NAME:__________________________________________________

 

Chapter 2

STUDY GUIDE

NATIVE AMERCANS

 

SOUTHWEST

v   Hot, dry climate

v   Pueblo people, Hopis, Zunis, Navajos

v   Pueblos lived in present-day New Mexico and Arizona

v   Lived in pueblos (Spanish word for village or small town)

v   Homes made of adobe (mix of clay and straw)

v   Cliff dwellings

v   “Dry farming” (method of planting seeds deeply into soil) and irrigation to farm

v   Hunted small game and deer

v   Corn, beans and squash

v   Sandpaintings to heal the sick

v   Kachinas-dolls/dancers to represent important spirits/elements of nature (sun, wind, rain, etc.)

v   Clothing of woven plant fibers

v   Beautiful pottery

 

NORTHWEST COAST

v   Cold, rainy climate. Land is frozen for part of the year in the northern-most Tundra area (Arctic).

v   Kwakiutl, Makahs, Chinooks, Inuits

v   Includes area from northern California to Alaska along the Pacific Coast

v   Lived in wooden houses over a pit—“pit house”

v   Inuits lived in igloos or tents made of animal skins for part of the year

v   Makahs used dugouts (canoes) to hunt whales

v   Inuit hunted reindeer and sea animals in the cold Arctic region of present-day Alaska

v   Chinooks made up a “trade language” and controlled trade along the Columbia River

v   The Dalles was an important center of trade along the Columbia River

v   Potlatches—ceremonies in which the host gives a gift to all guests in order to show wealth

v   Totem pole—tall wooden post carved with shapes of people and animals

v   Very little agricultre. Salmon, elk, deer, shellfish, plants (nuts, berries, etc.) were staple foods.

v   Bartered

 

 

 

PLAINS

v   Dry grasslands and prairies

v   Sioux, Mandans, Wichitas, Pawnees (nomadic while hunting, farmed at other times)

v   Area between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains

v   Buffalo and water important resources

v   Depended on buffalo—every part was used!

v   Lived in teepees while hunting buffalo and lodges made of sod at other times

v   Farmed (small gardens of corn squash and sunflowers) and hunted

v   Crows, Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Comanches were nomads

v   Clothing of hides or woven plant fibers

 

EASTERN WOODLANDS

v   Entire eastern section of North America, which is heavily forested

v   Iroquois and Algonquian were two of the largest language groups

v   Iroquois Confederacy=Mohawks, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca (later Tuscarora)

v   Powhatans spoke Algonquian

v   Cherokee spoke Iroquoian

v   Lived in wigwams or longhouses

v   Clothing of hides or woven plant fibers

v   Used fish as fertilizer in mounds of corn, beans and squash

 

 

OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

 

Geography and climate affected the types of dwellings, clothing, food and tools of Native Americans.

 

Native Americans met basic needs by using resources found in the environment.

 

First Americans lived in caves or tents made from animal skins and hunted with clubs and axes with stone blades.

 

Ancient Americans followed the animals they hunted and were considered nomads.

 

The Three Sisters=corn, beans, squash (important foods for many Native Americans).

 

People of the Olmec and Mayan civilizations were divided into social classes.

 

Mound Builders=Adenas, Hopewells, and Mississippians

 

Cahokia=largest Mississippian city located near present-day East St. Loius, Illinois.

 

Palisade=fort

 

Wampum=beads woven together to keep records, send messages, or to be used as barter.