The Americas
Section 1
Section 1
The Americas
North America
Preview
• Starting Points Map: Environments of the Americas
• Main Idea / Reading Focus
• Cultures of the Desert West
• The Mound Builders
• Other Cultures of North America
The Americas
Click the icon to play
Listen to History
audio.
Click the icon below
to connect to the
Interactive Maps.
Section 1
Section 1
The Americas
North America
Main Idea
As people settled in North America, they adapted to different
types of geography by developing different styles of housing and
ways of getting food.
Reading Focus
• How did cultures adapt to the environment of the Desert West?
• How have scientists learned about the mound builders?
• How did geography affect the Inuit, the Iroquois, and the Plains
Indians?
Section 1
The Americas
Cultures of the Desert West
Most of southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico is
desert
• Hohokam flourished from 100 BC to AD 1500
• Learned to farm in the desert
– Built shallow canals for irrigation
– Planted crops in earthen mounds next to canals
– Woven mats created dams in canals, directed water
to crop mounds
Section 1
The Americas
Cultures of the Desert West
• Hohokam expanded irrigation system
• Channeled water into villages
– Used wells and other containers for storing water
– Created pithouses, dwellings formed by digging
shallow holes in the ground and building walls and
roofs with mixture of clay and straw called adobe
Section 1
The Americas
Cultures of the Desert West
The Anasazi lived in the Desert West near the Hohokam from about
100 BC to AD 1300.
Pueblos
Cliff Dwellings
• Like Hohokam, Anasazi had
pithouses
• Another type of Anasazi
architecture, cliff dwellings
• Also developed the pueblo
– Several stories high
– Many rooms
– Similar to apartments
• Pueblos built in shallow caves
in walls of rocky canyons
• Villages also had underground
rooms called kivas
• Kivas used as meeting places,
for religious ceremonies
• To enter, rock staircases
carved into rock or ladders
• Limited accessibility offered
protection from attack
Section 1
The Americas
Make Generalizations
How did cultures of the Desert West adapt
their architecture to their environment?
Answer(s): used local materials such as clay and
built pueblos in caves in high canyons
Section 1
The Americas
The Mound Builders
Hopewell
• Lived in eastern woodlands,
near Ohio and Mississippi river
valleys
• Mound builders, 200 BC to AD
500
• Built large stone and earth
mounds as burial sites
• Size suggests some form of
organized labor
Burial Mounds
• Hopewell buried objects like
pottery and metal ornaments
• Daggers of obsidian from Rocky
Mountains
• Shells from Gulf of Mexico
• Clues that Hopewell developed
extensive trade network
• Culture began to decline AD
400, cause not clear
Section 1
The Americas
The Mound Builders
Mississippian
• Also lived in eastern
woodlands, near Ohio and
Mississippi river valleys
• Built some of the earliest cities
in North America
• Cahokia had population up to
20,000 people
• Contained more than 100
mounds, with ruler living atop
largest in city center
Cahokia
• Planned city built by an
organized labor force
• Mathematical and engineering
skills evident
• Different types of soils in
mounds for proper drainage
• Artifacts show complex society,
differences between common
people and those with status
Section 1
The Americas
Summarize
What do the mounds tell us about Hopewell
and Mississippian society?
Answer(s): Hopewell—extensive trade network;
Mississippian—distinct social classes
The Americas
Section 1
Other Cultures of North America
Cultures developed differently according to their environments
• Varied geography determined the way these peoples got food
• Also how they made their shelter
• Environment also played a role in how societies organized
The Inuit
• Lived in the Arctic regions of North America
• Frozen, treeless landscape meant no vegetation for food source
• Became skilled hunters and fishers
Year-round hunting
• Used kayaks to hunt sea mammals, caught fish through holes in ice
• Hunted caribou in summer, used skins and furs for warm clothing
• Houses were igloos, made from ice blocks
The Americas
Section 1
Other Cultures of North America
The Iroquois
• Lived in eastern North America in warmer climate
• Relied on materials from the forest
• Built dwellings called longhouses from elm bark
Hunting and farming
• Trapped forest animals for food
• Farmed crops such as beans, squash, maize
Five different nations
• Iroquois included Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca
• Shared characteristics, eventually formed government, Iroquois
League
• Later admitted Tuscarora, but did not grant equal status
The Americas
Section 1
Plains Indians
• Like Iroquois, Plains Indians consisted of different tribes
• Not all spoke same language, communication problematic
• Developed a form of sign language to communicate when they met
• Lived mostly on a treeless grassland
Europeans brought change
• Plains Indians originally lived along rivers and streams
• Introduction of horses by Europeans changed their lives
• Followed buffalo herds over long distances
• Buffalo center of lives, with buffalo meat as food, skins for clothing
and tents, and bones and horns for tools
The Americas
Section 1
Identify Supporting Details
What details show that the Inuit, Iroquois,
and Plains Indians lived in different
environments?
Answer(s): Inuit lived in frozen, treeless landscape, no
vegetation; Iroquois lived in forest environment, relied on
trees and forest animals, farmed beans, squash, and
maize; Plains Indians lived in treeless grassland, farmed
along rivers, used horses to hunt buffalo used for food,
clothing, tools