Use this timeline on its own, or with our American Indian Boarding School Unit lessons that will be available soon on our website. Please see our List Version of events with footnotes for citations and credit to the sources we used in compiling our timeline (below & on our website at: http://www.sagchip.org/ziibiwing/planyourvisit/timeline/index.htm).
Chinese art, poetry specifically, witnesses a golden age under the Tang Dynasty.
Many of the eastern North Atlantic peoples were allied in a great confederacy: the Waabinakii Confederacy. Waabinakii means “people from the daybreak land” in the Ojibwe language. All of the Algonquin-language-speaking tribes or nations were part of this great confederacy. It is the earliest recorded history of the Anishinabek.
In China, Yangdi, second emperor of the Sui Dynasty, orders the construction of the Grand Canal. The 1,500 mile feat connected Beijing to Hangzhou. Although the costs of construction did much to undermine the short-lived Sui Dynasty, the lasting impact of the canal fueled much of the success of the following Tang Dynasty.
There were seven prophecies given to the Anishinabek, when we lived a peaceful life on the East Coast of North America. The prophecies were passed down from the prophets through our ancestors, and were carved in stone. In accordance with the prophecies, the Anishinabek began a Great Walk around 900 A.D. and continued on our journey for the next 500 years. Throughout our journey, the Anishinabek established new settlements at points marked by the sacred megis (cowrie) shell, finally stopping when we reached the “food that grows on the water,” our Manoomin (Wild Rice). Our seven stops on this journey are also called the seven fires.
The “Anasazi” began building their extensive cliff dwellings in what is now the southern Colorado Plateau, and continued to do so for hundreds of years. As we do not know the name of these early American Indians they are called “Anasazi,” which means “ancient ones” in Navajo. The Anasazi built over 500 cliff dwellings in the Mesa Verde region, some with over 100 rooms. Many more Anasazi cliff dwellings exist in current day Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
The was created by the Iroquois Confederacy around 1,000 years ago and is the oldest known constitution in North America. The Great Law of Peace outlined participatory democracy, a new way of governing, and much of the United States Constitution was based on ideas from the Iroquois.
Around 1000 A.D. Norsemen from Scandinavia visited the Western Hemisphere, almost 500 years before Columbus. They established settlements in Greenland, and made multiple trips to Newfoundland and the surrounding region over the next few hundred years.
The first compass is developed in China. It was comprised of a magnetized iron fish that floated in a bowl of water, indicating the direction of South.
The Song Dynasty in China publishes the formula for gunpowder. A Daoist text from the 9th Century had detailed the exact ingredients for making gunpowder, but did not specify the formula.
The first printing system that used movable type is invented in China by Bi Sheng. It allowed for much easier production of different books by the same printer.
