United States History Student Edition

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Native Americans in 1492

Peoples of the Far North and the West GUIDING QUESTION What was Native American life like in the Pacific and Arctic regions? Although the Ancient Puebloan, Hohokam, Adena, Hopewell, and Mississippian civilizations eventually faded away, their peoples became parts of other cultures that developed in the Americas. Before Europeans arrived in the late 1400s, many unique societies flourished throughout North America. Yet the different groups in a region often shared common features that reflected the environment within that region. The frigid lands at the northernmost part of North America, near the Arctic Ocean, were home to the Aleut (a•lee•OOT), Yupik (YUH•puhk), Inupiat (uh•NOO•pee•aht), and Inuit (IH•noo•wuht) peoples. Aleuts live in the Aleutian Islands, which extend west from southern Alaska into the Pacific. Yupik live in southwestern Alaska. Inupiat live in northern Alaska. Inuit live in what is today the Canadian province of Nunavut and in Greenland. These groups might originally have come from the Asian region of Siberia, bringing with them the skills needed to survive the cold climate. These arctic and subarctic peoples were skilled hunters and fishers. They used small, skin-covered boats called kayaks to hunt whales, seals, and walruses in the coastal waters. On land they hunted caribou, large deerlike animals that lived in the Far North. They burned seal oil in lamps. In the Far North, the winter homes of the Inuit and Inupiat were igloos, low-lying structures built of snow blocks, which protected them from severe weather. In summer, they often moved to cone-shaped tents made from animal skins. Further south, Aleut and Yupik dug their homes into the ground and built roofs of whalebone frames covered with stone or sod.

READING STRATEGY Analyzing Key Ideas and Details As you read, take notes about the geography of each region, the peoples who lived there, and the ways of life of those peoples.

Region and Features

Peoples Cultural Practices

unique unusual

FLORIDA BENCHMARKS

• SS.8.G.1.2 • SS.8.G.2.1 • SS.8.G.5.1

This Inuit man photographed in the 1800s used a kayak for hunting.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-4465]

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The First Americans