Native Americans of the Northwest Coast
LOCATION/CLIMATE/
TERRAIN
Southern Oregon into
Canada
Winters along ocean are
cold but not icy. Summers
are cool.
Heavy Rainfall due to the
mountains that trap the
pacific storms.
SOURCES OF FOOD
HOMES/CLOTHING
UNIQUE ASPECTS
villages built along
narrow beaches and
bays of the coastline
and on islands.
Forests provided
materials for houses and
useful objects. Using
sledgehammers men cut
long boards from longs
or trees. They joined the
plants to build large
sturdy houses.
For different creature
they developed a special
weapon.
Gathered clams, other
shellfish and seaweed.
Used canoes to hunt
sea lions seals, whales
and halibut.
Thick forests, fir, spruce and
cedar cover rugged
The forests provided
mountains.
deer, bear, moose, elk,
beaver and mountain
goat
To keep out rain they
made roof shingles out
of large sheets of cedar
bark.
In the early summer
salmon swam from the
ocean up to the rivers to
lay eggs. men built
wooden fences across
the rivers to block the
fish making it easier to
catch. Women dried it
and It could be eaten all
year
Women cut strips from
soft inner bark to make
baskets, mats, ropes,
blankets.
With abundant food- the
people had extra time to
make craft.
SOURCES OF FOOD
HOMES/CLOTHING
UNIQUE ASPECTS
Northern cali coastSalmon.
Southern cali coastshellfish.
Simple homes because
the climate was mild.
Over 100 small
groups made their
homes in these
diverse areas.
Native Americans of California
LOCATION/CLIMATE/
TERRAIN
Stretches from southern
Oregon through Baja
California.
Winter rains due to ocean
storms. Hot and dry
summers
Includes the coast and
coastal foothills(inland
valley) deserts and
western side of the sierra
Nevada mountain range.
Away from the coastdeer-bow and
arrows. Set traps for
rabbits. Nets-capture
ducks. Also gathered
roots, berries and
pine nuts.
Relied heavily on
acorns from oak
trees as a basic food.
Men used tools made
from antlers of deer and
elk to strip slabs of bark
from redwood trees.
Draped these into a cone
shape to form a house.
In marshy area people
wove thick mats of reeds
to drape over a cone
shaped framework
When it was cold they
wrapped themselves in
animal hides
Wove plant materials
into useful itemscooking baskets,
storage baskets,
sifters and fish traps.
Decorated their work
with clamshells and
feathers.
Native Americans of the Great Basin
LOCATION/CLIMATE/
TERRAIN
SOURCES OF FOOD
HOMES/CLOTHING
UNIQUE ASPECTS
Between Sierra Nevada and the
Rocky Mountains. Mountains
are on both sides.
Lived season to season
spring- camped valley lakes
and streams. Men attracted
migrating ducks with
floating decoys. Women
gathered duck eggs and the
tender shoots of cattail
plants.
Most people traveled
looking for food and
water but when they
did camp they made
temporary shelters of
willow poles shaped
into a cone and
covered with brush or
reeds.
Only a few families
could live in this
place at one time
because of the
limited amount of
food and water.
Mountains block rain making
the land mostly desert.
The plants that grow in this area
are the ones that need very little
water-low grasses, sagebrush
and craggy pinion trees.
Only small animals such as
rabbits and lizards live here
Winter- temps dropped below
freezing.
Summer- streams dried up
and they ate snakes and
grasshoppers. But mostly
they ate plants. Women
used sharp sticks to dig up
roots. To knock seeds loose
from plants they wove flat
baskets. From the mountain
they gathered berries.
To keep warm people made
robes out of rabbit hides.
Each robe required about
100 rabbit hides
Autumn-harvested pine nuts
and hunted jackrabbits.
Winter-ate what they had
dried earlier
Native Americans of the Plateau
LOCATION/CLIMATE/
TERRAIN
In between the Cascade
Range to the west, the
Rockies to the east and the
Fraser river( in present
day Canada) to the north
Mountains have dense
forests. Flatter central part
is drier and covered with
grass and sagebrush.
Winters are long and cold
Summers are mild.
SOURCES OF FOOD
HOMES/CLOTHING
UNIQUE ASPECTS
Had the Columbia and the
Built villages along major
rivers. Rivers provided
drinking water, fish and
driftwood for the house and
firewood
Used weaving skills
to create many kids
of baskets as well as
elaborate hats.
Fraser-big help
Relied on fish and plants for
food. But also hunted.
Spring- gathered sprouts of
wild onions and carrots
from low grasslands.
Favorite- camas- starchy
root related to lilies. Women
uprooted it with willow
digging sticks for eating
raw, for rotating and for
grinding up into flower.
Most important foodsalmon. When salmon came
upstream men stood on
wooden platforms built over
water and spear the fish
Built their homes partley
underground to keep warm in
the winter and cool in the
summer- they dug a pit lined it
with a frame of logs and
covered everything with
saplings, reeds and mud.
In the fall men hunted antelope
and deer. Then women scraped
and softened the dies for
dresses, leggings and shirts.
They decorated it with seeds
and shells
Native Americans of the Southwest
LOCATION/CLIMATE/
TERRAIN
Present day Arizona, New
Mexico, southern Utah and
Colorado and portion of
Texas, Oklahoma and
California.
Canyons, mountains,
deserts, and flat-topped
mesas-area elevated piece
of land with flat top and
steep sides.
