Download - St. Mary School

Geography and the Colonization of the Americas
Part I
The Coastal Migration Theory -proposes that people entering the continents followed the Pacific
coastline from the north, hunter-gatherer-fishers traveling in boats or along the shoreline and subsisting
primarily on marine resources .
Evidence from the Monte Verde archaeological site in southern Chile is the earliest known human
settlement in the Americas and provides additional support for the theory that one migration route
followed the Pacific Coast more than 14,000 years ago.
The Multiple Migration Theory –proposes that not all early migrations to the Americas came from Asia.
Instead some archeologists insist that Early Americans may have come from multiple continents over
thousands of years.
Evidence for this idea is found partially in the discovery of a 9,500 year old skeleton in Washington State.
Dubbed the "Kennewick Man," the skeleton bears a strong physical resemblance to the Japanese Ainu or
Polynesian people
The Clovis-First theory or Overland Migration Theory proposes that the original Americans came from
Siberia, where hunter-gatherer tribes lived around the time of the last Ice Age. The Ice Age lowered sea
which exposed the Bering land bridge, which connects Alaska to Siberia. - Most theorists believe that
greatest part of the migration to the Americas took place via the Beringia Land Bridge - Canadian
Corridor. It is theorized small tribes or bands of Paleo-Indians slowly pushed east and south from Asia to
the Americas, hunting as they came, not knowing what land laid ahead. These migrations would have
taken generations. Armed with stone tipped spears that they could propel with ingenious spear
throwers, they effectively hunted the giant fauna as they came. Slowly, they settled the entire Americas,
even as far south as Patagonia, 10,000 miles from Siberia.
Geological evidence shows there was a recession in the ice (called the ice-free corridor) that would have
allowed the Clovis to migrate through to the northern parts of the United States. The culture is named
for artifacts found near Clovis, New Mexico, where the first evidence of this tool complex was excavated
in 1932. Earlier evidence included a mammoth skeleton with a spear-point in its ribs, in 1926 near
Folsom, New Mexico. Clovis sites have since been identified throughout all of the contiguous United
States, as well as Mexico and Central America.
Part II Although the Sioux and other peoples of the Plains hunted other animals, such as elk
or antelope, buffalo was the primary game food source. Plains Indians exhibited great skill and
ingenuity in turning the natural materials they found around them into tools and materials to help them
survive. They used stones, bones, shells, clay, hides, hair, and wood to make tools and implements. But,
one of their greatest natural resources was the bison. Each bison provided the tribes with a wealth of
different raw materials above and beyond the meat. Before their adoption of guns, the Plains
Indians hunted with spears, bows, and various forms of clubs. After the introduction of horses
by the Europeans, hunting (and warfare) were much easier for the Sioux. The main hunting
seasons were fall, summer, and spring. In winter harsh snow and mighty blizzards made it more
difficult to locate and hunt bison.
The Anasazi or Ancient Pueblo Peoples were an ancient Native American culture in what is now the
Southwestern United States. The 7,000-year-old Anasazi are the ancestors of today's Pueblo Indians
Ancestral Puebloans spent much of their time getting food, even in the best years. They were farmers,
but they supplemented their crops of beans, corn, and squash (Three Sisters) by gathering wild plants
and hunting deer, rabbits, squirrels, and other game. The soil on the mesa top was fertile and, except in
drought.
By a.d. 700, the Anasazi were building pueblos, or villages, along with extraordinary pottery marked by
elaborate black-on-white designs. Their villages, built at the top of mesas or in hollowed-out natural caves
at the base of canyons, included multiple-room dwellings and complex apartment structures of stone or
adobe masonry. Despite their successful culture, the Anasazi way of life declined in the 1300s, probably
because of drought and intertribal warfare.
Sioux
Lakota, Yankton, Dakota
or Santee
Wisconsin, South Dakota,
North Dakota, Minnesota
Buffalo
French
Tepees
Anasazi
Pueblo, Hopi, Zuni, Taos
Colorado, Arizona, Utah,
New Mexico
Three sisters
Spanish
Pit House- Kiva
Iroquois
Onondaga, Seneca,
Oneida, Mohawk, Cayuga
New York
Deer, pumpkins, rabbit
French
Long House
Part III
1. Location
Location can be absolute or relative.
Absolute location provides a definite reference to locate a place. The reference can be latitude and
longitude, or even a street address. Relative location describes a place with respect to its environment
and its connection to other places.
2. Place
Place describes the human and physical characteristics of a location.
Physical characteristics include a description such things as the mountains, rivers, beaches, topography,
and animal and plant life of a place. Human characteristics include the human-designed cultural features
of a place, from land use and architecture to forms of livelihood and religion to food.
3. Human-Environment Interaction
This theme considers how humans adapt to and modify the environment. Humans shape the landscape
through their interaction with the land; this has both positive and negative effects on the environment.
4. Movement
Humans move, a lot! In addition, ideas, fads, goods, resources, and communication all travel distances.
5. Region
Region divides the world into manageable units for geographic study. Regions have some sort of
characteristic that unifies the area.
Formal regions are those that are designated by official boundaries, such as cities, states, counties, and
countries.
Functional regions are defined by their connections such as deserts and rain forests.
Vernacular regions are perceived regions, such as "The South," "The Midwest," or the "Middle East;"
they have no formal boundaries but are understood in our mental maps of the world.