Assessment 2: Test

  1. How did Native Americans manage forestland to better suit their needs?
  2. What is the difference between prehistory and history?
  3. What are the four periods historians often use to classify prehistoric life in North America? For each of the four periods, list one way that Native Americans made use of forests.
  4. Explain why eyewitness accounts of American forests during the 15th and 16th centuries differ so dramatically from those recorded during the 18th century.
  5. What is the significance of oral tradition when studying prehistoric people? Provide an example of oral tradition you analyzed in class. What did this piece reveal about how the Cherokee people felt about the environment?
  6. Why do historians and other scholars like anthropologists and archaeologists rely so heavily on artifacts when studying the lives of prehistoric Native Americans? (Make sure to define the word artifact and provide at least one example of how experts use artifacts to answer questions about the past).
  7. Describe the effects of European contact upon Native Americans.