The First Americans

The First AmericansThese first Americans descended, or came from cave men of Asia.

These were the first people to live in North America. That is why we call them Native Americans.

http://sciencestage.com/v/6156/the-great-native-american-civilizations.html

Cultural Regions of North America

Cultural Regions

Northwest Coast:Environment, Food, and Shelter

• Indians of the Northwest Coast lived between the ocean and rugged mountain ranges. It was what is today the states of Washington, Oregon, and northern California.

• The growing season was short, and the climate was too wet for much agriculture.

• There were plenty of fish, especially salmon. There were also deer and bears.

• There was lots of wood to build houses and to make tools.

Northwest Coast

• People traveled by water.

• Northwest Coast Indians traveled in dugouts, or boats made from large, hollowed out logs.

The Chinooks• Chinook

– Best known traders– Lived near the coast– to one another.– Chinooks held potlaches

which were celebrations to show off wealth. They would give gifts to people to exhibit this

Northwest Coast

The MakahsMakahs

Whales were plentiful along the Northwest Coast.The Makahs built canoes to hunt the whales at sea.Makahs made wooden harpoons-long spears with sharp shell points-for whale hunting. Every part of the whale was used. The skin and meat were eaten, the blubber , or fat, was used for oil, and the tendons were used to make rope.

Southwest

• The climate of the Southwest is very dry or arid.• Much of the land in the southwest is desert.• The Southwest has fierce heat during the day

and sharp cold at night. • The Southwest has very few animals because of

the desert.

Southwest

Hopis• Hopi means “Peaceful One”• The Hopis lived in Pueblos-adobe

houses of many rooms next to or on top of one another.

• The early Hopi’s lived in present day Arizona.

• Most of their villages were built on top of mesas.

Southwest

The Navajos lived in houses called hogans. A hogan was a cone shaped frame covered with mud or grass. Navajos built their hogans in small, family size groups, miles apart from one another.

NavajosThe Navajos settled in the area of the Southwest known as the Four Corners. The Four Corners is where the four states of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado meet.

The early Navajos were nomads. They often attacked the Hopis and stole their supplies.

Kachinas

• Hopi Kachinas talked to the gods by singing and dancing, like for rain.

• The Hopis’s made Kachina figures representing the spirits and used them to teach children about tribal religious beliefs.

Southwest

Kachinas were Hopi spirits or gods which lived within the mountains.

These spirits were called on to bring rain, make crops grow, heal the sick, or find animals to hunt.

Great Plains

• Indians known as The Plains lived in the Great Plains.• Buffalo was the most important natural resource of the

Plains Indians. • Indians of the Great Plains lived in tepees.• The Plains Indians were hunters.• Buffalo provided these Indians with their basic needs,

food, clothing, and shelter.

Great Plains

Cheyennes• The Cheyennes lived in

settled villages of earthen lodges and birchbark wigwams.

• Later they became more nomadic to follow the buffalo and built temporary teepees that could be easily moved.

Great Plains

The Cheyennes were originally farming people, with the women harvesting corn, squash, and beans while the men hunted deer and buffalo

Kiowas-The Kiowas were nomads and moved about the Great Plains.

-They were one of the poorest of the Native peoples and used sign language.

-They could not farm because the roots of the grass made it too difficult to break the ground with a digging stick.

-The Kiowas built a cone shaped tent. They used wooden poles that were fastened in a circle and covered with buffalo skin. This is called a teepee.

Eastern Woodlands

• The Eastern Woodlands region covered the east coast of what is today known as the United States, west to the Mississippi River

• Because these Indians lived in the forests, they were called the Eastern Woodland Indians.

Eastern Woodlands

The Iroquois• The Cherokees lived in the

river valleys of the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

• Cherokees were farmers and hunters.

• Several families of the same clans shared the same house.

Eastern Woodlands

• The Iroquois were not one tribe, but a group of five tribes that lived near each other and spoke similar languages.

• The five Iroquois were the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk. They fought each other sometimes.

• In 1570, the five tribes formed the Iroquois league. This league was formed because the Indians were tired of fighting and wanted to work together.

