Earliest People and Native American Civilizations

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering the architecture, agriculture, and migratory history of Native American groups both West and East of the Mississippi River, as well as the earliest human migration to the Americas.

Pueblo people

Native American groups in the southwestern USA who lived in villages of stone or large apartment houses built along steep cliffs.

Irrigation canals

Technological features built by the Pueblo people to substitute for the lack of rain when growing crops.

Totem poles

Tall wooden poles used by several Native American groups in the Northwest, where each part represents a different person or a family's history.

Cliff dwellers

Pueblo people who built apartments into cliffs with no doors on the first floor for safety, pulling their ladders into the upper floor if attacked.

Mound Builders

A group east of the Mississippi River that built huge dirt hills, some as high as $5\,Off$, for temples or burying important people.

Three Skoters

The name the Iroquois gave to their very important crops.

Iroquois

Farmers and hunters settled in the eastern forests who burned trees to clear land for crops.

Ice Age

A period around $20,000$ to $50,000$ years ago with a much colder climate where areas like North America were covered in "sheets" of ice.

Bering Sea

The location of the land bridge that connected to North America, which was later covered when sea levels began to rise.

Gatherers

Early people who collected wild berries, nuts, and plant roots for food before settling down to farm.

Artifacts

Items such as tools and bones that archaeologists use to study the first Americans since there were no written records or writing systems.

Quetzalcoatl

A deity associated with the "mask of the god" mentioned in the study of early American civilizations.

Kexec

A specific group listed alongside the Maya, Pueblo, and Iroquois as Native American people.

Buffalo

An animal used by western Native Americans for clothes, food, and various other resources.