1491: Language Families of North America

 

Historically, there were over 500 Native languages spoken in North America. The map above was created by Ives Goddard and the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in 1999.

To zoom in on the map, click here.

In North America, Native American literature was oral. Few tribes kept written records. Non-alphabetical texts—"painted hides or bark and wampum belts made of shell could serve as prompts for the recitation of tales or in treaty negotiations and other ceremonies” (29)

“. . . European conquerors systematically destroyed the bodies of writing in such places as Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City), leaving just a handful of the pictograph codices . . .” (29)

The image at left was drawn and colored
by anonymous Tlaxcaltec artist in 1560. It depicts the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire in 1521.