![]() ![]() Plains Indians ate bison meat as their primary source of food, and used hides and bones to create dwellings, tools, and clothing. ![]() Plains Indians include Lakota, Blackfoot, and Nez Perce. The Plains Indians, for example, followed the seasonal grazing and migration of the American bison. Instead, they followed favorable weather patterns, natural agricultural cycles, and animal migrations. These cultures did not establish urban areas or agricultural centers. The vastness of the northern part of the continent encouraged other indigenous communities to live nomadic lifestyles. Leading North American civilizations include the Maya and Aztec, in what is now Mexico, and the Iroquois, native to southeastern Canada and the northeastern United States. People were no longer bound to produce food and shelter for their families-some people could work in the food and construction industries while others became engineers, artists, and political leaders. ![]() This sort of agriculture allowed major civilizations to develop. Cultures throughout southern North America harvested corn, squash, and beans in regular cycles. The Mayans were, in fact, the first culture to have a written symbol for zero. Their counting system was able to represent very large numbers using only three symbols: dots, lines, and a football-shaped symbol that indicated a zero. The Mayans were also mathematically advanced. Mayan calendars and almanacs recorded celestial events such as eclipses and seasonal changes. Many of these early North American cultures were scientifically and agriculturally advanced. These cities, in what is now central Mexico, boasted sophisticated engineering structures, such as canals, apartment buildings, and irrigation systems. The Olmec and the Maya, indigenous to Central America, built the first cities on the continent, eventually leading to the great urban areas of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. These populations fanned out southward, to present-day Florida, California, Mexico, and Central America. The first North Americans are believed to have migrated from Siberia, in northeast Asia, by crossing a land bridge over the Bering Strait. Historic Cultures Indigenous cultures shaped, and were shaped by, the geography of North America. From their beginnings to the present day, the peoples of North America have worked with and against their surroundings in order to survive and prosper. North America’s human landscape closely mirrors that of its physical environment: varied, rich, and constantly changing. ![]() Today, North America is home to the citizens of Canada, the United States, Greenland, Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and the island countries and territories of the Caribbean Sea and western North Atlantic Ocean. The portions of the landmass that widened out north of the Isthmus of Panama became known as North America. Vespucci was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not part of the East Indies, but an entirely separate landmass. North America and South America are named after Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci. North America’s physical geography, environment and resources, and human geography can be considered separately. North America, the third-largest continent, extends from the tiny Aleutian Islands in the northwest to the Isthmus of Panama in the south. ![]()
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