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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 Great Basin Region: To the east of California lies the Great Basin, a low area between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. The mountains on either side of this region block the rain, making this land mostly desert. The types of plants that grow in this area are those that need little water, such as low grasses, sagebrush, and craggy piñon (PIN-yon) trees. Many small animals, such as rabbits and lizards, live in this harsh region. With limited food and water, only a few families could live in a place at one time. For this reason, people of the Great Basin traveled in small groups and spent much of their time looking for food.
Extreme Heat and Cold: Wherever people camped, they made temporary shelters of willow poles shaped into a cone and covered with brush or reeds. Almost all year, they carried water in baskets coated with sap from pine trees. When winter came, temperatures dropped below freezing. To keep warm, people made robes out of rabbit hides by twisting long strips of hide so that only the fur showed. Then they wove these strips on a loom. Each adult robe required between 50 and 100 rabbit hides.
Searching for Food: In this arid (dry) environment, most people followed food sources from season to season. In spring, they camped by valley lakes and streams swollen with melted snow. Men attracted migrating ducks with floating decoys made from reeds and, as the birds landed, chased them into nets. Meanwhile, women gathered duck eggs and the tender shoots of cattail plants. When the streams dried up in summer, some Great Basin people enjoyed snakes and grasshoppers as treats. But mostly they ate plants. Women used sharp sticks to dig up roots. They used them to weave flat baskets, called seed beaters, which they used to knock seeds loose from plants. From the mountain slopes, they gathered ripe berries. In autumn, bands harvested pine nuts and hunted rabbits. As winter arrived, most Great Basin people bundled into their rabbit robes in the warmer hills. In huts and caves, they lived off food they had dried earlier, waiting for the ducks to return in spring.
Extreme Heat and Cold: Wherever people camped, they made temporary shelters of willow poles shaped into a cone and covered with brush or reeds. Almost all year, they carried water in baskets coated with sap from pine trees. When winter came, temperatures dropped below freezing. To keep warm, people made robes out of rabbit hides by twisting long strips of hide so that only the fur showed. Then they wove these strips on a loom. Each adult robe required between 50 and 100 rabbit hides.
Searching for Food: In this arid (dry) environment, most people followed food sources from season to season. In spring, they camped by valley lakes and streams swollen with melted snow. Men attracted migrating ducks with floating decoys made from reeds and, as the birds landed, chased them into nets. Meanwhile, women gathered duck eggs and the tender shoots of cattail plants. When the streams dried up in summer, some Great Basin people enjoyed snakes and grasshoppers as treats. But mostly they ate plants. Women used sharp sticks to dig up roots. They used them to weave flat baskets, called seed beaters, which they used to knock seeds loose from plants. From the mountain slopes, they gathered ripe berries. In autumn, bands harvested pine nuts and hunted rabbits. As winter arrived, most Great Basin people bundled into their rabbit robes in the warmer hills. In huts and caves, they lived off food they had dried earlier, waiting for the ducks to return in spring.
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