The document provides information on the various indigenous peoples and cultures of North America. It describes the origins of the first Americans, and then details the different cultural regions of North America, including the indigenous groups that lived in each region. Key regions covered include the Northwest Coast, Southwest, Great Plains, and Eastern Woodlands. For each region and group, the document outlines aspects of their environment, housing, food, clothing, tools and more.
2. The First Americans
These first Americans descended, or came from cave men of Asia.
These were the first people to live in North America. That is why
we call them Native Americans.
http://sciencestage.com/v/6156/the-great-native-american-civilizations.html
4. Northwest Coast:
Environment, Food, and Shelter
• Indians of the Northwest Coast lived
between the ocean and rugged
mountain ranges. It was what is today
the states of Washington, Oregon,
and northern California.
• The growing season was short, and the
climate was too wet for much
agriculture.
• There were plenty of fish, especially
salmon. There were also deer and
bears.
• There was lots of wood to build houses
and to make tools.
• People traveled by water.
• Northwest Coast Indians traveled
in dugouts, or boats made from
large, hollowed out logs.
Northwest Coast
5. The Chinooks
• Chinook
– Best known traders
– Lived near the coast
– to one another.
– Chinooks held potlaches
which were celebrations to
show off wealth. They would
give gifts to people to exhibit
this
Northwest Coast
The Makahs
Makahs
Whales were plentiful along the Northwest
Coast.
The Makahs built canoes to hunt the whales
at sea.
Makahs made wooden harpoons-long spears
with sharp shell points-for whale hunting.
Every part of the whale was used. The skin
and meat were eaten, the blubber , or fat,
was used for oil, and the tendons were used
to make rope.
6. Southwest
• The climate of the Southwest is very dry or arid.
• Much of the land in the southwest is desert.
• The Southwest has fierce heat during the day
and sharp cold at night.
• The Southwest has very few animals because of
the desert.
Southwest
7. Hopis
• Hopi means “Peaceful One”
• The Hopis lived in Pueblos-adobe
houses of many rooms next to or
on top of one another.
• The early Hopi’s lived in present
day Arizona.
• Most of their villages were built
on top of mesas.
The Navajos lived in houses called
hogans. A hogan was a cone shaped
frame covered with mud or grass.
Navajos built their hogans in small, family
size groups, miles apart from one
another.
Southwest
Navajos
The Navajos settled in the area of the
Southwest known as the Four Corners. The
Four Corners is where the four states of
Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado
meet.
The early Navajos were nomads. They often
attacked the Hopis and stole their supplies.
8. Kachinas
Kachinas were Hopi spirits or gods
which lived within the mountains.
These spirits were called on to
bring rain, make crops grow, heal
the sick, or find animals to hunt.
• Hopi Kachinas talked to the gods by singing and dancing,
like for rain.
• The Hopis’s made Kachina figures representing the spirits
and used them to teach children about tribal religious
beliefs.
Southwest
9. Great Plains
• Indians known as The Plains lived in the Great Plains.
• Buffalo was the most important natural resource of the
Plains Indians.
• Indians of the Great Plains lived in tepees.
• The Plains Indians were hunters.
• Buffalo provided these Indians with their basic needs,
food, clothing, and shelter.
Great Plains
10. Cheyennes
• The Cheyennes lived in
settled villages of earthen
lodges and birchbark
wigwams.
• Later they became more
nomadic to follow the
buffalo and built temporary
teepees that could be easily
moved.
Great Plains
The Cheyennes were
originally farming people,
with the women harvesting
corn, squash, and beans
while the men hunted deer
and buffalo
Kiowas
-The Kiowas were nomads and moved
about the Great Plains.
-They were one of the poorest of the
Native peoples and used sign
language.
-They could not farm because the roots
of the grass made it too difficult to
break the ground with a digging stick.
-The Kiowas built a cone shaped tent.
They used wooden poles that were
fastened in a circle and covered with
buffalo skin. This is called a teepee.
11. Eastern Woodlands
• The Eastern Woodlands region covered the east coast of
what is today known as the United States, west to the
Mississippi River
• Because these Indians lived in the forests, they were
called the Eastern Woodland Indians.
Eastern Woodlands
12. The Iroquois
• The Cherokees lived in the
river valleys of the Southern
Appalachian Mountains.
• Cherokees were farmers and
hunters.
• Several families of the same
clans shared the same
house.
Eastern Woodlands
• The Iroquois were not one
tribe, but a group of five
tribes that lived near each
other and spoke similar
languages.
• The five Iroquois were the
Seneca, Cayuga,
Onondaga, Oneida, and
Mohawk. They fought each
other sometimes.
• In 1570, the five tribes formed
the Iroquois league. This
league was formed because
the Indians were tired of
fighting and wanted to work
together.
The Cherokees
16. Indian Headdresses
Native
American
warbonnets
were important
ceremonial
regalia worn
only by chiefs
and warriors.
