Instructions: 

1. Watch and listen to the 60-Second Civics video below. If you'd like, you can also read along using the script that appears below the quiz. Or you can turn on the video's subtitles and read while watching the video.
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Episode Description:
The American colonists were not the first people on the North American continent. In fact, Native Americans had lived on the continent for at least 24,000 years before them. Listen to this episode to learn a little more about Native Americans during colonial times!

Native Americans and Colonial America: Back-to-School Basics, Part 5

Welcome to 60-Second Civics, the daily podcast of the Center for Civic Education. I'm Mark Gage.

 

The American colonists were not the first people on the North American continent. 

 

Native Americans had lived on the continent for at least 24,000 years.

 

The Eastern Woodland tribes lived along the eastern seacoast, where the British colonists settled. 

 

These included the Iroquois League, which was made up of five tribes that lived in what today is the state of New York.

 

These well-organized tribes maintained political ties among themselves so that they could discuss common problems.

 

They lived by hunting and gathering, and by tending small crops, such as beans, corn, and squash, which the Iroquois called the "Three Sisters."

 

When planted together, these three crops produced more than if planted alone.

 

However, there were many negative effects from Native Americans’ contact with colonists.

 

Native Americans suffered from the encroachment of colonial settlements, disease, and warfare, leading to a drastic decline in the Native population.

 

In fact, by the end of the Revolutionary War, there were relatively few Native Americans living along the Atlantic coast. 

 

That’s all for today’s podcast.

 

60-Second Civics, where civic education only takes a minute.