America before Colonization First settlers The first evidence

America before Colonization

First settlers �The first evidence of human life in North America dates back about 15, 000+ years ago � This means that there were people living in North America 13, 500 years before Christopher Columbus “discovered” it

Settlement �The first settlers were able to walk from Asia to North America �The Ice Age caused water to freeze between North America and Asia creating a bridge called the Beringia Straights over the Bering Strait �Why did they spread? �Nomad -

Settlement �From there, the first settlers spread throughout North America and eventually into South America

Dividing up Indian Cultures �Many different Indian cultures grew up in America. �Historians divide up the Indian cultures in different ways to understand the Indians much better. � Environments � Languages

�Arctic / Subarctic �Woodland Coastal �Plains �Pueblo Indians �Central / South. Western � p. 289

Environments �Some historians divide up the different Indian cultures by the environment they lived in. � Indians living along the north west coast of America lived mainly by fishing. � Indians living on the plains, far from the sea, lived by hunting buffaloes.

Languages �Another way to divide up the different Indian cultures is by language. �There were probably about 200 different languages spoken. �Since the Indians did not write down their languages, our knowledge of Indians comes from what white people saw and wrote.

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�Write out the sentences below, putting the correct ‘heads’ and ‘tails’ together.

Copy out the paragraph below and fill in the blanks. �The first people to reach America came from ____ across the land called _____. Over thousands of _____ they spread down through America. By about 11, 000 years ago these people had spread all across ______.

Answer these questions: 1. How many different languages did the Indians have? 2. What did Indians not do about their language? 3. How do we know about Indians? 4. Why might this be biased?