Questions - technology levels & precious metals in pre-contact New World cultures

raharris1973

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One gets the impression that in America north of the Rio Grande, explorers did not find gold until the 1700s Georgia gold rush, the closest to it was rumors of the 7 golden cities of cebolla in the southwest.

However, Mexico and Peru had abundant gold and silver, and the Taino in the Bahamas and Hispaniola had abundant gold personal ornamentation. Did the Taino mostly have it from local sources or trade with Mesoamerica?

I'm not sure how much the Spanish [and briefly, the Welser Germans] found in Venezuela and Colombia. I think searches came up frustratingly short in the early 1500s, but they may have found some.

Is this a correct summary, would it be fair to say that pre-contact, none of the natives living in the later USA or Canada territory had gold jewelry?

Also, I get the impression that other than having gold, the Taino/Arawaks and other Caribbean natives were not overall more technically advanced than the natives of eastern North America, whereas the Mesoamericans and Andeans were much more advanced. Is this basically correct? Or did the Taino have tech higher than the eastern North Americans in multiple respects? How did they or east coast North Americans compare with the Mississippians at their height?
 
That seems to be accurate. I've never read of accounts of any North American Native cultures (US and Canada) using gold jewelry or ornaments, or even other kinds of metal. For example, all California Indian cultures used materials like shell, feather, and plant products for ornaments (in particular dentalium shells and flicker feathers). The only North American cultures I can picture having gold or silver ornaments through trade with Mesoamerica would be the Puebloan cultures of the Southwest and (some of) the Mississippian Mound-Builder cultures. For example, I'd be curious to know when the use of silver jewelry became prevalent among the Puebloan and Apachean peoples, as it currently is. That said, many Native tribes adopted metal and glass jewelry after contact with Europeans.

Regarding the Tainos, they strike me as being similar in political organization and material culture to historically attested and modern tribes of the Amazon basin, such as those currently living in the Xingu reserve in Brazil. In fact, this makes sense given that the Taino spoke an Arawak language and thus must have (partially) originated in the Amazon basin before migrating north into the Caribbean. Same for the Caribs. This political organization and material culture is comparable to a lot of the cultures of North America, especially those that practiced agriculture and lived in permanent villages, such as many tribes east of the Mississippi, including the Mound-Builder cultures. Where the Taino got their gold, however, I don't know - trade with Mesoamerica is plausible, as it seems like the Spanish accounts imply that the Taino got their gold from somewhere else, rather than mined it themselves.
 

raharris1973

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What if the Taino didn't trade for or dig gold before contact? Would Colombo's follow up voyages have happened at the same pace?
 
He would have come up with some other justification for why his voyage was a success. Given the investment that the Spanish had made in him, Columbus basically needed to be able to claim a success, and he was certainly not above fudging things to make one. After all, before he found gold, he was looking for a route to the Spice Islands; gold was just concrete proof that his voyages would be profitable.

Also note that there are gold mines in Hispaniola, so at least some of the gold was local, though nothing like what the Spanish would get from Mexico and especially from Peru (it's not much of an exaggeration to say that the silver mines of Potosi basically funded the Spanish Empire).
 
IIRC, the Southeast natives knew of gold (from Georgia and related sources), but they never actively used it. Considering all the tales from the Old West of people finding gold which were generally (and often rightfully) disbelieved, it seems like it might've been one of those cases. If you're wandering around in gold-heavy areas, like those parts of Georgia (or for that matter, California), you'll find bits of it, but you might not be exploiting it unless your culture has that mindset (and of course, you won't know where the main lodes of the gold/silver are). I refuse to believe that none of natives living in future gold rush areas didn't know of the gold beneath their feet (since once again, it seems like it never took much to find traces of it), I'm thinking it was more just they never cared to exploit it.

Am I correct in this?
 

raharris1973

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Given the investment that the Spanish had made in him, Columbus basically needed to be able to claim a success, and he was certainly not above fudging things to make one. After all, before he found gold, he was looking for a route to the Spice Islands; gold was just concrete proof that his voyages would be profitable.

Yeah I wonder how much patronage and mileage (quite literally), Columbus could have gotten from the Catholic monarchs if he had no gold but just the promise that "a bit yonder lies Japan"
 
many native peoples of the great lakes refion had copper and used it for ornamentation. however, by 1650-ish the 'copper culture' south of lake superior was displaced by the ojibwe expansion, and the natives ceased mining their own copper.

as far as i know silver and gold were unknown in the region
 
Yeah I wonder how much patronage and mileage (quite literally), Columbus could have gotten from the Catholic monarchs if he had no gold but just the promise that "a bit yonder lies Japan"
Well, he has found islands and claimed them for Spain. Probably kidnapped a few "Indians" to show off when he gets back, along with some strange, exotic samples. Certainly enough for at least another voyage or two. And if nothing else, slaves and converting the heathen are still good for both the wallet and the soul of the Catholic Monarchs.

After all, consider how long it took the Portuguese between their first voyages of exploration (the 1410s) and finally getting to India (1498).

Remember that the original goal wasn't to find gold, but to find a route to the Indies (and the massive profits of the spice trade). The gold was just a happy bonus.
 

raharris1973

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If nothing else, they can try to make like Canaries and grow sugar there, and keep it as a base for further exploration
 
There was some native copper mining in Michigan Peninsula. "Native" both meaning "native copper," not bound in oxides, and "by Native Americans." It was probably used for decoration and as a trade good.
 
Yeah, the Upper Peninsula in Michigan has ultra-pure native copper deposits, but the culture which exploited them was pushed out by the Ojibwe.
 
Basically, outside of Mesoamerica and the Andes, the only metals used were native (pure nuggets) metal, afaik. Gold, especially can be found that way, and a few areas have copper that forms pure nuggets.

Also, don't forget Yellowknife (NWT in Canada), and the Coppermine River as native copper exploitation areas.
 
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