavier-than-air flight and the first nonstop transatlantic flight, and 44 years to break the sound barrier.
In this setting, the Moundbuilders developed the first true engines around 1400 CE, turning hang gliders into hyperlight flying machines. Enclosed airplanes emerged around 1412 CE, but seated cockpits didn't appear until 1420 CE because people were used to lying flat under hang gliders.
Metalwork in the Americas
Metalwork from native metals dates back at least as far as 2155 BCE in the Andes of South America with gold and 5000 BCE in North America with copper. In Bolivia, copper smelting began around 2000 BCE.
Alloys of gold and copper appeared in Central America 300–500 CE.
The White Land (Aztec) adopted metalwork from other people, then began smelting bronze.
The Mapuche became famous for their fine silverwork.
The Salmon People of the Pacific Northwest learned how to work iron, starting with the nickel-iron of meteorites and later drift iron from Japanese shipwrecks. From there, the use of iron and steel spread across Turtle Island.
An interesting feature of experimental thermodynamics appears in the development of furnaces, while people were trying to make hotter and hotter ones. They would lay out rows of different materials to show how hot the fire had gotten based on what it could burn or melt. A fire that can melt copper can also melt gold, bronze, silver, and brass (in descending order of heat). Of the commonly worked metals, only steel and iron require hotter temperatures, although nickel and titanium are also above that threshold; steel needs a fire just barely hotter than copper to melt. Conversely aluminum is very rare in native form. Given that some American cultures smelted copper, they could have made bronze and brass with the same technology, and steel would be just a short step further.
Native American Livestock
Domesticated animals of North America included dogs (variously descended from wolves and coyotes) and horses. Coast Salish and other native people raised shellfish in clam gardens along the West Coast of North America.
Domesticated animals of Central and South America included camelids (alpaca, llama, vicuna, and chilihuecue or huecue all derive from the wild guanaco), dogs, guinea pigs, turkeys, Muscovy ducks, stingless bees, and the cochineal insect. The Mapuche gained chickens from Polynesian traders and raised chilihueques.
Over time, these merged somewhat, as trade brought livestock to new areas. Some tribes bred other species on a small scale, or captured young from the wild to raise (the preferred method for hawks in particular), but the above examples were the most widespread and popular. Together they provided meat, milk, eggs, and honey for food; feathers, fiber, furs, leather, bone, and dye for crafts; animal power for riding, packing, and draft; manure for enriching fields; and companionship.
A popular dish on the West Coast is chili clams. Sunflower oil or animal fat is heated, then a quantity of dried chili peppers are added until the color turns bright red. The raw clams or oysters are dropped in and cooked, then everything gets poured over a starchy base such as grains or potatoes. The result is extremely spicy. A similar result can be made from a dry mix that includes clams, chili powder, and sea salt to be reconstituted in a little water then added to oil.
Native American Crops
Native Americas cultivated or wildcrafted an extensive range of crops including fruits, vegetables, and grains. Of the staple crops, many that were developed in one area later spread as far as they could be grown, like maize (corn). The "Three Sisters" of corn, squash, and beans formed the mainstay of American agriculture and civilization across a wide range. A recent Cherokee reference mentions pitseed goosefoot, amaranth, maygrass, erect knotweed, and barley among its grains and pseudo-cereals.
In this setting, increased vulcanism in the eastern hemisphere led to wider swings of weather. Outgassing could raise temperature through the greenhouse effect and ash from explosive eruptions could lower temperature by blocking sunlight. Native American civilizations were farther from the source, thus spared most direct impact from earthquakes and lava, but they were still influenced by these distal effects.
As a result, people concentrated on developing food sources that could withstand these pressures. This led to an emphasis on crops that could grow with less light, survive swings of temperature and moisture, and produce foods with long storage potential. They focused on small livestock that could be moved indoors if necessary and were easy for families to raise at home.
Sprouts are very helpful. Beans and other legumes make nice big sprouts, but many seeds can be sprouted. This setting has a variety called "long sprouts" that, when sprouted away from light, create tall spindly stalks. They are harvested around 12" and used similar to noodles as a base for other foods.
Manoomin ("the food that grows on water") is described as "wild rice" but is not the same as Asian rice (Oryza sativa), actually the seed of aquatic grasses (Zizania). It grows in the shallow water of lakes or slow-flowing streams. It has a built-in safety feature where most but not all of the seed that drops in one year will sprout the next. Some always lies in wait for two or more years. Manoomin is sensitive to water level and quality, so there are "boom" and "bust" years. The erratic sprouting ensures that some seed always survives a few bad years.
Manoomin began entirely wild but has been enthusiastically encouraged by humans for over 12,000 years. Travelers carried the seeds and threw them in every body of water where they might conceivably grow, greatly expanding the original range. Eventually people began to flood meadows or terraces and grow it in paddies, much like Asian rice. Ideally, a set of fields allows water to seep slowly down from the higher to the lower, creating the slow flow that that manoomin likes. The main area of production lies around the Great Lakes, where people have planted northern wild rice (Zizania palustris) everywhere it will grow. Smaller areas feature Texas wild rice (Z. texana) in central Texas and wild rice (Z. aquatica) in the Saint Lawrence River, Florida, on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
Harvesting manoomin is traditionally done by hand, with one person moving a canoe and one using sticks to knock loose the seeds. Only ripe seeds fall when the stalks are tapped or brushed, and enough scatter into the water to maintain the rice fields. A mechanical harvester was introduced in 1400, but it stripped off all the seeds, ripe or not, resulting in a bust year. The elders declared that the manoomin was offended by this harsh treatment and would withdraw its blessing unless treated with respect. The mechanical harvester was removed, and not reintroduced until 1440 when paddies became more popular, then used only on cultivated fields. The preferred method is still harvesting from wild or near-wild waters where rice, fish, and waterfowl can all be grown in the same area.
