Name _____________________
Chapter 2
Native Americans
Eastern Woodland Indians of South Carolina
Standard 8-1: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the settlement of South Carolina and the United States by
Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans.
Indicator 1 Summarize the collective and individual aspects of the Native American culture of the Eastern Woodlands tribal
group, including the Catawba, Cherokee, and Yemassee.
VOCABULARY
 Flora Fauna Culture Palisade Wigwam Longhouse Wattle and Daub Dug out canoe Red Leader White Leader Yemassee Catawba CherokeePage 1 of 10
The Culture of the Eastern Woodland Natives
1. What Native American
group were the Indians of
SC a part of?
2. What shaped the lives of
the Native Americans?
Native American nations of North America were divided
into regional groups based on where people lived and the
languages that they spoke.
The Native Americans that inhabited the land that is now SC
were the _________________________________. They
were named this because they lived on the _____________
Coast of the continent and were
___________________________dwellers.
Like all Indian tribes, they were affected by the
________________________ of the region in which they
lived. This helped to shape their _____________________,
political systems and daily life.
The Eastern Woodland region provided these tribes with
abundant _____________________, ________________
(plants), and _________________________ (animal life).
3. Other than drinking and as
a food source, why were
rivers important?
Rivers were key to their culture for obvious reasons such as
fishing and drinking water, but were also important because
river __________________________was a much more
efficient method of transportation than foot travel.
4. What did Native Americans All things they used had to come from the
use as resources?
__________________________________ around them, so
they had to be creative and use all available resources to
create the necessities in life.
5. Why did the early Native
Americans not have metal?
6. How were dugout canoes
made?
They used ________________________,
______________________, __________________, and
_______________________ to create tools and weapons.
The earliest Native Americans in our area did not have any
________________________ tools until the arrival of the
_________________________ in the 1500’s. Animal pelts
were used for clothing, blankets and at times, shelter.
Dugout canoes were built using tree __________________
that were hollowed out using fire and stone tools.
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Farming and Hunting
7. The first Native Americans
were nomads~ What
brought them here?
The first Native Americans were __________________
who arrived in the area after following large herds of bison
and wooly mammoth. As these herds either left the area or
became extinct, the tribes had to develop different food
sources. The land was fertile, with rolling hills and clay soil,
8. When the large herds of
which allowed the people of the Eastern Woodlands to
animals disappeared, what
develop ____________________________. This is a
developed to provide food? simple concept to you, but it took them quite a while to
make the connection between seed and plant.
9. How did farming change
their way of life?
10. What 2 daily chores were
women typically
responsible for?
11. Name the crops they relied
on.
Once they learned to farm, they settled into more
________________________villages and were able to
develop more complex _________________________
which included art, dress, ceremony, song, stories, dance,
traditions, food, etc.
Women primarily were the _______________________ in
the tribes, but they also _____________________fruits and
nuts from the forest. Their primary crops were corn, pole
beans, and squash, (known as the
“_____________________________________”),
pumpkins, and bottle gourds. They developed ways to plant
these together using the corn stalks as poles for the beans.
They also grew _____________________which would be
sought after by the Europeans when they arrived.
12. What main daily task were
men responsible for?
While the women were working in the fields, most of the
tribe’s men were ________________________. Using
bows and arrows made of stone the men provided the meat
for the people of the village.
13. How did the Eastern
Woodland Indians feel
about land ownership?
The nation worked the land together and did not have a
sense of ____________________ ownership of the land,
believing instead that the land was held in trust by tribal
groups and should be ______________________.
14. What were the purposes of
slashing and burning?
They respected the land, but still used it to provide their
needs. They cut trees and burned the brush to clear land for
farmland, to kill insects, or to drive out animals to hunt more
efficiently. This is called __________________ and
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________________________ agriculture.
15. Be able to give example of
how environment effected
the Native Americans lives.
16. What language group were
the Eastern Woodlands a
part of?
Tribes of the Eastern Woodlands
There were many Eastern Woodlands tribes in South
Carolina. Each had specific ways of living depending upon
where they lived. Obviously a tribe along the coast would
rely on ______________________ more than a tribe that
was 200 miles inland.
All of the South Carolina tribes shared the
______________________language and preserved their
history through the oral tradition of
____________________. These stories are one of the
_____________________ that help historians study these
ancient people.
There were hundreds of tribes in SC, but the three most
important were the ________________________, the
____________________________, and the
_______________________.
17. Where in SC did the
Yemassee settle?
Yemassee
The Yemassee nation was originally from Spanish Florida
but later moved to the coast of South Carolina near the
mouth of the ____________________________________
to escape the Spanish governor.
18. Why do you think the
During the _____________________ the people lived on
Yemassee had two different the _______________________ in wigwams covered with
home sites?
palmetto leaves which were plentiful in the area. During the
fall, winter, and spring they lived farther inland in
_________________ and _________________ homes
with a roof of palmetto leaves.
19. What was a wattle and
daub home made from?
______________________ and _______________ was a
method in which branches were _________________
together to make a __________________called the wattle.
The ________________ was a mixture of
_______________ and ____________________ which
would then be smeared onto the mat and attached to a
wooden frame.
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20. How did the ocean affect
the culture of the
Yemessee?
21. Why did the Yemessee
have the earliest contact
and conflict with the
Europeans?
22. What was the end result of
this contact?
23. How did women play a
role in the conflict between
Europeans and Native
Americans?
24. Where did the Catawba
people live?
25. What were their homes
called?
They relied on hunting and farming, but also had the
____________________ to harvest from.
_________________ and ______________________ were
a large part of their diet.
