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NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS
Sample Exam Questions
1. Moderate temperatures, high humidity, abundant rainfall, rugged mountains containing coniferous forests and productive rivers characterize the _____ Culture Area.
a. Great Plains b. Southeast c. Northwest d. Northeast e. Sub-Arctic
2. Prior to contact with Europeans, corn was more likely grown in the western Plains than in the eastern Plains.
a. true b. false
3. The Anasazi are generally accepted by anthropologists to be the prehistoric ancestors of the modern ________ Indians.
a. Apache b. Navajo c. Pueblo d. Iroquois e. Cherokee
4. According to political activists, such as Vine Deloria and Russell Means,
a. the term Native American is preferable to American Indian. b. the term American Indian is preferable to Native American. c. the term Amerindian is preferable to both American Indian and Native American. d. all of these terms are European in origin and, thus, have been imposed on people who consider themselves Lakota, Navajo, Hopi, etc.
5. Several Northwest Coast Indians displayed sociocultural characteristics normally associated with more complex horticultural and agricultural societies rather than those associated with societies (such as the Inuit or the Plains bison hunters) which were likewise dependent on the exploitation of undomesticated plant and animal resources. These characteristics included the construction of substantial permanent housing structures, residence in settled villages containing hundred of individuals organized into complex lineages, social stratification with class endogamy, and the ownership and inheritance of private property, including slaves. This uniqueness of Northwest Coast Indians ultimately resulted from
a. the distinct value system of the Northwest Coast Indians as illustrated in their construction of totem poles. b. the fact that, unlike most societies that depend upon the exploitation of wild resources, the Northwest Coast Indians depended on resources that could be intensively exploited without resulting in their overexploitation and extinction. c. the prevalence of potlatching throughout the Northwest Coast. d. the fact that the intensive exploitation of salmon was infrastructurally similar to agriculture: it enabled local populations to produce sizable surpluses from which differences in wealth and power could evolve. e. b and d.
6. At the time of European contact, the majority of American Indian economies were based on
a. bison hunting b. the exploitation of wild resources c. farming d. fishing e. a and b.
7. Which of the following statements is most correct? a. Tundra ecosystems contain high productivity and high species diversity. b. Tundra ecosystems contain high productivity but low species diversity. c. Tundra ecosystems contain low productivity and high species diversity. d. Tundra ecosystems contain low productivity and low species diversity.
8. Which of the following Indian groups is correctly linked with a culture area?
a. Lakota -- Northwest Coast b. Hopi -- Great Plains c. Iroquois -- Southeast Woodland d. Apache -- Southwest e. Navajo -- Great Basin
9. Which of the following statements best characterizes Vine Deloria's view of White-Indian relations as expressed in his book, Custer Died for Your Sins?
a. Those whites who are concerned with the "plight" of the Indians are the best friends of the Indian. b. Many whites have Indian ancestors and, due to its size and its history, the Cherokee tribe is the tribe from which whites most likely have Indian ancestors. c. Indians need whites to stop helping them and to just leave them alone. d. Whites can help Indians by establishing task forces to study the problems of reservation life and make recommendations for ways in which life on the reservations can be improved. e. It is in the interest of Indians to have more movies like Pocahontas and Dances with Wolves made which present a positive image of Indians that both whites and Indians can view.
10. Which of the following statements is NOT correct regarding the Inuit diet?
12. Which of the following groups does Andy Smith (“For All Those Who Were Indians in A Former Life”) single out in her attack on those who exploit Native American religion for personal gain?
13. Which of the following individuals would likely NOT have liked the film, “Dances with Wolves”?
14. Bordewich (Killing the White Man’s Indian) takes the opposite approach in his book as does Donald Hughes (American Indian Ecology) and Gerry Mander (“What You Don’t Know about Indians”). He argues that Indians were often wasteful of their resources, have frequently mismanaged their reservations and are today substantially responsible for their own economic problems.
15. Which of the following would be considered an energy subsidy increasing the energy flow within an ecological system? a. rifles among the Inuit b. rifles among the Plains Indians c. snowmobiles among the Inuit d. horses among the Plains Indians e. all of the above
"The American Indians lived in the New World for twenty, thirty, forty thousand years. Everywhere they went, they learned to live with nature. They did this without destroying, without polluting, without using up the living resources of the natural world. They had learned how to live in harmony with Mother Earth, to use what she offers without hurting her."
16. Which of the following authors made the above statement?
a. Shepard Krech (The Ecological Indian) b. Donald Hughes (American Indian Ecology) c. Fergus Bordewich (Killing the White Man’s Indian) d. William Abruzzi (The Myth of Chief Seattle)
17. Which of the following statements is NOT correct regarding Donald Hughes’ discussion of Native American ecology in his book, American Indian Ecology?
a. Hughes misuses the concept of “sacred” by making Native American beliefs about natural objects seem unique rather than s examples of the kind of animistic beliefs that are common among pre-industrial peoples throughout the world. b. Hughes shows that the principles of general ecology can be used to explain specific Native American adaptive behaviors. c. Hughes talks in generalities and provides no historical data to support his claims, even though he is a historian. d. Hughes presents an idealistic view of Indians as living in “balance with nature” rather than a detailed analysis of the specific ecological relationships of individual Native American populations.
18. Which of the following statements is most correct regarding the practice of female infanticide among the Inuit?
a. It is usually the males, rather than the females, who prefer to kill female infants. b. While females may agree to kill infants, the death of older children is largely caused by males, because mothers who have raised daughters are likely to have developed emotional bonds with them and are, therefore, less likely to kill them. c. Among the Inuit, female infants are likely to be killed because, owing to the high mortality of males and the fact that almost all food production is done by men, a family would likely find itself with adult daughters that: (1) cannot be married off, (2) do not increase the wealth or prosperity of the family and (3) must be supported on the family’s limited resources. d. Female infanticide is more likely to occur among the Inuit when the cost/benefit ratio of raising girls is lower than that for boys.
19. Which of the following statements is most correct with regard to the application of ecological theory to community development among 19th century Mormon settlements in the Little Colorado River Basin?
a. In ecological terms, the lower valley settlements were situated in highly stable habitats which possessed high productivity, and which imposed only low community maintenance costs. This resulted in high aggregate and net community productivities for these towns. b. From the perspective of general ecology, large valleys, good soils and abundant, superior quality surface water translated into high environmental productivity for intermediate settlements. At the same time, reliable growing seasons, together with stable surface water sources, provided high environmental stability with regard to critical agricultural resources. High environmental productivity and stability combined to produce the highest and least variable community productivities of any settlements in the region. Furthermore, because intermediate settlements did not suffer the frequency of dam failures experienced in the lower valley; and because they contained the largest populations with which to undertake dam reconstruction, they also sustained the lowest per capita maintenance costs in the region. They, therefore, generated the highest net productivities and were able to support the largest and most stable populations in the basin. c. In terms of community development, the southern highlands settlements were among the most developed Mormon towns in the region. Stated in ecological terms: high environmental productivity and stability resulted in a high net community productivity among southern highland settlements. As predicted by ecological theory, these settlements were among the most functionally diverse Mormon towns in the basin. d. all of the above.
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Briefly Discuss the Following (one-page essays)
Black Elk Speaks Chief Seattle Cultural and Natural Areas
"Europeans did not find a wilderness here; rather, however involuntary, they made one."
“Bitches simply don't pull as hard as male dogs do.”
The Ecological Indian The White Man's Indian
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