UNIT 1 READING 1 - " THE FIRST AMERICANS"

“The First Americans”

Many scientists think the first Americans came from northern Asia between 15,000 and 30,000 years ago. By 1500 C.E., about 1 million people lived in regions that are now the United States. The climate and land in different regions affected how each group lived. In the Northeast, Native Americans hunted, fished, and grew vegetables. In the Plains, native people hunted and farmed at first, but later became nomads who followed game. Native peoples in the hot, dry Southwest farmed or hunted. In the forests of the Northwest, people caught fish and game and built wooden houses and totem poles. Groups living in the Southeast built large towns and were good farmers.


THE TRAIL OF TEARS

Key Words:
• climate: the weather that a place usually has
• customs: special ways of doing something,
by a group of people
• irrigate: to make water flow to dry land or
crops
• nomads: people who move from place to
place
• natural resources: all the land, minerals,
and energy in a country
• tribe: a social group in a traditional society
consisting of linked families or communities

with a common culture and dialect

Academic Words:
affects = produces a change in someone or something
➡ Climate affects crops either by helping them grow or by damaging them.

available = able to be used or seen 
➡ The tribes used the natural resources that
were available to them.

environment = the land, water, and air in
which people, animals, and plants live 
➡ Native Americans used plants from their
environment for food and shelter.

region = large area 
➡ Many Native Americans settled in the

Southwest region of North America.


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Highlighted Words

• theory, idea that tries to explain something
• peoples, groups of people
• campsite, place with shelter where people stay for a short time
• dwelling, living
• geographical features, parts of Earth, such as oceans and mountains
• game, animals that people hunt for food
• canoes, long, narrow boats that are moved by using paddles
• villages, small towns
• herds, large groups of animals
• tepees, cone-shaped tents
• asthma, illness that causes difficulty in breathing
• arid, very dry with little rain
• harvest, gathering of crops
• weaving, cloth making
• breed, help animals reproduce
• unique, special and good
• architects, people who design buildings
• family tree, visual representation of family members, such as parents,
• grandparents, and great-grandparents
• generation, group of people who are about the same age
• mild, not too cold, wet, or hot
• vanished, disappeared
• mounds, hills
• civilization, developed society