DIRECTIONS: Hundreds of nations lived here, each fitted to its own land. Read, then fill in the table.
Where they lived
What the land is like
How they got food
What their homes were like
1. the far north (Arctic)
2. the northwest coast
3. the dry southwest
4. the Great Plains
5. the eastern woodlands
6. the southeast
The Land Does the Explaining
Grade 5 · First peoples · Page 2 of 3
DIRECTIONS: Give the reason for each answer on page 1. It is nearly always the land.
People build with what is there: wood where forest was thick, earth or hide
where there were no trees. Where corn grew, people stayed and built towns; where the food moved, so did they.
Why did people on the Plains live in homes that could be taken down and moved?
Why did people of the northwest coast build large permanent wooden houses?
Corn, beans and squash were grown together across much of the continent. What does growing your own food let a people do that hunting alone does not?
Nations traded shells, copper, obsidian and food over thousands of miles. What does that tell you about how connected they were?
Reading a Place
Grade 5 · First peoples · Page 3 of 3
DIRECTIONS: Given the land, work out the life.
A place you have never heard of. Wide grassland, no trees for a
hundred miles, hot summers, hard winters, and enormous herds of grazing animals passing through twice a year.
What would people there eat, and how would they get it?
What would they build houses out of, and would those houses move?
Would they be likely to have large permanent towns? Say why.
Many of these nations still exist today, with governments, courts and members. Why do you think so much teaching about them is written as though they only existed long ago?