Texas Geography and Its Indigenous People: Vocabulary

Welcome to Texas Studies. First you will learn about the different physical regions of Texas: Mountains and Basins, Great Plains, North Central Plains, and Coastal Plains. Then you will learn about some of the Texas Indian tribes who lived in the state before the European explorers arrived.

Objective

• Learn vocabulary related to Texas geography and regions and the native Indians in Texas.

This lesson builds your vocabulary with words you will use in this unit. The words are:

• adapt: adjust to the current conditions
• arid: a climate that is very dry
• barter: exchange a good or service for another good or service
• climate: the weather of a specific region averaged over a long period of time
• economic activity: industries created to produce and distribute goods and services
• human geography: the study of human activity related to the environment and control of Earth’s surface
• landform: a natural physical feature on Earth’s surface
• modify: make changes to something
• nomadic: moving from place to place, living without a permanent home
• physical geography: the study of the patterns and processes related to Earth’s surface
• political system: a set of rules for governing a society
• population: all the people living in a defined area
• region: an area of land that is unified by a common characteristic, such as language, climate, landforms, government
• sedentary: settled, remaining in one place
• settlement pattern: the physical arrangement seen by looking at where people live
• vegetation: all the plants growing in one area

Bluebonnets in Texas Hill Country

A region is an area of land that is unified by a common characteristic, such as a government, a language, or common climate patterns. Texas can be divided into different types of regions:

• geographic regions: by general location (for example, Panhandle, Hill Country, Rio Grande Valley) or by physical characteristics (for example, Great Plains, Coastal Plains)
• landform regions (for example, Big Bend, Edwards Plateau)
• climate regions (for example, temperate, arid)
• vegetation regions (for example, forests, grasslands)
• economic regions (for example, ranching, oil fields, ports)
• political regions (for example, counties, cities); political regions have defined boundaries or borders

Which of the following is a region? There is more than one correct answer.