Native American Landscapes in the Eastern United States

Abstract

This chapter concentrates upon providing an overview of the history of interactions between Native Americans and European settlers, summarizing the impacts upon the indigenous population, their cultural landscape, and their current status and population distribution. Noting epidemics and genocide that depopulated North America at the time of first European contact and subsequent relocations of certain tribes, much of the Native American landscape remains only in archaeological ruins. Platform mounds, effigy mounds, burial mounds and other earthworks, and waste middens, together with indigenous crops and numerous toponyms are the most prominent and widespread Native American features within that part of the United States from the Mississippi River Valley eastward. The role of small remnant Indian populations exerting their sovereignty to create a new landscape financed by casinos and tax exempt shops is discussed. Contemporary cultural landscape features are reviewed, and the changing Seminole Indian landscape is described.