The culture areas
Present day North America excluding Mexico is broken up by scholars into 10 culture areas, these are the Arctic, the Subarctic, the Northeast, the Southeast, the Plains, the Southwest, the Great Basin, California, the Northwest Coast and the Plateau.
Arctic: a frozen desert, flat, treeless, cold. Present day Alaska, Canada and Greenland. Inuit and the Aleut lived here and spoke and continue to speak Eskimo-Aleut dialect. Inuit lived further north and were nomadic following seals, polar bears and other game through tundras. Aleut were more settled and lived further south in small fishing villages along the shore.
Subarctic: present-day inland Alaska and Canada made up of swampy, pine forest, waterlogged tundra. Two different language speakers; the Athabaskan at the western end, which was composed of the Tsattine (Beaver), Gwich’in (or Kuchin) and the Deg Xiang (also and formerly known as the Ingalik) the other speakers were the Algonquian located at the eastern end and was composed of the Cree, Ojibawa and the Naskapi. Was hard to travel in the Subarctic instead family groups followed after herds of caribou and lived in small easy to move in tents; but when it got too cold they stayed in underground dugouts.
Northeast, present day Canada’s Atlantic coast to North Carolina and inland to the Mississippi. Composed of Iroquoian speakers including Cayuga, Oneida, Erie, Onondaga, Seneca and Tuscarora these tribes lived along lakes and inland rivers they lived in politically stable villages, other group was Algonquian speakers these included the Pequot, Fox, Shwanee, Wampanoag, Delaware an Menominee they lived in small farming an fishing villages along the ocean. Iroquoian groups were aggressive and warlike causing much conflict in the Northeast culture area.
Southeast, present day north of the Gulf of Mexico and the south of Northeast. Humid area, which was a fertile agriculture area. Lived around hamlets (small ceremonial market villagers). Expert farmers and grew crops such as maize, beans, squash, tobacco and sunflower. Known as the Five Civilised Tribes were the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole.
The Plains, present day between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, from present day Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Inhabited by speakers of Siouan, Algonquian, Caddoan, Uto-Aztecan and Athabaskan languages. They were settled hunters and farmers. After Spanish settlement tribes such as Crow, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, Comanche and Arapaho used horses to pursue great herds of buffalo across the prairie. The often live in cone shaped teepee tents that were made of bison skin.
Southwest, present day Arizona and New Mexico, as well as parts of Colorado, Texas, Utah and Mexico. Hopi, the Zuni, the Yaqui and the Yuma grew crops like corn, beans and squash. Many lived in permanent settlements, known as pueblos, built of stone and adobe. Other South western peoples, such as the Navajo and the Apache, were more nomadic. They survived by hunting, gathering and raiding their more established neighbours for their crops.
The Great Basin, Rocky Mountains to the east, the Sierra Nevadas to the west, the Columbia Plateau to the north, and the Colorado Plateau to the south, was a barren wasteland of deserts, salt flats and brackish lakes. Its people, most of whom spoke Shoshonean or Uto-Aztecan dialects. Nomadic tribes. After European contact, some Great Basin groups got horses and formed equestrian hunting and raiding bands.
California, before European contact there was an estimated 300 000 natives living in this area, more people than any other area. Its estimated 100 different tribes and groups spoke more spoke more than 200 dialects. (These languages derived from the Penutian (the Maidu, Miwok and Yokuts), the Hokan (the Chumash, Pomo, Salinas and Shasta), the Uto-Aztecan (the Tubabulabal, Serrano and Kinatemuk. It was noted by scholars that California’s linguistic landscape was more complex than that of Europe.
The Northwest Coast, along the Pacific coast from British Columbia to the top of Northern California, has a mild climate and an abundance of natural resources. Pacific Northwest were secure enough to build permanent villages that housed hundreds of people apiece. Those villages operated according to a rigidly stratified social structure, more sophisticated than any outside of Mexico and Central America. A person’s status was determined by his closeness to the village’s chief and reinforced by the number of possessions they had. Prominent tribes in the region included the Athapaskan Haida and Tlingit; the Penutian Chinook, Tsimshian and Coos; the Wakashan Kwakiutl and Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka); and the Salishan Coast Salish.
The Plateau, sat in the Columbia and Fraser river basins at the intersection of the Subarctic, the Plains, the Great Basin, the California and the Northwest Coast (present-day Idaho, Montana and eastern Oregon and Washington. Most people lived in small peaceful villages along streams and riverbeds and survived on fishing and gathering. In the southern Plateau region, the great majority spoke languages derived from the Penutian, the Klamath, Klikitat, Modoc, Nez Perce, Walla Walla and Yakima or Yakama. North of the Columbia River, most, the Skitswish, Salish (Flathead), Spokane and Columbia spoke Salishan dialects. The region’s inhabitants quickly integrated the animals into their economy, expanding the radius of their hunts and acting as traders and emissaries between the Northwest and the Plains.
