LESSON
5
KEY
WORDS
F
OCUS
Q
UESTIONS
:
1. Who were the early Native American tribes in Pennsylvania and where
were they located in our region?
2. How did the Native American tribes in Pennsylvania govern themselves?
3. What were the Native American homes and villages like?
4. How did the Native American tribes live, travel, and worship in Pennsylvania?
5. What were themain roles of men, women, and children among Native
Americans?
6. What was themain contribution of Native
American trails tomodern society?
N
ATIVE
A
MERICAN
I
NHABITANTS OF
P
ENNSYLVANIA
Their Arrival
Long before European settlers came to what is now Pennsylvania,
the earliest inhabitants were Native American tribes. Some historians
believe these tribes came to North America fromAsia by means of an
ice bridgemore than 12,000 years ago. At this time, a good part of
North America was covered with a huge, melting glacier. The Native
Americans probably were not aware that they had entered a different
continent. They hunted animals and slowly spread across the
continents of North and South America over thousands of years.
When the American Indian tribesmigrated to our area, they did
not call their home Pennsylvania. By 1600, there were about 15,000
Native Americans living in our state. It is very difficult to describe how
our state’s first inhabitants lived because they did not keep written
records. However, historians and
archaeologists
have pieced together
a puzzle of what life was like for the Native American tribes. When the
first explorers and European settlers arrived, there were two large
groups of Native Americans living in Pennsylvania. Interestingly, these
groups were classified according to the language they spoke. One
large group was called the Algonquians. The other large group was
known as the Iroquois. Both of these groups included several tribes
that lived in different parts of Pennsylvania. Look at themap on page
23 to see which tribe spoke which language.
Their Locations
Themap on page 23 shows the approximate locations of the
Native American tribes living in Pennsylvania at the time of the
arrival of the European settlers. The powerful Iroquois nation of
tribes was locatedmainly in New York state and the Great Lakes
region, but they were spreading into Pennsylvania.
archaeologists
clans
council
Iroquois Confederacy
tribal council
wigwam
sweat houses
longhouse
loincloths
bartering
exchange
wampumbelt
canoe
Many historians
believeNative
Americans crossed a
land bridge fromAsia
intoNorthAmerica
more than 12,000
years ago. They
believe the land
bridge connected
northeasternRussia to
Alaska across the
Bering Strait
22
Understanding Pennsylvania
