The first nations

People probably first arrived in the New World between

17,000-11,000 years ago from Asia across the Bering Strait.

The InuitLive in the Artic coasts of Alaska, Canada, and

Greenland

The Inuit are ethnically unique from other Native Americans.

The Inuit were traditionally hunter-gatherers and their diet consisted of whale, walrus, caribou, and seal. The Artic climate supports little vegetation.

Inuit Woman’s Winter Clothing

Pacific Northwestern

Lived by the rich coastal areas of the Pacific Ocean from

Alaska to California

The Mound builders Lived in the woodlands of Eastern

North America from 2500 BC – 1500 AD

They include:

Hopewell culture, 200 BC – 400 AD

Mississippian culture, 900 – 1500 AD

The Mound builders had religion, cities, and government and are the earliest known civilizations in the Western Hemisphere.

Mound builder cultures were largely agricultural as opposed to hunting and gathering. The chief crops included squash, sunflowers, and maize.

Cahokia Mounds, Illinois

The IroquoisLived in the woodlands of Eastern North America between modern-day southern Canada and Pennsylvania

At the time of European arrival, the

Iroquois had the most advanced

government in the Western Hemisphere. The United States Constitution was

partly modeled after the Iroquois League

Constitution.

The Plains People

Lived in the Great Plains between the

Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains

Although the Plains people practiced some agriculture, they relied heavily on hunting bison.

They were semi-nomadic in following the great herds.

The Anasazi (Pueblo

Dwellers)Lived in the Four Corners region

of the modern-day Southwest United States – CO, NM, UT, and

AZ- between 500-1200 AD

The Anasazi are best-known for using stone and adobe to create villages called pueblos and cliff-dwellings.

Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde, Colorado

Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde, Colorado

Mesa Verde, Colorado

Newspaper Rock, Utah

The MayansLived in modern-day southern Mexico and Central

America

The Mayans were at the height of their

civilization between 300-900 AD

Mayan art is considered some of the most beautiful and sophisticated of the ancient New World.

A painted stucco relief from Palenque, Mexico

Carved Mayan Jade Relief

They played a game that is

similar to basketball

today.

The Mayans built elaborate pyramids dedicated to their gods.

El Castillo at Chichén Itzá, Mexico

Temple 2, Tikal, Guatemala

Mayan Temple, Guatemala

Imperial Palace, Palenque, Mexico

The Aztecs Were Native Americans who ruled Mexico from 1428-1521Many Mexicans are descended from the Aztecs.

Today, more than one million people speak Nahuatl, the Aztec language, as their first language.

The Aztecs built great cities and developed a complex social, political, and religious structure.

The capital city Tenochtitlan was possibly the largest city in the world at the time of the Spanish conquest – around 200,000 people.

Aztec society was highly structured,

based on agriculture, and

guided by a religion that affected every aspect of life

Farming was the basis of the Aztec economy. To increase farming production, the Aztecs built Chinampas – artificial islands or floating gardens that allowed them to reclaim swampy areas around lakes.

The purpose of war was not to kill enemies in battle. Rather, it was to capture them.

In religion, Aztecs practiced

human sacrifice –

victims were usually

prisoners of war.

Temples of the Moon and Sun, Teotihuacan

During an elaborate ritual, priests would cut out victims’ hearts and fling them into a

sacred fire.

Temple of the Sun, Teotihuacan

According to an Aztec legend,

priests once sacrificed more than 80,000

prisoners of war during

an important temple

dedication.

The Aztecs did not have iron or

bronze; cutting tools were made of

stone.

They also fashioned jewelry of gold, silver, emerald, turquoise,

and jade.

Art was primarily an expression of religion – stone sculptures were made to represent gods and sacrificial

victims.

The most famous

surviving Aztec

sculpture is the

calendar stone which

weighs 22 tons and is 12 ft in diameter.

The Incas The Incas built a wealthy and complex civilization over vast territories in the Andes Mountains of South America in the 15th century AD.

Among the most complex political organizations of all Native American people.

The Incas united a diverse group of people along 3000 miles of coast into a large empire with a common language and way of life.

The empire held between 5-11 million people

Road building was important to establishing communication throughout the huge empire

Over 10,000 miles of stone roads were built throughout the Andes mountains

Trained runners carried messages by relay and could cover up to 250

miles per day.

Suspension bridges of rope up to 330 ft long were built over deep river gorges separating cities.

The Incas had a highly organized society – the emperor was thought to be descended from the sun god, Inti, and ruled with divine authority.

Government officers kept strict accounts of the people, gold, land, crops, and projects of the empire.

Since the Incas had no system of writing records were kept by way of a quipu – a series of short, knotted strings hung at intervals from a long top string.

The quipu was a

complex memory aid and

could only be read by an

expert. Following the Spanish

conquest the Incas lost the ability to read them.

The Incas were capable of amazing feats of surgery including

amputations and perhaps even bone transplants!

The Incas lacked the concept of the

wheel but nevertheless

accomplished major feats of

engineering.

Machu Picchu, Peru

Machu Picchu, Peru

Vast temples, palaces, and fortresses were built – massive stone buildings were constructed using a minimum of engineering equipment.

Machu Picchu, Peru

The walls of Sacsahuaman was made of enormous stones weighing up to 200 tons!

More than half of the agricultural products that world eats today - including over 20 varieties of corn, 240 varieties of potato, as well as squash, beans, peppers, and peanuts - were developed in the Andes.

To increase agriculture, stone terraces were built in the steep,

narrow, Andean valleys.

In 1493, Incan civilization was at its

height when the Spanish began arriving in the

Americas.

Within just a few short years, countless

millions were murdered or enslaved in

cultural genocide as

the First Nations fell to

European guns, germs, and

steel.