Native American
Culture
Cultural
Areas
Iroquois
Aztecs
Mayas
Review
Incas
Olmecs
Vocabulary
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Native American Vocabulary
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Glacier
Causeway
Quipu
Culture
Adobe
Pueblo
Mound Builders
Cultural areas
Tribe
Potlatch
Kachina
Clan
League of the Iroquois
sachem
15. Inuit
16. Beringia
17. Terrace Farming
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• A glacier is a thick sheet of ice.
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A causeway is a raised roads made of
packed earth.
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Quipu is a cord or string with knots that stood for quantities
and used by the Incas for record keeping.
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Culture is the entire way of life of a people.
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Adobe is sun dried brick used by Native Americans in the
Southwest cultural area to build dwellings.
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Pueblo is the Spanish word for village.
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• Mound builders is the name given to
various North American cultures that
built large earth mounds beginning
about 3,000 years ago.
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A cultural area is a region in which people
share a similar way of life.
North American Cultural Areas
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A tribe is a community of people that
share common customs, language
and rituals.
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A potlatch was a ceremonial dinner held by
some Native Americans of the Northwest
Coast to show off their wealth.
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A kachina was a masked dancer at
religious ceremonies of the Southwest
Indians.
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A clan is group of two or more related
families.
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The League of Iroquois was an alliance of
the five Iroquois Nations. Also called the
Iroquois Confederacy.
Learn more about the Iroquois by clicking the flag.
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A sachem was a member of
the tribal chief council in the
League of Iroquois.
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A cultural area is a region in which people share
a similar way of life. Each cultural area was home
to many different tribes. In each cultural area,
Native Americans adapted to the geography to
survive. In each cultural area, Native Americans
had a unique life that different in some way to
other Native Americans in other cultural areas.
Click here to see map of cultural areas.
Click on pictures in each cultural area to learn more.
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Way of Life:
• Lived as nomadic hunters and food gathers in cold
climate.
• Honored ocean, weather and animal spirits
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Way of Life:
• Lived as hunters and gathers in
small family groups
• Ate mainly fish, berries, and
acorns
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Way of Life:
• Lived in villages in homes made of adobe.
• Built irrigation systems to grow corn and other crops
• Honored earth, sky and water spirits
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Way of Life:
• Grew corn, squash, beans and other crops.
• Held yearly Green Corn Ceremony to mark end
of year and celebrate harvest.
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Way of Life:
• Lived in farming villages, but also hunted
for food.
• Long houses used to house several
families.
• Women shared social and political parties.
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Way of Life:
• Lived in villages
• Benefited from rich natural resources
in forest, rivers and oceans.
• Held potlatches, ceremonial dinners,
where host families gave gifts to
quests to show wealth and gain
status
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• Earliest known civilization in the Americas
• Located in Central America.
• They lived along the Gulf of Mexico about 3,500
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years ago.
Built huge stone heads some ten feet tall and
weighing several thousands of pounds.
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• Culture was influenced by the Olmecs.
• Lived in rain forests in what is now the modern day country
of Quatemala.
• Drained swamps to create farmland.
• Corn was major part of their diet
Click on the below links to learn more about the Mayas.
Social Classes
Accomplishments
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Priests
Nobles
Farmers and labors
Slaves and criminals
• Priests were very powerful in Maya
culture. They conducted the religious
ceremonies
• Nobles were under priests. They
served as warriors and
government officials.
• Farmers grew corn, squash
• Priests created advanced calendars based
on their observations of the sun, moon
and stars.
• Had an accurate 365 day calendar
• Had a number system which include the
concept of zero.
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General
Information
Location
Religion
Social
Classes
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Accomplishments
http://library.thinkquest.org/27981/
• Located in central Mexico
• Capital city was Tenochtitlan
• Tenochtitlan was located on an island out in middle of
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Lake Texaco.
Traded with neighboring cities
Tenochtitlan had a population of 60,000 people
Aztec empire flourished between 1300-1519 when they
were conquered by Spanish conquistadors led by
Hernando Cortes.
• Located in Central Mexico
• Capital was Tenochtitlan
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• Aztecs worshipped the sun god.
• Called themselves “Warriors of the Sun”
• Believed the Sun needed human sacrifices
in order to rise each day.
• Thousands of captives were sacrificed
each year.
