Native American Ecology

Final Exam

Sample Questions

1.      Which of the following was NOT a significant factor contributing to the decline of the bison population during the 19th century?

a.      Plains Indians preferred to hunt female buffalo because they preferred the hides and meat from cows.
b.      Plains Indians killed and ate bison fetuses.
c.     Cattle ranchers slaughtered large numbers of bison in order to make room for their large herds of cattle.
d.     By grazing large herds of horses on the plains, Plains Indians caused lethal diseases to spread among the 

                  Bison population.
e.     Euroamericans killed large numbers of bison due to the demand for bison hides to be used to manufacture

                  conveyor belts for industrial production.

2.       The principal bison habitat was

a.      tall grass prarie
b.     short grass high plains
c.     woodland community
d.     taiga vegetative community

3.       Following the ecological model which claims that territoriality is based on economic defendability, the practice of territoriality was likely greatest among the

a.     Apache of eastern New Mexico
b.     the Pueblo Indians
c.     the Inuit
d.     Plains Indian bison hunters

4.       Which of the following types of bison hunting was the least labor intensive and required the least community cooperation?

a.     driving bison into a surround
b.     driving bison over a cliff
c.     hunting bison using guns and horses
d.     all of the above were about equal in the intensity of labor invested in the hunt and in the level of cooperation

                  required.

5.      Flores claims that only about 30 million bison originally existed on the plains. He primarily based his estimate on

a.      a careful rereading of estimates of bison numbers given by early explorers.
b.     calculations of actual numbers of bison hides sold to trading posts.
c.     a consideration of the nutritional requirements of bison in relation to the availability of suitable plant species.
d.     estimates by early anthropologists, such as Grinell, Lowie and others, of the number of bison killed by Indians.

6.      The prehistoric peoples who inhabited Chaco Canyon are known as the

a.     Hohokam
b.     Anasazi
c.     Mogollon
d.     Athapascans
e.     Havasu
 

7.      Which of the following reasons would explain why ancient peoples in the Southwest were concerned with marking solstices and equinoxes?

a.     The movement of the sun marked seasonal changes directly related to performing agricultural activities.
b.     Marking the movements of the sun enabled people to both anticipate and schedule their agricultural activities.
c.     Anticipating specific dates was important because many activities required lengthy preparation and

                  presupposed previous activities having already been done.
d.     It is highly likely that prehistoric peoples in the Southwest saw the seasons and other natural phenomenon as

                  being regulated by supernatural beings. Being able to anticipate specific dates likely gave them time to

                  prepare the rituals associated with agricultural activities.
e.     all of the above.

8.      Which of the following is true regarding both the Great Plains and Northeast Woodland peoples?

a.     They both depended upon resources that were concentrated and that developed external market value as a

                   result of Euroamerican contact.
b.     They were both able to live in permanent villages as a result of their dependence upon abundant, localized

                   resources.
c.     They were both able to successfully adapt to Euroamerican colonization as a result of their dependence upon

                   resources that developed external market value.
d.     all of the above.

9.      Which of the following statements is the most correct?

a.     Most American Indians died of diseases intentionally introduced by Euroamericans.
b.     The principal cause of death among the Indians was genocide
c.     Many Indians died of diseases that they contracted before actually coming into contact with whites.
d.     Indian-Indian warfare resulted in more Indian deaths than Indian-white warfare.
e.     c & d

10.     Which of the following statements is least correct?

a.     Only the easternmost pueblos, such as Taos and Pecos, were able to obtain much meat and buffalo hides

                   from the trade with the Plains Indians.
b.     There are numerous accounts by the early Spanish settlers of an extensive trade between the Pueblo and the

                  Apache, many of which describe the Apache leading caravans of several hundred dogs laden with goods to

                  trade with the Pueblo.
c.     The Spanish largely left the Pueblo-Plains trade alone, seeing it to their advantage to let the Indians trade.
d.     Archaeological evidence indicates that the Pueblo-Plains trade was more elaborate before the arrival of the

                  Apache (Athabascans) than after they arrived. They apparently disrupted a flourishing trade that had existed

                  between the Pueblo Indians and the existing inhabitants of the plains.

11.     Which of the following statements is least correct?

a.     The Pueblo-Plains trading system was essentially a trade of the agricultural products of river valleys for the

                  products of hunting in the open plains.
b.     During drought years, neither the Pueblo nor the Apache were as likely to produce a sufficient surplus to

                  trade to the other. However, the Apache were in a better position than the Pueblo because of their ability to

                  store and maintain surpluses from previous years.
c.     The Pueblo-Plains trade was based on the fact that much of New Mexico contains a coarse-grained

                  distribution of resources.
d.     In ecological terms a kind of mutualism or symbiosis existed between the Pueblo and Plains Indians. Each

                  group could survive better by producing a surplus of what they normally produce and trading that surplus

                  with the other group that is producing a surplus of what it normally produces.

12.     Which of the following Indian groups is correctly linked with a culture area?

a.     Lakota -- Northwest Coast
b.     Hopi -- Great Plains
c.     Iroquois -- Northeast Woodland
d.     Apache -- Great Plains
e.     Navajo -- Great Basin

13.     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

14.     Which of the following statements is most correct regarding Iroquois warfare?

a.     Iroquois warfare was directed primarily at the Algonquian because their region possessed large herds of

                  bison.
b.     Iroquois warfare was directed primarily at the Huron, because the Huron had an overabundance of deer.
c.     Iroquois warfare was directed initially at the Huron in order to gain control of the beaver pelt trade.
d.    The league of the Iroquois was formed in order to better enable the Iroquois to defend themselves from the

                 expanding Euroamemrican population that was encroaching on their land.

15.     In both the Eastern Woodlands and the Great Plains, the Indians were taken advantage of because they were pressured to exchange what they considered a valuable resource (beaver pelts and bison hides respectively) for the less valued items offered by European traders.

a.     true
b.    false
 

Native American Ecology