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Mountain cultures graphic organizer

As students read the article "Peoples of the Mountains," this graphic organizer will help them develop an understanding of the cultures that existed in North Carolina's mountains hundreds of years ago.

A lesson plan for grade 8 Social Studies

By Pauline S. Johnson

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Two worlds: Educator's guide
Lesson plans and activities to be used with "Two Worlds: Prehistory, Contact, and the Lost Colony" -- the first part of a North Carolina history textbook for secondary students.
Page 2.4

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  • Peoples of the mountains During the Mississippian period, corn agriculture became more important in the mountains of North Carolina. More productive agriculture supported larger populations and provided opportunities for accumulating wealth. This brought about increased social ranking and political centralization. The Mountain region was creating its own identity -- an identity that archaeologists tie to the modern-day Cherokee. Archaeologists have given the names Pisgah and Qualla to these Cherokee ancestors.

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  • Peoples of the mountains: During the Mississippian period, corn agriculture became more important in the mountains of North Carolina. More productive agriculture supported larger populations and provided opportunities for accumulating wealth. This brought about increased social ranking and political centralization. The Mountain region was creating its own identity -- an identity that archaeologists tie to the modern-day Cherokee. Archaeologists have given the names Pisgah and Qualla to these Cherokee ancestors.
  • The village farmers: North Carolina sat on a crossroads by AD 1000. Cultural ideas from other places breezed through it and around it: how to decorate pottery, how to orient political and social life, how to honor the dead, how to structure towns.
  • Piedmont cultures graphic organizer: This activity will assist students in understanding Piedmont cultures as they read the article "Peoples of the Piedmont."

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As students read the article Peoples of the Mountains, this graphic organizer will help them develop an understanding of the cultures that existed in North Carolina’s mountains hundreds of years ago.

Mountain cultures

  Pisgah Qualla
Time period    
Shelter/Settlement    
Food    
Containers/Tools    
Culture (including burial practices    

Mountain cultures (teacher guide)

  Pisgah Qualla
Time period
  • 1000-1450 CE
  • Around 1400
Shelter/Settlement
  • Villages:
    • Some had earthen mounds
    • Some were small spread out villages
    • Some were larger villages of clustered houses
  • Platform mounds
  • Stockades
  • Houses were rectangular
  • Large townhouses on mound summits
  • Rectangular houses
  • Villages were like Pisgah villages
  • houses were clustered around a central plaza
  • Stockades
Food
  • Corn agriculture
  • Probably half their food came from fields of maize, beans, squash, and marsh elder.
  • The rest came from wild foods:
    • Deer and bear provided meat
    • Nuts and berries
  • Hunting:
    • Deer and black bear
  • Farming:
    • Corn, beans, squash, pumpkin, and gourds
  • Gathering:
    • Seasonal nuts and fruits
Containers/Tools
  • Deer skins made into containers
  • Bones made into tools
  • We can assume they made pottery based on the statement in the Qualla section about Pisgah potters.
  • Pottery reflecting a change in style from Pisgah pottery
Culture (including burial practices
  • Graves were next to or in their homes
  • Some graves had burial offerings
  • It appears that the society may have had ranking — some higher than others.
  • There were shamans or religious leaders.
  • Chiefs who inherited their power.
  • Community decisions made in large townhouses
  • Burials were in house floors near hearths
  • Grave offerings
  • A few people were buried in front of townhouses — most likely important people

North Carolina curriculum alignment

Social Studies (2003)

Grade 8

  • Goal 1: The learner will analyze important geographic, political, economic, and social aspects of life in the region prior to the Revolutionary Period.
    • Objective 1.02: Identify and describe American Indians who inhabited the regions that became Carolina and assess their impact on the colony.

  • North Carolina Essential Standards

    • Social Studies (2010)

      • Grade 8

        • 8.C.1 Understand how different cultures influenced North Carolina and the United States. 8.C.1.1 Explain how exploration and colonization influenced Africa, Europe and the Americas (e.g. Columbian exchange, slavery and the decline of the American Indian populations)....