A key advance in this setting is the cultivation of mushrooms, useful for forest health. Low in calories but high in vitamins and minerals, mushrooms provide a valuable food source because they can grow in the dark and draw their nourishment from waste instead of from the sun. They also dry and store well. A mix of chopped mushrooms, onions, and ground meat makes an excellent filling for tortillas. A dried mix of mushrooms, onions, juniper berries, sage leaves, and sea salt can be stored or carried for a long time, then reconstituted with water and meat to make a meal.
Notably, the cultivation of mushrooms led to one of America's communicable diseases, the blue sickness. This comes from a spore that flourishes in damp, dark places like mushroom farms or forest floors. Originally it just jumped into mammals to complete its lifecycle, but long-term exposure to humans in dense populations allowed it to learn how to jump from person to person, thus spreading farther and faster. It clogs the lungs, causing victims to wheeze and cough, and a bad case can kill. Interference with oxygen causes the blue tinge in lips and skin that gives the disease its name.
Native Americans developed resistance over time, so it's rarely worse than a cold for them; but it's often lethal in a virgin field. Interestingly, it can often be treated by exposure to sunlight; Vitamin D suppresses the spores. This works better for lighter-skinned people than darker-skinned people: best for pale, adequate for light brown to copper, not so much for dark brown to black. In the environment, they are easily killed by sunlight and dry air, hence why they use animal vectors to travel long distances. A mushroom farm with a bad infestation can simply be emptied, cleaned, and left well-lit and dry for a short time before restoring cultivation with fresh mushroom stock.
In general, Native American agriculture evolved to work with nature instead of replacing it with manmade environments.
Farmers preferred intercropping to monocropping and permaculture to tilling whole fields. They also used techniques such as terracing, crop rotation, and fertilizer. Over time, they saved seeds from the best crops and improved varieties for greater yield or durability. Irrigation was important due to unpredictable rainfall influenced by vulcanism in the eastern hemisphere. Farmers also used microclimates to protect delicate plants, such as stacking dark rocks around those needing more heat. Phenology, the careful observation of nature, told people when to plant and harvest crops, as well as how to solve problems.
Native Americans never developed the European habit of clearcutting large swaths of forest. Instead, they observed two patterns in nature: individual trees would fall, and occasionally a storm or fire would take down a whole stand. So they harvested trees singly or in patches no more than few acres, then allowed natural succession to replace them. This opened up new niches for wildlife and for human foragers. Foresters also used techniques like coppicing and pollarding to produce a continual supply of firewood and craft materials. Some places developed food forests measuring hundreds or even thousands of years old.
Processes like phenology and companion planting influenced the development of the sciences in the Americas. In particular, the field of assistive chemistry grew out of farmers observing how the Three Sisters supported each other. This led to advances in fertilizers and natural pest controls as well as intercropping, later expanded to animals and humans with new medicines and dietary supplements.
Mental and Spiritual Life
Native American cultures have deep traditions regarding the mind and spirit. This has led to earlier development of mental counseling, psychiatric care, and the use of medicines to treat mental or spiritual complaints.
Mayan ah-men, or medicine men, interviewed patients extensively to determine the mental, spiritual, and physical aspects of their health problems. Treatments included talking, ceremonies, and herbal medicines. This approach was typical of most advanced civilizations and many smaller tribes in the Americas.
Dreaming is very important across many native cultures. The Americas have a whole branch of dream science that studies dreams, their influence on people, what they mean, and how to solve problems that interfere with sleep or dreams. Dreamworkers form a large portion of the mental care field. Dream amnesia, the inability to remember dreams, is considered a serious mental disability because it prevents people from participating in many important social activities as well as learning from their dreams.
Games and Entertainment
The Americas have given rise to many games and entertainments.
Games
Board Games -- Various tribes played games on a marked playing field. Originally the pattern was drawn on the ground, then on a hide which could be rolled up around the other pieces. As civilization developed, urban players came to prefer solid boards, often elaborately decorated, and sometimes inlaid into the top of a small table. Popular board games include Patolli (Aztec), Puluk (Mesoamerican), and Zohn Ahl (Kiowa).
In this setting, Territories is a later game for 2-4 players using counters (often small stones or seashells) on a board shaped like a turtle. The goal is to control as much of the board as possible by moving pieces to secure territory. It came out of shifting civilizations in Turtle Island.
Dice Games -- Perudo (Incan) uses sets of five dice, statistics and probability, and social deception. It belongs to a wider family of dice games collectively called Liar's Dice. In this setting, Perudo is contentious because some cultures recognize the usefulness of deceit while others value honesty, so the game is notorious for starting arguments in a mixed group.
Plum Stones -- Many tribes played games of chance using a set of plum stones that were marked to produce different combinations when thrown. Over time, it became more common to use antler slices or ceramic discs, and many different games have been devised using similar pieces. Most people carry a set, because it's lightweight entertainment. Some keep their stones in a pouch that can be opened to present a playing field for a game. This technically belongs to the larger category of dice games, but 2-sided dice tend to be used rather differently than polyhedral dice, and Plum Stones really is a genre of its own in America.
