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The First Americans
The First Americans 
These first Americans descended, or came from cave men of Asia. 
These were the first people to live in North America. That is why 
we call them Native Americans. 
http://sciencestage.com/v/6156/the-great-native-american-civilizations.html
Cultural Regions of North America 
Cultural Regions
Northwest Coast: 
Environment, Food, and Shelter 
• Indians of the Northwest Coast lived 
between the ocean and rugged 
mountain ranges. It was what is today 
the states of Washington, Oregon, 
and northern California. 
• The growing season was short, and the 
climate was too wet for much 
agriculture. 
• There were plenty of fish, especially 
salmon. There were also deer and 
bears. 
• There was lots of wood to build houses 
and to make tools. 
• People traveled by water. 
• Northwest Coast Indians traveled 
in dugouts, or boats made from 
large, hollowed out logs. 
Northwest Coast
The Chinooks 
• Chinook 
– Best known traders 
– Lived near the coast 
– to one another. 
– Chinooks held potlaches 
which were celebrations to 
show off wealth. They would 
give gifts to people to exhibit 
this 
Northwest Coast 
The Makahs 
Makahs 
Whales were plentiful along the Northwest 
Coast. 
The Makahs built canoes to hunt the whales 
at sea. 
Makahs made wooden harpoons-long spears 
with sharp shell points-for whale hunting. 
Every part of the whale was used. The skin 
and meat were eaten, the blubber , or fat, 
was used for oil, and the tendons were used 
to make rope.
Southwest 
• The climate of the Southwest is very dry or arid. 
• Much of the land in the southwest is desert. 
• The Southwest has fierce heat during the day 
and sharp cold at night. 
• The Southwest has very few animals because of 
the desert. 
Southwest
Hopis 
• Hopi means “Peaceful One” 
• The Hopis lived in Pueblos-adobe 
houses of many rooms next to or 
on top of one another. 
• The early Hopi’s lived in present 
day Arizona. 
• Most of their villages were built 
on top of mesas. 
The Navajos lived in houses called 
hogans. A hogan was a cone shaped 
frame covered with mud or grass. 
Navajos built their hogans in small, family 
size groups, miles apart from one 
another. 
Southwest 
Navajos 
The Navajos settled in the area of the 
Southwest known as the Four Corners. The 
Four Corners is where the four states of 
Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado 
meet. 
The early Navajos were nomads. They often 
attacked the Hopis and stole their supplies.
Kachinas 
Kachinas were Hopi spirits or gods 
which lived within the mountains. 
These spirits were called on to 
bring rain, make crops grow, heal 
the sick, or find animals to hunt. 
• Hopi Kachinas talked to the gods by singing and dancing, 
like for rain. 
• The Hopis’s made Kachina figures representing the spirits 
and used them to teach children about tribal religious 
beliefs. 
Southwest
Great Plains 
• Indians known as The Plains lived in the Great Plains. 
• Buffalo was the most important natural resource of the 
Plains Indians. 
• Indians of the Great Plains lived in tepees. 
• The Plains Indians were hunters. 
• Buffalo provided these Indians with their basic needs, 
food, clothing, and shelter. 
Great Plains
Cheyennes 
• The Cheyennes lived in 
settled villages of earthen 
lodges and birchbark 
wigwams. 
• Later they became more 
nomadic to follow the 
buffalo and built temporary 
teepees that could be easily 
moved. 
Great Plains 
The Cheyennes were 
originally farming people, 
with the women harvesting 
corn, squash, and beans 
while the men hunted deer 
and buffalo 
Kiowas 
-The Kiowas were nomads and moved 
about the Great Plains. 
-They were one of the poorest of the 
Native peoples and used sign 
language. 
-They could not farm because the roots 
of the grass made it too difficult to 
break the ground with a digging stick. 
-The Kiowas built a cone shaped tent. 
They used wooden poles that were 
fastened in a circle and covered with 
buffalo skin. This is called a teepee.
