Native Americans
Native Americans
1. After the Archaic peoples (who lived 6000 BC to 100AD), there were five main Ancient Southwest groups who lived and dispersed before European explorers ever arrived. Who were these five groups? And what regions did they each live in?
Hohokam lived in the Sonoran Desert of Central and South Arizona; Salado lived in the Salt river Canyon in Eastern Arizona; Mogollon lived in the central and southern areas of Arizona and into New Mexico; Sinagua lived near Sunset Crate in Northern Arizona; and the Anasazi lived in Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico in the Four Corners region.
2. Did they all speak the same language? no
3. The earliest peoples in North America were nomadic - big game hunters during the Ice Age, followed then by nomadic hunters and gatherers. When the five groups emerged, what four developments made them different from their predecessors.
A. They settled in villages
B. They built permanent houses
C. They raised crops
D. They changed from the spear and atlatl to the bow and arrow
4. The Basketmakers were a transitional group living from 100-500AD in the Ancient Southwest. What did these Basketmakers trade for from tribes in Mexico that changed life in North American forever?
First they learned to grow corn and squash. Then beans from tribes in Mexico, and they also learned to make pottery,
5. By 500AD, the Basketmakers, ancestors of the Anasazi, began making three important innovations. What were they?
Permanent pit house dwellings, pottery, bow and arrows
6. Goods moved from Mexico to the five main groups in the Southwest – how did they know where to travel to trade?
Traders brought goods along trails worn by generations of traders, stopping at the major cities that were hubs on these roads. The Anasazi also built amazing 30 mile roads connecting their towns, and Paquime also had a road system.
7. Pottery was one of the most beautiful innovations of the Ancient Ones. Draw a Mimbres bowl and a black on red geometric pitcher on the reverse.
8. What is a kiva? How do you get into it? What is it used for?
A kiva is a partially underground meeting house used for ceremonies, dances, and town meetings. It is entered from the roof by a ladder.
9. Mesa Verde is famous for its large and small cliff dwelling sites. Draw a picture on the reverse of the Mesa Verde ruin you find the most interesting, including the rock arch and floor of the cliff as part of your drawing.
10. Chaco Canyon is also a large, impressive building site with many pueblos. Draw the floor plan of Pueblo Bonito on the reverse. How many rooms did it once have to hold mow many people?
Pueblo Bonito had 600 rooms plus 3 great kivas and 30 small kivas. It may have supported up to 6,000 people, but it is more likely it was a ceremonial center that saw large groups gather there several times a year.
11. Why do you think the Anasazi left their villages and towns? Where did they go? What new name is being given to them that is related to where they went?
There was a drought in the region that limited the water supply, made their crops fail, and it appears they moved towards the communities along the Rio Grande River inorder to maintain their agriculture and way of life. The new name is Ancestral Puebloans, reflecting their role as being the predecessors of today’s pueblo people.
12. If you could travel back in time to live in the Ancient Southwest, which people and place would you chose to live with – and why?
Dinosaurs and
Petrified Forests
1. What continents in the world have Dinosaurs been found on? Eurasia, Africa, North America
2. When was their ancient reign? 250 million-65million years ago
3. Name the states in the Southwest where dinosaur bones have been found:
California, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, also Texas and Baja California
4. Who finds dinosaur fossils? Scientists and amateurs out taking a walk
5. Name nine plant eating dinosaurs who lived in the Ancient Southwest:
Alamosaurus, Barosaurus, Diplodocus, Dryosaurus, Stegosaurus, Nanosaurus, Pentaceratops, Parasaurolophus, Brachiasaurus
6. Name three flesh eating dinosaurs who lived in the Ancient Southwest:
Alloasaurus, Segisaurus, Coelophysis
7. What type of dinosaur bones was first discovered in North America? When? And did this same type of dinosaur live in the Ancient Southwest?
Hadrosaurus were the first found in North America in 1858 and they are also found in the Southwest.
8. What are the largest and smallest dinosaurs found to date in the Southwest? How big were they?
Largest : Brachiosaurus, 75’ – 80’ long and 40’ tall
Smallest : Nanosaur. 12” tall and 2’ long
9. Who researches dinosaurs today and where do they work?
Paleontologists and Ichnologists work in the field, in laboratories, and in colleges and museums.
10. Where is the largest known accumulation of petrified logs in the world?
Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona
11. What events cause wood to petrify? Tell us the entire process.
Trees topple, logs are washed down stream in a storm, settle in a low area, are covered with mud. Then a volcanic explosion takes place and the silica in the ash seep into the water table. When the silica permeates the log’s cellulose fibers, it turns to hard crystal minerals.
12. What types of crystals formed in petrified trees in the Southwest?
Amethyst, jasper, and smoky quartz
Geology and Earth Sciences
1. Name the most famous canyon in the Southwest. What is its length and depth?
Grand Canyon is 277 miles long and 5,000 feet deep from rim to river at the bottom.
2. What natural forces formed this huge canyon, and how old is it?
Plate tectonics forced the land to rise when the Pacific plate slammed into the North American plate on the west coast. As the inland areas rose, they tilted and their streams turned into roaring rivers that eroded out deep canyons over millions of years.
3. In the Southwest there are unusual ancient red rock arches spanning hundreds of feet like rainbows, only touching the ground on either end. What are these arches made of? How are they formed? And where are they most commonly found?
The arches are most commonly found in Utah, but exist all over the Colorado Plateau. Some are caused by streams eroding out a mesa as they try to change course, carving a tunnel through a mesa until it erodes down to become and arch. Others are caused by wind and ice.
