First Texans Vocab

Artifacts – objects made by humans that shows how they once lived

Indigenous Peoples – group of people who are native to a particular place

Beringia – a region including the Bering Strait that connects Alaska and Asia; during the last ice age, low sea levels exposed this area, which is now covered in water

Adaption – a change or the process of change by which a species becomes better suited to its environment

Pictographs – pictures drawn or painted on cave walls, ledges, and cliffs

Band – a group consisting of two or more extended families who live together under one leader

Matrilineal – meaning that when a man married, he went to live with the family of his wife and that descent was traced primarily through the mother

Reservations – land set aside by the U.S government for American Indians to occupy

Hunter-gatherers – a people who survive by searching for wild plants and animals to live

Nomad – the name for those who are moving from one place to another rather than living in one place all of the time

Pueblos – large American Indians homes made of adobe, a mixture of wet clay and straw that is made into bricks and dried in the sun

Tipi – a cone-shaped tent made of poles covered with animal skins

Migrate – to move from one place to another

Adobe – building material made out of clay and straw that has been dried in the sun

Enmity – active and usually mutual hatred or ill will

Petroglyphs – carvings made in rock

Atlatl – a stick about two feet long with a wooden hook at the far end to hold the spear’s shaft

Sedentary – a lifestyle that can be defined as a society or way of life where people are permanently settled in one place

Archaeologists – people who study and learn about past cultures from the artifacts left behind

Pangea – at the beginning of the age of dinosaurs, the continent were arranged together as a single supercontinent called Pangea

Tribe – a group made up of a number of bands that follow the same leader and share territory and culture

Kiva – a large room used for meetings and religious ceremonies

Coalition – a temporary group of people, parties, or countries that have joined together for a common purpose