The Eastern Mound Builders

The earliest of the Eastern Mound Builder cultures were the Adena, who lived about 600 B.C.

They and the later Hopewell and Mississippian cultures built large earthwork mounds. These

were farming and trading cultures that lived alongside rivers.

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Early Civilizations of the AmericasSection 3: Cultures of North America

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People of the Southwest and Great Plains

Around A.D. 100, the Ancestral Puebloans began to build villages in the Southwest. They grew

food with the help of canals and dams and built pueblos to live in. They worshipped many spirits

and held ceremonies in kivas. The Plains Indians were farmers and bison hunters who lived in

temporary dwellings such as tipis.

Peoples of the Woodlands

Native Americans on the East and West Coasts were woodland peoples. Northwestern peoples

built totem poles as symbols of their wealth and heritage. The five Iroquois nations in the East

formed an alliance that served as a model for organized political systems to come.

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Early Civilizations of the AmericasSection 3: Cultures of North America

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