|
| 09 Oct 2013 05:28 PM |
Section 1.2 The Land The Americans Settled
Two Vast Continents
The two huge continents that the Indians settled were lands of vast resources and amazing beauty. The Native American Tribes spread out; members of each family, language group, and nation moved to a different area until they reached every corner of the New World—from near the Arctic Ocean of North America to the southern tip of South America. These people were spread from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Atlantic Ocean in the east. Each tribe or group created its own unique culture, or way of life. The way the Indians lived—by hunting, fishing, raising animals, farming, and so on—depended largely on the part of America to which they migrated.
North America: Land Of Plenty
Many Indians stayed in North America, the third largest continent. North America is over nine million square miles in area and extends over 5,000 miles from north to south. This massive continent was connected to South America by a narrow strip of land called the Isthmus of Panama. The isthmus is the narrowest part of the Americas—at one place it is only about 30 miles wide!
North America is noted for its high Rocky Mountains in the west, the low Appalachian Mountains in the east, and the Great Plains that lie between. Alaska’s Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in North America, has an altitude of 20,320 feet above sea level. East of the Rocky Mountains, the plains region lies well above sea level and yet it is very flat. Gently and gradually, the plains slope down toward the east until they reach two great low-land areas, one around cold Hudson Bay in the north and the other around the warm Gulf of Mexico in the south. Hudson Bay is the world’s largest bay, and the Gulf of Mexico is the world’s largest gulf. The Mississippi River, North America’s longest river, provides hundreds of miles of waterway from its beginnings near the Canadian-American border to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico.
Greenland, the world’s largest island, lies northeast of the continent between the frigid North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean. Green-land is about one third the size of Australia, the smallest continent, and it is almost completely covered by ice.
The farther south one travels in North America, the warmer the weather becomes. South of what is now the United States, across the Rio Grande (“large river”), some of the Indians settled in Mexico a land marked by mountains, canyons, a high central plateau, and two large peninsulas California and the Yacatan. Mexico has deserts, tropical rain forests, cold mountain areas, and everything in between. The most famous Indian who lived in Mexico were the Aztecs.
Part 1. |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|