1.2 Cultures of North America

1. 1.2 Cultures of North America

2. Cultures of North America • First Cultures of North America • Mound Builders • West of the Appalachians and east of the Mississippi • Built large burial mounds • Anasazi • Build homes into the side of cliffs • Skilled basket, pottery, and jewelry makers • Hohokam • Irrigated the desert in AZ • Traded with people on the Gulf of California

3. Ways of Life • Culture Areas – regions in which groups of people have similar ways of life • They had to meet basic needs • Many were hunter-gatherers • Some areas learned to farm • Created the necessary tools • Used fertilizer • Irrigation • Trade developed to items from different regions

4. Ways of Life • Culture Areas – regions in which groups of people have similar ways of life • They had shared beliefs • Close relationship with nature and the spirits were a part of their everyday life • Oral tradition helped pass on their beliefs from generation to generation

5. Native Americans of North America • Adapted to their climate • Far north • Survived on fish, shellfish and birds • Hunted large mammals • Made kayaks to hunt at sea • A little further south gathered food in the forests • Northwest • Alaska to California • Plentiful forest food and salmon allowed the populations to grow • Held potlatch ceremonies

6. Native Americans of North America • Adapted to their climate • Farwest • The climate varied from very cold winters to deserts • The lifestyles reflected the differences • Southwest • 4 corners area • Farmed with water from storm season • Some people still hunted and gathered • Pueblo people built apartment buildings

7. Native Americans of North America • Adapted to their climate • Great Plains • Eastern plains people farmed • Lived in earth lodges • Further west it was too dry to farm • So they hunted buffalo • Almost everything they had came from buffalo • Homes • Clothes • Food • Tools

8. Native Americans of North America • Adapted to their climate • Eastern woodlands • The eastern 1/3 of the US was almost completely covered in forests • People began farming there about 1000 years ago • The Algonquin and Iroquois people dominated this region • The Iroquois were made up of 5 nations • Each nation was then made up of clans • After a period of fierce warfare the Iroquois developed created their own constitution

9. Native Americans of North America • Adapted to their climate • Southwest • Climate was good for farming • Needed shelter from the heat and humidity • The Natchez people had a complex society • Ruler was a noble and called the Great Sun • The common people were called the stinkards • When nobles married they had to marry a stinkard