Title: Chapter 9 The Americas Section 1: The Earliest Americans
1Chapter 9 - The Americas Section 1 The
Earliest Americans
2- The Story Continues
- According to one Native American myth, people
once lived on a floating island. One day their
ruler said to them, We will make a new place
where another people may grow. The story goes on
to describe events that led to the creation of
Earth. The population of the Americas may have
begun in a similar way. When people from another
land decided to move eastward, they launched a
migration that developed into Native American
cultures.
3I. The Land and the People
- The Americas stretch more than 9,000 miles
- from Greenland to the tip of South America
4I. The Land and the People
- Mountains run along the western coast the
- Rocky Mountains in N. America and the Andes
- in S. America
5I. The Land and the People
- Two great river systems flow through these
- continents the Mississippi and the Amazon
6I. The Land and the People
- N. America is separated from Asia by a
- narrow strip of water called the Bering Strait
7I. The Land and the People
- During the Ice Age, the bottom of the Bering
- Strait became a land bridge (Beringia)
8I. The Land and the People
- 35,000 and 8,000 years ago Historians
- theorize early peoples migrated from Asia
- across the land bridge
9I. The Land and the People
- They moved into N. America, migrated into
- Mesoamerica, and reached S. America as
- early as 10,500 B.C.
10I. The Land and the People
- Many Native Americans explain their origins
- with creation myths that include a creator or
- supreme being
11I. The Land and the People
- Native American creation myths often tell a
- story of people emerging from an underground
- world
According to "American Indian Creation Myths,"
the creation myths themselves fall into five
general categories 1) from chaos or nothingness,
2) from a cosmic egg or primal material mound, 3)
from world parents who are separated, 4) from a
process of earth-diving, 5) from several stages
of emergence from other worlds"
12II. The Development of American Agriculture
- The earliest people in the Americas were
- nomadic hunter-gathers
13II. The Development of American Agriculture
- Animals hunted included mammoths,
- mastodons, horses, and camels all became
- extinct about 10,000 years ago
14II. The Development of American Agriculture
- Extinction may have been caused by a
- massive climate change that began 11,000
- years ago
15II. The Development of American Agriculture
- The hunter-gatherers had to rely more on
- plants and farming lifestyle emerged
16II. The Development of American Agriculture
- The earliest known farming in the Americas
- began in Mexico and spread north and south
17II. The Development of American Agriculture
- Farming developed more slowly in the
- Americas than in other parts of the world
18II. The Development of American Agriculture
- Early Native Americans did not invent plows
- they used sticks to dig holes and plant seeds
19II. The Development of American Agriculture
- As the food supply became reliable, food
- surpluses became available - villages and
- towns began to appear