The First North Americans

1
The First North Americans
2
Vocabulary

• Artifact
• Archaeologist
• Nomad
• Culture
• Culture regions
• Mesas
• Pueblos
• Slash-and-burn
• Oral history
• Clans
• Anthropologist

3
Food For Thought

• How did the first North Americans develop ways of
  life suited to the land on which they lived?
• How did the environment and resources of North
  America play an important role in the cultures of
  Native Americans?

4
Culture

• By the time Columbus arrived in the Americas,
  Native Americans had already developed very
  unique cultures of their own.
• Culture is a peoples way of life.
• Kinds of tools people make
• Food they eat
• Language they speak
• How you teach your children
• The way you view the world

5
Pacific Northwest Natives

• Native Americans of the PNW relied on the ocean
  as their main source of food.
• Known as fishing-whaling people
• Lived in cedar longhouses near the shores
• Very ritualistic people
• Capturing whales meant extra food and oil to
  trade

6
Pacific Northwest

• Makah-native people
• Ocean provided rock cod, halibut, salmon, clams,
  mussels, periwinkles, sea urchins
• Woods contained game, wild cranberries,
  huckleberries
• Cedar trees-used to make canoes/longhouses
• Bark used- woven into rope, blankets, clothing

7
Desert Southwest

• Anasazi-built their homes on rock ledges in the
  cliff walls of the mesas of the SW
• Anasazi means Ancient Ones
• Considered master builders-constructed apartment
  like homes made out of clay bricks called adobe
• Made homes in cliffs to protect themselves from
  invaders

8
Desert Southwest

• Mesas- plateau that soars above the desert floor

9
Pueblos

• Pueblo- Spanish word for
• town
• As the Anasazis culture began to diminish the
  Hopi, Zuni, Tewa began to emerge the continued to
  farm the desert land and make land their own.
• Hopi means Peaceful Ones

10
The Plains

• Culture stretched from Rocky Mountains to the
  Mississippi River region
• Buffalo roamed the land and these natives hunted
  them for food, clothing, shelter, tools
• No part of the buffalo went to waste
• Buffalolife for the Plains Indians
• Nomadic people who followed the buffalo

11
The Plains

• During colder months Plains Indians lived in
  semi-permanent villages
• Each village was independent had leaders
• Leaders passed scared objects that were believed
  to have come from a star that were passed down
  from father to son
• An outstanding warrior could also be a leader

12

• Many people hunted and farmed the land
• Cleared lots for fields villages using
  slash-and-burn techniques
• Describe slash-and-burn in your notes pg. 2
• Women planted beans, maize, squash, vines, and
  sunflowers
• When soil was depleted people moved on
• Iroquois people were Eastern Woodland
• Property descent passed down by women of the
  tribe

13
The First North Carolinians
14
Language Families of NC
15
North Carolina

• After many years of being nomadic warriors people
  began to develop more permanent villages.
• Most natives became skilled in craftwork.
• Artists made clay pottery, stone pipes,
  soapstone cooking pots
• Archaeologists have found many of these pieces in
  grave sites

16
Natives of NC

• Archaeologists have also discovered
• Woven baskets
• Painted jars
• Bowls
• Jewelry-made of shells, pounded copper
• No written records have been found yet we know so
  much about these people because of oral
  histories- stories that have been passed down
  generation after generation

17
Primary Source-John Lawson

• In 1700 John Lawson came to see NC he wrote The
  Indians of NC are a well shapd clean-made
  People. He observed their darker skin color,
  straight dark hair, and their lack of clothing.
  He noticed the use of tattoos to decorate their
  body. John Lawson learned first hand how the
  natives survived by living with them for a period
  of time.

18
Natives in the 3 Regions of NC

• Native Americans used what the land offered in
  the Coastal Plains
• Stone hoes were used to cultivate the land
• Used plants for food
• Cypress trees were used for canoes and posts for
  huts
• Moss was used to start fires, for ropes, skirts

19
Piedmont Natives

• Created fields from forests by using
  slash-and-burn
• Along the Fall Line they fished
• Hunted in the forests for deer bear
• Prowled the plains for wild turkey birds

20
Mountain Natives

• In this region the natives collected minerals
  such as mica and quartz
• Natives believed the crystals in the quartz
  foretold the future (crystal ball)
• The future is seen mirrored in the clear crystal
  as a tree is reflected in the quiet stream.
  Cherokee myth

21
Clans- groups of related people

• Shared cultural traits
• Extended family provided basis of life
• Ancestry traced through women
• Live in settlements of 10-12 houses
• Chief ruled
• Succession through the women of the tribe