Pre-Columbian North America

Northwest and California

• Settlements: Lived in permanent longhouses with peoples separated by distance

• Diet: Hunting, fishing, and gathering along the Pacific Coast

• Culture: Used totem poles to carve legends and myths

Great Basin and Great Plains

• Settlements: Mainly nomadic hunting tribes with some permanent farming tribes situated along rivers

• Diet: Mostly buffalo

• Culture: Used buffalo for food, decorations, weapons, and tools; after horses were introduced by the Spanish there were many more hunters since it was easier to follow buffalo herds

Eastern Woodlands

• Settlements: More permanent settlements due to an abundance of resources

• Diet: Hunting, fishing, and farming

• Culture: Iroquois Confederation between five tribes

Southwest

• Settlements: Lived in caves, under cliffs, and in multistoried buildings

• Diet: Farming based

• Culture: Developed irrigation systems to support farming

Overview

• 1 to 10 million in population

• Diverse array of languages

• Slower development due to a lack of corn production (corn had allowed Meso-American tribes to develop much faster as it was a plentiful and well-growing crop)