Chapter 4
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59
Native American Tribes in
Pennsylvania: Part 1
L E S S O N 1 1
Key Questions
1. Fromwhat continent did the
Native Americansmigrate?
2. What are the people called
that dig up old remains of a
culture?
3. Why did these people have a
hard time telling howNative
Americans lived?
4. Uponwhat basis were the
Native Americans grouped?
5. Whowere themain tribes of
Native Americans in our state
by 1600?
6. What is one difference
between the governments of
the Algonquins and Iroquois?
KeyWords
migrate
tribes
archeologists
Algonquins
Iroquois
clans
council
Key Events
Stone Age
Ice Age
Their Migration
Y
ou have studied about how birds and
other animals migrate to different
places.
Migrate
means tomove from
one region or location to another. Many
historians think that Native American
tribes
migrated from the continent of Asia
more than 12,000 years ago. Then, the
climate was colder on Earth. This time was
called the
Ice Age
. It is thought that the
tribes crossed into North America bymeans
of a land bridge (which really could have
been an ice bridge or glacier).
During the Ice Age, North America and
Asia were covered by huge glaciers. Over
thousands of years, the tribes migrated.
They hunted animals and slowly spread
throughout North and South America. At
first, the Native Americans lived as roving
hunters. However, they slowly changed as
they settled regions. They began to farm
and build villages.
We now call the first people who settled
our continent Native Americans. However,
for many years they were called Indians.
Where did thename Indians come from? In
1492, Christopher Columbus was trying to
find a sea route fromEurope to India.When
he first landed on an island in the
Caribbean Sea, he thought he had reached
India. He called the native people Indians!
That name stuck with the first people of
