HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY The Earliest Americans Reader Inuit Native American Hunter-gatherers The three sisters THIS BOOK IS THE PROPERTY OF: STATE Book No. PROVINCE Enter information COUNTY in spaces to the left as PARISH instructed. SCHOOL DISTRICT OTHER CONDITION Year ISSUED TO Used ISSUED RETURNED PUPILS to whom this textbook is issued must not write on any page or mark any part of it in any way, consumable textbooks excepted. 1. Teachers should see that the pupil’s name is clearly written in ink in the spaces above in every book issued. 2. The following terms should be used in recording the condition of the book: New; Good; Fair; Poor; Bad. The Earliest Americans Reader Creative Commons Licensing This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 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ISBN: 978-1-68380-108-5 ISBN: The Earliest Americans Table of Contents Chapter 1 Beringia: The Land Bridge ...................... 2 Chapter 2 America’s First Settlers ......................... 10 Chapter 3 People of the Far North ........................ 14 Chapter 4 Ancestral Pueblo and Mound Builders ...... 20 Chapter 5 After the Ancestral Pueblo .................... 30 Chapter 6 After the Mound Builders ..................... 38 Chapter 7 The Eastern Woodlands ........................ 44 Glossary ..................................................... 52 The Earliest Americans Reader Core Knowledge Sequence History and Geography 3 Chapter 1 Beringia: The Land Bridge Ancient Hunters More than fifteen thousand years ago, huge sheets The Big Question of ice covered much of Canada and What was Beringia? the northern United States. In some places the ice was thousands of feet thick. Scientists call this time the Ice Age. Much of Vocabulary the world’s water was frozen into ice. There was Ice Age, n. a period in Earth’s history when less water in the oceans than there is today. huge sheets of ice Some lands that are now under water were covered large parts of Earth’s surface dry. That’s why dry land once connected Asia to North America. During the Ice Age, this dry land bridge, n. a small strip of land that land formed an area that scientists today call connects two large Beringia (/buh*rin*gee*a/) or the “land bridge.” land masses Although there were no ice sheets on Beringia, ice sheet, n. a very thick piece of ice that the weather was very cold. At that time no one covers a large area of in the world knew how to farm. Even if they land for an extended period of time had known how, it was too cold in Beringia to 2 During the Ice Age, much of the world’s water was frozen into ice, and the weather was very cold. 3 raise anything. Only tiny plants grew there. There were no towns, no stores, and no government, just a vast, cold wilderness. So how did people in Beringia live? They had to look for plants and animals to eat. Small groups of just a few families, perhaps The ice sheets shown on the map were the two main ice sheets that once covered large areas of North America. 4 twenty-five to fifty people, helped each Vocabulary other as they moved around in search of hunter-gatherers, food. People who live this way are called n. small groups of hunter-gatherers. people who feed themselves by While the women and children of the Ice hunting animals and gathering plants Age looked for plants and berries, the men and older boys hunted. They tracked herd, n. a large group of animals that live herds of mammoth and musk ox back and travel together and forth across Beringia. mammoth, n. a large, prehistoric elephant- An Ice Age Boy like animal covered with hair Imagine that you are an Ice Age boy in musk ox, n. a wild Beringia. You are hunting with family ox with a shaggy coat and downward members, including your older brother, curving horns Tavalok. He learned hunting skills from your father and grandfather. Now he will teach you those skills. Beringia is your home. But there are no maps, so you don’t know that when you follow the animals toward where the sun rises, you are moving closer to a new continent—what we now call North America. Searching for signs of a herd of mammoths, your group divides into smaller groups of hunters. In the distance you can sometimes see the other men, also looking closely at the ground. You and Tavalok walk together, carefully looking for signs of the herd. As Tavalok crouches low on the half-frozen ground, you look back at the path you have traveled. The land rises up. The edge of the land and sky is lost in the snow and ice. Tavalok points to the ground. 5 Hunters shaped stones into sharp points that they attached to the ends of spear poles. “See those footprints,” he says. “We are Vocabulary going the right way. The herd has been spear, n. a long, following the wind.” thin weapon made from a pointed stick, You are carrying hunting tools, the snow is sometimes with a deep, and you are tired from carrying your stone or metal tip 6 supplies on your back. It has been such a long journey! You have never been away from your mother and sister for so long. They and other women and girls have stayed behind, gathering plants and berries for everyone to eat. You trust Tavalok and want to learn from him. He knows how to read the sky. He can spot the animals’ tracks and other signs of their presence. He knows where the land dips and turns. He knows where the ice ends and where the land turns to stone and dirt. He knows where to find plants. After the group manages to kill one of the mammoths in the herd, Tavalok will guide you back to find the women and children so they can eat, too. “Our shelter is this way,” says Tavalok. “Come along now, little brother.” You hurry to keep up. Tavalok is already disappearing into the snow. After a while you come to the place Tavalok remembers. Your legs are stiff, and your stomach is empty. You turn and follow the rock- filled river. Then Tavalok spots other members of the group. They have already built a fire. Soon all members of the group are back together again. Because you are so far north, the light is dim, but it is not dark. It will not get darker during the night. You eat the strips of dried meat you find in your bag. In the quiet glow of the fire, Tavalok shapes new spear points from stone. You imitate what he is doing. 7 The hunters made camp before continuing with the hunt. “How far must we go until we reach the herd?” you ask. Tavalok shakes his head. “How quickly does the mammoth herd move? I do not know. We will go toward the black clouds that cover the open land,” he explains. “We will follow the tracks of the herd. I expect that after we sleep two or three more times, you will see the place where the rocks meet the sky.” “How far will the herd go?” you ask. “It will travel to where the small plants and moss grow thick. We will not be far behind.” “And then will we be where the wind stops?” you ask. “I do not think we will ever go that far, little brother,” Tavalok laughs. 8 Early hunters followed the herd’s tracks in the snow. Typically, they killed one herd member. For a band of twenty-five to fifty hunter-gatherers, one mammoth provided a lot of food. 9 Chapter 2 America’s First Settlers Who Came First? More than fifteen The Big Question thousand years ago, Ice Age hunters How did the ability in Beringia, like the ones in the story, to grow food change were moving into North America. But the way people lived? many scientists believe that earlier people may have arrived thirty thousand years ago, by sea along the Pacific Coast. At that time, hunter-gatherers could not move very far into North America. Huge ice sheets blocked the way. About fourteen thousand years ago, the ice sheets began to melt.