| A | B |
|---|
| Incas | people of a powerful South American empire during the 1400s and 1500s. |
| Andes | a mountain chain of western South America |
| Cuzco | the capital city of the Incan Empire, located in present-day Peru |
| census | an official count of people in a certain place at a certain time |
| quipu | a group of knotted strings used by the Incas to record information |
| terraces | steplike ledges cut into mountains to make land suitable for farming |
| Aztecs | a people who lived in the Valley of Mexico |
| Tenochtitlan | a capital city of the Aztecs |
| Mayas | people who established a great civilization in Middle America |
| slash and burn | a farming technique in which trees are cut down and burned to clear and fertilize the land |
| maize | corn |
| hieroglyphics | the signs and symbols that made up the Mayan writing system |
| Mound builders | Native American groups who built earthen mounds |
| Anasazi | one of the ancient Native American peoples of the Southwest |
| pueblo | a Native American stone or adobe dwelling, part of a cluster of dwellings built close together |
| kiva | a round room used by the pueblo people for religious ceremonies |
| Great Plains | a mostly flat and grassy region of western North America |
