Native Americans Native Americans were the people who lived in America before people from other countries came here.

I.How did Native Americans meet their needs? A. By using natural resources Natural resources are things in nature that people can use. treeswaterstonesbuffalo

B. Native Americans lived in culture groups.  The people in a culture group have the same way of life.  Each culture group differed by region

C. Six different regions of the United States

1. Each region had different physical surroundings. Others were mostly desert. Some regions had forests.

Still others had oceans nearby.

2. Each region had different natural resources. Each culture group used the natural resources in its region to meet its needs.

Those who lived near deserts used clay or stones to build their homes.  For this reason, Native American culture groups had different homes. Those who lived on the Plains used buffalo skins to make their homes. Still others lived near forests. They built their homes of wood.

Many Native American culture groups built their homes in villages or cities. These are the remains of an ancient Anasazi cliff village.

Other culture groups, like the Plains Indians, were nomadic. They could not live in one place. They had to move around to follow the buffalo.

D. The physical surroundings of each region also affected how each culture group got its food. SE woodlands- fished, hunted, and farmed

. SW-Farmed for food.

Native Americans in the California Inter- mountain region were known as gatherers.

Few Natural Resources people gathered for food

NW Coast-Fished in Ocean Rivers-fished for salmon.

Plains-Buffalo for Everything

E. The physical surroundings of the regions affected each culture group’s way of life in other ways, too. Ex: SW-clay into pottery

NW Coast- Wood into Totem poles The carvings on each totem pole told about a family’s history.

California Intermountain- They made beautiful baskets out of grasses and plants.

F. Physical surroundings affected how the Indians traveled, too.  All Indians walked.  Plains and Southwest Indians got horses from Spanish explorers.  Indians in the Eastern Woodlands, Northwest Coast, and California Intermountain regions used canoes.

Photo Credits Page 1 - Spotted Tail’s family Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library Page 14 – Fruit gatherer Northwestern University Library, Edward S. Curtis's 'The North American Indian': the Photographic Images,