What is the Southwest Region?
The Southwest region is made up of California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and Texas. Part of the Southwest region is along the Pacific ocean.
What is the Land and Climate Like Here?
The Southwest is very dry, desert region. Water was very hard to come by so it was used very carefully. There were not many grazing animals, so instead farming was popular for food production.
What Native American Tribes Live Here?
In the Southwest region, the Pueblo, Navajo, and Apache tribes were the most popular.
What Did Southwest Native Americans Live In?
Southwest Native Americans lived in Adobe homes. These houses had many levels in them and were made from clay and straw bricks. They were cemented together with adobe. Adobe homes housed one family, but the homes were connected together so many families lived next door to each other. These homes were good in warm dry climates for tribes that did not move around to hunt and gather.
What Food Did Southwest Native Americans Eat?
Southwest Native Americans hunted mammoths until they became extinct. There were not a lot of animals in the desert so the Native Americans didn't often hunt for food. Instead, they were farmers. One of the most important foods they grew was maize (corn). They grew 24 different types of corn. They also grew beans, squash, melons, pumpkins and fruit. For meat, they often ate wild turkey.
What Clothes Did Southwest Native Americans Wear?
The climate was warm so Southwest Native Americans did not wear much clothing. They used their long hair to cover their bodies. Some tribes also grew cotton to use for clothing when the weather got cold.
Watch the following video of Pueblo Native Americans dancing a cultural dance. What do you notice about what they are wearing? Do you see the differences in their cultural clothing compared to yours?