Eastern Woodlands 
• The Eastern Woodlands region covered the east coast of 
what is today known as the United States, west to the 
Mississippi River 
• Because these Indians lived in the forests, they were 
called the Eastern Woodland Indians. 
Eastern Woodlands
The Iroquois 
• The Cherokees lived in the 
river valleys of the Southern 
Appalachian Mountains. 
• Cherokees were farmers and 
hunters. 
• Several families of the same 
clans shared the same 
house. 
Eastern Woodlands 
• The Iroquois were not one 
tribe, but a group of five 
tribes that lived near each 
other and spoke similar 
languages. 
• The five Iroquois were the 
Seneca, Cayuga, 
Onondaga, Oneida, and 
Mohawk. They fought each 
other sometimes. 
• In 1570, the five tribes formed 
the Iroquois league. This 
league was formed because 
the Indians were tired of 
fighting and wanted to work 
together. 
The Cherokees
Clothing 
Leggings 
Beaded 
armor 
Moccasins 
Women’s 
dress 
War shirt 
Longshirt 
http://www.nativetech.org/clothing/regions 
/regions.html
Types of Moccasins
Hairstyles 
Women’s Hairstyles 
Men’s Hairstyles
Indian Headdresses 
Native 
American 
warbonnets 
were important 
ceremonial 
regalia worn 
only by chiefs 
and warriors. 
Also, only men 
wore 
warbonnets 
Trailing Headdress Halo Headdress Straight up 
Battle Roach Buffalo warbonnet Sioux buffalo headdress Headdresses 
were more 
ceremonial, 
Warbonnets as 
well for 
declaring war, 
Roachs were 
more often 
worn to battle
Native American 
Homes Pueblo, Hopi, Southwest 
Longhouse, Chinook, 
Northwest 
Teepee, Kiowas, Plains 
Longhouse, Iroquois, Eastern 
Woodland 
Cherokee Village, Eastern 
Woodland 
Hogan, Navajo, Southwest
Native americans ppt
Totem Poles 
• Outside the houses of Northwestern 
Indians stood a wooden pole called 
a totem pole. Each totem pole was 
beautifully carved with shapes of 
people and animals. The carvings 
showed each family’s history and 
importance.
Food 
• Ways to get food: 
• 1) Hunting and Fishing 
• 2)Gathering 
• 3) Agriculture/farming 
• 4)Raising domesticated animals
Hunting and Fishing
Agriculture/Farming/gathering 
Other foods that 
could be found 
naturally in the 
Americas were eggs, 
honey, maple syrup 
and sugar, salt, nuts 
(including peanuts, 
pine nuts, cashews, 
hickory nuts, and 
acorns,) fruit 
(including 
cranberries, 
strawberries, 
blueberries, 
raspberries, 
chokecherries, wild 
plums, and 
persimmons), and a 
wide variety of 
beans, roots, and 
greens. 
The three sisters: 
Beans, corn, 
squash
Native American Weapons 
1) 2) 3) 4) 
1)Bow and Arrow, 
2)Spear 
3)Plains Indian war 
club 
4)Axe 
5)Tomahawk 
6)Coup Sticks 
7)Knife 
5) 6) 7)
“Americanization” 
• - Due to misinformation about the Native’s ways, the Anglo 
people felt the Indians were savage and should be 
Americanized. 
• Political leaders including President Thomas Jefferson believed 
that the Indians should be civilized, which meant converting 
them to Christianity and turning them into farmers. 
• - Native Americans had to leave their traditional ways and 
build European-style homes and farmsteads, develop a 
written language (called “Talking Leaves”), and establish a 
newspaper. 
• - Some tribes of Indians were forced to give up their native 
names and language. Children were forced to go to 
American schools to learn about the “white culture”. 
• - Native Americans were not given protection under US law 
and land could be seized from them at any time.
Removal of Native 
Americans 
• - In 1830, when Americanization did not happen quickly enough, Congress 
passed the Indian Removal Act. 
• - It was rumored that gold was found in the southeastern states on Native 
land. 
• - The removal of some 90,000 Indians to Oklahoma became known as “The 
Trail of Tears”. 
