Lesson 3

Indigenous People of North America

1. When did humans fiirst arrive in North America?
It has been said that humans first arrived in North America after the Ice Age or as early as 40,000 BC.

2. Why were the indigenous people called "Indians" by the European explorers of the 15th century?
The Indigenous people were called "Indians" because the first European explorers thought they were in the
East Indies when they landed in the Americas.

3. What is the appropriate name for the indigenous people of North America?
The appropriate name for the indigenous people of North America is "Native Americans" or "First People"
(in Canada).

4. What was the population of Native Americans in 1492 and in 1890?

The population of Native Americans in 1492 was about 8- 112 million people, but due to dying from
diseases brought in by the Europeans, being killed by settlers and being forced to live in reservations, the
population of Native Americans in 1890 was only about 250,000.

5. Write a short paragraph on how the Native Americans adapted to their local environment.

The Native Americans adapted to their local environment and used available material for shelter and dress.
In the Pacific Northwest, they used the bark of coastal fir trees to make fibres and materials for shelter and
for rain gear to keep dry in the wet climate. In the Southwest they used stone and mud bricks to make
permanent housing shelters and in other places carved their housing into soft stone canyon walls. In the
Eastern regions, they carved canoes out of trees and used them to travel great distances along the rivers and
lakes of their region. In the Plains region, the native people lived in a semi-nomadic pattern of movement to
follow herds of buffalo and other animals which they hunted. After the Spanish introduced horses, they used
horses to travel and hunt animals.

6. Write a short paragraph about the Aztec Civilization in Mexico.

The Aztec Civilization was a group of people having Mesoamerican culture, that flourished in central
Mexico from 1300 to 1521. The Aztecs or the people of this civilization had their (own) written language
and a highly developed system of city planning, irrigation, agriculture, markets, public spaces, temples, and
a long-distance system of trade. The largest city of the Aztecs or Aztec Civilization was "Tenochtitlan", the
modern-day capital of Mexico (Mexico-City). However, due to the civilization having a lot of rivalries
against other Mexican Tribes, in 1519 a person called "Hernando Cortes" (the Spanish Viceroy or governor
at that time) took advantage of this and then basically conquered "Tenochtitlan" with the help of the rivals of
the Aztecs or the Aztec Civilization. After that victory he imprisoned the Aztec chief "Moctezuma ", which
made him die sadly from a disease or possibly by poisoning.

7. Write a short paragraph about how European settlers took over their land, passed on disease to
Native Americans and eventually relocated them to isolated areas called reservations.
After the period of the migration of the Native Americans, some Europeans were sent to the Americas to
live so that they could grow crops/make products that can be sent back to Europe. These people then became
known as "settlers". The European settlers felt that they had the right to use the land and resources as they
wished in the Americas and just expand into it. So when making contact with Native Americans they
infected them with the diseases they had afterwards their journey from Europe to America, like smallpox,
tuberculosis, malaria, measles, and other infectious diseases. This made a lot of poor Native Americans die
and suffer because even if they wore clothing or blankets they would still get infected, especially little kids
and the elderly. So gradually a lot of European settlers began coming to America and taking the land of the
Native Americans. Some Native Americans responded with violence but were no match as they only had
spears and arrows, whereas the Europeans had guns and cannons which were way more superior to the
weapons of the Native Americans. Some Native Americans however, were calm and peaceful, but the
outcome was the same for every Native American in America. Which was to be forced out to isolation areas
called "reservations". In which about the remaining population of Native Americans currently live in and
that was basically how European settlers took over the land, of Native Americans, passed on diseases to the
Native Americans, and eventually relocated them to isolated areas called "reservations".

8. List major factors that caused the indigenous population of North America to decline.

The indigenous people were not immune to new diseases that came in with the Europeans, and there were a
large number of deaths. The settlers used superior weapons to kill the indigenous people in large numbers.
The settlers took land away from them and forced them inland to live in small areas called reservations.

Fill in the blanks.

1. The people who were living in the Americas before the European explorers arrived are considered
indigenous people.
2. Indigenous people were called Indians because the first European explorers thought they were in the
East Indies when they landed in the Americas. Native people of the Americas should not be called
Indians.
3. In the Arctic regions of the far North, the Inuit tribes lived by hunting in the polar region and fishing
in the icy waters.
4. The Northwest Coastal tribes, including the Salish tribes of British Columbia lived from fishing and
gathering the plentiful shellfish they found along the Pacific Coast.
5. On the Plains, the tribes included the Sioux and Cheyenne who hunted buffalo as they migrated
across the grasslands of the Great Plains.
6. In the Southwest, the Apache and Navajo tribes lived in the dry areas of Arizona, New Mexico and
to the South in Mexico.
7. In earlier centuries, people built pueblos of stone in cities carved on the rocks in the dry climate of it
Sonoran Desert.
8. In Taos, New Mexico, the pueblo style of construction has been continuously maintained since the
1300s and is recognized as a World Heritage Site.
9. In the Pacific Northwest, Native Americans used the bark of coastal fir trees to make fibres and
materials for shelter and for rain gear to keep dry in the wet climate.
10. In the Southwest they used stone and mud bricks to make permanent housing shelters and in other
places carved their housing into soft stone canyon walls.
11. In the Eastern regions of Canada and the United States, the Iroquois tribes and other First Peoples
carved canoes out of trees and used them to travel great distances along the rivers and lakes of their
region.
12. In the Plains region, the native people lived in a semi-nomadic pattern of movement to follow herds
of buffalo and other animals across the great grass plains of the Plains region. They used arrows with
stone tips to hunt buffalo.
13. In 1519, the Spanish viceroy, Hernando Cortes, conquered Tenochtitlan, the largest city of the
Aztec Empire in Mexico.. At that time, Tenochtitlan was the largest city in North America. After the
Spanish conquest, it became the site of Mexico City, the capital city of Mexico today.
14. When Cortés entered Mexico City for the first time he found a highly developed civilisation. The
Aztecs had their own written language and a highly developed system of city planning, irrigation,
agriculture, markets, public spaces, temples and a long-distance system of trade.

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