American History: Beginnings to 1877: 1. The Early Americas and European Exploration, Lessons 1–2

During that time, thick sheets of ice, called glaciers, covered almost one third of the Earth.

Farmers no longer had to keep moving to find food. Instead, they stayed in one place and began building permanent settlements, or small communities.

In time, some farming communities in the Americas grew enough surplus, or extra, food to support large populations, and the first cities emerged.

A civilization is a society—or a people sharing a language, territory, and economy—that has certain basic features.

Among these are cities, an organized government, different social classes, a complex religion, and some method of record keeping.

A city-state is a political unit that controls a city and its surrounding land.

They constructed a system of causeways, or raised roads made of packed earth.

The runners carried with them a quipu. This was a cord or string with knots that stood for numbers or categories.

They became experts at creating terraces—or wide, flat steps of land—out of the steep mountainsides.

A culture is the entire way of life of a people. It includes their homes, clothing, economy, arts, and government.

The Anasazi built large buildings with walls of stone and adobe, or sundried brick.

When the Spanish later saw similar buildings in the early 1500s, they called them pueblos, the Spanish word for "villages."

The physical characteristics of the environment in each region influenced population distribution and settlement patters, or where American Indians lived, right up to modern times.

A culture region is a region in which people share a similar way of life.

A tribe is a community of people who share common customs, language, and rituals.

This process of spreading ideas from one culture to another is known as diffusion.

To improve its standing, a family might hold a potlatch, or a ceremonial dinner, to show off its wealth.

Their prayers and ceremonies were designed to maintain a balance between people and the forces of nature.

A clan is a group of related families.

According to legend, a religion leader named Dekanawida inspired Hiawatha to organize the alliance. It became the Iroquois League.