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Essential Question: What are the Non- Oregon Native American Culture Regions? What are some
general differences among them?

Notes: Native American Culture Areas

The contiguous United States consists of the land that makes up the lower 48 states and Washington DC. It does
not include Alaska, Hawaii, or any US territory.

There are eight Native American Culture Areas in the contiguous United States.

Eastern Woodlands (Sometime referred to as the Northeast or Northeastern Woodlands)

Environment and Geographic Location:

Winter snows and summer rains produced endless forest, lakes, and streams. Went from the
Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean and From Canada to North Carolina.

Hunting:

Used bows and arrows to hunt bears and deer. Trapped beavers and birds. speared fish

Farming/Gathering:

Gathered fresh greens, nuts, and berries.

They grew squash, corn, beans, sunflowers, and tobacco.

Clothing

They wore deerskin skirts, capes, and aprons.

Housing:

They lived in sturdy log framed structures covered in elm bark called Longhouses

Transportation:

Tribes traveled the rivers and lakes of the area in bark canoes.

Major Tribes of the Region: The Iroquois Confederacy

Southeast
 Environment and Geographic Location:

Coastal plains, rivers valleys, and swamps that went From Southern Ohio in the north to the Gulf
of Mexico in the south. From Texas in the west to the Atlantic Ocean in the east.

Clothing of the Region:

They wore short, simple deerskin skirts

Hunting:

Used blowguns to hunt squirrels, rabbits, and turkeys.

Hunted deer, alligators and turtles with bows and arrows

Housing:

Rectangular framed houses made from strips of wood and plastered in clay.

Farming:

Grew beans, squash, tomatoes, and pumpkins.

Gathered potatoes, rice, and persimmons.

Unique Feature:

Towns of the region were dominated by large earthen mounds.

The Great Plains

Environment and Geographic Location:

Grassland that went from the Rockies in the west to the Mississippi river in the east. From Canada
in the north to the Gulf of Mexico in the south.

Hunting:

Hunted buffalo with bows and arrows and spears

Transportation:

Traveled by horse.

Farming:
 There was some farming in the Eastern Plains.

They grew corn, beans and squash

Clothing:

Buffalo skin robes

Housing:

Tipis:

Tall, cone shaped dwellings covered in buffalo skin.

Unique Fact:

For the Native Americans of the Great Plains the buffalo was a natural resource that they used for
food, clothing, housing materials, and tools.

Southwest

Environment and Geographic Location:

Includes present day Arizona, New Mexico, Southern Utah, and Colorado, It also includes portions
of Texas, Oklahoma, and California.

It contains canyons, mountains, deserts, flat topped mesas and two major rivers.

Housing:

adobe (Sun Baked Clay) brick apartments

Hunting:

Hunted jack rabbits, antelope, mule deer.

Clothing:

Cotton clothes that were dyed bright colors using minerals and plants.

Farming:

The Native Americans of this region built dams and irrigation ditches to water their crops, mainly
corn.

Unique Fact: The adobe apartments they lied in could reach four stories high.

California:
 EnvironmentAnd Geographic Location:

Most diverse of all regions. It had deserts, forests, mountains, and ocean coasts. Went from
Southern Oregon to Baja California.

Gathering:

Relied on acorns for basic food.

Housing:

Cone shaped houses of redwood with reed mats for roofs.

Clothing:

Animal hide wraps. Simple grass skirts or aprons.

Hunting:

Trapped rabbits and hunted deer with bows and arrows.

Fished for salmon and shellfish.

Unique Feature: It was one of the most densely populated of the culture regions

Hunting:

Trapped rabbits and hunted deer with

bows and arrows.
Summary: each region has a unique culture and there own way of doing things