Native American Tribes by Region

5th Grade Social Studies

Native Americans of the Southwest

The Hopi• The Hopi live in an area in Arizona with steep-sided, flat-topped

landforms called mesas. • The Hopi people called themselves “Hopiti” which means “gentle

people” in their language.• Hopi homes were called pueblos, and were made out of adobe

clay. They looked like apartments, but with doors on their roofs. • Kivas were their religious centers.• Kachinas are spirits that visit the villages for half of the year. Dolls

representing kachinas are used to teach children about their traditions, and dancers represent the kachinas in ceremonies.

• Hopi made pottery and wooden dolls;• They used a method called “Dry farming” to grow crops.

The Navajo• The Navajo lived peacefully with the Hopi, but they raided other

neighboring tribes.• The Navajo learned farming, weaving, and jewelry making from

the Hopi.• Navajo lived in hogans (domed homes made from earth-covered

log frames).• Spanish came to the region in the 1500s; they introduced sheep,

goats, cattle and horses. Navajo culture changed with these new resources: they became expert horse riders and raided the Spanish and their neighbors, and raised cattle and sheep for food.

• In the 1700s, conflicts with their neighbors caused them to move to Canyon de Chelly in NE Arizona, where they continued to farm and live in the protected canyon.

Native Americans of the Woodlands

General Information

• The Eastern Woodlands tribes lived between the Mississippi River and Atlantic Ocean, and from Canada to Florida.

• Penobscot of Maine moved around to hunt.• Natchez people mostly farmed and descended

from the Mound Builders. They lived in wigwams and traveled in canoes made from birch bark.

Hodenosaunee• Means “people of the longhouse” : houses were long buildings made of

poles covered with sheets of bark.• Made of 5 groups living in New York State:

– Seneca– Mohawk– Cayuga– Onondaga– Oneida

• Made fine beadwork called wampum.• A group of families who share the same ancestor is called a clan. The

clans were led by clan mothers, who governed and owned the longhouses and chose government leaders.

• Joined the Iroquois League Confederacy in 1452 to maintain peace after conflicts with the Iroquois tribes over hunting rights. Hiawatha and Deganawida solved the issue and developed the Great Law, which was the constitution for the Iroquois Nation. Deganawida set up a Grand Council.

Native Americans of the Plains

Life on the Plains• The Great Plains region runs east of the Rocky Mountains

and from Canada to Mexico.• Until the 1800s, buffalo roamed the Great Plains.• Plains people did some farming but were mostly hunters.

Buffalo gave them food, clothing, and shelter. – 30 million to 100 million buffalo roamed the plains during the

1700s.– After a hunt, buffalo meat was cured or hung on racks to dry to

make jerky.– No part of the buffalo went to waste.

• To move around, Plains people used a sled device called a travois, which was pulled by a dog before the Spanish brought horses to the area.

The Lakota

• In the 1700s, they lived in the Black Hills, which they called “the heart of everything that is”.

• They would show courage by touching an enemy without killing him with a special stick called a coup stick.

• Girls were taught how to prepare buffalo hides, sew them, put up the teepee, cure buffalo meat, and to search for herbs.

• They kept track of important events on a special calendar called a winter count.

Native Americans of the Northwest (West)

The Northwest Coast

• The region extends from Anchorage, Alaska, to San Francisco, California. It is a wet climate with mild winters and cool summers.

• People gathered plants that grew plentifully in the forests and hunted beaver, bears, deer, and elk. They got almost everything they needed from the sea, like their most important food: salmon.

Tlingit• In the 1700s, 400 coastal miles around Sitka, Alaska, were

controlled by the Tlingit. • They were skilled woodworkers and decorated the items they

made. • They held potlatches, a feast where the guests receive gifts, not

the host.• They are known for beautiful, carved, symbolic decorations called

totem poles.• In 1867, the US bought Alaska from Russia. Many people moved

into the Tlingit homeland and many Tlingit were forced to move away from the ocean on which they relied.

• In 1971, the U.S. passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which gave control over 44 million acres back to the Tlingit people.