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Directions: Read and look through the images on your selected region. Then record the following information in a graphic organizer like the example provided below.
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Column 1: Location - What and where is this region? Describe where in relation to the modern day U.S., this region is. What modern day U.S. states are in this region? Draw a map to along with the descriptions.
Column 2: Geography - What was the geography like in this region? Describe what the climate (hot, cold, arid/dry, etc) was like. Describe what the terrain (land) was like (mountains, forests, coasts, grasslands, etc.) Draw a picture(s) to go along with the descriptions. Column 3: Adaptation - How did the tribes in this region adapt to their environment (How did they use their natural resources to survive?)? Describe their food sources. Describe the types of homes they had and what they were made of. Draw a picture(s) to along with the descriptions. |
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The First Americans Adapt: American Indians lived in a variety of places, from snowy forests to dry deserts and vast grasslands. Each of these kinds of places is an environment. An environment includes everything that surrounds us—land, water, animals, and plants. Each environment also has a climate, or longterm weather pattern. Groups of American Indians survived by adapting, or changing, their style of living to suit each environment, its climate, and its natural resources.
Using Natural Resources: American Indians learned to use the natural resources in their environments for food, clothing, and shelter. In the frigid regions of the far north, early Americans survived by hunting caribou in the summer and sea mammals in the winter. They fashioned warm, hooded clothing from animal skins. To avoid being blinded by the glare of the sun shining on snow, they made goggles out of bone with slits to see through. The people of the north lived most of the year in houses made from driftwood and animal skins. In winter, hunters built temporary shelters called iglus (IG-looz) out of blocks of snow.
Using Natural Resources: American Indians learned to use the natural resources in their environments for food, clothing, and shelter. In the frigid regions of the far north, early Americans survived by hunting caribou in the summer and sea mammals in the winter. They fashioned warm, hooded clothing from animal skins. To avoid being blinded by the glare of the sun shining on snow, they made goggles out of bone with slits to see through. The people of the north lived most of the year in houses made from driftwood and animal skins. In winter, hunters built temporary shelters called iglus (IG-looz) out of blocks of snow.
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American Indian Cultural Regions: Over generations, groups of American Indians developed their own cultures, or ways of life. Many became part of larger groupings that were loosely organized under common leaders. Groups living in the same type of environment often adapted in similar ways. Forest dwellers often lived in houses covered with tree bark, while many desert peoples made shelters out of branches covered with brush.
Using such artifacts (items made by people), historians have grouped American Indian peoples into cultural regions. A cultural region is made up of people who share a similar language and way of life. By the 1400s, between 1 and 2 million American Indians lived in ten major cultural regions north of Mexico. |
American Indian Cultural Regions Map
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The California Region: This cultural region stretches from southern Oregon through Baja California. Ocean storms bring winter rains to this region. Summers are hot and dry, particularly inland. The California region includes not only the coast, but also the coastal foothills, an inland valley, deserts, and the western side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Over 100 different groups made their homes in these diverse environments, more than in any other cultural region.
Many Sources of Food: Groups living along the coast of northern California depended on salmon for much of their food, while farther south, coastal people relied more on shellfish. Away from the coast, groups hunted deer with bows and arrows, set snares to trap rabbits, and used nets to capture ducks. California people also gathered roots, berries, and pine nuts. Most people in the region relied on acorns from oak trees as a basic food. In the fall, women harvested the acorns, shelled them, and pounded the nuts into meal. Water was rinsed through the meal to remove its bitterness. Women cooked the meal by mixing it with water in tightly woven baskets and then dropping hot cooking stones into the mixture.
Clothing, Houses, and Baskets: As they worked, the women wore aprons or skirts made from grasses or other plants, or sometimes from leather strips. In colder months, men and women wrapped themselves in animal hides. California people built different types of homes depending on where they lived. In forested areas, men used tools made from the antlers of deer and elk to strip large slabs of bark from redwood trees. They draped these into a cone shape to form a house. In marshy areas, people wove thick mats of reeds to drape over a cone-shaped framework of poles. California people wove plant materials into many useful items. They made cooking baskets, storage baskets, sifters, and fish traps. Women used fine weaving and elegant patterns to make beautiful baskets, decorating their work with clamshells and bird feathers.
Many Sources of Food: Groups living along the coast of northern California depended on salmon for much of their food, while farther south, coastal people relied more on shellfish. Away from the coast, groups hunted deer with bows and arrows, set snares to trap rabbits, and used nets to capture ducks. California people also gathered roots, berries, and pine nuts. Most people in the region relied on acorns from oak trees as a basic food. In the fall, women harvested the acorns, shelled them, and pounded the nuts into meal. Water was rinsed through the meal to remove its bitterness. Women cooked the meal by mixing it with water in tightly woven baskets and then dropping hot cooking stones into the mixture.
Clothing, Houses, and Baskets: As they worked, the women wore aprons or skirts made from grasses or other plants, or sometimes from leather strips. In colder months, men and women wrapped themselves in animal hides. California people built different types of homes depending on where they lived. In forested areas, men used tools made from the antlers of deer and elk to strip large slabs of bark from redwood trees. They draped these into a cone shape to form a house. In marshy areas, people wove thick mats of reeds to drape over a cone-shaped framework of poles. California people wove plant materials into many useful items. They made cooking baskets, storage baskets, sifters, and fish traps. Women used fine weaving and elegant patterns to make beautiful baskets, decorating their work with clamshells and bird feathers.
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