Welcome To Native American Groups
The following essential information should be answered to help students learn about the required five Native American Groups that will be studied in 4-2.2.
The everyday lives of Native Americans depended on the region in which they lived and how they interacted with their physical environment.
Five Native American Groups
- Eastern Woodland Native Americans lived in the eastern part of North America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River including the Great Lakes region.
- Southeastern Native Americans lived in the region from the Ohio River south to the Gulf of Mexico.
- Plains Native Americans lived on the Great Plains of central North America from north of what is today the Canadian border to present-day southern Texas
- Southwestern Native Americans lived in the region that included what is today Arizona, New Mexico, parts of Colorado, and Utah.
- Pacific Northwestern Native Americans lived in the region that extended along the Pacific coast from what is today southern Alaska to northern California.
In order to compare these Native American groups attention should be paid to:
Important Questions
- How did the group get their food?
- Were they hunters, gatherers or did they farm?
- Was the group’s everyday life based on frequent migration or did they live in permanent village settlements?
- How did their physical environment influence the type of homes they constructed, the clothes they wore and the food they ate?
- What were their cultural practices, including beliefs and religious practices?
- How were they governed?
Links of Importance
Streamline SC
- Native Americans: The First People
- Native Americans: People of the Forest
- Native Americans: People of the Northwest Coast
- Native Americans: People of the Plains