Video: Native American Tribes by Region

Native American Tribes by Region

There are many ways to divide our country. This map shows the land divided into the current state borders.

This map shows the time zones in the United States.

There are also different ways to divide America into regions, or geographical areas. Here is one way to divide the U.S. into regions.

Here is another map that divides the U.S. into just four regions.

As we study the Native Americans, we will look at our nation divided into these eight regions. Can you find which region you live in?

Let’s look at which Native American tribes lived in each region and in what type of homes.

The Northwest Coast region was home to the Chinook tribe. Tribe members were hunters, fishermen, and farmers.

The Chinook used the trees to build plank houses.

The Pomo and Chumash tribes called the California region home. These tribes were just like the tribe in the Northwest Coast region, but in addition to plank houses, they made houses from grass. The California tribes also traded the salt they gathered.

The Pomo and Chumash tribes lived in wigwams.

The Plateau region was home to the Yakima and Nez Perce tribes. These tribes fished salmon along the rivers. They were also nomadic hunters and followed the migration of the animals they hunted.

The Yakima tribe lived in teepees when following the bison.

The Nez Perce Tribe lived in longhouses during the winter.

This is the Great Basin region. This region is a hot desert, so the Shoshone, Paiute, and Ute tribes were nomadic hunters and gatherers. Some tribes followed the bison to the Great Plains region to hunt. Can you guess which home they lived in so they could easily pack up to follow the bison?

That’s right, a teepee.

The tribes living in the Great Plains region included the Sioux, Crow, Cheyenne, Pawnee, Arapaho, Comanche, and Chickawa. These tribes also packed up their teepees and followed the migrating bison.

The Southwest region was home to the Navajo, Pueblo, and Apache tribes who were mostly farmers, but some were also nomadic hunters.

Many of these tribes lived in pueblos or adobe homes made of clay, mud, and stones. Also, the Navajo tribe lived in hogans.

The Choctaw, Natchez, Cherokee, Creek, Powhatan, and Seminole tribes all lived in the Southeast region and farmed, fished, and hunted.

The Seminole tribe lived in homes known as chickees.

Several tribes called the Eastern Woodlands region home including the Miami, Shawnee, Massachuset, Pequot, Iroqois, and Lenape. These tribes hunted, gathered, farmed, fished, and trapped.

The Shawnee tribe lived in wigwams, and the Iroquois lived in longhouses.

Let’s review the names of these eight regions again. Repeat each name after me.
Northwest Coast
California
Plateau
Great Basin
Great Plains
Southwest
Southeast
Eastern Woodlands