The Cherokees

Clothing

LeggingsBeaded armorMoccasinsWomen’s dressWar shirtLongshirt

http://www.nativetech.org/clothing/regions/regions.html

Types of Moccasins

HairstylesWomen’s Hairstyles

Men’s Hairstyles

Indian HeaddressesNative American warbonnets were important ceremonial regalia worn only by chiefs and warriors. Also, only men wore warbonnets

Trailing Headdress Halo Headdress Straight up

Battle Roach Sioux buffalo headdressBuffalo warbonnet Headdresses were more ceremonial, Warbonnets as well for declaring war,Roachs were more often worn to battle

Native American Homes

Pueblo, Hopi, SouthwestLonghouse, Chinook, Northwest Teepee, Kiowas, PlainsLonghouse, Iroquois, Eastern WoodlandCherokee Village, Eastern WoodlandHogan, Navajo, Southwest

Totem Poles• Outside the houses of Northwestern

Indians stood a wooden pole called a totem pole. Each totem pole was beautifully carved with shapes of people and animals. The carvings showed each family’s history and importance.

Food

• Ways to get food:• 1) Hunting and Fishing• 2)Gathering• 3) Agriculture/farming• 4)Raising domesticated animals

Hunting and Fishing

Agriculture/Farming/gatheringOther foods that could be found naturally in the Americas were eggs, honey, maple syrup and sugar, salt, nuts (including peanuts, pine nuts, cashews, hickory nuts, and acorns,) fruit (including cranberries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, chokecherries, wild plums, and persimmons), and a wide variety of beans, roots, and greens.

The three sisters: Beans, corn, squash

Native American Weapons

1)Bow and Arrow,2)Spear3)Plains Indian war club4)Axe5)Tomahawk 6)Coup Sticks7)Knife

1) 2) 3) 4)

5) 6) 7)

“Americanization”• -  Due to misinformation about the Native’s ways, the Anglo

people felt the Indians were savage and should be Americanized. 

• Political leaders including President Thomas Jefferson believed that the Indians should be civilized, which meant converting them to Christianity and turning them into farmers.

• -  Native Americans had to leave their traditional ways and build European-style homes and farmsteads, develop a written language (called “Talking Leaves”), and establish a newspaper.

• -  Some tribes of Indians were forced to give up their native names and language.  Children were forced to go to American schools to learn about the “white culture”.

• -  Native Americans were not given protection under US law and land could be seized from them at any time.

Removal of Native Americans

• -  In 1830, when Americanization did not happen quickly enough, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act.

• -  It was rumored that gold was found in the southeastern states on Native land.

• -  The removal of some 90,000 Indians to Oklahoma became known as “The Trail of Tears”.

• In the fall of 1838, US Army troops began to round up the Cherokee Indians and forcefully moved then into stockades in North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee.

• The Cherokee were loaded into 645 wagons and started towards the west.• -  There was little food for the people along the trail.• -  There were snowstorms with freezing temperatures.  The Cherokee had to

sleep outside or in the wagons with no fire for heat.  Many would die due to lack of food, ill treatment, cold, and exposure.

• -  Mortality rates for the entire removal were substantial, totaling approximately 8,000.

The Trail of Tears

The Trail of TearsRobert Lindneux,1942

Native Americans today• Native Americans have a special status in the US. • Blood Quantum or Indian blood laws are the laws that define you as Native

American. These percentages to qualify for certain tribes very by tribe.• If you can prove you have Native American descent, you can qualify for

certain federal benefits or educational grants• There are reservations, land especially for Native American tribes. • On these reservations the Tribal Council has jurisdiction. • Indian reservations are known for their casinos, which attract tourists along

with cultural and traditional aspects of Native American life

http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Video.aspx?VideoID=43767&CategoryID=863

The origins of Thanksgiving

In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying about 102 passengers—an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World.After 66 days, the pilgrims hit land in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, then one month later, they made it to Plymouth, where they settled. After the first winter there, only half of the pilgrims lived due to cold and diseases.In March, they were visited by an Abenaki Indian who spoke English. He brought with him a former captured slave Squanto. Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, the Governer invited a group of the Native Americans to a celebratory feast, now remembered as America’s first Thanksgiving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL9HrFIedtg

Thanksgiving today

• In 1941, President Roosevelt made Thanksgiving a federal holiday.

• The main event of any Thanksgiving is the Thanksgiving dinner.• It is traditional to have baked or roasted turkey. This is usually

accompanied with mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, fall vegetables, cranberry sauce, and gravy. Pumpkin pie is the most commonly eaten dessert.

• The Thanksgiving holiday weekend is one of the busiest times of the year for traveling. It is a four-day or five-day weekend vacation for most schools and colleges, and many businesses and government workers get three or four days off.

• Thanksgiving is also the unofficial signal for Christmas preparations to begin. Once Thanksgiving finishes, stores fill their shelves with Christmas goods.

Traditional ThanksgivingSpread

TurkeyMashed PotatoesSweet Potatoes with MarshmallowsStuffingCranberry SauceCornbread/BiscuitsGreen BeansSquashCiderPumpkin Pie