Sports
Chunkey -- a sport where players compete against each other by throwing spears alongside a rolling stone disc. Scoring varies, with some tribes aiming to get close without touching the disc while others try to touch it. The game is related to other spear-and-hoop games, including those where the goal is to pin the hoop by throwing a spear through the center. Originally played on hard-packed ground, this sport benefited from the rise of urban centers where smooth floors of wood or stone became available, allowing the disc to roll better.
Digadayosdi aka five hole or Cherokee marbles -- an individual or team sport played on an L-shaped field with 5 holes. Players attempt to roll small stones balls into the holes in sequence.
Lacrosse -- a team sport played with a small hard ball manipulated by sticks with a scoop or net on one end. A distinguishing feature of lacrosse, as opposed to other stick and ball sports, is the use of that net to catch, carry, and pass the ball. It probably began in the Eastern Woodlands and spread to the Great Plains, played by many different tribes. Early versions involved large teams of players on a random patch of ground. Urban versions typically evolved a smaller set of players on a permanent rectangular field.
Pasuckuakohowog -- a violent team sport played by kicking a ball between two goals. It somewhat resembles soccer in having a large, fairly soft ball. The sport was originally played along a beach, adding the challenge of running through sand. In the move to urban play, people typically kept the long narrow field, but some brought in sand to fill it while others switched to a smooth surface of grass, wood, or stone instead. Early teams could be huge, but later ones often shrank to a set number. A distinguishing feature of this game is that players disguise themselves with paint, masks, and other methods to prevent retaliation for the violence.
Mesoamerican ballgame -- a team sport played with a ball, popular in many variations throughout Mesoamerica. Names include pitz (Classical Maya), pokolpok (Yucatec Maya), ōllamaliztli or tlachtli (Nahuatl / Aztec). Distinguishing features include a hard rubber ball and a narrow court lined with stone or another smooth hard surface that has a vertical hoop for scoring mounted on a wall. Rules and methods of manipulating the ball vary. This game may well have developed after urbanization because it relies on bouncing the ball off smooth hard surfaces.
Snow Snake -- a winter sport played by four teams along a smooth trough made of snow. Players throw polished wooden sticks (the "snow snakes") down the trough, scoring points for the longest throws.
Stickball -- a violent team sport played with a small hard ball manipulated by smooth sticks. It has been played by many tribes in all kinds of variations. The sticks are used as much to club or trip other players as to hit the ball. Early versions involved large teams of players on a random patch of ground. Urban versions often evolved a smaller set of players on a permanent field, but preferred a rough area with boulders and trees to keep it interesting rather than the flat rectangular field of urban lacrosse. Stepball, a modern version, is played on a field made from wood stumps or stone steps instead of smooth ground, so that the players must jump from one to another.
Earthworks
Many tribes in North and South America built earthworks over thousands of years. These started out as relatively small, simple mounds for ceremonial purposes or gaining a better view. They evolved into signal towers using fire, smoke, or mirrors to send messages over long distances. Tribes with kites or hang gliders built structures to assist in launching and landing, as well as earthworks of geometric shapes or animals that were only visible in full from above. Many earthworks served as landmarks for travelers above and below, and the signal function also helped the development of large trade networks.
The earliest earthworks of Watson Brake in northern Louisiana date back to 3400 BCE. Moundbuilding began on the Pacific Coast of the Central Andes around 3100 BCE. A surge of moundbuilding in the eastern woodlands of North America began around 3000 BCE and lasted to the 1500s.
In this setting, the Moundbuilders are people of various tribes who live in the Eastern Woodlands and Midwest areas of Turtle Island, and have enough culture in common that they can typically work together. The City of Built Hills by the Big River (Cahokia) is usually called Built Hills. See a map of Moundbuilder locations. This one shows pyramids in the Americas. Here you can see mounds shaped like birds or airplanes.
Civilizations
Knotmakers (Caral-Supe or Norte Chico) 3,700 BCE – 1,800 BCE
They developed the oldest known civilization in the Americas.
Moundbuilders (Mound Builder cultures: Adena, Hopewell, Mississippian) 800 BCE-1500
Sky People (Nazca in Peru) 500 BCE-1500 CE
They built the first hang gliders.
Jaguar People (Maya) 250 BCE- 900 CE
Sand People (Southwest culture: Hohokam, Anasazi) 300-1400 CE
Children of the Earth (Mapuche) 600 BCE-present
The City of Built Hills by the Big River (Cahokia city) 1050-1350 CE
The White Land (Aztec) 1200-1521 CE
Lords of the Four Parts (Inca) 1438-1535 CE
As an effect of larger and more stable urban societies, this setting developed communal diseases. The Native Americans developed resistance, but Europeans had none, so when exposed they sometimes died in droves.
One disease that sprang up in Central America and spread outward from there was the whining fever. Transmitted by mosquitoes, it caused a high fever and shakes similar to malaria, but did not stay in the body over the long term. A distinctive symptom was tightening of the vocal cords, which could raise the voice or even make it impossible to speak. The high fever could also damage hearing in some victims, particularly children. These effects sometimes became permanent, even after the disease ran its course, and contributed to the popularity of Hand Talk (Plains Indian Sign) spreading through the Americas as an auxiliary language. The name came both from the sound of mosquito wings and the taut high-pitched voice of victims.
Archaic Stage (8000 BCE – 1000 BCE)
Settlements began to emerge around 6000 BCE in Spearhead Island.
