Eastern Woodland Native Americans

1. Eastern Woodland Native Americans EQ: How were the Eastern Woodlands tribal groups similar yet different from one another?

2. The Coming of Native Americans • Land Bridge Theory: At the end of the Ice Age, early people crossed the land bridge from Siberia to Alaska. They spread throughout the U.S. • Why would Native Americans who crossed continue to spread throughout the continent? • What could the reason that would allow Native American groups to stop moving?

3. Land Bridge Theory

4. Eastern Woodlands

5. Eastern Woodlands Native Americans Similarities • Lived close to nature and adapted lifestyle to the landscape. • Valued independence and self-confidence. • Cooperation was more important than rivalry. • Honored one another’s word as a sacred pledge. • Oral tradition of storytelling • Belief in a Great Spirit. • Dancing and music services connected to planting and harvesting.

6. Societal Organization • Chiefs were head men or women but decisions made by all adults in council. • Men: Cleared land and hunted for food. Trained boys. • Women: planted and harvested the crops. Cared for the children and trained the girls. • Shaman: Medicine Man

7. Using the Land Waterways provided: Land Provided: Tree trunks – canoes Rocks, wood, shells, and animal pelts: tools for hunting, farming, and making clothing. Tree bark, animal hides, mud, twigs, leaves for housing • Transportation • Fishing: food source • Fertile land

8. Farming • Slash and Burn Agriculture: • Cut the trees and burned the brush. • Drove out animals and cleared the field for farming.

9. Major Crops “The Three Sisters”: Corn, pole beans, and squash Also, pumpkins, bottle gourds, and tobacco

10. Native American Tribes in South Carolina

11. Blue Ridge Catawba Cherokee Piedmont Sandhills You will need to label these regions and tribes on your map to see where each tribe lived in our state. Inner Coastal Plain Outer Coastal Plain Coastal Zone Yemassee

12. SC Native American Comparison Activity • Three of the important tribes to South Carolina, the Cherokee, the Catawba, and the Yemassee were both similar and different. You will receive a handout for an activity that will guide you to discovering the similarities and differences of these groups.

13. Teacher Note • If you are not doing the tribe comparison activity, the notes on the three tribes are at the end of the presentation.

14. Cherokee Leaders including women with the chief met as council and made rules for the nation. Hunted wild game Used fish traps Gathered seeds, nuts, and berries, Farmed • Foothills and mountains of S. Carolina • “The Real People” Very powerful nation Most Advanced • Iroquoian Language Group • Lived in villages up to six hundred people. • Palisade for protection • Summer homes open to the air • Winter homes: daub and wattle. Daub: grass and clay wattle: bark and branches

15. Catawba Tribe • “River People:” Lived along the rivers of the piedmont region. • Siouan Language Group • Surrounded by palisade • Wigwam homes: made from sapling frames covered with bark or mats made of grasses and reeds. • Council houses where the leaders made rules for the people. • Hunted, gathered, and farmed-similar to Cherokee • Great pottery: Used clay to shape into pots.

16. Yemassee Nation • Originally from Spanish Florida (present day Georgia) • Moved to S.C. near the mouth of the Savannah River • Muskogean Language Group • Council houses where rules were made for the tribe • Summer: Lived on the beach in wigwam homes covered with palmetto leaves • Fall, Winter, Spring: Lived further inland. Wattle and Daub homes with a roof of palmetto leaves. • Clams and oysters were part of their diet.