Present day North America excluding Mexico is broken up by scholars into 10 culture areas, these are the Arctic, the Subarctic, the Northeast, the Southeast, the Plains, the Southwest, the Great Basin, California, the Northwest Coast and the Plateau.
Arctic: a frozen desert, flat, treeless, cold. Present day Alaska, Canada and Greenland. Inuit and the Aleut lived here and spoke and continue to speak Eskimo-Aleut dialect. Inuit lived further north and were nomadic following seals, polar bears and other game through tundras. Aleut were more settled and lived further south in small fishing villages along the shore.
Subarctic: present-day inland Alaska and Canada made up of swampy, pine forest, waterlogged tundra. Two different language speakers; the Athabaskan at the western end, which was composed of the Tsattine (Beaver), Gwich’in (or Kuchin) and the Deg Xiang (also and formerly known as the Ingalik) the other speakers were the Algonquian located at the eastern end and was composed of the Cree, Ojibawa and the Naskapi. Was hard to travel in the Subarctic instead family groups followed after herds of caribou and lived in small easy to move in tents; but when it got too cold they stayed in underground dugouts.
Northeast, present day Canada’s Atlantic coast to North Carolina and inland to the Mississippi. Composed of Iroquoian speakers including Cayuga, Oneida, Erie, Onondaga, Seneca and Tuscarora these tribes lived along lakes and inland rivers they lived in politically stable villages, other group was Algonquian speakers these included the Pequot, Fox, Shwanee, Wampanoag, Delaware an Menominee they lived in small farming an fishing villages along the ocean. Iroquoian groups were aggressive and warlike causing much conflict in the Northeast culture area.
Southeast, present day north of the Gulf of Mexico and the south of Northeast. Humid area, which was a fertile agriculture area. Lived around hamlets (small ceremonial market villagers). Expert farmers and grew crops such as maize, beans, squash, tobacco and sunflower. Known as the Five Civilised Tribes were the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole.
The Plains, present day between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, from present day Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Inhabited by speakers of Siouan, Algonquian, Caddoan, Uto-Aztecan and Athabaskan languages. They were settled hunters and farmers. After Spanish settlement tribes such as Crow, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, Comanche and Arapaho used horses to pursue great herds of buffalo across the prairie. The often live in cone shaped teepee tents that were made of bison skin.
Southwest, present day Arizona and New Mexico, as well as parts of Colorado, Texas, Utah and Mexico. Hopi, the Zuni, the Yaqui and the Yuma grew crops like corn, beans and squash. Many lived in permanent settlements, known as pueblos, built of stone and adobe. Other South western peoples, such as the Navajo and the Apache, were more nomadic. They survived by hunting, gathering and raiding their more established neighbours for their crops.
The Great Basin, Rocky Mountains to the east, the Sierra Nevadas to the west, the Columbia Plateau to the north, and the Colorado Plateau to the south, was a barren wasteland of deserts, salt flats and brackish lakes. Its people, most of whom spoke Shoshonean or Uto-Aztecan dialects. Nomadic tribes. After European contact, some Great Basin groups got horses and formed equestrian hunting and raiding bands.
California, before European contact there was an estimated 300 000 natives living in this area, more people than any other area. Its estimated 100 different tribes and groups spoke more spoke more than 200 dialects. (These languages derived from the Penutian (the Maidu, Miwok and Yokuts), the Hokan (the Chumash, Pomo, Salinas and Shasta), the Uto-Aztecan (the Tubabulabal, Serrano and Kinatemuk. It was noted by scholars that California’s linguistic landscape was more complex than that of Europe.
The Northwest Coast, along the Pacific coast from British Columbia to the top of Northern California, has a mild climate and an abundance of natural resources. Pacific Northwest were secure enough to build permanent villages that housed hundreds of people apiece. Those villages operated according to a rigidly stratified social structure, more sophisticated than any outside of Mexico and Central America. A person’s status was determined by his closeness to the village’s chief and reinforced by the number of possessions they had. Prominent tribes in the region included the Athapaskan Haida and Tlingit; the Penutian Chinook, Tsimshian and Coos; the Wakashan Kwakiutl and Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka); and the Salishan Coast Salish.
The Plateau, sat in the Columbia and Fraser river basins at the intersection of the Subarctic, the Plains, the Great Basin, the California and the Northwest Coast (present-day Idaho, Montana and eastern Oregon and Washington. Most people lived in small peaceful villages along streams and riverbeds and survived on fishing and gathering. In the southern Plateau region, the great majority spoke languages derived from the Penutian, the Klamath, Klikitat, Modoc, Nez Perce, Walla Walla and Yakima or Yakama. North of the Columbia River, most, the Skitswish, Salish (Flathead), Spokane and Columbia spoke Salishan dialects. The region’s inhabitants quickly integrated the animals into their economy, expanding the radius of their hunts and acting as traders and emissaries between the Northwest and the Plains.