Classic stage (800 BCE – 1533 CE)
Many of the Turtle Island civilizations rose in this time.
The Mayans developed one of the most sophisticated writing systems, along with advanced mathematics and a calendar system, which formed the foundation of recorded history in much of Mesoamerica.
Mayans practiced a wide range of human sacrifice, from killing war captives to personal bloodletting in ceremonies. The latter created many opportunities for infection. In this setting, they pioneered medical developments such as the use of antibiotics, starting with penicillin derived from the penicillium mold that grows on damaged ears of maize. This made maize a medicinal crop as well as a food crop. Antibiotics reduced losses from injuries and childbirth, as well as some infectious diseases. Such advances supported the growth of more and larger cities over time, making large urban civilizations more stable in the Americas.
The Mayan love of pain and blood spread throughout much of Central and South America, so that in later times kink became the sexual norm. They referred to this as "chocolate," based on the painfully spicy beverage made from chocolate beans and chiles; and the opposite as "vanilla," an orchid pod used to flavor various other things in addition to the chocolate drink. People who avoid kinky sex and self-sacrifice are viewed with suspicion and distaste.
Mapuche history includes possible Polynesian contact.
The Inca used coca for various purposes.
Destroy Europe
In order to have a healthy, thriving American you need to explain why Europe didn't invade as it did here. The easiest way to do this is to destroy Europe, a hobby I've had at least as far back as junior high.
Among the ways to destroy the world are some things that have crushed civilizations almost instantly.
In this setting, I have chosen increased vulcanism, as a supervolcano could easily shut down the world. Basically, once you have a planet's tectonic plates and seams established, the most active hotspots can occur at any legitimate area, based on random fluctuations of deep currents in the magma below. This map shows how much of Europe -- including its cradle of civilization -- is a hotbed of eruptions and earthquakes. Here the activity is much greater than in our world. Consequently, much of Europe is inhospitable. It is also largely cut off from the Middle East and thence Africa and Asia. You will see more of this mess in later poems. I just wanted to establish a baseline for why Europe hasn't invaded the Americas.
Oceans
Foggy Ocean (Pacific Ocean)
Windy Ocean (Atlantic Ocean)
Hot Ocean (Indian Ocean)
Frozen Ocean (Arctic Ocean)
Cold Ocean (Antarctic Ocean)
Sun Gulf (Gulf of Mexico)
Palm Sea (Caribbean Sea)
Continents
Turtle Island (North America)
Spearhead Island (South America)
Shaking Land (Europe)
Silk Land (Asia)
Drumland (Africa)
Big Sandy Island (Australia)
Blue Island (Antarctica)
Civilizations of the Americas
Knotmakers (Caral-Supe or Norte Chico) 3,700 BCE – 1,800 BCE
Moundbuilders (Mound Builder cultures: Adena, Hopewell, Mississippian) 800 BCE-1500
Sky People (Nazca in Peru) 500 BCE-1500 CE
Children of the Earth (Mapuche) 600 BCE-present
Jaguar People (Maya) 250 BCE- 900 CE
Sand People (Southwest culture: Hohokam, Anasazi) 300-1400 CE
The White Land (Aztec) 1200-1521 CE
Lords of the Four Parts (Inca) 1438-1535 CE
Cultural Groups of Turtle Island
Snow Folk (Eskimos and other arctic tribes)
Evergreen People (Cree and other subarctic tribes)
Salmon People (Salish and other northwest tribes)
Mountainclimbers (Nez Perce and other Rocky Mountain tribes)
Horseriders (Crow and other Sea of Grass / great plains tribes)
Moundbuilders (Illinois and other eastern woodland tribes)
Redwood People (Pomo and other California tribes)
Sand People (Pueblos and other southwest tribes)
The White Land (Aztec Empire)
Big Wind Kinship (Taino and other Caribbean tribes)
Moundbuilder Cities
Long Rapids (Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung in Minnesota in the Laurel Complex)
Goosefoot (northeastern Canada on the coast beyond Goose Bay)
Maple Ridge (in the Point Peninsula Complex on the border of Maine)
Serpent's Egg (Serpent Mounds Park in the Point Peninsula Complex)
Falling Water (Niagara Falls in the Point Peninsula Complex)
They Make Tools There (confluence of Iowa and Mississippi Rivers in Havana)
The City of Built Hills by the Big River (Cahokia) is usually called Built Hills.
Potter's Bridge (Kansas City in Kansas City Hopewell)
The Terraces (in Crab Orchard Culture at Illinois-Indiana border)
Paint City (in Ohio Hopewell)
Birdstone (western Michigan in Goodall Focus)
Other Locations
Fat Rock on Frozen Island (on Greenland)
Moose Knee (Moosonee on Hudson Bay in Canada)
Thunderbird Bay (Thunder Bay in Ontario, Canada)
Island of the White Wolves (Newfoundland)
Wolf's Tail (St. Anthony in Newfoundland)
Wolf's Nose (St. John's in Newfoundland)
East Hook (Provincetown) at the tip of Curving Arm (Cape Cod in Massachusetts)
The tribes relate closely to the biomes and the geography of Turtle Island.
The Island of the White Wolf (Newfoundland) has several settlements, notably Wolf's Nose (St. John's) and Wolf's Tail (St. Anthony). It is named after the white wolves that live there.
East Hook (Provincetown) lies at the tip of Curving Arm (Cape Cod in Massachusetts).
