1. Review….
The first people to cross into North America from Asia hunted prehistoric animals like the wooly mammoth. It is thought that the earliest Americans followed the herds of animals across the land bridge

2. From Hunting to Farming
As the ice disappeared so did the animals that the hunters relied on for their food, clothing and shelter. The animals may have died off because it began to get warmer or because the hunters killed off too many animals.

3. From Hunting to Farming
Hunters began to hunt smaller animals like deer and rabbits for their food. The earliest Americans also began to pick wild plants, seeds, berries and dig up roots to eat.

4. From Hunting to Farming
Some people began to understand that if they planted the seeds of the plants they found they would be able to get more food and they would not have to travel everyday looking for food. Planting seeds and harvesting the crops was the beginning of farming. Farming meant that people needed to stay in one place to take care of their crops.

5. From Hunting to Farming
Once people began to stay in one place, some type of laws were required to organize groups of people living together.
This was the beginning of government. Someone needed to decide what was to be done and who needed to do it.

6. You are there!
You’re looking out the window of the plane as you fly over southwestern Ohio. All of a sudden something amazing catches your eye. You see what looks like a huge snake that seems to be slithering its way across the countryside. It looks as if it is built out of mounds of soil. It’s probably about three feet high, as tall as you may have been in kindergarten or first grade. What in the world can this be, you wonder. Is it an unusual landform? You think it must have been built by people. But who would have built it, and why? Was it built recently or long ago? What is this mysterious mound?

7. You are there! The snake-like mound we just saw is actually real.
It’s called the Great Serpent Mound, it is near Hillsboro, Ohio.
It was built more than 1,000 years ago by……

8. Mound Builders

9. Mound Builders One of the early American Indian groups.
Many Mound Builders lived east of the Mississippi River.
Their name comes from the large piles of earth, called mounds they built in or near their settlements.

10. What were mounds used for?
Burial grounds
Location of temples
Location for homes
Honor Animal spirits like the Great Serpent
Many of the mounds had platforms where religious or other ceremonies were held.
Ceremony – is an activity done for special purpose or event, such as a birth, wedding, or death.

11. How were they built?
Workers would carry heavy baskets of dirt, one at a time, to their building sites.
Each mound could take months or even years to build.
Mounds range from 20’ (6m) to 300’ (91m) wide.
Some mounds were built in rectangular or circular shapes.
Others had four straight sides that sloped up to a flat top.
Some mounds were as tall as 72’ which is the same as a seven-story building.

12. Mississippian Indians
The Mississippi Mound Builders were the last group of Mound Builders to settle in Tennessee. (1600s)
They were one of the greatest mound-building societies in Tennessee.
They made their homes along the MS River.
Some of the mounds they built were almost as large as a football field.