Unit 1
The First Americans
Lessons 1-3
Vocabulary
1. The study of objects to learn about life from
the past
A. nomad
B. migration
2. A person with no permanent home who
travels from place to place
3. The skill of raising plants and animals for
human use
4. An object made by people
5. Movement from one place to another
6. The use of scientific knowledge to solve
problems
7. To change the way one lives to fit different
conditions
C. agriculture
D. adapt
E. technology
F. archaeology
G. artifact
8.
A groups’ stories and customs
A. custom
9.
An accepted way of doing something
B. tradition
10.
A set of customs that people create over time
C. folklore
11.
More than is needed
D. ceremony
12.
A system of faith or worship
E. religion
13.
A system for organizing resources, such as
money and goods
F. surplus
G. specialize
14.
A set of activities done for a special purpose
H. economy
15.
To focus on one kind of product or activity
16.
17.
A system of laws and the people who carry
them out
To talk to and work with others
A. interact
B. barter
C. government
18.
To trade goods for other goods without the
use of money
Why did members of the Great Plains
groups have different homes at different
times of the year?
In the ____________,
the Great Plains groups
Spring
lodges
earth
lived in ___________
__________
and grew
crops
__________.
In Summer, they left to hunt
____________
and lived in _____________.
buffalo
teepees
Why did American Indians locate their villages
near water?
1)
2)
3)
People and animals need __________
to
water
survive.
They ate _________
from rivers and used
fish
travel
rivers for __________.
They used the water for _____________.
irrigation
Why did some of the American
Indians of the Great Plains travel?
buffalo
They followed herds of ___________
which
food
was their ___________
source.
What were the reasons for an American
Indian group to have a celebration or
ceremony?
Social
Religious
Collection of resources
Celebration of nature
What role did nature have in the
celebration of the Iroquios?
A.
B.
C.
D.
stories were told
held large dances that lasted many days
held large feasts called potlatches
held harvest ceremonies when crops were
gathered
In what ways have the American Indians shared
stories about their culture?
American Indians had storytellers who knew
folklore
their ____________.
During celebrations,
chanted
most stories were spoken, ___________,
or
___________.
sung
What was the purpose of a potlatch in the
Pacific Northwest?
chief
social
It had a _________
purpose. The ________
gave away goods to the other members of the
controlled
village to show how well he ____________
the group’s ____________.
resources
Why was the Iroquois Confederacy
formed? Why did they meet?
five
The Iroquois Confederacy united _______
groups in order to solve problems related to
land
use
war
________
_______,
trade, and _______.
The
council discussed an issue until every chief
solution
agreed on a ___________.
How did increases in surpluses of food
and specialized work help American
Indian economies develop?
Specialized ________
work and food _________
surpluses
allowed people to trade their goods for things
Trade helped
they could not make themselves. _______
the economies grow.
How did interacting within American Indian
groups affect their needs and wants?
As people interacted, they were introduced
goods and _____
ideas . Trade helped
to new ______
groups meet their needs. People began to
_______
barter for goods they discovered through
trade.
Pacific Northwest and
Desert Southwest
Indian Groups
Geography
Climate
Shelter
Tools &
Utensils
Food
Clothing
Technology
Traditions
Pacific
Northwest
Western
coast of US
Canada,
Washington,
& Oregon
Wet, cold
Large
cedar,
wood plank
houses
Finely
carved
wooden
bowls &
utensils –
spoons
Fish, whale
hunted
deer
Gathered
nuts &
berries
Made from
bark
Made
canoes that
could be 75
feet long
Held large
feasts
called
potlatches
Desert
Southwest
Southwest
region of
the US
Dry, hot
Used adobe
bricks to
contruct
villages of
large
apartmentstyle
buildings
Pottery jars
Woven
baskets
Ovens
called
“hornos”
Crops: corn,
beans,
cotton
Had to
grow their
own food
Ovens
called
“hornos”
Trade
clothing
made from
buffalo
Cotton
clothing
Irrigation
Pottery jars
Woven
baskets
Adobe
Men wove
cotton
clothing
Great Plains
Eastern Woodlands
Indian Groups
Geography
Climate
Shelter
Tools &
Utensils
Food
Clothing
Technology
Traditions
Great Plains
Flat
grassland
west of
Mississippi
River
Dry
Earth
lodges –
soil covered
domeshaped
Lived in
teepees
while
hunting
Buffalo
bones
Knives and
scrapers
Farmed &
hunted
Beans,
squash,
sunflowers
Buffalo
skins
Tendons of
buffalo
used to
make
strings for
bows
Held large
dances that
lasted
many days
to meet
groups’
spiritual
needs
Eastern
Woodlands
East of the
Mississippi
Wide
range of
climates
Ojibwa –
dome
shaped
made of
bent
wooden
poles
Mohawk –
longhouses
Birch bark
woven or
bent into
baskets
Rabbit,
bears, &
deer
Growing
crops
Made from
buckskins
Birch bark
baskets
Canoes
Held
harvest
celebration
when crops
were
picked