Topic 1.2_Native American Societies Before European Contact

A vocabulary set covering key peoples, cultures, regions, crops, and terms from Topic 1.2 Native American Societies Before European Contact.

Bering land bridge

A land bridge that connected Siberia and Alaska during the Ice Age, allowing ancient peoples to migrate into North America.

Maya

Mesoamerican civilization centered in the Yucatán Peninsula (present-day Guatemala, Belize, southern Mexico) known for cities, calendars, trade, and maize agriculture (300–800 CE).

Aztec

Mesoamerican empire in central Mexico; capital Tenochtitlán; about 200,000 inhabitants; built a powerful centralized state and extensive trade network.

Inca

South American empire based in western South America (Peru); developed a vast territory with sophisticated administration and terrace farming; potatoes were a staple.

maize (corn)

A staple crop in Mesoamerican civilizations that supported large, settled populations and complex societies.

potatoes

A staple crop of the Andean civilizations (Incas) that supported food security in highland environments.

Algonquian

A major language family in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada; one of the largest Indigenous language groups in North America.

Siouan

A language family spoken across the Great Plains and surrounding regions; includes many tribes.

Athabaskan

A language family in the southwestern United States and Alaska; includes several groups in the Southwest.

Iroquois Confederation (Haudenosaunee)

A powerful political union of Northeastern tribes (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk; later Tuscarora) formed to resist European encroachment and coordinate defense.

longhouse

A large, multi-family dwelling used by Iroquois and other Northeastern peoples, built from wood and bark.

Adena-Hopewell

A Woodland culture centered in the Ohio Valley known for large earthen mounds and mound-building settlements.

Cahokia

Largest prehistoric Mississippian settlement near present-day East St. Louis, Illinois, with up to ~30,000 inhabitants.

Hohokam

Southwestern culture in the Sonoran Desert known for extensive irrigation systems and multi-story buildings.

Anasazi

Ancestral Puebloans of the Southwest; built cliff dwellings and multi-story structures; ancestors of modern Pueblo communities.

Pueblos

Southwestern communities that developed complex irrigation and masonry; known for multi-story adobe buildings.

Northwest Coast

Region along the Pacific Coast where people lived in permanent longhouses or plank houses and relied on hunting, fishing, and gathering; carved totem poles.

plank houses

Permanent houses made from cedar planks in the Northwest Coast.

totem poles

Carved wooden posts along the Northwest Coast used to tell stories, histories, and lineage.

tepees

Cone-shaped portable tents used by Great Plains nomads who followed bison herds.

Lakota Sioux

A major Plains tribe known for horse culture and buffalo hunting.

Apaches

Southwestern Native American groups that migrated and adapted across the region; known for mobility and adaptation.

Cherokee

Southeastern Native American group descended from Woodland people, known for timber lodgings along rivers.

Lumbee

Native people of North Carolina descended from Woodland mound builders.

semipermanent settlements

Settlements that were not fully nomadic or fully permanent, often with populations around a few hundred.