• In the fall of 1838, US Army troops began to round up the Cherokee Indians 
and forcefully moved then into stockades in North Carolina, Georgia, 
Alabama, and Tennessee. 
• The Cherokee were loaded into 645 wagons and started towards the west. 
• - There was little food for the people along the trail. 
• - There were snowstorms with freezing temperatures. The Cherokee had to 
sleep outside or in the wagons with no fire for heat. Many would die due to 
lack of food, ill treatment, cold, and exposure. 
• - Mortality rates for the entire removal were substantial, totaling 
approximately 8,000.
The Trail of Tears
The Trail of Tears 
Robert Lindneux,1942
Native Americans today 
• Native Americans have a special status in the US. 
• Blood Quantum or Indian blood laws are the laws that define you as Native 
American. These percentages to qualify for certain tribes very by tribe. 
• If you can prove you have Native American descent, you can qualify for 
certain federal benefits or educational grants 
• There are reservations, land especially for Native American tribes. 
• On these reservations the Tribal Council has jurisdiction. 
• Indian reservations are known for their casinos, which attract tourists along 
with cultural and traditional aspects of Native American life 
http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Video.aspx? 
VideoID=43767&CategoryID=863
Native americans ppt
The origins of Thanksgiving 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL9HrFIedtg 
In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, 
England, carrying about 102 passengers—an assortment of religious 
separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith 
and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership 
in the New World. 
After 66 days, the pilgrims hit land in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, then one 
month later, they made it to Plymouth, where they settled. 
After the first winter there, only half of the pilgrims lived due to cold and 
diseases. 
In March, they were visited by an Abenaki Indian who spoke English. He 
brought with him a former captured slave Squanto. 
Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to 
cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and 
avoid poisonous plants. 
In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, 
the Governer invited a group of the Native Americans to a celebratory 
feast, now remembered as America’s first Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving today 
• In 1941, President Roosevelt made Thanksgiving a federal 
holiday. 
• The main event of any Thanksgiving is the Thanksgiving dinner. 
• It is traditional to have baked or roasted turkey. This is usually 
accompanied with mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, fall 
vegetables, cranberry sauce, and gravy. Pumpkin pie is the 
most commonly eaten dessert. 
• The Thanksgiving holiday weekend is one of the busiest times of 
the year for traveling. It is a four-day or five-day weekend 
vacation for most schools and colleges, and many businesses 
and government workers get three or four days off. 
• Thanksgiving is also the unofficial signal for Christmas 
preparations to begin. Once Thanksgiving finishes, stores fill their 
shelves with Christmas goods.
Traditional 
Thanksgiving 
Spread 
Turkey 
Mashed Potatoes 
Sweet Potatoes with 
Marshmallows 
Stuffing 
Cranberry Sauce 
Cornbread/Biscuits 
Green Beans 
Squash 
Cider 
Pumpkin Pie

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Native americans ppt

  • 2. The First Americans These first Americans descended, or came from cave men of Asia. These were the first people to live in North America. That is why we call them Native Americans. http://sciencestage.com/v/6156/the-great-native-american-civilizations.html
  • 3. Cultural Regions of North America Cultural Regions
  • 4. Northwest Coast: Environment, Food, and Shelter • Indians of the Northwest Coast lived between the ocean and rugged mountain ranges. It was what is today the states of Washington, Oregon, and northern California. • The growing season was short, and the climate was too wet for much agriculture. • There were plenty of fish, especially salmon. There were also deer and bears. • There was lots of wood to build houses and to make tools. • People traveled by water. • Northwest Coast Indians traveled in dugouts, or boats made from large, hollowed out logs. Northwest Coast
  • 5. The Chinooks • Chinook – Best known traders – Lived near the coast – to one another. – Chinooks held potlaches which were celebrations to show off wealth. They would give gifts to people to exhibit this Northwest Coast The Makahs Makahs Whales were plentiful along the Northwest Coast. The Makahs built canoes to hunt the whales at sea. Makahs made wooden harpoons-long spears with sharp shell points-for whale hunting. Every part of the whale was used. The skin and meat were eaten, the blubber , or fat, was used for oil, and the tendons were used to make rope.
