Native Americans of the Great Basin

Native Americans of the Great Basin by Dorian Ho, Declan Kazan, Emma Keneally, and Melanie Huashuayo Great Basin Present Day Areas Area The Great Basin was a very large area of land. It covered almost all of the present day states of Utah and Nevada. The Great Basin also covered large parts of Oregon, Wyoming, and Colorado. The land also covered smaller portions of what is now present day Arizona, California, and Montana. The land includes includes many small basin and range systems and parts of the mountains, high desert, and low desert that define its external boundaries. Tribal People Shoshone People Several Native American groups reside in the Great Basin, including the Western Shoshone, Goshute, Ute, Paiute, and Washoe. With the exception of the Washoe, all of the tribes speak a Numic language, although in different dialects. amilies of these tribes were normally nuclear, meaning they consisted of a father, a daughter, and a child. Agriculture was an important idea in the life of the native people, especially the Paiute and Goshute. As for government, the Shoshone had “talker”, who was informed of the local seed harvests. In addition, the Ute tribe had two chiefs, who were the chief spokesman and the civil chief, but occasionally therer would be a war chief. Geography/Climate Mountain Range The geography of the Great Basin includes many smaller mountain ranges, basin systems, and parts of mountains, high deserts, and low deserts that define its external boundaries. In addition, the Great Basin is located between two of the mountain ranges in present-day United States. However, in the Great Basin, the summers can be sweltering, whereas winters can be extremely cold. Moreover, the rainfall can be from 1.5 inches near Death Valley, but as much as 40 inches at the Wasatch Mountains. Precipitation(rain, hail, sleet, snow) usually comes from melting snow in the spring. Areas of the Great Basin can be desert-like, dry or scorching depending on the location. Human/Environment To survive the Great Basin, tribes gathered Washoe Basket and made products from their environment from where they lived. Their houses were made out of branches from trees and grass. Plants were the main source of food in the tribes of the Great Basin. Products like baskets and cloth for men were made out of woven grass, or branches for the baskets. Women gathered nuts and berries while the men hunted animals like deer or fished in the western rivers for the salmon that swam there. Often of what they ate were berries, carrots, pinon nuts, and agave paste. The Great Basin had many ways to survive in their environment, even though it was scarce. Culture/Religion Tribes of the Great Basin believed in animals such as Wolf, Coyote, Rabbit, Bear, Sagebrush and Mountain Lion that roamed the Earth before humans. These animals had the skillset and speaking of humans, and were the reason for topography, economy/prosperity, and harvest. However, some tribes believed in malevolent spirits such as water babies, who lured people to their deaths in water, and unupits, who caused illness. Native American tribes of the Great Basin depended on the native plants, especially sagebrush, which they used to build shelter and baskets. Bibliography ❏ http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Great_B asin ❏ http://www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Basin-Indian ❏ http://www.nps.gov/grba/learn/historyculture/historic -tribes-of-the-great-basin.htm ❏ http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/1300 Thanks for Watching!.

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