Native American Land Use Webquest

Guiding Questions:
● What did New England look like before the arrival of Europeans?
● How did Native Americans interact with the environment, and what can this tell us about their settlement
and society?

Directions: Analyze early european primary source images along with academic texts to better understand the
characteristics and scope of Native American land use.

Illustration One: Village of Secoton

Observations (What do you see that is most important?) Inferences (What can you hypothesize from the image?)

Crops The native americans work well together , cohesive

Forest society
Close housing Different jobs
Sun flowers Maintain the environment
Lots of different types of crops Looks pretty peaceful
Culture, good amount of people
Well established

How does this source depict Native Americans’ effect on...

The Terrain (land, forests, fields, water) The Wild Life (land and water animals)

Agriculture Hunting
Hunting Controlling wildlife
Burning wood, clearing land Cooking
Building roads Fishing

Academic Text One: The Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492, William M. Denevan
The forests of New England, the Midwest, and the Southeast had been disturbed to varying degrees by Indian
activity prior to European occupation. Agricultural clearing and burning had converted much of the forest into
successional (fallow) growth and into semi-permanent grassy openings (meadows, barrens, plains, glades,
savannas, prairies), often of considerable size.' Much of the mature forest was characterized by an open,
herbaceous understory, reflecting frequent ground fires. "The de Soto expedition, consisting of many people, a
large horse herd, and many swine, passed through ten states without difficulty of movement". The situation has
been described in detail by Michael Williams in his recent history of American forests: "Much of the 'natural'
forest remained, but the forest was not the vast, silent, unbroken, impenetrable and dense tangle of trees
beloved by many writers in their romantic accounts of the forest wilderness" . He continues: "The result was a
forest of large, widely spaced trees, few shrubs, and much grass and herbage . . . Selective Indian burning thus
promoted the mosaic quality of New England ecosystems, creating forests in many different states of ecological
succession".

How and why did Native Americans shape the forests of the east coast of America?

The Native Americans shaped the forest of the east coast by clearing a lot of the forest for agriculture
purposes and burnings turning it into grassy areas. Much of the natural forest remained but wasn't big
The burnings promoted the mosaic quality of of new england ecosystems

Illustration Two: Arrival of English

 Observations (What do you see that is most important?) Inferences (What can you hypothesize from the image?)

Big English ships The english are invading the natives and it's a battle
A sea monster The indians are scared and trying to protect thyre
Sunken ships along the islands land
Indians protecting their land

How does this source depict Native Americans’ effect on...

The Terrain (land, forests, fields, water) The Wild Life (land and water animals)

Islands , rivers , breachway, land berrier , grassy Alot of water mostly rivers and breachways
plain , slight forestation

Academic Text Two: Study reveals environmental impact of American Indian farms centuries before
Europeans arrived in North America, Smithsonian Insider
New evidence gathered from sediments along the Delaware River in Pennsylvania is drastically revising
theories about land use by Native Americans and the impact they once had on their environment. The new
research reveals that from the period between 1100-1600 small agricultural settlements up and down the
Delaware River Valley caused a 50-percent increase in sediment runoff into the Delaware River. This was done
primarily by burn-clearing of as much as half of the forest-cover along the Delaware’s banks.

Conducted by scientists from the Smithsonian, the Center for American Archaeology, Baylor University and
Temple University, the study shows that “Colonial-era Europeans were clearly not the first people to have an
impact on the waterways in North America,” says archaeobiologist Timothy Messner of the Smithsonian’s
National Museum of Natural History. “Widespread sedimentation caused by intensive settlement and maize
farming in the Delaware Valley began about 500 years before European settlers arrived. And this was not just
happening along the Delaware, but all over Eastern North America.”

How and why did Native Americans shape the Delaware River Valley?

They did so much intensive agriculture that the minerals went into the river

Illustration Three: Fishing

Observations (What do you see that is most important?) Inferences (What can you hypothesize from the image?)

alot of fish in the water They are fishing for food

People
A dock

How does this source depict Native Americans’ effect on...

The Terrain (land, forests, fields, water) The Wild Life (land and water animals)

a salt water pond or ocean fish humans plants

Wetlands

Conclusion
Answer the guiding questions from the beginning of the activity using information you gathered from your
primary and secondary source analysis.

What did New England look like before the arrival of How did Native Americans interact with the
Europeans? environment, and what can this tell us about their
settlement and society?

the Indians used the environment to they’re

It looked very untouched and they’re burned try advantage and they were good fishermen and and
shrub if the forest and flattened out lands didnt destroy they’re land