Which of the following describes North American Indians prior to European contact?
● Their religion included the construction of elaborate temples and
... [Show More] ritual human
sacrifice.
● They devised a written system to record crop yields and population size.
● This empire had no system of writing, but it kept records by knotting colored
threads.
● Most lived in small villages and practiced agriculture, hunting, and fishing.
RATIONALE
The Aztec constructed elaborate temples in their capital city, Tenochtitlán. The Inca
had no system of writing, but communicated and kept records using a system called
quipu, which consisted of colored threads knotted in different ways. Unlike these
major civilizations, most North American Indians lived in small, autonomous villages
which lacked large-scale social organization and commercial enterprises.
CONCEPT
The First Settlers
2
Read the excerpt written by the governor of the Virginia Colony in its early years:
“Then haveinge fedd uponn horses and other beastes as long as they Lasted we weare
gladd to make shifte wth vermine as doggs Catts Ratts and myce All was fishe thatt
came to Nett to satisfye Crewell hunger as to eate Bootes shoes or any other leather
some colde Come by And those being Spente and devoured some weare inforced to
searche the woodes and to feede upon Serpents and snakes and to digge the earthe for
wylde and unknowne Rootes where many of our men weare Cutt off of and slayne by
the Salvages.”
Considering possible author bias, select the statement that most likely identifies the
author’s purpose.
● The writer’s likely purpose is to write a personal account of what he has
experienced.
● The writer’s likely purpose is to attract new settlers to Jamestown to help improve
living conditions.
● The writer’s likely purpose is to convince Native Americans to stop attacking the
colonists.
● The writer’s likely purpose is to encourage English officials to record the events
in Virginia.
RATIONALE
When reading primary sources, historians rely on the five Ws (including questions of
who, what, when, where, and why/for what purpose) to think about them critically. [Show Less]