Americas By: Darryl Vaz, Colby Roark, Jamie Mathew, and Chris Lukose

American Indians Native Americans respected nature. They took care of the earth and only used what they needed. They also used natural resources to meet their needs such as trees, water, stones, and buffalo Native Americans lived in six different regions.

Continued Those who lived near deserts used clay or stones to build their homes. Those who lived on the Plains used buffalo skins to make their homes. Still others that lived near forests built their homes of wood. Many Native American culture groups built their homes in villages or cities.

Anasazi Cliff Village

American Indian Art  The physical surroundings of the regions affected each culture group’s way of life in other ways, too. There was much clay in the Southwest.Native Americans that lived in this region used the clay to make beautiful pottery. The Northwest Coast region had many forests. The Native Americans in this region used wood from the forests to carve tall totem poles. Native Americans in the California Inter-mountain region were expert basket weavers.

Artwork

Incas At first, the Incas were simply a small tribe that lived in the city of Cuzco. They worshiped gods of nature. They believed in omens and dreams. Around 1430 C.E, a neighboring tribe attacked the Incas. The Incas won! That was the beginning of the Inca Empire. To feed the millions of people in the Inca Empire, the Incas invented terrace farming so they could grow crops on the steep mountain slopes. They used systems of irrigation to catch the rainfall and the spring run off from the snow- capped Andes mountaintops. Nazca- This tribe is best known for their wonderful patterns of birds and spiders and designs marked in the earth. They also left evidence of their life on their brightly painted pottery. Chancay- This tribe's pottery shows a strange sense of humor that is both playful and frightening.

Inca Architecture The Incas laid out their cities in a grid. Each city had a central plaza. That plaza was surrounded by public buildings and temples. A palace was built for visiting Sapa Incas. There was housing for priests and nobles. Houses were even built for the common people. Incas built large stone fortresses near or beside their cities. In times of danger, people could run inside the fortress for protection. The rest of the time, the fortress housed some of the military. The military checked everyone coming in or out of the cities. The cities were very safe. The Incas loved things made of gold and silver. But they also liked things to be simple. The outside doors leading in to their homes were often highly decorated.

Mayans A long time ago, around 2500 BCE, an ancient tribe of Central American Indians called the Olmecs settled in the rainforests of the Yucatan Peninsula of Central America. About two thousand years later, around 400 BCE, a new people suddenly appeared. These people were called the Maya. No one knows where they came from, but they arrived with amazing skills. They were an advanced civilization. They soon took over the Yucatan Peninsula of Central America. The Maya were very clever people. Their system of mathematics was among the most sophisticated in the ancient world. Like the ancient Romans, the Mayas were master builders.

Mayan Architecture The type of pyramid that was designed to be used was used by the priests. Priests climbed the pyramids to conduct ceremonies on the steps where everyone could see them. The most important ceremonies were conducted at the very top of the pyramids. Because some ceremonies were held at the top of pyramids, Maya pyramids had flat tops.

Continued The Mayas built palaces for their rulers. One noble family ruled each city. Each city had a palace built for that city’s ruler. The job of ruler was hereditary. When one ruler died, his son took over. Typically, there was one palace per city. The Palace was often built around a central garden or court for protection and privacy. Temples were places of worship, and home to the many priests of the Maya civilization. At the foot of the temple was typically where the Mayas placed their ball courts. Like the palaces, temples had a central courtyard offering privacy to those who lived there.

Mayan Calendar The Maya calendar was adopted by the other Mesoamerican nations, such as the Aztecs and the Toltec, which adopted the mechanics of the calendar unaltered but changed the names of the days of the week and the months. An Aztec calendar stone is shown above right.

Aztec Around 1300 CE, a wandering tribe of Indians wandered into the Valley of Mexico. These people were called the Aztecs. When the Aztecs arrived in the Valley of Mexico, other tribes were already in residence. They had already taken the best land. The Aztecs had to make due with the swampy shores of Lake Texcoco. But this did not bother the Aztecs. Not only were they very clever people, but they had every faith that their main god had sent them to the swampy shores of Lake Texcoco, so obviously this place was perfect for them.

Continued They built canoes, so they could fish and hunt birds that lived near the water. They created floating gardens for growing food. They created more land for agriculture by filling in the marshes. They built dikes to hold back the water. Each conquered tribe had to pay tribute to the Aztecs in the form of food, clothing, jewels, and of course, captives to feed the hungry gods. That made the Aztecs very happy and very rich. The Aztecs expanded and expanded until they had built an empire.

Native Clothing Originally, there were many different traditional clothing styles in North America. Nearly every Native American tribe had its own distinctive style of dress, and the people could often tell each other's tribal identities by looking at their clothes, headdresses, and ornamentation. In most tribes, Native American men wore breechclouts or breechcloths (a long rectangular piece of hide or cloth tucked over a belt, so that the flaps fell down in front and behind), sometimes with leather leggings attached in colder climates. Women usually wore one-piece dresses instead, like this Cheyenne buckskin dress. Nearly all Native Americans had some form of moccasin (a sturdy leather shoe) or mukluk (heavier boot), with the styles of footwear differing from tribe to tribe.