Why is the location of the Great Lakes important to people?

The Great Lakes and surrounding area is a natural resource of great importance in North America. The region also serves as the focal point of the industrial and agricultural base of the Midwest’s heartland by providing a strong marine transportation system.

Why did people settle near the Great Lakes?

People arrived in the Great Lakes Basin about 10,000 years ago. By the 1500s, an estimated 60,000 to 120,000 aboriginal people lived in the area. The fertile soils, plentiful water and an abundance of wild game supported the native people, who took to the lakes and their tributaries in their birch bark canoes.

Why are lakes important?

They provide water supply for the purpose of irrigation. Provide fresh water for drinking. Industries and factories use river and lake water for their functioning. Supply water for irrigation in agricultural fields.

Why are the Great Lakes important to the economy?

Encompassing eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, the Great Lakes region is an economic powerhouse. For more than a century, the area has been a center for manufacturing, international shipping, and innovative research and development.

What happened to the Native Americans in the Great Lakes region?

Indian people of the Great Lakes also suffered from European diseases, which often devastated their communities. Unlike Europeans, Indians did not have natural immunities to diseases such as smallpox, measles, or mumps because these diseases did not exist in North America before whites came.

What is so special about the Great Lakes?

The Great Lakes and their connecting rivers and channels make up the largest fresh surface water system in the world. In fact, they’re so big that astronauts can see them from the moon! That’s about 22 percent of the world’s fresh surface water supply and about 90 percent of the United States’ supply.

Who benefits from the Great Lakes?

The Great Lakes also directly impact the lives of the roughly 35 million people who live in the cities, states, and Canadian provinces surrounding them, providing drinking water and recreation, commercial transportation, and both tangible and intangible quality of life benefits.

How do the Great Lakes affect the environment?

The Great Lakes modify the local weather and climate. Because water temperatures change more slowly than land temperatures, lake waters gain heat in summer and release heat during cooler months. The Great Lakes have a significant influence on regional climate by absorbing, storing and moving heat and water.

Why are the Great Lakes important to the United States economy?

What Native American tribes lived in the Great Lakes?

Notable tribes around the Great Lakes included people we now call the Chippewa, Fox, Huron, Iroquois, Ottawa, Potawatomi and Sioux. Approximately 120 bands of Native Peoples have occupied the Great Lakes basin over the course of history.