SAQs for APUSH Topic 1.2 — Native American Societies Before European Contact

Five short answer questions that relate to those who had migrated and settled across the vast expanse of North America prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492.

1. Before European contact, Native American societies had migrated and settled across the vast expanse of North America. As they did this, they developed distinct and increasingly complex societies. What’s the difference between a distinct society and a complex society?
2. Before European contact, Native American societies adapted to and transformed their environment through innovations in agriculture, resource use, and social structure. What’s meant by the term agriculture? Resource use? Social structure?
3. Before European contact, maize cultivation from present-day Mexico had spread northward into the present-day American Southwest and beyond. What is maize cultivation? How did maize cultivation support economic development? Settlement? Advanced irrigation? Social diversification among societies? What states today make up the Southwest?
4. In the Northeast, the Mississippi River Valley, and along the Atlantic seaboard, some Native American societies developed mixed agricultural and hunter-gatherer economies. What’s meant by the term mixed agricultural and hunter-gatherer economy. What type of villages were often favored by Native societies that employed a mixed agricultural and hunter-gatherer economy? Describe some of the salient features of the geography and climate of the Northeast? Mississippi River Valley? Atlantic Seaboard? What states today make up the Northeast? Mississippi River Valey? Atlantic Seaboard?
5. In the Northwest and present-day California, Native American societies supported themselves by hunting and gathering. They also, in some areas, developed settled communities supported by the vast resources of the ocean. What did the Native Americans in these two regions hunt, and what did they gather? Describe some of the salient features of the geography and climate of the Northwest. California? How did their settled communities look? What states today make up the Northwest?