4. What minerals are mined in the Southwest? Are any dangerous?
Coal, uranium ( very dangerous), copper, turquoise and silver have been the most common minerals mined.
5. What and where is the Colorado Plateau?
This is the land raised to over a mile above sea level in the Four Corners area where Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico meet. In its are carved incredible rock formations and famous canyons.
6. Name the two main rivers in the Southwest and where they meet the sea:
The Colorado River meets the sea in the Gulf of California; the Rio Grande River meets the sea in the Gulf of Mexico
7. Ancient peoples watched the starry night sky and built stone calendars that helped them mark time. What types of stone calendars were made in the Ancient Southwest?
Rock art was sometimes carved or painted on a rock surface in a position where a beam of light would pierce cracks in the stone above and shine a dagger of light across the carved or painted rock art at certain times of the year. Other types of calendars were built into actual stone and adobe buildings where cracks let light into the structure where it would shine on certain locations on only certain days of the year.
8. What do scientists think the Ancient Ones measured with their calendars?
The change of the seasons measured by noting the sun’s position on the horizon at the Solstices; the cycle of the night sky that changes with the seasons; comets and eclipses.
9. Where is the Sonoran Desert?
Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico
10. What other deserts are in the Southwest, and where?
Chihuahua Desert is in Southern Mexico and Northern Mexico; Mojave Desert is in Southern California and Southern Nevada; Colorado Desert is a smaller desert along the southern border of California and into Baja California.
11. What was the Ancient Southwest climate like during the Age of the Dinosaurs?
Some areas were wet, tropical, and swampy, other areas were dry and desert like, and in-between areas had moderate rainfall.
12. How is it different today?
The moist tropical weather has disappeared, and along with it the plants and animals that need that moisture.
Southwest Artists And Plants
1. Look at the Southwest art works online, and then name five well-known 19th-20th century artists who painted the amazing landscapes of the Southwest.
Thomas Moran, Edgar Payne, Georgia O’Keefe, Taos Society
2. Photographers have also sought to capture the dramatic beauty of the Southwest. Look at their work online and name four photographers who helped the world better understand the human and physical life of the Southwest.
Edward Curtis, Ansel Adams, David Muench, Paul Strand
3. Draw on the reverse a copy of the painting or photograph you liked the best. What is it about that work that you like?
4. What is the earliest art form from the Ancient Southwest that can be hundreds of feet across, and is still visible today? Why do you think they made it?
Rock Art – petroglyphs and pictographs
5. What types of ancient arts and crafts are today’s Pueblos carrying into the future?
Pottery, baskets, jewelry, painted wood carvings
6. What do Navajo and Pueblo weavers obtain to make natural dyes for their weavings and which members of their tribes do what kind of weavings?
Plant leaves and roots, rocks and minerals, are used to color their yarn. Navajo women are weavers, and Hopi men are weavers.
7. Name the flower Georgia O’Keeffe painted that was an important part of special religious ceremonies and initiation rites for native Southwest peoples from California to New Mexico and down in to Mexico?
Jimson Weed
8. What types of trees did the Chaco Canyon builders use in their structures? Are there any of those trees left growing there today?
Ponderosa pines, Douglas fir and spruce from the distant mountains were hauled to Chaco Canyon from 30-60 miles away. None grow there today.
9. What plant has been used since ancient times for rope, shoes, basketry, nets and more?
Yucca
10. What prehistoric plants did the Ancient Ones gather for food?
Inland Southwest :
Fruits and pads of the cholla, saguaro and prickly pear cactus*
Beans and berries from mesquite and juniper*
Seeds and greens from pigweed, goosefoot, and tansy mustard
Pine Nuts*
Sage*
Coastal Southwest :
Jicama - a juicy root*
Chia seeds - from sage*
Islay - hollyleaf cherry
Indian milkweed - for chewing gum
Tule roots
Pine nuts*
Black Sage - leaves dried and used as an herb
Elderberry - ripe berries were eaten or made into a beverage
Lemonade Berry - berries made into a beverage similar to lemonade
Manzanita - berries were used to make cider or ground into flour
Miner's Lettuce - a succulent wild green that provides salad greens and a good source of vitamin C
Oak acorn - an important part of the diet of native North Americans and was the basic flour for cakes and soups
Prickly Pear Cactus - green paddle-like branches and fruit are edible*
Toyon - berries were dried and eaten like raisins
White Sage - leaves were dried and used as an herb and to make tea*
11. What wild plants do Native Southwest peoples eat today?
See plants above with * for most commonly eaten wild foods.
12. Writers as well as painters have worked to capture the mystery and beauty of the Ancient Southwest and Puebloan life today. Which of the American writer’s stories on Camp Internet did you enjoy reading the most? Why?
Southwest Animals and Legends
1. There are endangered animals struggling to survive in the Southwest. Name these animals and identify what threats they face.
A. What is the endangered four legged, spotted cat that is rarely seen in the Southwest?
Jaguar – shot at by cattle ranchers
B. What is the cloven hoofed, curved horn animal growing increasingly rare in the Southwest?
Big horn sheep – threatened by diseases from domesticated sheep herds
C. What animal that howls at night is endangered in the Southwest?
Grey Wolf
2. Name 15 mammals found all across the Southwest, including California and northern Mexico (write them on the back and draw a small sketch of each one):
Mountain lion, mule deer, skunk, bob cat, badger, bear, gray fox, coyote, porcupine, deer mouse, gopher, rock squirrel, black-tailed jack rabbit, cottontail rabbit, opossum.
3. What reptiles live in the Southwest?
Rattlesnakes, horned lizards, chuckwalla lizards, gila monster, toad, tortoise, collared lizard, frogs.