The First Texans People migrated to the Western

The First Texans

• People migrated to the Western Hemisphere as early as 35, 000 years ago.

• Many archaeologists, or people who study the past by looking at artifacts, have a theory which explains how people got here.

• A long time ago, the climate in the world changed. It got colder; so cold, in fact, that much of the Earth’s water turned to ice. This period was called The Ice Age.

• The changing climate caused other changes. As the temperatures got colder, the plants that some animals ate died. The plant-eating animals moved to warmer places to find their food and people had to follow the animals to survive.

• Some archaeologists believe that groups of people who lived in northeast Asia followed these food sources as they moved south and east into North America. (much of the Bering Sea had frozen. )

• Wooly mammoth, huge Ice Age bison that were 10 feet high at their shoulder, and saber-tooth tigers as well as some smaller animals migrated but they found it harder and harder to find enough food to survive and they adapted and changed into smaller animals.

• These people who migrated were biggame hunters and traveled in nomadic bands following the big game. As the climate changes also changed vegetation and the big-game dies out and became extinct.

• Over thousands of years, more and more people came and started to settle in the Americas.

Big-Game Hunters • Became….

Hunters and Gatherers • Groups who hunted buffalo by driving them off cliffs and supplemented their diets with nuts, berries, grasses they ate – they migrated as the seasons changed and needed stone hunting tools and baskets. • Eventually these people adapted to their environment and became….

Planters and Potters • People who figured out that if they saved seeds and planted them where they wanted to stay, them food and water would come to them rather than them having to constantly moved around searching for food.

• They modified their environment. These people still hunted buffalo and smaller animals such as small rabbits, deer, birds…. And created pottery to store food and water.

• Then these groups began to stay in one place to farm. • They were called….

Farmers • They could build permanent villages, create more tools and weapons and eventually could begin to specialize and divide the labor and live in larger groups.

Progression of Native Americans • Big Game Hunters • Hunter –Gatherers • Planter-Potters • Farmers

Key Questions? When did the first Texans arrive? From what continent did they migrate? Why did they migrate? How did they get from Asia to N. America? How did farming change their lives? How did living in one place change their lives?