Location & Geography
This Southwestern group lived in hot, arid desert regions in modern-day New Mexico and Arizona, building settlements directly into cliffs or flat desert land.
Who are the Pueblo peoples?
Pueblo cultures carved and painted these small wooden spiritual dolls to teach children about ancestral spirits and natural forces.
What are Kachina dolls?
The Mohawk belonged to this powerful alliance of five (later six) nations created to maintain peace among tribes.
What is the Iroquois Confederacy (or Haudenosaunee)?
Pueblo communities get their name from the Spanish word for "village" because they built multi-story homes out of this sun-dried clay brick material.
What is adobe?
The Mohawk tribe lived in what is today Upstate New York, serving as the "Keepers of the Eastern Door" for this famous Native confederacy.
What is the Iroquois Confederacy (or Haudenosaunee)?
Algonquian and Iroquoian groups created wampum, which were decorative belts and strings made from these sea items used to record history and trade.
What are purple and white shell beads (or mollusk shells)?
In Mohawk society, lineage was matrilineal, meaning family lines, clan leadership, and land inheritance were passed down through this family member.
Who are mothers (or women)?
The Mohawk and Wampanoag both lived in these large, wood-framed homes covered in tree bark that housed multiple related families under one roof.
What are longhouses?
The Wampanoag lived in coastal areas, rivers, and woodlands of these two modern-day New England states.
What are Massachusetts and Rhode Island?
Many Northeastern Indigenous spiritual beliefs focused on showing deep respect to this overall force, believing every animal, plant, and tree had a spirit.
What is Nature (or Mother Earth / Natural World)?
Wampanoag communities were guided by leaders called sachems. This famous sachem made a peace treaty with the Plymouth Pilgrims in 1621.
Who is Massasoit?
Northeastern Indigenous agricultural societies commonly grew corn, beans, and squash together, affectionately giving them this collective nickname.
What are the Three Sisters?
Many Algonquin-speaking tribes lived in the dense forests, rivers, and lake regions surrounding the Great Lakes and this modern-day country north of the U.S.
What is Canada?
Pueblo groups constructed underground circular rooms called kivas primarily for this purpose.
What are religious ceremonies (or spiritual rituals/meetings)?
Unlike large united empires, most Algonquin groups were organized into these smaller, independent family units or local communities.
What are bands (or villages/clans)?
Algonquin nomads and hunters constructed these portable, dome-shaped shelters made of bent saplings covered in bark or woven mats.
What are wigwams?
Because the Pueblo lived in dry, desert environments, they relied on this type of farming technique to bring water from rivers to their crops.
What is irrigation?
The Wampanoag held seasonal Thanksgiving festivals to celebrate harvests long before European arrival, giving thanks especially for this staple crop known as "maize."
What is corn?
The Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace, which governed the Mohawk and member tribes, influenced the democratic principles later used in this famous U.S. document.
What is the U.S. Constitution?
Indigenous trade networks across North America were built entirely on this system rather than using printed paper money or coins.
What is bartering (or trading goods directly)?