The geography of Spearhead Island, along with resulting climates and biomes, relate to local-South American countries. The elevation determines much of the land use. Natural hazards include unpredictable weather patterns like El Niño. Estimated population of local-Latin America in 1492 was 50-100 million Native Americans. The levels of civilization varied.
Thunderbirds
This setting has thunderbirds, a genus of giant birds classified as Ailornis. They share some traits with raptors, vultures, and even storks but belong to their own group. Some are hunters, the crowned thunderbirds with feathered heads; others are scavengers, the bald thunderbirds with naked heads. The smallest species has a wingspan around 10-12 feet and the largest 20-25 feet wide. Most are soaring birds like condors, conserving energy by jumping off tall structures and using thermals to gain height. The stormrider species also surf the leading edge of wind ahead of storms, watching for prey flushed by the thunder or carcasses struck down by lightning. Most are black or dark brown, sometimes with contrasting patches, but the turquoise thunderbird is iridescent blue and the alpine thunderbird is white, while the giant sunbird and little sunbird are gold.
Hang Gliding and Aviation in the Americas
Hang gliding developed first in the Americas. People would run with kites and catch a headwind from the ground, or jump off a high place, then glide. They built taller and taller mounds or towers, which they used for various purposes. One was to launch hang gliders, or thunderwings, because the higher the starting point the better. The Sky People (Nazca in Peru, 500 BCE-1500 CE) developed hang gliders. Before that, some other people had simpler kites.
Pilots studied thunderbirds and other large birds to learn how they flew. Observant pilots noticed that the birds sought out thermals, and followed them, learning how to ride the warm currents and eventually how to find their own. They studied the shape of wings, how the air flowed over the surfaces, how the birds used their feathers and tails to change direction. Since the thunderbirds flapped their wings only when necessary, preferring to glide, American pilots were not distracted by the attempt to make a flapping machine. They built better and better hang gliders, learning about lift and gravity and airfoils.
From there it was just a matter of adding thrust. People experimented with all sorts of methods, from rubber band launchers to pedaled fans. Eventually they hit on the idea of motors, and transitioned from gliding to powered flight.
Native Americans used hang gliders for war in various ways. First the pilots used them as scouting tools to spy on the enemy -- a devasting advantage if the other side didn't have air power. As the hang gliders grew stronger, they started dropping dangerous things. A favorite trick was to capture a wasp nest at night when the insects were sleeping and seal it up. Dropped onto a battlefield, it would break open and release a swarm of outraged wasps like a self-propelling biological cluster bomb.
Timeline of Aviation
See timelines of general aviation and military aviation from local-Earth.
It was 109 years between the first recorded use of balloons in warfare and the use of heavier-than-air flight. It was only 3 years from the first flight to the U.S. Army's purchase of an airplane. 1 year after that, the first aerial bombing occurred in Mexico. It was 11 years between the first flight and the first major use in WWI.
It was 24 years between the first powered heavier-than-air flight and the first nonstop transatlantic flight, and 44 years to break the sound barrier.
In this setting, the Moundbuilders developed the first true engines around 1400 CE, turning hang gliders into hyperlight flying machines. Enclosed airplanes emerged around 1412 CE, but seated cockpits didn't appear until 1420 CE because people were used to lying flat under hang gliders.
Metalwork in the Americas
Metalwork from native metals dates back at least as far as 2155 BCE in the Andes of South America with gold and 5000 BCE in North America with copper. In Bolivia, copper smelting began around 2000 BCE.
Alloys of gold and copper appeared in Central America 300–500 CE.
The White Land (Aztec) adopted metalwork from other people, then began smelting bronze.
The Mapuche became famous for their fine silverwork.
The Salmon People of the Pacific Northwest learned how to work iron, starting with the nickel-iron of meteorites and later drift iron from Japanese shipwrecks. From there, the use of iron and steel spread across Turtle Island.
An interesting feature of experimental thermodynamics appears in the development of furnaces, while people were trying to make hotter and hotter ones. They would lay out rows of different materials to show how hot the fire had gotten based on what it could burn or melt. A fire that can melt copper can also melt gold, bronze, silver, and brass (in descending order of heat). Of the commonly worked metals, only steel and iron require hotter temperatures, although nickel and titanium are also above that threshold; steel needs a fire just barely hotter than copper to melt. Conversely aluminum is very rare in native form. Given that some American cultures smelted copper, they could have made bronze and brass with the same technology, and steel would be just a short step further.
Native American Livestock
Domesticated animals of North America included dogs (variously descended from wolves and coyotes) and horses. Coast Salish and other native people raised shellfish in clam gardens along the West Coast of North America.
Domesticated animals of Central and South America included camelids (alpaca, llama, vicuna, and chilihuecue or huecue all derive from the wild guanaco), dogs, guinea pigs, turkeys, Muscovy ducks, stingless bees, and the cochineal insect. The Mapuche gained chickens from Polynesian traders and raised chilihueques.
Over time, these merged somewhat, as trade brought livestock to new areas. Some tribes bred other species on a small scale, or captured young from the wild to raise (the preferred method for hawks in particular), but the above examples were the most widespread and popular. Together they provided meat, milk, eggs, and honey for food; feathers, fiber, furs, leather, bone, and dye for crafts; animal power for riding, packing, and draft; manure for enriching fields; and companionship.
