The Chinooks
Indians of the Northwest
• The Chinooks lived at the mouth of the Columbia River were the bestknown traders among the Northwest Indians.
• They controlled the river from the coast all the way to the Dalles
• The Chinooks developed a language for trading, since communication
was difficult between all the different Indian tribes.
• The language was made up of words from the Chinooks language as well
as that of the other tribes that visited the area.
• This allowed the Indians to barter, or exchange goods with one another.
• Wealth was important to the Northwest Indians. They often attacked
one another to gain wealth and respect. Prisoners were a sign of wealth
and used as slaves.
• Potlatches were celebrations with feasting and dancing, held by the
Chinooks and most Northwest Coast Indians. During these celebrations
the clans would give away gifts as a sign of their wealth. Some spent
many years preparing for these dances.
• A Chinook village consisted of rows with long wooden houses without
windows.
• A pit house is a house the was built so that part of it was over a hole dug
in the earth and some of the rooms were partially underground.
• Several families lived in the same house belonged to one clan.
• Chinooks were headed by the oldest member in the family.
• They traced their ancestry through their mother’s side of the family.
• One clan would have the same Grandmother and Great-Grandmother.
The Makahs and the Kwakiutls
• *Salmon, other fish, and whales were in good supply.
• Makahs lived in what is now the state of Washington. They built dugouts to
hunt whales at sea.
• The Kwakiutls captured whales if they became stranded on the shore.
• The Kwakiutls lived north of the Makahs in what is now Vancouver Island in
Western Canada.
• Makahs spent many months preparing for a whale hunt. Fasting and praying
to their gods to favor them.
• They made wooden harpoons, repaired their canoes and paddles.
• Their canoes were 6 feet and carried about 60 people. Built to travel
over the ocean but could be toppled by an angry whale.
• When the whale dies the hunters start towing it to shore.
• It takes hours of paddling to reach their villages, each village has a
totem pole with shapes of people and animals.
• Some of the best known woodcarvers in the Northwest Coast were
the Kwakiutls.
• Some houses were huge up to 60 feet.
• The Kwakiutls ate plants, shellfish, salmon, elk, and deer.
• They also held the most lavish potlatches of all the Northwest
Coast Indians.
• The Inuit
• These were native American people who live north and east of the Northwest
Coast Indians.
• The Inuit settled in the harsh environment of the Arctic region of present day
Alaska and Canada about 4000 years ago.
• Since the land was frozen tundra farming was impossible.
• The early Inuits lived like the Northwest Coast Indians getting most of the food
and made most of the shelter and clothing out of the animals they hunted.
• They developed ways to survive in a land of ice and snow.
• To survive in this harsh environment they had to become skilled hunters and
fishers.
• They used every part of the animals they hunted, meat for food, bones for tools,
fur/hides for shelter and clothing.
• They like the Makahas hunted whales.
• They lived in many types of shelters, some built igloos—dwellings made of ice. Igloos
were made from large blocks of ice stacked in a dome shape.
• During the summer months they lived in tents made of animal skins. Other Inuit
tribes lived in tents and huts year round.
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Lesson 4 Review for Homework!!!
1. Instead of growing their food, Indians of the Northwest Coast hunted and fished.
2. It affects the clothes people wear, the food they eat, and the work they do.
3. Northwest Coast Indians developed an extensive barter system to trade for goods
they needed.
4. Both lived in wooden houses along the shore, ate similar foods, and held potlatches
to display wealth.
5. The eldest clan member was the leader of the Chinook families.
6. The Makahs built canoes to hunt whales.
7. They learned to design new tools and craft items, and to speak new languages.
The Plains Indians
• The most important resource second only to water, were the buffalo to the Indians
of the Plains. The Indians lived between the Mississippi River and the Rocky
Mountains.
• Life on the Plains
• Native American hunting parties tracked down herds of buffalo wearing animal
skins as disguises.
• At a signal the Indians yell scaring the buffalo and drove them toward a cliff where
they fall off and died.
• Women of the tribe were not hunters. They took care of the buffalo when it was
brought back to camp. Their job was to prepare the buffalo~ some of the meat
was eaten right away some saved for later and even some was dried which was called
jerky and could be saved for several months.
• All of the buffalo was used, nothing went to waste. Bones were used to make
weapons, skins were use for clothing and shelter.
