Early Americans

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Early Americans

• Who was here first and how did they get here?

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How did people first come to North America

• Land Bridge

• Crossing Water

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Land Bridge

• The last ice age began about 200 million years
  ago and ended about 10,000 years ago.
• During this ice age glaciers formed over the
  land.
• These glaciers sucked water from the oceans and
  caused the oceans to become more shallow exposing
  more land.

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Land Bridge

• Around 15,000 years ago, a small group of
  wandering big game hunters, nomads, in Siberia
  followed the mammoth, mastodon, and extinct bison
  across a land bridge that formed during the last
  Ice Age.
• Known as Beringia, it connected Asia to Alaska
  and northwestern Canada.

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Land Bridge

• Each group of nomads that migrated into the
  Americas only traveled a few miles in their life
  time, taking thousands of years to reach Alaska.
• Once in Alaska these nomads had to stop because
  huge glaciers blocked their paths.
• Around 12,000 years ago, the glaciers began to
  disappear opening up a new world to new people.

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Land Bridge

• People began to make their way south to populate
  all of North and South America.
• Evidence shows that people lived in the Americas
  thousand of years before this land bridge
  exposure can be explained.
• 1) The land bridge was exposed thousands of years
  earlier allowing earlier nomads to travel into
  the Americas.
• 2) Boats!

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Crossing Water

• Some scholars favor coastal migration theories,
  in which early settlers used boats to follow the
  pacific coast along Beringia, or the Pacific
  ocean itself, and then traveled along the Pacific
  coast of North America.
• More controversial theorists won't rule out the
  possibility of Atlantic ocean crossings from
  Europe or Africa up to 50,000 years ago.

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Early people

• Climate change attributed to many adaptations.
• The first nomads were giant mammal hunters.
• They traveled in small groups following mammals,
  such as mammoths.
• Most hunting of this time was done with spears
  but axes and clubs were also used.

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Early people

• While living in caves and tents made from animal
  hides these hunters also had to gather nuts and
  berries in order to survive.
• These hunters ran into many dangerous predators
  while hunting, such as saber toothed tigers

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Early people

• Once a mammoth was caught and killed
• What was the hide used for?
• What did they do with the 2 tons of meat?
• What were the bones used for?

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Early people

• As the climate continued to change giant mammals
  became extinct.
• Now early Americans had to fish, hunt smaller
  animals, and gather their food.
• Theses early Americans were no longer nomads,
  instead of always traveling, they tended to stay
  in one area.

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Early people

• Over time, some early Americans began to farm by
  planting seeds to grow their own food, instead of
  searching around for it.
• The earliest of these farmers lived in Mexico.
• As these early Americans continued to develop
  they developed their own cultures and beliefs,
  and developed into what we know as Native
  American or Indian tribes.

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The Olmecs

• Built one of the earliest civilizations in the
  Americas.
• A civilization is when a culture develops forms
  of government, religion, and learning.
• Lived on Mexicos east cost around 1500 B.C.
• They built many temples, some of which were on
  the flat tops of large pyramids.

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The Olmecs

• Many future civilizations were strongly
  influenced by the Olmecs.
• They incorporated paved roads and marketplaces
  into their civilization.
• They developed their own number system, writing
  system, and calendar.
• By 300 A.D. the Olmec civilization was gone and
  replaced by other civilizations.

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The Mound Builders

• Around the same time (1000 B.C. 200 A.D.),
  people called the Adenas were building a
  civilization in the Ohio River valley.
• The Adena were the first of many ancient
  civilizations known as mound builders.
• These civilizations built large mounds known as
  earthworks.

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The Mound Builders

• There are many theories as to why they built
  these mounds but no one knows for sure.
• Mound burials are the most common theory.
• People were prepared and cremated after their
  death, then covered with earth. As more peoples
  remains were covered, the mounds grew larger.
• Other mound building civilizations
• Hopewells great traders
• Mississippians largest mound building
  civilization who's largest city was located near
  East St. Louis

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The Anasazi

• Located in the southwest U.S., the Anasazi
  civilization flourished from about 100 B.C. to
  1300 A.D.
• They lived in groups of houses called Pueblos
  spanish for town or village

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The Anasazi

• They houses were multi-storied and made of adobe
  or stone bricks.
• These pueblos were built on high hills or into
  cliff sides and people moved from floor to floor
  by using ladders.
• They were expert farmers.

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Groups of Native Americans

• http//www.brynmawr.edu/collections/nnac/
• http//www.fourdir.com/chapter_3_native_american_c
  ultures.htm
• http//www.drabruzzi.com/images/Culture_Areas_Map1
  .gif
• http//www.indiana.edu/arch/saa/matrix/naa/naa_we
  b/images/Culture_areas_All_Labeled.gif

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For our purposes we will examine

• Northwest Coast Cultures
• Southwest Cultures
• Great Plaines Cultures
• Eastern Woodland Cultures
• Middle America Cultures

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Your Assignment

• To research and explore as a group a specific
  Native American group and present to the class
  about that group.