Chapter 2 - The First Californians #1

Lesson 1Discovering The First Californians:The First Californians

100

Most Native American groups living in California today believe that their peoples have always lived in North America. The story, "Bones in the basket," is an example of one of THESE STORIES, which tells of the Native Californian's beginnings and how people and animals were brought to earth.

A creation story.

200

About how many years ago do scientists believe hunters arrived in what is now California?

12,000 years ago.

300

Early hunters traveled to North America by land from Asia. Today you could not make that trip by land. A narrow passage of water that connects two larger bodies of water called a strait separates Asia and North America. WHAT IS THE NAME OF THIS STRAIT?

The Bering Strait.

400

During the last Ice Age, a time between about 2 million and 12,000 years ago, the straight separating North America and Asia was a grassing plain connecting the continents. What would have lead Ancient peoples to cross this land bridge and slowly move southward and eastward across North America?

People from Asia may have moved across the land bridge while hunting animals.

500

What are the different ideas about how the first people came to California?

Native Americans believe they have always lived in North America and scientists believe people from Asia crossed a land bridge to North America.

Lesson 1Discovering The First Californians:Scientists Find Clues to Early Life and People Live in Tribes

100

What type of scientist studies ancient cultures by examining their old tools, pottery, and buildings? They look for clues that will help them understand how people once lived.

An archaeologist.

200

What word means, a group of people from nearby villages who share the same language, culture, and customs?

A tribe.

300

Native Americans were called Indians by the European explorers who came to the Americans, Why?

The European explorers believed they were in India.

400

Give one example (can be from the text) that shows the way archaeologists use artifacts, or objects, from the past to understand how people lived long ago.

Example Answers: A chipped stone may have been used to cut meat or scrape animal hides. A stone bowl may have been used to grind seeds and nuts. A shell necklace may have been worn.

500

In 1970, an archaeologist named Stuart Streuver led a dig in Illinois. Workers found large, dark, round marks on the surface of the earth. These marks showed where wooden posts had once stood to hold up the walls of early Indian houses. But no one had ever found post holes this big before, they were usually much smaller. Why is this find of bigger post holes important? What could it tell archaeologists about how Native peoples lived?

Smaller post holes showed temporary shelters. Bigger post holes show a more permanent shelter. Native Americans chose to settle in one spot instead of moving from one hunting ground to another.

Lesson 2Living on the Rivers and Coasts:People from the North

100

What type of story is handed down from adults to children over many years, it explains the beliefs of a people and the way they view their world, and many of these stories tell about how people and nature work together?

A creation story.

200

The Klamath River rushes down from the mountains in northwestern California. Tall redwood tress grow on the mountain slopes. Here, and along the shallow waters on the Pacific Coast, is home to 3 different tribes. Name 1 of the three.

The Yurok tribe and their neighboring tribes the Hupa and the Karok.

300

The Yurok tribe used what tools to help them catch salmon racing up the Klamath River from the ocean? Describe how the tools were used to catch salmon.

The Yurok used spears and weirs. A weir is a woven stick fence. The Yurok placed the weirs across the river to stop the salmon from leaping upstream. When many salmon had collected behind the weirs, the men speared the fish.

400

What does it mean to trade? Give an example of what the Yurok tribe would trade for with other tribes, while traveling along the coast in redwood canoes.

To trade is the exchange of one good or service for another good or service. The Yurok traded their dried salmon for dentalium shells. The shells were hard to find and the Yurok valued them highly. The Yurok traded the beads and the salmon for soapstone bowls or tools they could not make from the resources in their region.

500

Name 3 natural resources that were important for the Yurok.

Redwood trees, clams(shellfish), salmon (fish),

Lesson 2Living on the Rivers and Coasts:People from the South

100

Moving down from the northern coast of California, near Santa Barbara, this tribe used to live along the coast and into the coastal foothills.

The Chumash lived in the southern coast of California.

200

Name 3 examples of how the Chumash used resources from the sea for food, clothing, or trade?

Example answers: The Chumash carved fish hooks from shells, they caught sea bream, white fish, and tunny. They used large baskets to catch sardines. They made spears to catch sea otters. They would eat the otter meat and trade the otter skins. The women sewed small shells to animal skins. Skirts were made from tulle reeds. Also had shell bracelets, head bands, and necklaces.

300

What word is used to describe a group of people living together who share the same government? For the Native tribes a chief would oversee all that went on in the village.

A community is a group of people living together who share the same government.

400

Give one example of how the Yurok and Chumash tribes are alike and how they are different.

Alike: Both tribes along the coast, both fished, used boats to trade. Different: Yurok caught salmon on the rivers using spears and weirs, used redwood trees, lived in the North coast. Chumash caught sardines using baskets, used tar to seal their boats, lived in the South coast.

500

The Chumash were the finest boat builders among the California Indians. They called their canoes tomols. The Chumash had a resource that most other tribes did not that allowed them to seal the boards of a canoe or the a bucket to make it waterproof. What was the name of this thick tar-like substance?

Asphaltum seeped from the ground. Asphaltum, mixed and heated with pine pitch was used as a seal.

Tribes and their regions

100

During the fall, oak trees shower acorns on the forest floor. All the people of this tribe would collect acorns because they were such an important food for the tribe. What is the tribe and region?

The Miwok of the Central Valley.

200

During winter months this tribe used snow shoes made from wooden frames and strips of animal hide.

The mountain Maidu tribe.

300

This tribe used redwoods to cut planks to build houses or dig out redwood logs to make canoes.

Yurok Tribe of the North coast.

400

These shells were used as money. They carved the shells and strung them as beads. The longest strings of beads were the most valuable.

Dentalium shells were found along the northwestern coast of California.

500

Name each Californian tribe we learned about in Chapter 2, along with the region they lived in.

North Coast - Yurok tribe South Coast - Chumash tribe Central Valley - Miwok tribe Mountains - Maidu tribe Desert - Mojave tribe