Who were they? Native Americans - American Indians - The First People of America

Where did they come from? Before the arrival of Europeans in the Americas in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, Native Americans had occupied these continents for thousands of years. The oldest human remains and artifacts found in North America are dated to about 11,500 years old. This age roughly coincides with the end of the last ice age. Scientist have believed that the first Americans crossed the land bridge from Asia at the end of the ice age because the oceans were lower and they could cross over the lands between Asia and North America. However, human settlements have been discovered in South America that predate access to an inland migration route, suggesting that new hypotheses about the earliest human migration into the Americas must be considered. Could they have come from some other way? View Video

Eastern Woodlands Iroquois The most sacred tradition to the Iroquois Indians are the rituals involving the false faces or medicine masks. No two masks are ever the same. Iroquois The Iroquois were hunters of many species of animals. They would hunt for bear, beaver, rabbits, muskrats, and of course, deer. Deer were the favored prey for many reasons. The hides were used for clothing, antlers and bones were used for tools, and the meat was eaten.

Sioux Great Plains Chief Sitting Bull “When I was a boy, the Sioux owned the world. The sun rose and set on their land; they sent ten thousand men to battle. Where are the warriors today? Who slew them? Where are our lands? Who owns them?” Great Plains

Pueblos of the Southwest The Pueblo Indians received their name from the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. “Pueblo” is the Spanish name for “town”. When Coronado discovered the Native Americans in the mid 1500’s in the area that is now New Mexico and Arizona, he named them “Pueblo Indians” because they were a settled tribe, and not nomadic like some of the other local tribes. Cliff dwellers The Pueblo ate seeds, made clothing out of yucca (a desert plant), and grew beans, corn, and squash. Indian corn was the Pueblo’s specialty. Their diet was almost eighty percent Indian corn. Corn was important to them and they had numerous varieties. Rain was scarce, so underground water supplies were used to grow corn instead. http://encarta.msn.com/media_701509089_761577338_-1_1_BB/media.html

Pueblo home

Kwakiutl Pacific Northwest

Kwakiutl Why is the region on the western coast of North America called the Coastal Range?

Frame of a Kwakiutl Home How did the Kwakiutl use their environment find food and shelter?

Inuit Far North The Inuit were -- and many still are -- hunters, who hunt whale, walrus, and seal by kayak or by waiting at their air holes in the ice. They used igloos as hunting or emergency shelters. They made and make ingenious use of animal skins in their clothing.

What happened to these peoples who inhabited North America? *As the Europeans came to settle in North America, they pushed the First Americans off of their lands. Later the US government set up reservations as places for these people to live. Some reservations still provide homes for tribes today. *Many of the diseases that the Europeans could fight off were deadly to the First Americans. *Some First Americans assimilated into the new American culture to survive.

Where Will Our Children Live... A lonesome warrior stands in fear of what the future brings, he will never hear the beating drums or the songs his brothers sing. Our many nations once stood tall and ranged from shore to shore but most are gone and few remain and the buffalo roam no more. We shared our food and our land and gave with open hearts, We wanted peace and love and hope, but all were torn apart. All this was taken because we did not know what the white man had in store, They killed our people and raped our lands and the buffalo roam no more. But those of us who still remain hold our heads up high, and the spirits of the elders flow through us as if they never died. Our dreams will live on forever and our nations will be reborn, our bone and beads and feathers all will be proudly worn. If you listen close you will hear the drums and songs upon the winds, and in the distance you will see....the buffalo roam again. Submitted by Tommy Flamewalker Manasco