Native Americans lived in different environments across North America and developed distinct ways of life. In the East, they were fishermen and farmers and had early contact with European settlers. On the Great Plains, tribes like the Sioux hunted bison and had conflicts with pioneers in the 1800s. In the Pacific Northwest, coastal tribes relied on fishing and lived in longhouses, and the Inuit in the Arctic adapted to survive the harsh climate through activities like ice fishing. Southwestern tribes built homes and pots from clay and made jewelry. Most tribes shared beliefs about respecting nature, elders, and having a code of ethics to govern their relationships and interactions.