A popular dish on the West Coast is chili clams. Sunflower oil or animal fat is heated, then a quantity of dried chili peppers are added until the color turns bright red. The raw clams or oysters are dropped in and cooked, then everything gets poured over a starchy base such as grains or potatoes. The result is extremely spicy. A similar result can be made from a dry mix that includes clams, chili powder, and sea salt to be reconstituted in a little water then added to oil.
Native American Crops
Native Americas cultivated or wildcrafted an extensive range of crops including fruits, vegetables, and grains. Of the staple crops, many that were developed in one area later spread as far as they could be grown, like maize (corn). The "Three Sisters" of corn, squash, and beans formed the mainstay of American agriculture and civilization across a wide range. A recent Cherokee reference mentions pitseed goosefoot, amaranth, maygrass, erect knotweed, and barley among its grains and pseudo-cereals.
In this setting, increased vulcanism in the eastern hemisphere led to wider swings of weather. Outgassing could raise temperature through the greenhouse effect and ash from explosive eruptions could lower temperature by blocking sunlight. Native American civilizations were farther from the source, thus spared most direct impact from earthquakes and lava, but they were still influenced by these distal effects.
As a result, people concentrated on developing food sources that could withstand these pressures. This led to an emphasis on crops that could grow with less light, survive swings of temperature and moisture, and produce foods with long storage potential. They focused on small livestock that could be moved indoors if necessary and were easy for families to raise at home.
Sprouts are very helpful. Beans and other legumes make nice big sprouts, but many seeds can be sprouted. This setting has a variety called "long sprouts" that, when sprouted away from light, create tall spindly stalks. They are harvested around 12" and used similar to noodles as a base for other foods.
Manoomin ("the food that grows on water") is described as "wild rice" but is not the same as Asian rice (Oryza sativa), actually the seed of aquatic grasses (Zizania). It grows in the shallow water of lakes or slow-flowing streams. It has a built-in safety feature where most but not all of the seed that drops in one year will sprout the next. Some always lies in wait for two or more years. Manoomin is sensitive to water level and quality, so there are "boom" and "bust" years. The erratic sprouting ensures that some seed always survives a few bad years.
Manoomin began entirely wild but has been enthusiastically encouraged by humans for over 12,000 years. Travelers carried the seeds and threw them in every body of water where they might conceivably grow, greatly expanding the original range. Eventually people began to flood meadows or terraces and grow it in paddies, much like Asian rice. Ideally, a set of fields allows water to seep slowly down from the higher to the lower, creating the slow flow that that manoomin likes. The main area of production lies around the Great Lakes, where people have planted northern wild rice (Zizania palustris) everywhere it will grow. Smaller areas feature Texas wild rice (Z. texana) in central Texas and wild rice (Z. aquatica) in the Saint Lawrence River, Florida, on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
Harvesting manoomin is traditionally done by hand, with one person moving a canoe and one using sticks to knock loose the seeds. Only ripe seeds fall when the stalks are tapped or brushed, and enough scatter into the water to maintain the rice fields. A mechanical harvester was introduced in 1400, but it stripped off all the seeds, ripe or not, resulting in a bust year. The elders declared that the manoomin was offended by this harsh treatment and would withdraw its blessing unless treated with respect. The mechanical harvester was removed, and not reintroduced until 1440 when paddies became more popular, then used only on cultivated fields. The preferred method is still harvesting from wild or near-wild waters where rice, fish, and waterfowl can all be grown in the same area.
A key advance in this setting is the cultivation of mushrooms, useful for forest health. Low in calories but high in vitamins and minerals, mushrooms provide a valuable food source because they can grow in the dark and draw their nourishment from waste instead of from the sun. They also dry and store well. A mix of chopped mushrooms, onions, and ground meat makes an excellent filling for tortillas. A dried mix of mushrooms, onions, juniper berries, sage leaves, and sea salt can be stored or carried for a long time, then reconstituted with water and meat to make a meal.
Notably, the cultivation of mushrooms led to one of America's communicable diseases, the blue sickness. This comes from a spore that flourishes in damp, dark places like mushroom farms or forest floors. Originally it just jumped into mammals to complete its lifecycle, but long-term exposure to humans in dense populations allowed it to learn how to jump from person to person, thus spreading farther and faster. It clogs the lungs, causing victims to wheeze and cough, and a bad case can kill. Interference with oxygen causes the blue tinge in lips and skin that gives the disease its name.
Native Americans developed resistance over time, so it's rarely worse than a cold for them; but it's often lethal in a virgin field. Interestingly, it can often be treated by exposure to sunlight; Vitamin D suppresses the spores. This works better for lighter-skinned people than darker-skinned people: best for pale, adequate for light brown to copper, not so much for dark brown to black. In the environment, they are easily killed by sunlight and dry air, hence why they use animal vectors to travel long distances. A mushroom farm with a bad infestation can simply be emptied, cleaned, and left well-lit and dry for a short time before restoring cultivation with fresh mushroom stock.
In general, Native American agriculture evolved to work with nature instead of replacing it with manmade environments.
Farmers preferred intercropping to monocropping and permaculture to tilling whole fields. They also used techniques such as terracing, crop rotation, and fertilizer. Over time, they saved seeds from the best crops and improved varieties for greater yield or durability. Irrigation was important due to unpredictable rainfall influenced by vulcanism in the eastern hemisphere. Farmers also used microclimates to protect delicate plants, such as stacking dark rocks around those needing more heat. Phenology, the careful observation of nature, told people when to plant and harvest crops, as well as how to solve problems.
