Minnesota History

1. Minnesota History Chapter Two

2. Glaciers

3. Glaciers have covered MN many times • The last time was 18,000 years ago • 12,000 years ago it was melting • Melting ice made rivers and lakes • Map page 8

4. Lake Agassiz • Larger than all of the great lakes combined. • No longer exists • As it drained, it created the MN river valley

5. Climate: cooler and dryer than today • Animals: Large herds of mammoths, mastodons, giant bison, many smaller animals • Spruce forests, grasses • Few flowers or birds

6. 10,000 years ago the first humans hunters came, ancestors of American Indians • We know very little about these people • Why?

7. Climate Changes • Between 6000 and 5000 BCE, the climate was becoming warmer and drier • Many of the animals could not adapt to the warmer climate • Spruce forests moved north • New animals appeared: Bear, elk, deer, beavers and others • Oaks and Elms began to thrive

8. Lake Itasca • Lake Itasca group, page 10

9. New Tools • By 3000 years ago the weather was much as it is today • plants and animals that are familiar to us today • People began to change the way they did some things

10. Two Methods • Clay to make pottery for cooking and storing food • Previously, foods were placed in baskets or skin bags with heated stones • With clay pots, food could be heated close to a fire • Food was less likely to spoil

11. Religious practice Instead of burying the dead in individual graves, bodies were buried in mounds Some were animal shaped, most were small and round Usually located on high ground Rainy River Group Page 12

12. New Foods • Cahokia was a large city new where Saint Louis is today • People planted and harvested corn, beans, and squash along the Mississippi • Cahokian’s traveled widely, making their way to MN • People in MN began growing more kinds of food • Canon River Group page 13-14

13. Two study guides