Farmers and Hunters
The Mandans, Pawnees, Wichitas and some band, or groups, of Sioux lived on the
Interior Plains. They lived mainly in the eastern part of the Plains cultural region.
Both were farmers and hunters, hunting deer, elk and buffalo.
Their villages consisted of houses made up of circular houses called lodges. Northern
prairies of the Interior Plains lodges were covered with sod. This covering of sod
made the houses known as earth lodges. Southern earth lodges were covered with
grass or animal skin.
Each earth lodge was home to several families, and families had beds next to the outer
wall. In the center was a hole in the earth lodge for a fire place and a hole in the roof
to let out smoke.
They were the first to have dog houses or lodges along with 60 other people.
Twice a year the whole village went a hunting buffalo. Known as The Great Buffalo
Hunt. They walked for several days looking for buffalo.
So when they weren’t hunting buffalo they were planting crops. Such as beans, squash, corn,
and sunflowers.
• The Great Plains Nomads
• The people who lived in the Great Plains cultural region, did not farm or live in villages The
Crows, the Cheyennes, the Kiowas, and the Comanches were nomads. They followed the
buffalo moving from place to place. They were unable to farm due to the soil conditions.
• They claimed certain areas as their hunting grounds even though they had no permanent
dwellings.
• They followed certain routes on their land depending on where the buffalo roamed. They
depended on the buffalo as one of the most important resources. Like other tribes of the
Plains they used all the buffalo, including the dried buffalo droppings. This was used for fuel.
• Not having a permanent place to live their shelters had to be easy to move, these were made
of buffalo skins and called tepees.
• Wood was in short supply on the plains. So the poles used for their tepees doubles as a kind
of carrier called a travois. They took two poles and attached them to the sides of dogs like
harness buffalo skin was placed between the poles so goods could be carried from place to
place.
• In the Great Plains no one person was greater than another, a man may become chief by
proving himself in battle.
The Eastern Woodlands
• The area known as the Eastern Woodlands covers most of present day United States
east of the Mississippi River.
• It has condensed forest and in some areas only sunlight could reach the ground.
• Life in the Eastern Woodlands
• The people used the trees and the bark to make canoes and shelters.
• Some trees provided nuts, such as the walnut, hickory, and the American Chestnut, and
other food.
• In the north they could get maple sugar which was made from the sap of maple trees.
• The people of the Eastern Woodlands were farmers, hunters, and gatherers. In the
Northern part there were too many rocky areas for them to farm so they did more
gathering and hunting.
• The areas in the south were more appropriate for farming, with better climate for
growing crops. The crops they grew were; corn, beans, squash, and other plants.
• They settled in villages due to the fact that they became farmers. Their village
community buildings were used for meetings and ceremonies.
• A palisade was a wall that surrounded the village, it was made of sharpened tree
trunks, to protect the villagers from animals and enemies. The farm fields were
located outside the palisade.
• The Indians used a method called slash-and-burn to clear the land for their fields for
their crops.
• Fish was used as a fertilizer for the crops by some Indians. If fertilizers were not used
the land wore out in 10 years and the Indians had to move to new places, build new
villages and start all over again.
The Algonquians
The many tribes of the Algonquians included the Delawares, Wampanoags, and
the Powhatans, who lived along the Coastal Plain. Those that live along the
Great Lakes were the Algonkins, the Chippewas, and the Miamis.
Each Algonquian tribe and anywhere from 1-20 villages. Their shelters were
called wigwams. They built their villages along rivers and streams
Fishing was very important the Algonquians Indians.
They also made wampums from seashells which were used to keep records and
send messages. Some were used for bartering , trading of goods.
Many tribes had two chiefs. One in time of peace and another in time of war.
Some even had a third leader for ceremonies.
Iroquois
• The Iroquois were a group of tribes that lived near each other and spoke a common
language.
• The Five Largest tribes became known as the Confederation or the Iroquois League.
This league or loose group of governments was described as “Five arrows shall be
bound together very strong and each arrow shall represent one nation each. As the five
arrows are strongly bound this shall symbolize the complete union of the nations.”
• Each tribe in the league governed themselves. However in great matters that affected all
tribes things were decided by the Great Council. Some of these decision even included
wars, with neighboring tribes and over land.