Native Americans never developed the European habit of clearcutting large swaths of forest. Instead, they observed two patterns in nature: individual trees would fall, and occasionally a storm or fire would take down a whole stand. So they harvested trees singly or in patches no more than few acres, then allowed natural succession to replace them. This opened up new niches for wildlife and for human foragers. Foresters also used techniques like coppicing and pollarding to produce a continual supply of firewood and craft materials. Some places developed food forests measuring hundreds or even thousands of years old.
Processes like phenology and companion planting influenced the development of the sciences in the Americas. In particular, the field of assistive chemistry grew out of farmers observing how the Three Sisters supported each other. This led to advances in fertilizers and natural pest controls as well as intercropping, later expanded to animals and humans with new medicines and dietary supplements.
Mental and Spiritual Life
Native American cultures have deep traditions regarding the mind and spirit. This has led to earlier development of mental counseling, psychiatric care, and the use of medicines to treat mental or spiritual complaints.
Mayan ah-men, or medicine men, interviewed patients extensively to determine the mental, spiritual, and physical aspects of their health problems. Treatments included talking, ceremonies, and herbal medicines. This approach was typical of most advanced civilizations and many smaller tribes in the Americas.
Dreaming is very important across many native cultures. The Americas have a whole branch of dream science that studies dreams, their influence on people, what they mean, and how to solve problems that interfere with sleep or dreams. Dreamworkers form a large portion of the mental care field. Dream amnesia, the inability to remember dreams, is considered a serious mental disability because it prevents people from participating in many important social activities as well as learning from their dreams.
Games and Entertainment
The Americas have given rise to many games and entertainments.
Games
Board Games -- Various tribes played games on a marked playing field. Originally the pattern was drawn on the ground, then on a hide which could be rolled up around the other pieces. As civilization developed, urban players came to prefer solid boards, often elaborately decorated, and sometimes inlaid into the top of a small table. Popular board games include Patolli (Aztec), Puluk (Mesoamerican), and Zohn Ahl (Kiowa).
In this setting, Territories is a later game for 2-4 players using counters (often small stones or seashells) on a board shaped like a turtle. The goal is to control as much of the board as possible by moving pieces to secure territory. It came out of shifting civilizations in Turtle Island.
Dice Games -- Perudo (Incan) uses sets of five dice, statistics and probability, and social deception. It belongs to a wider family of dice games collectively called Liar's Dice. In this setting, Perudo is contentious because some cultures recognize the usefulness of deceit while others value honesty, so the game is notorious for starting arguments in a mixed group.
Plum Stones -- Many tribes played games of chance using a set of plum stones that were marked to produce different combinations when thrown. Over time, it became more common to use antler slices or ceramic discs, and many different games have been devised using similar pieces. Most people carry a set, because it's lightweight entertainment. Some keep their stones in a pouch that can be opened to present a playing field for a game. This technically belongs to the larger category of dice games, but 2-sided dice tend to be used rather differently than polyhedral dice, and Plum Stones really is a genre of its own in America.
Sports
Chunkey -- a sport where players compete against each other by throwing spears alongside a rolling stone disc. Scoring varies, with some tribes aiming to get close without touching the disc while others try to touch it. The game is related to other spear-and-hoop games, including those where the goal is to pin the hoop by throwing a spear through the center. Originally played on hard-packed ground, this sport benefited from the rise of urban centers where smooth floors of wood or stone became available, allowing the disc to roll better.
Digadayosdi aka five hole or Cherokee marbles -- an individual or team sport played on an L-shaped field with 5 holes. Players attempt to roll small stones balls into the holes in sequence.
Lacrosse -- a team sport played with a small hard ball manipulated by sticks with a scoop or net on one end. A distinguishing feature of lacrosse, as opposed to other stick and ball sports, is the use of that net to catch, carry, and pass the ball. It probably began in the Eastern Woodlands and spread to the Great Plains, played by many different tribes. Early versions involved large teams of players on a random patch of ground. Urban versions typically evolved a smaller set of players on a permanent rectangular field.
Pasuckuakohowog -- a violent team sport played by kicking a ball between two goals. It somewhat resembles soccer in having a large, fairly soft ball. The sport was originally played along a beach, adding the challenge of running through sand. In the move to urban play, people typically kept the long narrow field, but some brought in sand to fill it while others switched to a smooth surface of grass, wood, or stone instead. Early teams could be huge, but later ones often shrank to a set number. A distinguishing feature of this game is that players disguise themselves with paint, masks, and other methods to prevent retaliation for the violence.
Mesoamerican ballgame -- a team sport played with a ball, popular in many variations throughout Mesoamerica. Names include pitz (Classical Maya), pokolpok (Yucatec Maya), ōllamaliztli or tlachtli (Nahuatl / Aztec). Distinguishing features include a hard rubber ball and a narrow court lined with stone or another smooth hard surface that has a vertical hoop for scoring mounted on a wall. Rules and methods of manipulating the ball vary. This game may well have developed after urbanization because it relies on bouncing the ball off smooth hard surfaces.
Snow Snake -- a winter sport played by four teams along a smooth trough made of snow. Players throw polished wooden sticks (the "snow snakes") down the trough, scoring points for the longest throws.
Stickball -- a violent team sport played with a small hard ball manipulated by smooth sticks. It has been played by many tribes in all kinds of variations. The sticks are used as much to club or trip other players as to hit the ball. Early versions involved large teams of players on a random patch of ground. Urban versions often evolved a smaller set of players on a permanent field, but preferred a rough area with boulders and trees to keep it interesting rather than the flat rectangular field of urban lacrosse. Stepball, a modern version, is played on a field made from wood stumps or stone steps instead of smooth ground, so that the players must jump from one to another.
