The Native Americans

Northwest Coast The Northwest Coast Extends from southern Oregon into Canada. Winters are cold and icy, summers are cool. Thick forests of fir trees cover rugged mountains. Heavy rainfall much of the year. Plentiful food…from the sea…forests provide animals. For each animal they hunted, they developed specific weapons. Houses made from wood. Practiced crafts…totem poles, animal masks, and stone knives.

California California The California cultural region stretches from southern Oregon to Baja California. Ocean storms bring winter rains, but summers are hot and dry. Depending how far inland you went, food was varied. Along the coast, fishing was important. Inland, small game. A reliance on fallen acorns dominated the fall. A mild climate made the California people build simple houses. In marshy areas, people wove thick mats of reeds to drape over a cone-shaped framework of poles.

Great Basin Great Basin To the east of California lies the Great Basin, a low area between the Sierra Nevada's and the Rocky Mountains. The mountains block the rains, making the lands mostly desert. With limited food and water, families were limited in size and stayed on the move. Temporary shelters made of willow poles shaped into a cone and covered with brush or reeds. People followed food sources from season to season. Ate snakes, grasshoppers as treats. Mostly they ate plants.

Plateau Plateau North of the Great Basin lies the Plateau cultural region. Cascade mountains to the west and the Rockies to the East…Canada to the north. Mountains have dense forest. Flatter central areas are dryer and covered with grass and sagebrush. Winters are long and cold, summers remain gentle. Two river systems…Columbia and the Fraser. People relied on fish and plants for food. Salmon was most important. Camas, a starchy root was a food staple. Built their homes partly underground. Dug a pit and lined it with a frame of logs and covered everything with saplings, reeds, and mud.

Southwest Southwest Includes present-day Arizona, New Mexico, southern Utah, and Colorado…portions of Texas. Region has many environments-canyons, mountains, deserts, and flat topped mesa’s. Two major rivers, Rio Grande and the Colorado. Rain seldom falls anywhere. Living here is a challenge. Different groups found different ways of living and surviving. A lack of trees made them make their homes of mud (Adobe) Villages looked like apartments…thick-walled homes. Villages called pueblos might house 1,000 people. Grew corn, beans, and squash. Corn was most important.

Great Plains Great Plains Vast treeless grassland. 2,000 miles from the Rockies to the Mississippi River valley and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The eastern portion has more water than the western edges. Buffalo was a staple food supply and natives followed the herds most of the year. They used all parts of the animals they hunted. Through the use of tipis, natives covered their homes with animal hides and were able to move them at a moments notice. They used buffalo dung for fuel.

Eastern Woodlands Eastern Woodlands Reaches from the Mississippi River eastward to the Atlantic Ocean, and from Canada to North Carolina. Winter snows and summer rains produce endless forests, lakes, and streams. Hunters for game…gathered nuts and fruits, trapped small game. Waterways provided access to many areas. Many Iroquois built their homes by rivers. Log house frame covered with elm bark. Each village had dozens of homes. Some longhouses were 100 feet long. To farm, men cut down trees and cleared the land…women did the rest.

Southeast Southeast Stretches from the southern part of the Ohio Valley to the Gulf of Mexico and from Texas to the Atlantic Ocean. The regions fertile coastal plains, river valleys, mountains, and swamps all have long, warm, humid summers and mild winters. Large earthen mounds and homes built of small trees. Farming was plentiful with a reliance on corn. Women worked the fields while men hunted.