  • 6. Southwest • The climate of the Southwest is very dry or arid. • Much of the land in the southwest is desert. • The Southwest has fierce heat during the day and sharp cold at night. • The Southwest has very few animals because of the desert. Southwest
  • 7. Hopis • Hopi means “Peaceful One” • The Hopis lived in Pueblos-adobe houses of many rooms next to or on top of one another. • The early Hopi’s lived in present day Arizona. • Most of their villages were built on top of mesas. The Navajos lived in houses called hogans. A hogan was a cone shaped frame covered with mud or grass. Navajos built their hogans in small, family size groups, miles apart from one another. Southwest Navajos The Navajos settled in the area of the Southwest known as the Four Corners. The Four Corners is where the four states of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado meet. The early Navajos were nomads. They often attacked the Hopis and stole their supplies.
  • 8. Kachinas Kachinas were Hopi spirits or gods which lived within the mountains. These spirits were called on to bring rain, make crops grow, heal the sick, or find animals to hunt. • Hopi Kachinas talked to the gods by singing and dancing, like for rain. • The Hopis’s made Kachina figures representing the spirits and used them to teach children about tribal religious beliefs. Southwest
  • 9. Great Plains • Indians known as The Plains lived in the Great Plains. • Buffalo was the most important natural resource of the Plains Indians. • Indians of the Great Plains lived in tepees. • The Plains Indians were hunters. • Buffalo provided these Indians with their basic needs, food, clothing, and shelter. Great Plains
  • 10. Cheyennes • The Cheyennes lived in settled villages of earthen lodges and birchbark wigwams. • Later they became more nomadic to follow the buffalo and built temporary teepees that could be easily moved. Great Plains The Cheyennes were originally farming people, with the women harvesting corn, squash, and beans while the men hunted deer and buffalo Kiowas -The Kiowas were nomads and moved about the Great Plains. -They were one of the poorest of the Native peoples and used sign language. -They could not farm because the roots of the grass made it too difficult to break the ground with a digging stick. -The Kiowas built a cone shaped tent. They used wooden poles that were fastened in a circle and covered with buffalo skin. This is called a teepee.
  • 11. Eastern Woodlands • The Eastern Woodlands region covered the east coast of what is today known as the United States, west to the Mississippi River • Because these Indians lived in the forests, they were called the Eastern Woodland Indians. Eastern Woodlands
  • 12. The Iroquois • The Cherokees lived in the river valleys of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. • Cherokees were farmers and hunters. • Several families of the same clans shared the same house. Eastern Woodlands • The Iroquois were not one tribe, but a group of five tribes that lived near each other and spoke similar languages. • The five Iroquois were the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk. They fought each other sometimes. • In 1570, the five tribes formed the Iroquois league. This league was formed because the Indians were tired of fighting and wanted to work together. The Cherokees
  • 13. Clothing Leggings Beaded armor Moccasins Women’s dress War shirt Longshirt http://www.nativetech.org/clothing/regions /regions.html
  • 15. Hairstyles Women’s Hairstyles Men’s Hairstyles
  • 16. Indian Headdresses Native American warbonnets were important ceremonial regalia worn only by chiefs and warriors. Also, only men wore warbonnets Trailing Headdress Halo Headdress Straight up Battle Roach Buffalo warbonnet Sioux buffalo headdress Headdresses were more ceremonial, Warbonnets as well for declaring war, Roachs were more often worn to battle
  • 17. Native American Homes Pueblo, Hopi, Southwest Longhouse, Chinook, Northwest Teepee, Kiowas, Plains Longhouse, Iroquois, Eastern Woodland Cherokee Village, Eastern Woodland Hogan, Navajo, Southwest
  • 19. Totem Poles • Outside the houses of Northwestern Indians stood a wooden pole called a totem pole. Each totem pole was beautifully carved with shapes of people and animals. The carvings showed each family’s history and importance.
