THE FIRST AMERICANSHuman Settlement in the Americas

The Last Ice Age:1. Between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago during the last Ice Age, glaciers covered a large part of the Northern Hemisphere (North America, Europe, and Northern Asia).

2. Water level in oceans decreased due to increase in size of glaciers.

3. Land was exposed in Bering Strait between Asia and North America.

4. Land bridge is known as Beringia. About 750 miles wide.

ICE AGE: Period of time when glaciers covered many parts of the Northern Hemisphere.

GLACIERS: A huge sheet of ice.

Early American Migration:1. Herds of animals migrated over land bridge.

2. Groups of human nomads followed herds.

3. Over thousands of years, early Americans migrated to all parts of the America’s.

NOMAD: A person or group of people who move from place to place in search of food. Asia

North America

Bering Strait

4. These early humans were Stone Age people. Stone was their most advanced form of technology for tools and weapons.

5. Early humans lived during the period of time known as prehistory.

PREHISTORY: The period of time before humans learned to write.

-Early humans did not know how to write, therefore, they left no written records such as books, journals, or articles. -Since early humans did not know how to write, archeologists and historians have to rely on artifacts to learn about early humans.

ARCHEOLOGIST: A scientists who searches for and studies artifacts in order to learn how early people lived.

ARTIFACT: An object made by humans, such as tools, weapons, and pottery, and left behind by them.

6. Knowledge and culture was passed on through oral history.

ORAL HISTORY: The passing on of a person or group’s history through the telling of stories and singing of songs.

CULTURE: The way of life for a group of people.

First Americans:1. Depended on hunting and gathering for food and clothing.2. Could not farm. 3. Tools and weapons made from stone, bone, and wood. 4. Died in early 30’s.5. Followed herds of animals across land bridge to North America.

Animals They Hunted:• Wooly mammoth.• Bear.• Bison.• Deer. • Anything they could

catch and eat.

Farming:1. Around 7,000 BC, humans in Central

America learned to farm.

2. At first, they grew corn, beans, and squash.

3. Over time, other humans in the America’s learned to farm.

4. This allowed for civilizations to emerge.

5. The 1st civilizations were in Central and South America.

– Olmecs, Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas.

Beans

Corn (Maize)

Squash

Native American Groups:

• By the time that the Europeans began arriving in the New World, there were groups of Native Americans throughout the America’s.