Study Guide—First Americans and Native Americans
Culture: The way of life of a people or group
Anthropologist:
Archeologist:
Artifact:
Hunter Gather:
Agriculture:
First Americans
-Land Bridge formed during Ice Age 20,000 to 30,000 years ago in the Bering Strait
-connected Asia (Siberia) and North America (Alaska)
-Nomads followed big game mammals(Wholly Mammoths) into North America
Civilizations Grow
-Nomad Hunter groups slowly changed to Hunter/Gathers (Mammoth dies out)
-8,000 years ago in Mexico, Native Americans started farming and used irrigation
(channeling of water from a river to crops)
-this led farming communities to become cities
-also led to a surplus (extra food growing that could be traded) and trade between
different civilizations
Three Great Civilizations in the Americas before 1500
-MAYANS: advanced people, made accurate calendar, used zero in math, written
language
-AZTECS: largest Empire in 1400, practiced human sacrifice, Tenochtitlan- island
city with floating gardens.
-INCAS: largest empire, vast road system, brain surgery, capital called Cuzco
Native Americans in North America
-200 different languages spoken by natives in North America
-the natives had no written language
-they passed on knowledge and their history through oral history (story telling)
GREAT PLAINS
-Treeless west plains was unsuited to farming. People there lived in Teepees for
shelter. The Buffalo supplied meat, hides for teepees, and bones for tools.
EASTERN WOODLANDS
-Iroquois of present day NEW YORK were a federation of 5 tribes. Their houses
were made out of wood and bark. They were called longhouses. Their food came
from hunting small game (deer) and farming. Women had the right of influencing and
choosing each clan’s chief and councilman. Three Sisters: Corn, Beans, and Squash.
Iroquois Reading Questions.
1.
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5.
6.
What is the difference between a nuclear family and an extended family?
What was their family called?
What parent did the Iroquois trace their family through?
Who headed the Iroquois family? What is the term for this type of family?
What is a Clan?
How were the clans, nations, and league run? Who determined who sat on the
councils?
7. How was the Iroquois government organized?
8. What is a CONFEDERACY?