Unit 1 Vocabulary

1. Unit 1 Vocabulary The Three Worlds: Native Americans, Europeans and Africans Meet in NYS

2. Algonquians North American Indian people that lived in downstate New York

3. bay a part of an ocean or lake that cuts deeply into the land New York Bay

4. border a line that people agree on that divides one place from another

5. Christopher Columbus (1451? - 1506) Italian sea captain and explorer. Sailing for Spain, he reached the Caribbean in search of a sea route to Asia in 1492

6. clan two or more longhouse families

7. clan mother the head of a clan

8. climate the pattern of weather of a certain place over many years

9. coast the land next to an ocean

10. colony a settlement in a new territory by a group of people sent there by their home country

11. confederacy a group of people who join together to help each other; a league of persons, groups, or states

12. Deganawida 1500's leader of the Iroquois who helped organize the Iroquois

13. dugout canoe a boat made by burning out the center of a log

14. Dutch West India Company a powerful trading company that established the colony of New Netherland

15. economy the way people use resources to meet their needs

16. environment our surroundings; conditions that effect life on our planet

17. Five Nations • Mohawk • Oneidas • Onondaga • Cayuga • Seneca

18. glacier a huge sheet of ice that moves slowly across the land

19. geography the study of the earth and the way people, plants, and animals live on and use it

20. Giovanni da Verrazano (1485? - 1528?) Italian sea captain and explorer. Sailing for France, he reached New York Bay in 1524

21. Great Law of Peace the Iroquois Constitution

22. Green Corn Festival a celebration held in August when the Three Sisters were ready to be eaten

23. harbor a sheltered place along a coast where boats can dock

24. Haudensaunee (Iroquois) people of the Longhouse

25. Hiawatha 1500's Mohawk leader who, with Deganawida, helped organize the Iroquois Confederacy

26. indentured servant a person who works for another without pay, for a set period of time, to repay his/her passage to the New World

27. Iroquois (Haudensaunee) North American Indian people that lived in upstate New York

28. Iroquois Confederacy a political group of Native American groups (Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora) founded around 1570

29. island land completely surrounded by water

30. Jacques Cartier (1491-1557) French explorer who traveled up the St. Lawrence River

31. lake water surrounded by land Lake Champlain

32. landform any of the shapes that make up the Earth's surfaces

33. longhouse the house of the Iroquois

34. moccasins flat shoes made of soft leather

35. mountain a landmass that rises well above its surrounding area, generally with steep and rocky sides toward the top

36. mouth the place where a stream or river enters a larger body of water

37. natural resources something that is found in nature and is valuable to humans

38. ocean a large body of salt water

39. papoose a baby of Native American parents

40. patroon a landowner of a large estate in New York granted by the Dutch

41. plain a large area of flat or nearly flat land

42. plateau a large flat area that rises steeply above the surrounding land

43. powwow a council meeting held to solve a problem or make a decision

44. river a natural stream of water larger than a brook or creek

45. Sachem the leader of an Algonquian village

46. Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635) French explorer who built a settlement along the St. Lawrence River, called Quebec, in 1608. In 1609 he arrived at a large lake, and named it Lake Champlain, after Himself.

47. source The place where a river begins

48. tributary any river that flows into another, larger river

49. valley the low land between hills or mountains, often with a river at the bottom

50. wampum shell money used by the Algonquians