Civics_Ch13_web-lesson-Native-Americans

=**Lessons on the Web - Native Americans in Pennsylvania**=

__Directions__: Use your section 1 handout and map to complete the lesson.

For this first part of section 1, use the map on the back of your handout.

This first part should be a review. Tens of thousands of years ago during the last Ice Age, the North Pole and South Pole were covered with ice. The map below shows you the ice in the northern part of the earth. As a result animals began moving south from Asia in search of vegetation for food. Since the northern part of the earth was covered in ice, the buffalo (and other wildlife) would have been able to cross the piece of land connecting Siberia (on the continent of Asia) with the continent of North America (specifically Alaska) moving south for food. Do you know the name of this strip of land? Choose from the list below and label the correct answer on your section 1 worksheet map. (A) Bering Sea Isthmus (B) Bering Island (C) Bering Strait Land Bridge (D) Bering Strait Ice Berg

As a result, natives from Asia would have followed their food supply. This took place over thousands of years (not just a few years). The map below shows you. Draw the similar arrows on the back of your map on your section 1 worksheet.

Over time, tribes settled into various regions of North America beginning their own languages, their own customs and traditions, their own ways of life, and overall their own cultures. Below is a map of the regions of North America. Label the regions on your section 1 worksheet map. Also take note as to which region we're in...the Eastern Woodlands. The regions are the colored sections and are in bold letters and all capitalized. The individual tribes are the smaller words. Label the individual tribes on your map too.

Specifically in Pennsylvania there were several major tribes. Below is a map showing you the tribes that existed in PA. On your map, sketch the outline of Pennsylvania and divide PA into the regions you see in the map below. Then, label the tribes that once existed in PA.

Daily life for the Native Americans was far different than life for Americans and Pennsylvanians today. There was only one tribe to ever make Somerset County its permanent home for a short amount of time and that tribe was the Monongahela Indians. Other tribes would have passed through the county hunting but didn't stay permanently. The Monongahela tribe was more in the southern part of the county.
 * **Who were the Monongahela?**Many years ago, in the area now called Pennsylvania, lived a Native American group known as the Monongahela. They lived in southwestern PA and nearby areas between 900 and 1400 A.D. (years). Because there are no Monongahela alive today to tell us what they call themselves, archaeologists (those who dig in the ground to look for soil patterns, remains, and artifacts to learn about past cultures) gave them their name since their villages were apparently along or near the Monongahela River.
 * **What is Archaeology?**Since historic documents do not tell us about the Monongahela, archaeology is the only way we can learn about them. No other tribe made Somerset County their permanent home. Information about the Monongahela is being gathered and analyzed by archaeologists. Archaeology is the study of our human past through the examination of artifacts and patterns found in the ground. Archaeologists study cultures (ways of life) dating from tens of thousands of years ago to the present. To study the Monongahela, they would excavate or dig deep into the ground to find out their types of houses, what they ate, kinds of clothes they wore, tools they made, their kind of government, and how they communicated.
 * **What was daily life like?**Daily life for the Monongahela was tied to the seasons of the year, much like it is for farmers in today's Pennsylvania. Most of the effort in the spring through the early autumn would have been on growing crops such as corn. Men, women, and children participated in the planting and havesting of crops, but women, children, and the elderly were responsible for tending the crops during the growing season. Trips away from the village were also necessary to hunt, gather wild plants, and collect materials to make houses and tools. Men were responsible for hunting, although, as with many of life's daily chores, cooperation of everyone was needed. Men and women butchered the animals, and women were responsible for preserving meat for the winter months and preparing food for meals. As much time was spent gathering wild plant foods as was spent on hunting. Women were responsible for gathering wild fruits, nuts, and plants, though children and men would have helped.The Monongahela, like people today, had to provide for basic needs such as shelter, clothing, and food. Daily life within the village included the upkeep of the houses, preparation of meals, making tools, mending clothing and broken tools, and spending time telling stories and playing games. They manufactured tools from stone, bone, clay, and wood. Households included:
 * grass/rush mats for sitting, drying food, etc.
 * animal skins for bedding
 * bark containers/pails
 * baskets for a variety of tasks
 * clay cooking and food storage pots
 * dried food
 * fishing gear
 * hunting tools
 * eating utensils, bowls, ladles, stirring paddles
 * woodworking tools
 * weapons
 * hide working tools
 * sewing kits
 * clothing and ornaments
 * toys and games
 * smoking pipes and tobacco
 * fire making kit
 * farming tools
 * **Where did they live?** The Monongahela lived in round, dome-shaped houses 9 feet to 30 feet in diameter. To build houses for shelter, they had special tools to cut the wood and dig holes in the ground to support the wood frames of the houses. They would have used stone axes to cut down small trees for house posts and sharp knives to trim the posts. The trees were put into the ground in a large circle with the tops bent over and tied. Archaeologists know this because of the patterns the rotted poles left in the ground. The houses were arranged in large circles to form a village. The center part was open for group or ceremonial activities. A large fence surrounded some villages to help protect against raids from unfriendly groups. The picture below shows you an example
 * **What did they eat?** The Monongahela had to hunt, gather, and grow their own food. Archaeologists look for remains of food when they excavate. Often, dirt samples are collected to take back to labs for processing because the food remains can be quite small and only seen under a microscope. Animal remains from Monongahela sites show that wild animals eaten were: deer, bear, rabbit, raccoon, opossum, fox, turkey, fish, and turtle. Wild plants included raspberry, blueberry, plum, strawberry, and nuts. Crops that were grown were corn, beans, squash, and sunflower.
 * **What did they wear?** Archaeologists don't know for sure what the Monongahela wore because clothing isn't preserved in the ground, but they can make some good guesses based on what the early Europeans saw when they came to the New World. Deer skins were probably the main form of clothing. To make their clothes, the Monongahela made sewing awls and needles from animal bones.
 * **What technology did they have?** They had stone tools, such as knives to cut up meat and animal hides. The process of making a stone tool is called flintknapping. First, they select a good rock that would chip nicely. To chip the stone, they would use other rocks called hammerstones, creating large flakes which could be fashioned into tools. Sometimes, they would use wood, antlers, or bone to further refine the edges of the tools. Clay pots were used for cooking and storage. They used clay and fired the pot in a pit or an open fire to make it hard and ready for use.
 * **Did they have a government?** Everyone in the village had a say in how the village was run. This is known because archaeologists have found that the houses were the same size and there were no differences in burials. Households controlled their own resources.
 * **What happened to the Monongahela?** No one knows exactly what happened to the Monongahela in the Meyersdale area. Further west in southwestern PA, the Monongahela culture lasted until around 1625 A.D. The Meyersdale Monongahela could have moved west and joined other Monongahela groups, or could have moved elsewhere and joined another Native American group.

__Creative Writing__: Imagine that you were a pioneer who came into Somerset County when the Monongahela were in the county. Write a creative paper about what you encountered, what you learned, and what the Monongahela were like. Also write what happened to them (end the mystery - create a story of what happened to the Monongahela). This is a creative writing. Your grade will be based on your writing (put into paragraph form with a topic sentence in each paragraph and the other sentences related to the topic sentence) and creativity.

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