The Southeast Cultural Region was populated for over ten thousand years before the arrival of Europeans. The Indigenous peoples of this region benefited from the warm climate, and developed sophisticated methods of farming and complex societies with diverse languages and customs.
The beginning of all human societies and the development of their communities, traditions, technologies, and cultures were influenced by the environment in which they lived.
In this activity, outline the environment and culture of the Southeastern Cultural Region of the United States
Storyboard Text
LOCATION
ENVIRONMENT
NATURAL RESOURCES
FIRST NATIONS
Runs south from the Ohio River Valley to the Gulf of Mexico and east from Texas to the Atlantic Ocean. Includes South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and parts of Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas.
Diverse terrain of marshes, swamps, wetlands, flat land, forests, mountains, river valleys, and the coastline. Climate is hot and humid in the summer, mild in the winter with about 60 inches of rain annually.
Vegetation include palmetto, pine, cypress trees, giant ferns, and sawgrass. Animals include possums, deer, panthers, bear, snakes, flamingos, alligators, shellfish, dolphins, and manatees. Staple crops were tobacco, corn, beans, squash, sunflowers.
HOMES
The First Nations of the Southeast include the Cherokee, Catawba, Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Natchez people.
TRADITIONS
NATIVE AMERICANS OF THE SOUTHEAST
CLOTHES AND TRANSPORTATION
Chickees were homes with a log framed open structure, raised off the ground and a roof of palm or palmetto thatching. Other areas had permanent homes made of wood, cane, mud, and straw and were circular with cone shaped roofs.
Animism is the belief that animals, plants, and nature have spirits like humans and must be treated with respect. The Green Corn Festival is a sacred celebration honoring the harvest. Thanks and prayers are given to the Great Spirit.
Clothing was made from deerskin. Feathers were worn as decoration. Deer-hide leggings protect from sharp sawgrass and mosquitoes. Flat-bottomed canoes were carved from logs and could glide through the shallow, marshy swamps.