Two major riversColorado and Rio Grade.
SOURCES OF FOOD
HOMES/CLOTHING
UNIQUE ASPECTS
Learned to grow corn, beans
and squash.
Some were nomadicwandering desert humans.
To make up for infrequent
rain, farmers planted near
naturally flooded areas like
the mouths of large
streambeds or the base of
mesas where rain runoff
flowed. Men dug irrigation
ditches form the streams to
the fields, and built small
dams to hold summer rain.
Along Colorado river-small
groups hunted, gathered and
farmed. Other planted corn,
beans and squash on the tops
of high, flat areas called mesas.
Using plants and
mineral they dyed
fabrics.
Girls spent hours grinding
corn kernels into cornmeal.
They cooked it into bread in
clay ovens . In clay pits they
cooked stew
Rain rarely falls. Very hot
The mesa people lacked trees
so instead they made homes
from the earth. Using bricks of
adobe(sun baked clay) they
built think walled houses that
protected them from summer
hear and wither cold. They
looked like apartment houses.
A single village- pueblo
housed 1000
To protect from sun they
wore cotton clothes that
they grew, spun and wove.
Native Americans of the Great Plains
LOCATION/CLIMATE/
TERRAIN
Treeless grasslands.
Stretches for 2000 miles
from the rocky mountains
to the Mississippi valley
and from Canada to the
gulf of Mexico.
Eastern part has more
water and softer soil than
the western part. In the
drier west, short dense
grasses provide perfect
grazing for millions of
buffalo
SOURCES OF FOOD
HOMES/CLOTHING
UNIQUE ASPECTS
Eastern plains- various groups
took up farming, going on
buffalo hunting trips only a few
months each year.
Using tendons as
thread women sewed 8
to 20 buffalo skins
together. The skins
were then fastened
around a tall cone of
poles to make a tipi, a
Plains word for
dwelling.
Used buffalo hides for
everything. Shields,
waterproof containers,
warm robes, and bedding
also clothing.
Western plains- followed
buffalo herds all year.
Spring and early summer- small
groups lay in ambush where
buffalo came to drink,. The
hunters’ made hardwood bows
reinforced with strips of buffalo
tendon. In the fall buffalo herds
gathered, and plains people
traveled in larger bands. The
men sometimes made a trap for
the buffalo by heaping stones
into two short walls to form a vshaped passage. The walls
forced the buffalo closer.
Buffalo hair were sewed
into bowstrings and ropes.
Horns and hooves become
spoons and bowls, or were
boiled down to make glue.
Dried buffalo dung provided
fuel for fires.
They become even more
successful when Spanish
explores introduced horses
to the region. With horse,
hunter s could bring down
more buffalo and move
faster
Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands
LOCATION/CLIMATE/
TERRAIN
Mississippi river eastward
to the Atlantic ocean and
fro Canada to North
Carolina.
Snowy winter
Rainy summers.
Endless forests, lakes and
streams.
SOURCES OF FOOD
HOMES/CLOTHING
UNIQUE ASPECTS
Hunter prowled through
Villages built by lakes
and rivers.
Most people spoke
Algonquian.
Each village had
dozens of sturdy log
frame houses covered
in elm bark.
In NY and areas around
the Southern Great Lakes
the Iroquois-speaking
groups lived
the forests to track deer.
Men also hunted bears,
trapped beavers and
caught birds in nets, and
speared fish.
Women gathered fresh
greens, nuts and berries.
They made syrup by boiling
down sap from maple trees.
Women would ground corn
with wooden sticks in
hollowed out tree trunks or
between stones
Crops included: sunflowers,
tobacco and veggies
Longhouses were
usually about 20 feet
wide and over 100 feet
long.
Women tanned
deerskin to make
skirts, capes, and
moccasins.
Paddled log and bark
canoes along lakes and
rivers
Men burned away trees
and underbrush. But then
women took over. They
hoed the soil, planted
corn.
Native Americans of the Southeast
LOCATION/CLIMATE/
TERRAIN
Southern part of the Ohio
valley to the gulf of Mexico
and from Texas to the
Atlantic ocean.
Fertile coastal plains, river
valleys, mountains, and
swamps
SOURCES OF FOOD
HOMES/CLOTHING
UNIQUE ASPECTS
Relied on corn, squash,
pumpkins, and sunflowers
for most of their food.
A town might have had
2 to 12 mounds around
a central plaza. Around
the mound people
clustered their houses.
Their homes were built
from strips of young
trees woven into a
rectangular form and
plastered with clay.
Roofs were pointed
and made of leaves.
Developed a type of corn
that grew so fast they could
harvest two crops a year.
Farmers raised enough
crops to deed the people
building the mounds.
Women worked the fields
with hoes made of stone,
shell or animal shoulder
blades fastened to wooden
handles.
Long Warm humid
summer and wild winters
Men hunted using blowguns
for squirrels, rabbits and
turkeys and bows and
arrows for deer. They even
ate alligator and turtles
Climate and terrain made
growing crops very easily
Women gathered edible
plants like sweet potatoes,
wild rice and persimmons.
Wore simple short
deer skin shirts. Made
fashion rings, earring
and hairpins
Built towns dominated by
large earthen mounds. At
first they were burial cites
but centuries later, people
made mounds several
stories high as platforms for
temples.
They took month’s even
year because people had to
move the dirt one basketful
at a time. Workers had no
time to grow for find food.