Deck 1: Native Peoples of America, to 1500

Question 1

Which of the following is not one of the theories about how America was originally settled?

A) Siberian hunters crossed from Asia to North American during the last ice age.
B) Europeans sailed across the Atlantic in leather boats during the pre-Christian era.
C) Hunters from Asia dispersed themselves over much of North America.
D) Humans arrived by boat and followed the coast southward from Alaska.
E) Humans arrived in multiple migrations

Answer 1

Europeans sailed across the Atlantic in leather boats during the pre-Christian era.

Question 2

What advances did the Maya make?

A) They developed a calendar.
B) They used a numerical system that included a zero.
C) They utilized a system of writing.
D) All of these choices
E) None of these choices

Answer 2

All of these choices

Question 3

Where was Mesoamerica?

A) Eastern half of North America.
B) Central and Southern Mexico and Central America
C) Alaska and the Pacific Northwest
D) Western South America
E) Present-day Florida and Georgia

Answer 3

Central and Southern Mexico and Central America

Question 4

Why did Anasazi Pueblo culture decline and fall?

A) A terrible drought severely reduced its agricultural production.
B) Intertribal warfare tore the tribe apart.
C) An earthquake used widespread devastation.
D) Europeans destroyed their settlements.
E) Smallpox ravaged its population.

Question 5

Which of the following was not one of the ways that Plains Indians used buffalos?

A) They butchered them for meat.
B) They used their hides for clothing, bedding, and housing.
C) They used their bones for tools.
D) They made arrowheads from buffalo horns.
E) They used them to haul wagons.

Question 6

Which of the following examples provides evidence of the sophistication of Hopewell culture?

A) Cave drawings
B) Mounds containing enclosures
C) Canals and bridges
D) Birch-bark records
E) Oral traditions

Question 7

Why was Cahokia significant?

A) Cahokia was the center of Mayan culture.
B) Cahokia was a large metropolis on the Mississippi River that built its economy on river-borne trade.
C) Cahokia was the largest city in the Maya empire and contains pyramids similar to those found in Egypt.
D) Cahokia was a mythical city where many Indians believed life in North America began.
E) Cahokia was a large city located in present-day Mexico that served as the main trading center for the entire area.

Question 8

What key development had to occur before substantial changes in southwestern life could occur?

A) The Ice Age had to end.
B) Elaborate canals had to be built.
C) The League of the Iroquois had to be defeated.
D) The Wooly Mammoth had to be eliminated.
E) A more drought-resistant strain of maize had to be introduced.

Question 9

Which of the following generalizations about Native American cultures is true?

A) Almost all the societies were the same in terms of political and social structure, religious beliefs, and basic contributions.
B) No society had much in common with any other society.
C) Most Native American cultures were characterized by a kinship reciprocity and communal ownership of resources.
D) Because of their relationship to the environment, native Americans had evolved into careful conservationists.
E) Only native cultures in the Eastern Woodlands developed the bow and arrow and used ceramic pottery.

Question 10

Which statement concerning warfare in most Native American societies is most accurate?

A) Warfare was conducted more as a pastime than as a way of conquering and subduing enemies.
B) Warfare was a constant and continuing part of life.
C) Warfare occurred infrequently, and when it did it was conducted in a gentle and polite manner.
D) Warfare was an indication of the strength and stability of the society.
E) All of these choices

Question 11

At the time of Columbus's arrival in the Western Hemisphere, where were the greatest concentrations of Native Americans?

A) In the Great Basin of North America
B) In Mexico and South America
C) In Canada and New England
D) In Peru and the Pacific Northwest
E) In the Caribbean islands

Question 12

Which of the following statements accurately reflects one aspect of the principle of reciprocity?

A) A society had to maintain equilibrium and interdependence between individuals of unequal power and prestige.
B) Human beings had to change nature to suit their purposes.
C) All people of an area had to vote before decisions could be made.
D) All of these choices
E) None of these choices

Question 13

According to archaeological findings, when did the first humans likely arrive in America?

A) 75,000 B.C.
B) 41,000 B.C.
C) 13,000 B.C.
D) 6,000 B.C.
E) 2,500 B.C.

Question 14

Which of the following would not have been a responsibility of women in northeastern Native American tribes like the Iroquois?

A) Fishing
B) Selecting chiefs
C) Cultivating the land
D) Distributing food
E) Gathering wild vegetation

Question 15

Which of the following is not true about Native American religious beliefs at the point of the initial European contacts?

A) They prayed to the spirits of the animals that they were about to kill for food.
B) They depended on medicine men and women to understand the unseen.
C) They believed that God had given humanity domination over nature.
D) The believed that all nature was alive, pulsating with a spiritual power.
E) They tried to conciliate the spiritual forces in the world.

Question 16

Which of the following is a feature of Anasazi Pueblo culture?

A) They built temporary villages.
B) They became the most powerful Indian people in the Northeast.
C) They traveled along poorly defined trails.
D) All of these choices
E) They built extensive complexes of attached apartments and storage rooms and partly underground structures.

Question 17

Which of the following was a feature of Paleo-Indian society?

A) They dwelled in bands of about fifteen to fifty people.
B) They moved constantly, within informally defined boundaries.
C) They made hunting tools out of jasper and flint.
D) They developed a cultural life that transcended their small bands.
E) All of these choices.

Question 18

Which of the following was not a feature of the Archaic era?

A) the development of villages
B) expanded roles for men and women
C) the creation of vast empires
D) availability of a wide variety of flora and fauna
E) larger populations

Question 19

Which statement concerning the people of the Archaic era is correct?

A) They made relatively sharp distinctions between men's and women's roles.
B) They made clear distinctions among themselves on the basis of class or rank.
C) They were wiped out by diseases introduced by Archaic peoples.
D) They generally tried to keep to themselves and had little to do with their neighbors.
E) All of these choices

Question 20

What was Poverty Point?

A) It was an area in Central American that the Aztecs exploited for slaves and food.
B) It was the area in present day New Mexico and Arizona where various Indian tribes attempted to settle but always failed because of the lack of rain.
C) It was an Indian community on the lower Mississippi River that was the center of political and economic activity.
D) It was a holy place in Maya culture where people could go to show their complete devotion to God.
E) None of these choices

Question 21

Which family pattern was most common among North American Indian tribes?

A) Nuclear family
B) Extended family
C) Patriarchical family
D) Matriarchical family
E) None of these choices

Question 22

Which of the following is a way Native Americans engaged in "genetic engineering"?

A) They experimented with teosinte and produced maize.
B) They selectively bred cattle and produced the longhorn steer.
C) They crossed barley with rye and began harvesting wheat.
D) They killed only the oldest and weakest wild animals and allowed the strongest to procreate.
E) They built specialized fish ponds where they bred the most nutritious fish.

Question 23

What was the capital of the largest early state in Mesoamerica?

A) Monte Albán
B) Cancun
C) Teotihuacán
D) Chavín de Huántar
E) Adena

Question 24

How widespread was animal domestication in the New World before Christopher Columbus?

A) Most Native Americans had domesticated the dog and horse.
B) Domestication of animals was very limited.
C) Native Americans had not tried to domesticate animals.
D) Native Americans had domesticated more animals than Europeans.
E) None of these choices