Since they lived along the ____________________, the
Yemassee were some of the _________________ Native
Americans to have contact with the
______________________. This contact often resulted in
conflict which most often involved _________________
issues and would end in a war called the
______________________ War. After the Yemassee War,
the tribe fled back to ________________________ for
safety.
The Yemassee tribe was ruled by a tribal council that
sometimes included __________________. Along with
many other reasons for conflict, the Native Americans
respect for women would become a problem for the
Europeans who held ____________________________
for women in their culture.
Catawba
The Catawba tribe, who called themselves the “river people”
lived along the rivers of the __________________ region in
the middle of the state. Their villages were surrounded by a
___________________.
Their homes were wigwams made of sapling frames covered
with bark or mats made of ____________________and
reeds.
The Catawba also had council houses in their villages where
leaders made the rules for the people.
26. What area of culture were
the Catawba tribe known
for?
The Catawba were great _______________________,
using _________________ they found in the earth that
they shaped into pots.
27. What is unique about the
Catawba tribe today?
The Catawba are the only tribe to actually have a
__________________________in the state of SC today.
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28. Where is SC did the
Cherokee live?
29. Why did the arrival of the
Europeans not affect the
Cherokee until later in SC
history?
Cherokee
The Cherokee nation lived in the foothills and
_______________________of SC. At the time of the
encounter with the Europeans, since they lived
_____________________ of miles
____________________, they had very
_________________ early contact with the each other.
It would not be until the 1700’s when the Cherokee would
become a major concern to the Europeans.
30. The Cherokee were one of
the ______________ and
most ________________
nations.
The Cherokee called themselves ‘the real people’ and were a
_________________________ and
____________________ nation.
31. What were their homes
often made of?
Their summer homes were open to the air and their winter
homes were round structures made with
________________________ and ________________.
32. What was the difference
between the White leader
and the Red leader?
33. What did the Europeans
want from the Native
Americans?
34. What did the Native
Americans want from the
Europeans?
They lived in villages of up to six hundred people
surrounded by a palisade for protection, but there were
_______________________of Cherokee villages.
The men fished by _____________________the water with
walnut bark. This ________________________ the fish
and made them rise in the water to be gathered.
Leaders of the village, including women, met as a council to
make rules for the nation. In times of peace, the village was
led by a ____________________ leader; in times of war,
the __________________ leader took over. Each village
also had a holy man or woman.
European Arrival and the Native Americans
When Europeans arrived, the people of the Eastern
Woodlands traded _____________ and
________________________ for _________________
tools, ____________________________, and
______________.
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35. Why were metal tools so
desirable?
The metal tools were completely unfamiliar to the Natives
and they became very desirable because they were
_______________________and ____________________
~ much more than the stone tools they had been using.
36. How did guns make a
permanent bond between
the Europeans and Native
Americans?
_______________ were also very desirable because they
were powerful and more effective during the hunt and in
warfare. The biggest downfall with guns was that once the
Native Americans traded with the Europeans for guns, they
still had to rely on them for the _____________________
and ________________________. Once the Native
Americans owned guns, the Europeans often
______________________ the Native Americans when
______________________ for the gunpowder and
ammunition.
37. What was the biggest cause As the European settlers became more prosperous and
for the drop in the Native
numerous, the Native tribes’ populations
American population?
________________________ greatly. By far the most
significant effect of European settlement was
____________________. The Europeans brought over
diseases that the Native Americans had no
____________________ to, like small pox. These diseases
killed _____________________ of Native Americans.
38. What other ways were
Native Americans harmed Europeans also took over the native peoples’
by the Europeans?
____________________, _____________________ them
in trade, and forced some of the natives into
______________________.
All of these things led to hostilities between the settlers and
the people of the Eastern Woodlands nations which resulted
in fighting and the eventual decimation of the Native people.
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Native American Culture and Nature
Like we said in class, the Native Americans lived by the land and relied on it for everything. Today we can change our
environment easily with modern technology, but they could not. Below are examples of how the environment determined
the way they lived. Please complete the sentence so that it is logical and explains how a Native American in SC may have
lived.
 If I were a Native American living in the forests in early South Carolina, I may have eaten
__________________________________________.
 If I were a Native American living in early South Carolina in the mountains, I may have lived in a
__________________________________________ during the winter.
 If I were a Native American living in early South Carolina near the ocean, I may have worshipped
_________________________________________.
 If I were a Native American living in early South Carolina, during the summer I may have worn
__________________________________________.
 If I were a Native American living in early South Carolina, I would have wanted to live close to
___________________________ because
____________________________________________________________________________.
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What is Culture?
Culture, according to the dictionary, is the entire way of life developed by a people. If you were to describe a culture, you
need to look at all aspects of the way they live. You know the most about American culture, so what is it? What defines
us as Americans? Also, based on our class discussion so far, what do you think Ancient Native American Culture was
like. Give me examples in each category.
Modern American
Culture
Food
Clothing
Shelter
Transportation
Education
Holidays
Sports /
Entertainment
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Ancient Native
American Culture
Native American Map
Atlantic Ocean
Savannah River
1. The Yemassee tribe lived along the Savannah River near the east coast along the Atlantic
Ocean. Color the area in which they lived red.
2. The first European explorers and settlers arrived here from Europe using what type of
transportation?
3. Explain to me why you think the Yemassee would have been the first to have contact
with the Europeans when they arrived from Europe.
4. The Catawba lived along the rivers in the center of the state, color their territory green.
5. The Cherokee lived in the western part of the state in the foothills and mountain region,
color their territory blue.
6. Even though the Cherokee were one of the largest and most powerful tribes, why do you
think the Cherokee would not have been a major concern to the Europeans when they
first arrived?
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