1. The Americas: A Separate World

2. Hunters & Farmers in the Americas
More than 10,000 years ago, humans migrate from Asia to the Americas across a land bridge.
Originally hunters and gatherers, these groups developed farming methods and create settlements.
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3. The Earliest Americas
Most experts believe that the first people came to the Americas from Asia over the land bridge known as Beringia.
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4. The Earliest Americas Cont…
Towards the end of the last Ice Age, nomadic groups migrate from Asia to the Americas.
The development of agriculture allows these nomadic hunter-gatherers to settle in one place.
By adapting to various environments, the groups spread across the Americas.
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6. Way of Life for early Americans: Hunters & Gatherers

7. Agriculture Prompts a New Way of Life
Early peoples in Mexico begin to farm, leading to the development of corn, beans, and squash.
As growing crops becomes more sophisticated, farmers learn to manipulate the terrain.
The birth of agriculture leads to changes in society and the rise of civilization.
Maize
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8. The Effects of Agriculture
Before Agriculture
People hunted or gathered what they ate.
Families continually moved in search of big game.
Groups remained small due to the scarcity of reliable sources of food.
Humans devoted much of their time to obtaining food.
After Agriculture
People enjoyed a more reliable and seaty source of food.
Families settled down and formed larger communities.
Humans concentrated on new skills: arts and crafts, architecture, social organization.
Compex societies eventually arose.

9. Geography and climate makes a difference in how people live…
NORTH AMERICAN Tribes and areas:
Desert Southwest – Hohokam, Apache, Puebloans, etc…
Eastern Woodlands – Hopewell, Mississippians, Seminole, Adena, etc…
Pacific Northwest – Chinook, Columbia
Great Plains – Sioux, Blackfoot, Crow
Arctic – Inuit, Aleut
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10. 1. Native Americans of the Desert Southwest (AZ,NM,CO,UT)

11. Life in the Desert Southwest 300 BC – 1500 AD
Lived in dry, rocky environment
Used irrigation techniques to grow corn, squash and beans
Built houses out of adobe or into the sides of cliffs
May have irreversibly changed the environment by cutting down too many trees in an already fragile biosphere

12. Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde, CO

13. Balcony House Mesa Verde, CO

14. The Four Corners (CO, UT, AZ, NM)

15. Metate grinding stones – grinds grain into flour

16. Newspaper Rock

17. Ruins at Pueblo Bonito (present day NM) contained 800 rooms - built around 900AD

18. 2. Eastern Woodlands Native Americans
Mound builders – may have been used for burial and religious purposes
Warm temperate forests
Relied on hunting and gathering as well as farming some native crops
Lived in log houses built from forest materials
Built cities – like Cahokia (near present day St. Louis)

19. Sketch of Iroquois Longhouse

20. Great Serpent Mound present day Ohio – built by the Adena tribe

21. Old Postcard of the serpent mound from the ground

22. Monk’s Mound near St. Louis, MO

23. Recreation of Cahokia (Monk’ Mound)

24. Cahokia Largest city in North America until Philadelphia in 1800
Up to 20,000 Mississippians lived in the city. Social classes appear to have existed
Monk’s mound may have been 100 feet in height.
All of this is done without any animal power!

25. 3. Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest

26. Life in the Pacific Northwest
Rivers, forests, and long coastline along Pacific Ocean (WA,OR,CA, BC Canada)
Fishing provided main food supply – salmon, etc…
Built houses and canoes out of wood from forests
Land of totem poles

30. Spear fishing circa 1900 – Oregon during a Salmon run

31. 4. Native Americans of the Great Plains (SD,ND,KS,NE,TX,OK, etc...)
The plains are mostly treeless and grassy with fertile soil. First settlers lived along the many rivers and farmed
Later, many tribes existed by hunting buffalo and other animals, especially after the introduction of horses from Europeans
Because of that, they were mostly nomadic and lived in portable houses called teepees

32. Typical view on the Great Plains

33. Typical Plains teepee

35. Native Americans on the plains hunting buffalo (horses make this easier!)

36. 5. Native Americans of the Arctic
Environmental conditions included permanent snow and ice
Relied on hunting and fishing of sea mammals (seals, whales, etc..) for food and skins
Built houses out of ice - igloos

37. Aleutian Native Americans work on an igloo

38. Sketch of an Aleutian village

39. Getting around by dog sled (one of the few indigenous animals of North America to be domesticated)

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