By 1491, millions of people lived in North America, speaking hundreds of languages in many separate nations. Their ancestors had arrived thousands of years earlier (The First Peoples of the Americas) and spread across a continent with deserts, prairies, rain forests and woodlands. Each people built a way of life that fit its land.
Key idea
Native societies adapted to their environments: farming and irrigation in the Southwest, bison hunting and river farming on the Plains, fishing (especially salmon) on the Pacific Northwest coast, and mixed farming, hunting and villages in the Eastern Woodlands.
Why it works
Before trade with Europe, a people lived mostly from what its own region could provide. Rain, soil, growing season and the plants and animals nearby set what was possible. Where rivers could water fields, people farmed; where salmon ran every year, people fished and stored food; where great bison herds grazed, people hunted them. The same need, food and shelter, led to different answers in different places.
| Region | Land | Ways of life (examples) |
|---|---|---|
| Southwest | Dry, hot; few rivers | Maize, beans and squash with irrigation canals (the Hohokam dug canals from the Salt and Gila Rivers); adobe and stone towns (Ancestral Puebloans) |
| Great Plains | Grassland | Bison hunted on foot, with dogs pulling loads on a travois; farming villages of earth lodges along the rivers |
| Pacific Northwest | Rainy coast, big forests | Salmon, shellfish and whales; cedar plank houses and canoes; wealth shown in gift-giving feasts (the potlatch) |
| Eastern Woodlands | Forests, rivers, rain | The "Three Sisters" (maize, beans, squash), hunting and fishing; villages of longhouses or wigwams |
Worked example: Reason from the land
A people lived on a rainy coast with huge cedar trees and rivers full of salmon. What would you expect their homes and food to be?
- Cedar splits into wide planks: good for large wooden houses and canoes.
- Salmon return every year and can be dried and stored.
- Farming is less needed where fish are so plentiful.
Answer: Plank houses and canoes, with salmon as a main food: the pattern of the Pacific Northwest.
Worked example: Why the Three Sisters?
Why did farmers in the East plant maize, beans and squash together?
- Tall corn stalks give the beans something to climb.
- Beans add nitrogen to the soil, which corn needs.
- Broad squash leaves shade the ground, holding moisture and blocking weeds.
Answer: Each crop helps the others, so the three together grow better than each alone.
Common mistake
A familiar picture of Plains peoples on horseback chasing bison is from after contact. There were no horses in the Americas in 1491; the Spanish brought them. Horses spread north after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, and the great horse cultures of the Plains grew in the 1700s. In 1491, Plains peoples hunted on foot.