THE FIRST AMERICANS: PREHISTORY - 1492

North American Peoples

Early Native Americans

Long before the Europeans came in 1500’s CE

Many native cultures… Rose Flourished Disappeared

Most advanced Hohokam (Southwest) Anasazi (Southwest) Mound Builders (Ohio

River Valley)

The Desert Southwest

The Hohokam Present-day Arizona

Dry, hot desert Experts @ squeezing every drop

of water Life depended on irrigation

The Anasazi Built great stone dwellings from

adobe. Carved & built into walls of cliffs Easy to defend Protection from winter weather

Complex system of roads linking the villages

Env’t issues finally caused demise Drought Etc.

Pacific Northwest

Inuit People who settled northernmost part of

NA Land surrounding Arctic Ocean Believed to be the last to pass over

Beringia Many skills (brought from original

home in Siberia) Winter they built igloos

Made of blocks of ice and snow to protect from extreme cold

Cloths made of furs and sealskin Made both warm and waterproof

Hunters and Fisherman Coastal Waters

Whales, seals, and walruses Skin-covered boats

Land Hunted caribou

Made cloths from hides and burned seal-oil lamps

People of the Plains

Nomadic Temporary villages (growing

season) Tepees

Men hunted antelope, deer but mainly buffalo

Women grew plots of maize, beans, squash

1500’s Spanish brought horses to Mexico Some got out migrated North

Tamed wild horses Became skilled riders who

hunted, and fought from backs Used spears, bows, clubs, and

knives

People of the NE Woodlands

Iroquois and Cherokee Complex political systems to govern

nations Lived in Longhouses Used forest to hunt and grow crops

Slash and Burn Deer, corn, beans, squash

Iroquois near Canada, now northern NY 5 nations

Onondaga, Seneca, Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga

Warred w/ each other until 1500’s Joined together to form Iroquois

Confederacy Women ruled; chose the men for the

tribal council 1st Constitution in the new world

People of the Southeast

Woodland, but warmer climate Creek, Chickasaw,

Cherokee, Catawba Cherokee and Catawba

Farmed mts. of GA and Carolinas

The First North Carolinians

The 5 largest groups were the: Hatteras Chowanok Tuscarora Catawba Cherokee

Patterns of Life

Ancestry traced though women.

Clans lived in settlements of 10-12 houses.

Saw life as a relationship between humans and the environment.