填空题 When Christopher Columbus landed in the New World,
the North American continent was area of astonishing ethnic 11
and cultural diversity. North of the Rio Grande, which now
marks the border among the United States and Mexico, was a 12
population of over 12 million people representing approximately
400 distinct cultures, 500 languages, and a remarkable
variety of political and religious institutions and physical and
ethic types. Compared to the Europeans, the Indian peoples 13
were extraordinary heterogeneous, and they often viewed
the Europe as just another tribe. 14
These varied tribal cultures were as diversified as the
Land the Indians lived. In the high plains of the 15
Dakotas, the Mandan developed a peaceful communal
Society centered around agriculture. Only a few hundred miles
off, however, in the northwestern Montana, the Black feet 16
turned from agriculture and began to use horse, which had been
introduced by the Spaniards. As skilled riders they became 17
hunters and fighters and developed a fierce and aggressive
culture centered around the buffalo. In the eastern woodlands
surrounding the Great Lakes, the Potawatomis were expert
fisherman, canoe builders, and hunters. In the Northeast the
six Iroquois nations were among the most political 18
sophisticated people in the world, formed the famed Iroquois 19
confederation, that included the Senecas and the Mohawks. 20
This confederation, with its systems of checks and balances,
provided a model for the United States constitutions.