  • 20. Food • Ways to get food: • 1) Hunting and Fishing • 2)Gathering • 3) Agriculture/farming • 4)Raising domesticated animals
  • 22. Agriculture/Farming/gathering Other foods that could be found naturally in the Americas were eggs, honey, maple syrup and sugar, salt, nuts (including peanuts, pine nuts, cashews, hickory nuts, and acorns,) fruit (including cranberries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, chokecherries, wild plums, and persimmons), and a wide variety of beans, roots, and greens. The three sisters: Beans, corn, squash
  • 23. Native American Weapons 1) 2) 3) 4) 1)Bow and Arrow, 2)Spear 3)Plains Indian war club 4)Axe 5)Tomahawk 6)Coup Sticks 7)Knife 5) 6) 7)
  • 24. “Americanization” • - Due to misinformation about the Native’s ways, the Anglo people felt the Indians were savage and should be Americanized. • Political leaders including President Thomas Jefferson believed that the Indians should be civilized, which meant converting them to Christianity and turning them into farmers. • - Native Americans had to leave their traditional ways and build European-style homes and farmsteads, develop a written language (called “Talking Leaves”), and establish a newspaper. • - Some tribes of Indians were forced to give up their native names and language. Children were forced to go to American schools to learn about the “white culture”. • - Native Americans were not given protection under US law and land could be seized from them at any time.
  • 25. Removal of Native Americans • - In 1830, when Americanization did not happen quickly enough, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act. • - It was rumored that gold was found in the southeastern states on Native land. • - The removal of some 90,000 Indians to Oklahoma became known as “The Trail of Tears”. • In the fall of 1838, US Army troops began to round up the Cherokee Indians and forcefully moved then into stockades in North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. • The Cherokee were loaded into 645 wagons and started towards the west. • - There was little food for the people along the trail. • - There were snowstorms with freezing temperatures. The Cherokee had to sleep outside or in the wagons with no fire for heat. Many would die due to lack of food, ill treatment, cold, and exposure. • - Mortality rates for the entire removal were substantial, totaling approximately 8,000.
  • 26. The Trail of Tears
  • 27. The Trail of Tears Robert Lindneux,1942
  • 28. Native Americans today • Native Americans have a special status in the US. • Blood Quantum or Indian blood laws are the laws that define you as Native American. These percentages to qualify for certain tribes very by tribe. • If you can prove you have Native American descent, you can qualify for certain federal benefits or educational grants • There are reservations, land especially for Native American tribes. • On these reservations the Tribal Council has jurisdiction. • Indian reservations are known for their casinos, which attract tourists along with cultural and traditional aspects of Native American life http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Video.aspx? VideoID=43767&CategoryID=863
  • 30. The origins of Thanksgiving https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL9HrFIedtg In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying about 102 passengers—an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World. After 66 days, the pilgrims hit land in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, then one month later, they made it to Plymouth, where they settled. After the first winter there, only half of the pilgrims lived due to cold and diseases. In March, they were visited by an Abenaki Indian who spoke English. He brought with him a former captured slave Squanto. Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, the Governer invited a group of the Native Americans to a celebratory feast, now remembered as America’s first Thanksgiving.
  • 31. Thanksgiving today • In 1941, President Roosevelt made Thanksgiving a federal holiday. • The main event of any Thanksgiving is the Thanksgiving dinner. • It is traditional to have baked or roasted turkey. This is usually accompanied with mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, fall vegetables, cranberry sauce, and gravy. Pumpkin pie is the most commonly eaten dessert. • The Thanksgiving holiday weekend is one of the busiest times of the year for traveling. It is a four-day or five-day weekend vacation for most schools and colleges, and many businesses and government workers get three or four days off. • Thanksgiving is also the unofficial signal for Christmas preparations to begin. Once Thanksgiving finishes, stores fill their shelves with Christmas goods.
  • 32. Traditional Thanksgiving Spread Turkey Mashed Potatoes Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows Stuffing Cranberry Sauce Cornbread/Biscuits Green Beans Squash Cider Pumpkin Pie