Section 3 – Peoples of
North America
[Link]
I. The Desert Southwest
A. Anasazi – best-known society of the southwest
1. Lived in what is today Arizona, New Mexico,
Colorado, and Utah
2. Between AD 900 and 1300, they built large
villages called pueblos
3. Pueblo Bonito – remains still stand in New
Mexico
a.)Had a huge complex with 800 rooms that
housed about 6,000 people
b.) At the center was a plaza with a kiva – a
large underground chamber used for religious
ceremonies
Pueblo Bonito, New Mexico
B. Cliff dwellings
1. Began building houses in the shadow of canyon
walls, where the cliffs offered protection from
raiders
2. The largest was at Mesa Verde (Colorado) which
had 200 rooms
3. In the late 1200s, a long drought forced them to
abandon their cliff dwellings
4. Attacks by Navajos and Apaches may have
contributed further to their decline
II. The Mound Builders
A. Cahokia – greatest center of the Mississippians
1. By A.D. 800, these early cultures had disappeared
2. A new people, the Mississippians gained
influence
3. The Cahokia was in present-day Illinois and
housed as many as 40,000 people
4. It had about 60 mounds on which the homes of
rulers and nobles stood
B. Heirs of the Mound Builders
1. The Mississippians left no written records
2. Their traditions survived among the Natchez
people
III. Diverse Regional Cultures
A. A Frozen World – Far North
1. Inuits (Eskimos) adapted to a harsh climate
2. Small bands lived by hunting and fishing
3. Seals and other sea mammals provided them
with food, skins for clothing, bones for needles
and tools, and oil for cooking
4. They paddled kayaks or used dog sleds to
transport good across the ice
5. They constructed igloos, or dome-shaped
home made from snow and ice
Traditional
Inuit
clothing is
made from
animal
skins
Inuit girls pose for a photo in 1913
This Inuit
woman is
carrying
her baby
on her
back. The
hoods of
Inuits lived in igloos during the coldest women’s
months and tent like huts during the parks were
warmer months made extra
long to fit
an infant
B. A Land of Plenty- Northwest coast
1. The rivers with salmon and the Pacific Ocean
offered other fish and sea mammals
2. Hunters tracked deer, wolves, and bears in the
forests
3. They built large permanent villages with homes
made of wood
4. They traded their goods in ceremonies called
potlatch – a person a rank and wealth distributes
lavish gifts to large numbers of guests. By
accepting the gift, the person acknowledges the
host’s high status
C. The Iroquois League – Eastern woodlands
from the Atlantic Coast to the Great Lakes
1. They cleared land and built villages in forests
2. While women farmed, men hunted and warred
against rival nations
3. The prophet Dekanawidah urged rival Iroquois
nations to stop their constant wars
A.) He became one of the founders of the
unique political system known as the Iroquois
League
B.) Although it did not always succeed in
keeping peace, it was one of the best-
organized political group north of Mexico
C.) Only men sat on the council but each
council had a “clan mother”
D.) The Iroquois League emerged at the time
when Europeans arrived in the Americas
E.) The encounters with Europeans took a
fearful toll on the peoples of N. America and
toppled the Aztec and Incan empires