before contact questions
Ancestral Pueblo people had a thriving agricultural society, as opposed to more nomadic societies. What's the big trade-off for prioritizing agriculture over hunting?
Agriculture-based societies have a more reliable source of calories, but are more vulnerable to drought. In order to farm, native societies could set up more permanent places to live with more permanent sources of nourishment--as long as there wasn't a drought.
Iroquois-speaking peoples lived in structures called longhouses. What did they tend to be made out of?
Bent saplings for supports, leaves for thatching, and bark for shingles. The long houses resembled long, half cylinders.
How did the cultivation of maize affect settlement patterns in the American Southwest and present-day Mexico?
It caused Native Americans in the area to develop permanent settlements supported by farming and irrigation systems. Agriculture allowed Native Americans to stop following herds of animals and stay in one place.
Where's the *Bering Strait*, and what does it have to do with the history of the North American continent?
It's a waterway that separates present-day Siberia from present-day Alaska; historians theorize that humans made their way across a now-vanished land bridge from Asia to North America. Historians believe that a small land bridge, called Beringia, once allowed humans to cross the Bering Strait from Asia and enter North America.
Read the passage below and answer the question. "There were four chiefs: Mr. Bear, Cougar, Bald Eagle, and Salmon. They met to try to figure out what it was that they were going to do. They knew of a place where there were many salmon. This would be the best thing of the coming people. It would keep them strong and healthy; besides, it would taste so good! But there was a problem. The salmon were being held way up river by a dam and were being guarded by some women, who when crossed would stop at nothing to destroy anything that got in the way of keeping their salmon and doing their work." -Native American legend recorded by Martin Louie and Diana Brooks. Published in Wicazo Sa Review, 1990. *Based on the passage, in which region of North America do you think the Native American people who told this legend lived?*
Pacific Northwest Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest relied on fishing, hunting, and gathering for food.
Which of the following factors most influenced the adoption of largely mobile lifestyles by early societies in the Great Basin and Great Plains?
The arid Great Basin limited farming opportunities close to major waterways, making permanent settlements undesirable. Having the ability to move closer to water sources and hunt large and small game on the plains allowed broad access to food and nutrition.
Native Americans lived in teepees as they followed herds of bison across the Great Plains. Which of the following environmental factors led bison to flourish in the Great Plains?
The wet grasslands of the western Great Plains created prairie ideal for grazing. Bison thrive in the grassland and prairie ecosystems that developed in the Great Plains.
Why is it important that the Three Sisters agricultural system combined beans, corn, and squash?
Those three crops together provided complete nutrition; no single plant can provide all the nutrients a human body needs to survive. Humans could exclusively eat the three sisters and have enough nutrients to sustain themselves.
arid
having little or no rain; too dry or barren to support vegetation.
