It is unclear how or when Native Americans first settled in the Americas and the United States today.
Popular theories are that people in Eurasia followed their prey through the Bering Strait, the land bridge connecting Siberia to present-day Alaska during the Ice Age before spreading south throughout the Americas.
This migration probably began as early as 30,000 years ago and continued until about 10,000 years ago, when the land bridge was submerged by sea level rise caused by melting glaciers.
These early inhabitants, known as PaleoIndians, soon diversified into hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes.
This pre-Columbian era encompasses all periods of American history before European influences appeared on the American continent, from primitive settlements in the Late Paleolithic to European colonization in the early modern period. While the term technically refers to the era before Christopher Columbus' voyage in 1492, the term actually generally includes the history of Native American cultures until they were conquered or significantly influenced by Europeans, even if this happened decades or centuries after Columbus originally landed.
Paleo-Indians - Pre-Columbian North America
By 10,000 BC, humans were relatively mature throughout North America. Initially, ancient Indians hunted the ice age megafauna like mammoths, but as they began to go extinct, people turned to bison as a food source. Over time, foraging for berries and seeds became an important choice for hunting.
The PaleoIndians of central Mexico were the first cultivators in the Americas, beginning growing corn, beans, and pumpkins around 8,000 BC. Eventually, knowledge began to spread north.
By 3 BC, corn cultivation began in the valleys of Arizona and New Mexico, followed by primitive irrigation systems and early villages in Hohokam.
One of the early cultures in present-day America is the Clovis culture, which they are identified primarily by using the tip of a grooved spear called the Clovis tip. From 9,100 BC to 8,850 BC, this culture spread throughout much of North America and also appeared in South America. Artifacts of this culture were first unearthed in 1932 near Clovis, New Mexico. The Folsom culture is similar, but marked by the use of the Folsom Point.
Migrations, later discovered by linguists, anthropologists, and archaeologists, occurred around 8,000 BC. This includes Nadene-speaking peoples, who arrived in the Pacific Northwest in 5 BC. From there, they migrated inland along the Pacific coast and built large multifamily dwellings in their villages, which were used only seasonally for hunting and fishing in the summer and for gathering food supplies in the winter. Another group, the Oshara traditional people, lived from 8,5 BC to 500 AD and was part of the ancient southwest.
Mound builders and pueblo
Located in Mountsville, West Virginia, the Grave Creek Mound is one of the largest conical mounds in the United States. It was built by the Adena culture.
Cahokia Monk's Hill in summer (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park, UNESCO World Heritage Site
The Adena began building large mounds around 600 BC. They were the first known people to become mound builders, however, there are some mounds in the United States that predate this culture.
Watson Brake is an 11-mound complex in Louisiana dating back to 3,500 BC, and the nearby Poverty Point was built by the Poverty Point Culture as an earthmoving complex dating back to 1,700 BC. These mounds may have been used for religious purposes.
The Adnan were absorbed into the Hopwell tradition, a powerful people who traded tools and goods over a vast territory. They continued Adna's tradition of building mounds, and the remains of thousands of people still exist in the former territorial core of southern Ohio. Hopewell pioneered a trading system called the Hopwell Exchange System, which stretched as much as possible from today's southeast to the Canadian side of Lake Ontario. By 500 AD, the Hopewell people had also disappeared, absorbed into the larger Mississippi culture.
The Mississippi are a broad tribal group. Their most important city was Cahokia, near modern St. Louis, Missouri.
At its height in the 12th century, the city's population was estimated at 20,000, more than the population of London at the time. The entire city surrounds a mound 100 feet (30 m) high. Cahokia, like many other cities and villages of the time, relied on hunting, foraging, trade, and agriculture, and developed a class system of slaves and human sacrifice, influenced by southern societies such as the Maya.
In the southwest, Anasazi began building stone and adobe pueblo around 900 BC. These apartment-like structures are often built on cliff faces, as shown in the Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde. Some have grown to the size of cities, and the Pueblo Bonito along the Chaco River in New Mexico once consisted of 800 rooms.
Northwest and Northeast East Woodland Aboriginal and Pacific Northwest Coast Aboriginal Nations
The K'alyaan totem pole of the Trinjit Adi clan was erected in Sitka National Historical Park to commemorate the lives lost in the Battle of Sitka in 1804
The Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest are probably the wealthiest Native Americans. Many different cultural groups and political entities developed there, but they all share certain common beliefs, traditions, and customs, such as the centrality of salmon as a resource and spiritual symbol. Permanent villages in the area began to develop as early as 1 BC, and these communities celebrated potlatch with gift feasts. These gatherings are often organized to commemorate special events, such as raising totem poles or celebrating new chiefs.
In today's upstate New York, the Iroquois formed in the mid-15th century as a tribal ethnic confederation consisting of Oneidas, Mohawks, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca peoples. Their system of subordination was a federalism, distinct from the powerful, centralized European monarchy. Each tribe has a seat among the 50 Sachem chiefs.
It has been argued that their culture fostered political thinking in the development of the U.S. government. The Iroquois were powerful and waged war against many neighboring tribes and, later, Europeans. As the territory expanded, smaller tribes were forced to extend westward, including the Osage, Khao, Ponka, and Omaha.
Native Hawaiian ancient Hawaii and the Hawaiian kingdom
The exact date of settlement in Hawaii is disputed, but the first settlement most likely occurred between 940 and 1130 AD. Around 1200 AD, Tahitian explorers discovered and began to settle in the area and establish a new caste system. This marked the rise of Hawaiian civilization until the arrival of the British 600 years later, which was largely separate from the rest of the world.
Europeans arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in 1778 under the British explorer James Cook, and within five years of contact, European military technology would help Kamehameha I conquer most of the island group and eventually unify them for the first time; Establishment of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
History of Puerto Rico and Taíno
The island of Puerto Rico has been settled for at least 4 years and can be traced back to the remains of the Puerto Ferro people. Starting with the Ortoiroid culture, generations of indigenous migrations replaced or absorbed the local population. The Arawak arrived from South America through the Lesser Antilles, and these settlers would become the Taíno encountered by the Spaniards in 1000. At the time of European contact, there were probably 149,330 native populations, led by a chief called Cacique.
Colonization led to a large number of deaths of the local population, an epidemic caused by the harsh Nkomenda system and Old World diseases. Puerto Rico remained part of Spain until its annexation by the United States in 20 years.
Nordic Exploration Nordic Colonization of North America
Lev Eriksson, Discovering America, by Christian Kroger, 1893
The earliest recorded account of America in Europe is in a historical treatise by the medieval chronicler Adam of Bremen, circa 1075, where it was called Vinland .
It is also widely mentioned in the 13th-century Nordic Vinland saga, which is associated with events that took place around the year 1000. While the strongest archaeological evidence of the existence of Nordic settlements in the United States is in Canada, most notably in L'Anse aux Meadows, dating back to about 1000 years, there is significant academic debate about whether Nordic explorers also landed in New England and other East Coast regions. In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge announced that a Norse explorer named Leif Erikson (circa 970 – c.1020) was the first European to discover the Americas.