Ancient Homes
This type of round home was made of wooden poles covered with earth and used by many tribes on the Great Plains.
What is an earth lodge?
This important crop, also called maize, was a staple food across North America.
What is corn?
This Native group lived in the Arctic and hunted seals and whales for food.
Who are the Inuit?
The people of the Pacific Northwest carved these tall wooden poles to tell family stories.
What are totem poles?
Many Native Americans believed that all parts of nature, including animals and trees, had this quality.
What is spirit or life?
This home, built from snow blocks, kept Inuit families warm in the Arctic.
What is an igloo?
Corn, beans, and squash were called this nickname because they grew well together.
What are the Three Sisters?
This tribe was part of a powerful confederacy in the Northeast and lived in longhouses.
Who are the Iroquois?
These woven items were both beautiful and useful for carrying food and water in California.
What are baskets?
These special people were believed to heal the sick and communicate with spirits.
Who are shamans or medicine people?
These tall, narrow buildings housed many Iroquois families and were made of wooden frames covered in bark.
What are longhouses?
The people of the Northwest Coast relied heavily on this fish, which they dried and smoked.
What is salmon?
The Mississippian culture built giant earthen mounds, including the city of this name near present-day St. Louis.
What is Cahokia?
The Navajo were famous for weaving colorful blankets and rugs from this material.
What is wool?
Many Native ceremonies were connected to these changes in the environment throughout the year.
What are seasons?
In the Southwest, these apartment-like buildings were made of adobe clay and stone.
What are pueblos?
In California, many tribes gathered and ground these nuts to make flour for food.
What are acorns?
These nomadic people of the Great Plains relied on buffalo for almost everything.
Who are the Plains tribes?
This kind of jewelry or decoration was often made from seashells, especially in the Northeast.
What is wampum?
Stories, songs, and dances helped pass down these important cultural teachings from generation to generation.
What are traditions or stories?
These cone-shaped tents made from animal skins were easy to move and used by nomadic Plains tribes.
What are tipis?
The Hohokam people built these to carry water to their desert crops.
What are irrigation canals?
This group built cliff dwellings in places like Mesa Verde in the Southwest.
Who are the Ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi)?
This large celebration in the Northwest involved feasting and giving gifts to show wealth and respect.
What is a potlatch?
Some Native cultures recognized people who were both male and female or neither, known today by this term.
What is Two-Spirit?