Earthworks
Many tribes in North and South America built earthworks over thousands of years. These started out as relatively small, simple mounds for ceremonial purposes or gaining a better view. They evolved into signal towers using fire, smoke, or mirrors to send messages over long distances. Tribes with kites or hang gliders built structures to assist in launching and landing, as well as earthworks of geometric shapes or animals that were only visible in full from above. Many earthworks served as landmarks for travelers above and below, and the signal function also helped the development of large trade networks.
The earliest earthworks of Watson Brake in northern Louisiana date back to 3400 BCE. Moundbuilding began on the Pacific Coast of the Central Andes around 3100 BCE. A surge of moundbuilding in the eastern woodlands of North America began around 3000 BCE and lasted to the 1500s.
In this setting, the Moundbuilders are people of various tribes who live in the Eastern Woodlands and Midwest areas of Turtle Island, and have enough culture in common that they can typically work together. The City of Built Hills by the Big River (Cahokia) is usually called Built Hills. See a map of Moundbuilder locations. This one shows pyramids in the Americas. Here you can see mounds shaped like birds or airplanes.
Civilizations
Knotmakers (Caral-Supe or Norte Chico) 3,700 BCE – 1,800 BCE
They developed the oldest known civilization in the Americas.
Moundbuilders (Mound Builder cultures: Adena, Hopewell, Mississippian) 800 BCE-1500
Sky People (Nazca in Peru) 500 BCE-1500 CE
They built the first hang gliders.
Jaguar People (Maya) 250 BCE- 900 CE
Sand People (Southwest culture: Hohokam, Anasazi) 300-1400 CE
Children of the Earth (Mapuche) 600 BCE-present
The City of Built Hills by the Big River (Cahokia city) 1050-1350 CE
The White Land (Aztec) 1200-1521 CE
Lords of the Four Parts (Inca) 1438-1535 CE
As an effect of larger and more stable urban societies, this setting developed communal diseases. The Native Americans developed resistance, but Europeans had none, so when exposed they sometimes died in droves.
One disease that sprang up in Central America and spread outward from there was the whining fever. Transmitted by mosquitoes, it caused a high fever and shakes similar to malaria, but did not stay in the body over the long term. A distinctive symptom was tightening of the vocal cords, which could raise the voice or even make it impossible to speak. The high fever could also damage hearing in some victims, particularly children. These effects sometimes became permanent, even after the disease ran its course, and contributed to the popularity of Hand Talk (Plains Indian Sign) spreading through the Americas as an auxiliary language. The name came both from the sound of mosquito wings and the taut high-pitched voice of victims.
Archaic Stage (8000 BCE – 1000 BCE)
Settlements began to emerge around 6000 BCE in Spearhead Island.
Classic stage (800 BCE – 1533 CE)
Many of the Turtle Island civilizations rose in this time.
The Mayans developed one of the most sophisticated writing systems, along with advanced mathematics and a calendar system, which formed the foundation of recorded history in much of Mesoamerica.
Mayans practiced a wide range of human sacrifice, from killing war captives to personal bloodletting in ceremonies. The latter created many opportunities for infection. In this setting, they pioneered medical developments such as the use of antibiotics, starting with penicillin derived from the penicillium mold that grows on damaged ears of maize. This made maize a medicinal crop as well as a food crop. Antibiotics reduced losses from injuries and childbirth, as well as some infectious diseases. Such advances supported the growth of more and larger cities over time, making large urban civilizations more stable in the Americas.
The Mayan love of pain and blood spread throughout much of Central and South America, so that in later times kink became the sexual norm. They referred to this as "chocolate," based on the painfully spicy beverage made from chocolate beans and chiles; and the opposite as "vanilla," an orchid pod used to flavor various other things in addition to the chocolate drink. People who avoid kinky sex and self-sacrifice are viewed with suspicion and distaste.
Mapuche history includes possible Polynesian contact.
The Inca used coca for various purposes.
Destroy Europe
In order to have a healthy, thriving American you need to explain why Europe didn't invade as it did here. The easiest way to do this is to destroy Europe, a hobby I've had at least as far back as junior high.
Among the ways to destroy the world are some things that have crushed civilizations almost instantly.
In this setting, I have chosen increased vulcanism, as a supervolcano could easily shut down the world. Basically, once you have a planet's tectonic plates and seams established, the most active hotspots can occur at any legitimate area, based on random fluctuations of deep currents in the magma below. This map shows how much of Europe -- including its cradle of civilization -- is a hotbed of eruptions and earthquakes. Here the activity is much greater than in our world. Consequently, much of Europe is inhospitable. It is also largely cut off from the Middle East and thence Africa and Asia. You will see more of this mess in later poems. I just wanted to establish a baseline for why Europe hasn't invaded the Americas.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-20 05:43 am (UTC)>>The Mapuche gained chickens from Polynesian traders and raised<<
The sentence just ends abruptly. Presumably there was more?
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-20 06:21 am (UTC)Some native tribes dispute that interpretation of history, saying they have always had horses. Given the European invaders' concerted efforts to distort history and destroy evidence, I tend to favor native accounts. This isn't the only place where I've written about horses and other native livestock.
>>The sentence just ends abruptly. Presumably there was more?<<
Chilihueques, a type of camelid.