Healy: History Alive: Native American Cultural Regions: Grids A & B

Northwest Coast

- extends from southern Oregon into Canada

- winters along the ocean are cold, but not icy

- summers are cool

- many trees cover the rugged mountains

- heavy rainfall much of the year

- built sturdy log cabin homes homes: Plank houses!

- RICH in natural resources from the sea and the forest!

- had advanced engineering tools and many materials for crafts

California

- stretches from southern Oregon through Baja California

- there are winter rains and hot, dry summers

- this region includes the coast, coastal foothills, inland valley, deserts, and the western side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains

- over 100 small groups made their homes here

- they ate fish, deer, rabbits, ducks, roots, berries, acorns, and pine nuts

- women wore clothes made of grass, other plants, leather strips, or animal hides

- they built simple homes here

Great Basin

- this is a low area between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains

- this land is mostly desert...as a result people remained nomadic or semi-nomadic

- only small animals available here

- there is LIMITED food and water: lacking in natural resources!

- they camped in temporary shelters of willow poles shaped into a cone and covered with brush or reeds

- temperature is below freezing during winter

- they wore robes of rabbit hides

- each adult robe took 100 rabbit skins to make

- they ate ducks, birds, cattail plants, snakes, grasshoppers, berries, pine nuts, fat jackrabbits

Plateau

- located north of the Great Basin

- dense forests

- the flatter, central part is drier and covered with grass and sagebrush

- long, cold winters and gentle summers

- two mighty river systems, the Columbia and the Fraser

- built villages along rivers

- rivers provided water, food (salmon), and driftwood

- food was very plentiful!

- they ate fish, plants, wild onions, carrots, camas, and salmon

- their homes were built partly underground: PIT HOUSES!

Southwest

- includes present day Arizona, New Mexico, southern Utah, Colorado, and portions of Texas, Oklahoma, and California

- has canyons, mountains, deserts, and flat-topped mesas

- two major rivers, the Colorado and the Rio Grande

- rain seldom falls anywhere

- hot during the day; cold at night

- lack of water/desert = arid and dry climate!

- they built apartment-style homes from adobe bricks (sun-baked clay); this only works in a climate with little rain fall

- corn was their most important crop

-wore cotton clothing

Great Plains

- treeless grasslands

- stretches 2,000 miles from the Mississippi Valley and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico

- eastern part has more water and softer soil than the western part

-RELIED ON THE BUFFALO FOR ALL ASPECTS OF SURVIVAL: FOOD, CLOTHING, SHELTER!!!

- shelters were traditional teepees made from buffalo hide fastened around very long wooden poles, designed in a cone shape

Eastern Woodlands

- reaches from the Mississippi River eastward to the Atlantic Ocean, and from Canada to North Carolina

- endless forests, lakes, and streams

- two cultural groups emerged in this region: Iroquois and Algonquin

- forests provided most of what they needed to live

- IROQUOIS lived in sturdy log-frame houses: LONGHOUSES!

- ALGONQUIN lived in smaller structures: wigwams

- they burned trees to clear a space for farming

- women did all the farming; men hunted, fished, and gathered

Southeast

- stretches from the southern part of the Ohio Valley to the Gulf of Mexico, and from Texas to the Atlantic Ocean

- fertile coastal plains, river valleys, mountains, and swamps

- long, warm, and humid summers and mild winters

- green countryside

- growing crops was easy

- towns were built around large, earthen mounds: "The Moundbuilders"

- many fields

- ate corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, sunflowers, sweet potatoes, wild rice, and persimmons