The First Americans
Ben Kramer
Eighth Grade American History
The American Nation
Chapter Two
The First Americans
The First Americans
• The first people reached America sometime
during the Ice Age.
• They reached North America by the Land
Bridge.
• The Land Bridge contained huge sheets of
ice called glaciers that took up water
allowing land to appear.
First Americans
• Beringia, the land bridge in the north
connecting Siberia to Alaska.
• The first Americans were probably hunters
traveling in small bands hunting wooly
mammoths, bison, and other game.
• Experts date the arrival of these Americans
anywhere from 30,000 to 15,000 years ago.
Global Warming
• 12,000 years ago
temperatures rose
again and tha glaciers
melted.
• At the same time the
bison died out and the
people of the
America’s had to
adapt to a new way of
life hunting smaller
game.
Study of Early Peoples
• Native Americans, descendants of the first
people to reach the America’s thousands of
years ago.
• Through the study of languages scholars are
trying to trace how these people spread out
across the Americas.
Native Americans
• Other scholars examined stone
tools,weapons,baskets,and carvings found.
These objects made by humans are called
artifacts.
• They are the building blocks of
archaeology, the study of evidence of early
people.
The Mound Builders
• Wealth of artifacts
found in earthen
mounds in North
America. The people
who built these
mounds were called
Mound Builders.
Mounds streached all
across the Mid West.
Purpose of the Mounds
• The first mounds were burial mounds,
probably for important leaders.
• Some mounds were used to store valuables.
• Other mounds were used for religious
purposes.
A Sprawling City
• Some time ago the Mississippi's built a
large city at Cahokia in present day Illinois.
• As Many as 30,000 people may have lived
there.
• The people built Monk’s Mound, a 16 acre
platform, along with other smaller ones.
Early Cultures of the Southwest
• Hohokams lived in
southern Arizona, they
developed ways to turn
desert into farmland.
• Anasazi pueblos
farmed by use of
irrigation.
Early Cultures of the Southwest
• The Anasazi built larger homes of sun-dried
brick called adobe.
• The Spanish called these homes that could
house hundreds of people pueblos.
• Cliff Dwellers built adobe homes along
cliffs to hide from warlike neighbors.
Culture Areas and Tribes
• A culture area is a region in which people
share a similar way of life.
• Frozen seas and icy, treeless plains made up
the world of the Inui's.
• In the winter they lived in houses of ice and
snow called igloos.
Peoples of the West
• The Great Basin lies in
the dry Intermountain
region of the United
States.
• The people lived off
the vast land by
hunting and fishing
from its’ many rivers.
Peoples of the Southwest
• The Pueblos, Spanish
name for peoples of
the southwest.
• Their religious
ceremonies were held
in underground
chambers called kivas.
• Kachinas were masked
dancers who
represented the spirits.
• The Apaches and
Navajo arrived to the
region in about 1500.
• These tribes were
great hunters .
Blackfoot
• A Blackfeet chief named Shaved Head
went in search of the Shoshone tribe. What
he found were “big dogs” carrying men on
their backs. These dogs were horses.
Shaved Head brought horses back to the
West.
Farming and Religion
• Men and women had clearly defined roles
in the community.
• Men cleared the land and hunted deer and
other animals.
• Women harvested and weeded the crops and
took care of the house and children.
Natchez Society
• The Natchez hunted
and farmed the land of
the fertile Gulf Coast
region.
• The Natchez people
worshiped the sun and
thought off it as a
God.
The House Builders
• The Iroquiois were the
most powerful people
of this region, which is
the present day New
York state.
• The Iroquios built long
homes out of poles
sided with bark.
• A typical long home
was 150 feet long by
20 feet wide with a
hallway going down
the middle with small
rooms on either side.
The Mayas
• Mayan civilization emerged in the rain
forests. The rain forests were actually very
dangerous places to live with wild animals
and disease infested insects.
• The Mayans built houses of mud and sticks.
• Wealthier Mayans lived in houses of stone
and brick.
Mayas
• The Mayas were the first people to have
large cities within their society.
• The cities arose in many parts of Mexico
and Central America.
• Above each city were huge stone pyramids.
The Aztecs
• Techochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was
built on an island in Central America.
• The Aztecs built roads of packed earthen
material so they could travel between their
capital and the mainland.
• Religion was central to Aztec life.
• The Aztecs ruled millions of people from the
Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean.
The Incas
• The Incas were expert
farmers and
engineers.
• Empire stretched 3000
miles down South
America.
The Incas
• The Incas built a complex network of roads
stretching over 19,000 miles.
• The Incas also made a great deal of
progress in the field of medicine.
–
The Americas were inhibited by these tribes
and ways of life until later on when sea voyages
of people from the east like the Vikings and
Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas.
After this the Native American tribes were
slowly pushed away and died off due to wars
and disease from the new settlers.