The First Americans

1. The First Americans Chapter 2, Section 1

2. The First Americans • Left no written record • Scientists have evidence that the first people reached the Americas during the last ice age.

3. The Land Bridge • Glaciers: thick sheets of ice covered much of the earth between 100,000 and 10,000 years ago. • Water was locked up in ice so sea levels fell and land was uncovered. • Beringia: land bridge that connected Siberia in northeastern Asia to Alaska in North America. Today this land is under the Bering Strait.

4. First Americans were hunters • Followed herds of wooly mammoths, bison, and other game across Beringia. • Arrival of the first Americans is believed to be about 30,000 to 15,000 years ago. • Search for hunting grounds led newcomers across the Americas.

5. Global Warming • 12,000 years ago temperatures rose around the globe. • Glaciers melted : Beringia is again covered by water • Wooly mammoths and mastodons die • Americas people adapted by fishing, hunting small game, and gathering berries and grain

6. Farming • 5,000 years ago people learned to grow corn, beans, and squash. • Changed life because migration was no longer necessary for survival. • Built permanent villages. • Farming methods improved, more food was produce, and populations grew.

7. The Study of Early People • To learn about early Americans ,experts are studying ancient peoples of northeast Asia • Also studying languages of Native Americans to trace how people spread across the Americas. • Native Americans: descendants of the first people to reach the Americas. • Examining Artifacts like stone tool weapons, baskets, and carvings • Archeology: the study of evidence left by early peoples.

8. Studying the Evidence • Applying scientific methods to analyzing artifacts can lead to opening information such as approximate dates, climates, and skills.

9. Forming Theories About Culture • Culture: the entire way of life that people have developed. Including behavior, customs, beliefs, and skills. Also includes homes, clothes and government.

10. Protecting Native American Burial Grounds • Some laws have been passed to protect Native American burial grounds. • At times hinders archeologists ability to study ancient sites

11. The Mound Builders • Mound Builders: built thousands of earthen mounds scattered between the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi Valley and from Wisconsin to Florida. • Mound Builders belonged to various group who lived from about 3,000 years ago until the 1700’s.

12. Purpose of the Mounds • Burial grounds probably for important leaders • Inside mounds things like sculptures, copper weapons, tools and ornaments have been found. • Found turquoise from the Southwest and shells from the Gulf of Mexico which suggests trade.

13. Purpose of the Mounds • Religious ceremonies • Pyramid shaped with a flat top. • Built temples and homes on top for the ruling class.

14. A Sprawling City • Cahokia: Large city built between 700 and 1500. • 30,000 people lived there. • Built Monk’s Mound, 16 acres or 14 ½ football fields long and hundreds of other small mounds. • Built a fence around Cahokia and circles of evenly places posts believed to be used as a calendar to help farmers know when planting and harvesting seasons began.

15. Early Cultures of the Southwest • Desert region with an annual rainfall only 5 to 10 inches and temperatures above 100 degrees • Hohokams: lived in present day Arizona. • Developed ways to turn desert into farmland by digging irrigation ditches from the Salt and Gila rivers. They grew corn, squash, and beans.

16. Early Cultures of the Southwest • Anasazi ( In Navajo means ancient ones): also framed the desert by irrigation. • Built large multistoried houses made of stone and sundried brick called adobe. • Pueblos: Villages: This is what Spanish explores called these house made of adobe.

17. Cliff Dwellers • Adobe house along the faces of cliffs, built to protect their villages from warlike neighbors. • Climbed up and down cliff walls using toeholds. • Built roads connecting villages for trade of items such as sandals, blankets, and cotton. • Roads even led into present day Mexico for trade. • Drought: Long dry spells, forced Anasazis to abandon their villages.