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4th grade · Social Studies · Unit 1 of 14

First Peoples of Texas

Gulf, Plains, Puebloan and Southeastern

What your child practices

Ideas about how people first came to the Americas, the four cultural regions of American Indians in Texas, the ways of life of the Caddo, Karankawa, Lipan Apache, Jumano and Comanche, how the Caddo and Comanche governed themselves, and the three tribes in Texas today (Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, Alabama-Coushatta and Kickapoo). Nations are described as living communities, with nothing sacred or ceremonial.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 4.1(A); 4.1(B); 4.1(C); 4.1(D); 4.9(A); 4.12(A) · origins, ways of life and cultural regions of American Indian groups in Texas, their economies and governments, and the tribes in Texas today

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. American Indians in Texas lived in four cultural regions: Gulf, Plains, Puebloan and Southeastern.
  2. The Caddo were farmers in villages. The Comanche followed the buffalo on the Plains.
  3. Today Texas’s federally recognized tribes are the Alabama-Coushatta, the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe and Ysleta del Sur Pueblo.

Example: How did the Caddo mainly get their food? They lived in villages in East Texas with good soil. They grew crops like corn. Answer: by farming

First Peoples of Texas in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 1 of 14 in 4th grade Social Studies, before Explorers & Missions.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    The Karankawa lived in which cultural region?

    • Puebloan
    • Southeastern
    • Gulf
    • Plains

  2. Question 2

    The Caddo were mainly…

    • buffalo hunters who moved often
    • miners in the mountains
    • farmers who lived in villages
    • fishers who lived in canoes

  3. Question 3

    The Lipan Apache and the Comanche lived in which cultural region?

    • Gulf
    • Southeastern
    • Plains
    • Puebloan

  4. Question 4

    Plains groups used the buffalo for…

    • only for racing
    • paper money
    • nothing at all
    • food, clothing and shelter

  5. Question 5

    The Caddo lived in which cultural region of Texas?

    • Plains
    • Gulf
    • Southeastern
    • Puebloan

  6. Question 6

    Why did the Comanche become expert horse riders in the 1700s?

    • they bought horses from railroads
    • they raised horses from cattle
    • horses were always native to Texas
    • horses brought by the Spanish spread across the Plains

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