• Believed in many other gods as well.
Emperor
Priests
and Nobles
Warriors
Merchants and Artisans
Farmers
Slaves
Way of Life:
• Lived in tepees
• Animals hunted by men, crops grown by
women
• Relied on buffalo to meet basic needs for
food, shelter and clothing.
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• Used causeways to connect their island
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capital city, Tenochtitlan, to the mainland.
Used drawbridges to protect entrances
into the city from attack.
Used canals to get around city.
Used chinampas, floating gardens, to grow
crops like corn.
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The Incas:
General information
Social Classes
Accomplishments
Location
http://www.kidskonnect.com/AncientInca/AncientIncaHome.html
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Had the largest empire in the Americas.
2,500 miles long
Capital was called Cuzco
Located on the west coast of South
America along the Andes Mountains.
Cuzco had huge temples and palaces made
of stone
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Emperor
Called the Sapa
Inca
Nobles
Farmers and laborers
• Built stepped terraces into mountain to grow
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crops.
Built huge system of roads to connect the empire
together. 10,000 miles of roads
Developed system of record keeping that
consisted of a string with knots with each knot
representing quantities of different items.
• Incas were located in South America
along the West Coast.
• The Sapa Inca was the emperor of
the Inca empire.
• It was believed that the emperor was
regarded as a god who descended
from the sun god.
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Iroquois
Location
Adaptation
to
Environment
Role of Men
And
women
Spatial
patterns
The
Iroquois
Confederacy
The Iroquois lived in the Eastern
Woodland cultural area in what is
now New York State.
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•
Called themselves “People of the
Longhouse” because they lived in
longhouses built from the trees from the
forests in which they lived.
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Learned to fish and hunt the animals
located within the Eastern Woodland.
• Men were the warriors, hunters and chieftains in Iroquois
culture.
• Women were held much power in Iroquois culture. They
owned all the household property and were in charge of all
the planting and harvesting of the crops.
• Women also held political power. They chose clan leaders
and they also selected the sachems for the Iroquois
Confederacy.
• The Iroquois’s villages were located on hilltops and close to
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streams or rivers.
They built their villages on hilltops for protection so they could see
enemies approaching.
They located their village close to rivers, streams and lakes to
irrigate their fields, for travel and for drinking water.
Every village had a large fence that encircled the village to protect
against enemy attack. The fields in which they grew crops were
located outside of the wooden fence.
• Consisted of five nations that spoke the Iroquois
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language: the Mohawk, Seneca, Onondaga, Oneida, and
Cayuga.
Around 1570 the five nations were united into an
alliance to end the fighting between the five tribes.
The five nations were united by a religious leader named
Dekanawida and a Mohawk chief named Hiawatha.
This alliance became known as the League of Iroquois.
A council of 50 specially chosen tribal leaders called
sachems met once a year. These sachems made
decisions for the League.
Deganawida
Religious leader who, according
to legend, helped Hiawatha
organize the Iroquois
Confederacy.
Hiawatha
Mohawk chief who organized the
Iroquois Confederacy
Review
1. Vocabulary term meaning the entire way
of life of a people?
Answer
Main Menu
Review
2. Name given to the alliance of the five nations of the Iroquois?
Answer
Review
3. Ancient empire that was located in central
Mexico?
Answer
Review
4. Name given to device used by Incas for
record keeping?
Answer
Review
5. Name two accomplishments of the
Aztecs?
Answer
Review
6. This was the largest of the three ancient
civilizations in the Americas and it was
located in South America.
Answer
Review
7. This group lived in New York State?
Answer
Review
9. What cultural area is shown in this
picture?
Answer
Review
8. In this cultural area, Native Americans
adapted to the environment by using
irrigation systems to water their crops and
adobe to build their homes?
Answer
Review
10. Give one accomplishment of the Mayas.
Answer
Review
11. Which cultural area is shown in this
picture?
Answer
Review
12. Which cultural area is represented in
this picture?
Answer
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Inuit
• Name of a tribe that lives in the Arctic
Cultural Area.
• Theory that believes Native Americans
migrated over to the Americas thousands
of years ago using a land bridge
connecting North America and Asia.
• Technique used by the Inca to farm in the
Andes Mountains. Leveling a portion of the
mountain so you can grow crops.