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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 Northwest Coast Region: This cultural region extends from southern Oregon into Canada. Winters along the ocean are cold but not icy, and summers are cool. To the east, thick forests of fir, spruce, and cedar cover rugged mountains. The mountains trap Pacific storms, so there is heavy rainfall much of the year.
Abundant Food: Northwest people found food plentiful, particularly that taken from the sea. They built their villages along the narrow beaches and bays of the coastline and on nearby islands where they gathered clams, other shellfish, and seaweed from shallow waters. They ventured onto the sea in canoes to hunt seals, sea lions, and whales, as well as halibut and other fish. The forests provided deer, moose, bear, elk, beaver, and mountain goat. For each kind of creature, hunters developed special weapons. To catch seals, for example, they made long wooden harpoons, or spears. The harpoon had a barbed tip made of bone that held firmly in the seal's hide once it was struck, and at the other end, hunters fastened a long rope so that they would not lose either the weapon or their prey. In early summer, masses of salmon swam from the ocean up the rivers to lay their eggs. Men built wooden fences across the rivers to block the fish, making them easier to net. Women dried salmon meat so that it could be eaten all year long.
Builders and Carvers: The forests of the Northwest provided materials for houses and many useful objects. Using wedges and stone-headed sledgehammers, men cut long, thin boards from logs or living trees. They then joined them together to build large, sturdy houses. To keep out the rain, they made roof shingles out of large sheets of cedar bark. Women cut strips from the soft inner bark and used them to make baskets, mats, rope, and blankets. They may have even woven the strips of bark into waterproof capes. With abundant food nearby, the Northwest people had time to practice crafts. Women made decorative shell buttons and sewed them onto their clothing with ivory needles. Men used tools such as wooden wedges, bone drills, stone chisels, and stone knives to carve detailed animal masks and wooden bowls.
Abundant Food: Northwest people found food plentiful, particularly that taken from the sea. They built their villages along the narrow beaches and bays of the coastline and on nearby islands where they gathered clams, other shellfish, and seaweed from shallow waters. They ventured onto the sea in canoes to hunt seals, sea lions, and whales, as well as halibut and other fish. The forests provided deer, moose, bear, elk, beaver, and mountain goat. For each kind of creature, hunters developed special weapons. To catch seals, for example, they made long wooden harpoons, or spears. The harpoon had a barbed tip made of bone that held firmly in the seal's hide once it was struck, and at the other end, hunters fastened a long rope so that they would not lose either the weapon or their prey. In early summer, masses of salmon swam from the ocean up the rivers to lay their eggs. Men built wooden fences across the rivers to block the fish, making them easier to net. Women dried salmon meat so that it could be eaten all year long.
Builders and Carvers: The forests of the Northwest provided materials for houses and many useful objects. Using wedges and stone-headed sledgehammers, men cut long, thin boards from logs or living trees. They then joined them together to build large, sturdy houses. To keep out the rain, they made roof shingles out of large sheets of cedar bark. Women cut strips from the soft inner bark and used them to make baskets, mats, rope, and blankets. They may have even woven the strips of bark into waterproof capes. With abundant food nearby, the Northwest people had time to practice crafts. Women made decorative shell buttons and sewed them onto their clothing with ivory needles. Men used tools such as wooden wedges, bone drills, stone chisels, and stone knives to carve detailed animal masks and wooden bowls.
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