Also, only men
wore
warbonnets
Trailing Headdress Halo Headdress Straight up
Battle Roach Buffalo warbonnet Sioux buffalo headdress Headdresses
were more
ceremonial,
Warbonnets as
well for
declaring war,
Roachs were
more often
worn to battle
17. Native American
Homes Pueblo, Hopi, Southwest
Longhouse, Chinook,
Northwest
Teepee, Kiowas, Plains
Longhouse, Iroquois, Eastern
Woodland
Cherokee Village, Eastern
Woodland
Hogan, Navajo, Southwest
18.
19. Totem Poles
• Outside the houses of Northwestern
Indians stood a wooden pole called
a totem pole. Each totem pole was
beautifully carved with shapes of
people and animals. The carvings
showed each family’s history and
importance.
20. Food
• Ways to get food:
• 1) Hunting and Fishing
• 2)Gathering
• 3) Agriculture/farming
• 4)Raising domesticated animals
22. Agriculture/Farming/gathering
Other foods that
could be found
naturally in the
Americas were eggs,
honey, maple syrup
and sugar, salt, nuts
(including peanuts,
pine nuts, cashews,
hickory nuts, and
acorns,) fruit
(including
cranberries,
strawberries,
blueberries,
raspberries,
chokecherries, wild
plums, and
persimmons), and a
wide variety of
beans, roots, and
greens.
The three sisters:
Beans, corn,
squash
23. Native American Weapons
1) 2) 3) 4)
1)Bow and Arrow,
2)Spear
3)Plains Indian war
club
4)Axe
5)Tomahawk
6)Coup Sticks
7)Knife
5) 6) 7)
24. “Americanization”
• - Due to misinformation about the Native’s ways, the Anglo
people felt the Indians were savage and should be
Americanized.
• Political leaders including President Thomas Jefferson believed
that the Indians should be civilized, which meant converting
them to Christianity and turning them into farmers.
• - Native Americans had to leave their traditional ways and
build European-style homes and farmsteads, develop a
written language (called “Talking Leaves”), and establish a
newspaper.
• - Some tribes of Indians were forced to give up their native
names and language. Children were forced to go to
American schools to learn about the “white culture”.
• - Native Americans were not given protection under US law
and land could be seized from them at any time.
25. Removal of Native
Americans
• - In 1830, when Americanization did not happen quickly enough, Congress
passed the Indian Removal Act.
• - It was rumored that gold was found in the southeastern states on Native
land.
• - The removal of some 90,000 Indians to Oklahoma became known as “The
Trail of Tears”.
• In the fall of 1838, US Army troops began to round up the Cherokee Indians
and forcefully moved then into stockades in North Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, and Tennessee.
• The Cherokee were loaded into 645 wagons and started towards the west.
• - There was little food for the people along the trail.
• - There were snowstorms with freezing temperatures. The Cherokee had to
sleep outside or in the wagons with no fire for heat. Many would die due to
lack of food, ill treatment, cold, and exposure.
• - Mortality rates for the entire removal were substantial, totaling
approximately 8,000.
28. Native Americans today
• Native Americans have a special status in the US.
• Blood Quantum or Indian blood laws are the laws that define you as Native
American. These percentages to qualify for certain tribes very by tribe.
• If you can prove you have Native American descent, you can qualify for
certain federal benefits or educational grants
• There are reservations, land especially for Native American tribes.
• On these reservations the Tribal Council has jurisdiction.
• Indian reservations are known for their casinos, which attract tourists along
with cultural and traditional aspects of Native American life
http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Video.aspx?
VideoID=43767&CategoryID=863
29.
30. The origins of Thanksgiving
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL9HrFIedtg
In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth,
England, carrying about 102 passengers—an assortment of religious
separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith
and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership
in the New World.
After 66 days, the pilgrims hit land in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, then one
month later, they made it to Plymouth, where they settled.
After the first winter there, only half of the pilgrims lived due to cold and
diseases.
In March, they were visited by an Abenaki Indian who spoke English. He
brought with him a former captured slave Squanto.
Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to
cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and
avoid poisonous plants.
In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful,
the Governer invited a group of the Native Americans to a celebratory
feast, now remembered as America’s first Thanksgiving.
31. Thanksgiving today
• In 1941, President Roosevelt made Thanksgiving a federal
holiday.
• The main event of any Thanksgiving is the Thanksgiving dinner.
• It is traditional to have baked or roasted turkey. This is usually
accompanied with mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, fall
vegetables, cranberry sauce, and gravy. Pumpkin pie is the
most commonly eaten dessert.
• The Thanksgiving holiday weekend is one of the busiest times of
the year for traveling. It is a four-day or five-day weekend
vacation for most schools and colleges, and many businesses
and government workers get three or four days off.
• Thanksgiving is also the unofficial signal for Christmas
preparations to begin. Once Thanksgiving finishes, stores fill their
shelves with Christmas goods.
32. Traditional
Thanksgiving
Spread
Turkey
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes with
Marshmallows
Stuffing
Cranberry Sauce
Cornbread/Biscuits
Green Beans
Squash
Cider
Pumpkin Pie
