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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 Plains Region: This region cultural region is a vast area of treeless grasslands. In the United States, the Great Plains stretch for about 2,000 miles from the Rockies to the Mississippi Valley, and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The eastern part of this region has more water and softer soil than the western part. In the drier west, short, dense grasses provided perfect grazing for millions of bison.
Bison Hunters: On the eastern Great Plains, various groups took up farming, only going on bison-hunting trips a few months each year. On the western Great Plains, American Indians followed bison herds much of the year. In the spring and early summer, small groups lay in ambush where bison came. The hunters gripped hardwood bows reinforced with strips of bison tendon. Taking aim, each man let loose a wooden arrow tipped with a sharp stone and arrayed with feathers to help it fly straight. In the fall, huge bison herds gathered, and Plains people traveled in larger bands. The men sometimes trapped the bison by circling the herd while on horseback. The men forced the bison closer together as they approached a cliff. Sometimes people set a grass fire or made loud noises to panic the bison until the animals stampeded over the cliff edge. Below, waiting hunters finished them off with spears or bows and arrows.
Using the Bison: Bison provided the main food for Plains people. Women and young girls cut up the bison with bone knives, and extra meat was dried and kept for winter. Plains people used every part of the bison. Bison hides were turned into shields, waterproof containers, warm robes, and bedding. For clothing and bags, women softened the hides with scrapers and rubbed in bison brains and fat. Bison hair and sinew (tough cords made from the animals' tendons) were twined into bowstrings and rope. Horns and hooves became spoons and bowls or were boiled down to make glue. Dried bison dung provided fuel for fires. Bison provided materials for housing as well. Using tendons as thread, women sewed many bison hides together. The skins were then fastened around a tall cone of poles to make a tepee, a Plains word for “dwelling.” Plains people became even more successful hunters when Spanish explorers introduced horses to the region. With horses, they could bring down more bison and move faster and more comfortably to new hunting grounds.
Bison Hunters: On the eastern Great Plains, various groups took up farming, only going on bison-hunting trips a few months each year. On the western Great Plains, American Indians followed bison herds much of the year. In the spring and early summer, small groups lay in ambush where bison came. The hunters gripped hardwood bows reinforced with strips of bison tendon. Taking aim, each man let loose a wooden arrow tipped with a sharp stone and arrayed with feathers to help it fly straight. In the fall, huge bison herds gathered, and Plains people traveled in larger bands. The men sometimes trapped the bison by circling the herd while on horseback. The men forced the bison closer together as they approached a cliff. Sometimes people set a grass fire or made loud noises to panic the bison until the animals stampeded over the cliff edge. Below, waiting hunters finished them off with spears or bows and arrows.
Using the Bison: Bison provided the main food for Plains people. Women and young girls cut up the bison with bone knives, and extra meat was dried and kept for winter. Plains people used every part of the bison. Bison hides were turned into shields, waterproof containers, warm robes, and bedding. For clothing and bags, women softened the hides with scrapers and rubbed in bison brains and fat. Bison hair and sinew (tough cords made from the animals' tendons) were twined into bowstrings and rope. Horns and hooves became spoons and bowls or were boiled down to make glue. Dried bison dung provided fuel for fires. Bison provided materials for housing as well. Using tendons as thread, women sewed many bison hides together. The skins were then fastened around a tall cone of poles to make a tepee, a Plains word for “dwelling.” Plains people became even more successful hunters when Spanish explorers introduced horses to the region. With horses, they could bring down more bison and move faster and more comfortably to new hunting grounds.
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