Preview

Pre-Columbian Period

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
9302 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Pre-Columbian Period
[edit] Pre-Columbian period
Main article: Pre-Columbian
The earliest known inhabitants of what is now the United States are thought to have arrived in Alaska by crossing the Bering land bridge, at least 14,000 30,000 years ago.[10] Some of these groups migrated south and east, and over time spread throughout the Americas. These were the ancestors to modern Native Americans in the United States and Alaskan Native peoples, as well as all indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Many indigenous peoples were semi-nomadic tribes of hunter-gatherers; others were sedentary and agricultural civilizations. Many formed new tribes or confederations in response to European colonization. Well-known groups included the Huron, Apache Tribe, Cherokee, Sioux, Delaware, Algonquin, Choctaw, Mohegan, Iroquois (which included the Mohawk nation, Oneida tribe, Seneca nation, Cayuga nation, Onondaga and later the Tuscarora tribe) and Inuit. Though not as technologically advanced as the Mesoamerican civilizations further south, there were extensive pre-Columbian sedentary societies in what is now the US. The Iroquois had a politically advanced and unique social structure that was at the very least inspirational if not directly influential to the later development of the democratic United States government, a departure from the strong monarchies from which the Europeans came.[citation needed]

[edit] North America's Moundbuilder Culture A Mississippian priest, with a ceremonial flint mace. Artist Herb Roe, based on a repousse copper plate.Mound Builder is a general term referring to the American Indians who constructed various styles of earthen mounds for burial, residential and ceremonial purposes. These included Archaic, Woodland period (Adena and Hopewell cultures), and Mississippian period Pre-Columbian cultures dating from roughly 3000 BC to the 16th century AD, and living in the Great Lakes region, the Ohio River region, and the Mississippi River region.

Mound builder



References: ^ http://www.cyberwest.com/cw09/v9scwst1.html ^ http://www.nps.gov/bela/html/history.htm ^ Wilford, John Noble (2008-04-04). "Evidence Supports Earlier Date for People in North America". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/science/04fossil.html. ^ Jon Muller, Department of Anthropology (1996). "Cyrus Thomas, 19th Century Synthesis and Antithesis" (HTML). Southern Illinois University. http://www.siu.edu/~anthro/muller/Thomas/Thomas.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-07. ^ "Christopher Columbus".

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Answer: Tenochtitlan was the capital of the Aztec Empire. It was a bustling city, a market center where foods and “all kinds of merchandise” were bought and sold. This impressed Cortes when he arrived in 1519.…

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    OUTLINE NOTES: Themes, keys, historical figures, major dates and events to know for your introductory college course. From Pre-Columbian America to the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. Study Keys will help guide you through lectures, your textbook, tests, and papers in introductory American History I courses.…

    • 4581 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Pre-Columbus Era

    • 295 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In short the Pre-Columbus era refers to the time preceding Christopher Columbus’s exploration of the Americas. It is used as indication of the history of Native American cultures before the Europeans. Many civilizations were drastically changed by European’s but what was life like before? In this presentation I’ll be touching base on what life was like for six major groups of Native American’s.…

    • 295 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Moundbuilders Essay

    • 646 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The first Native American Moundbuilders had lived east of the Mississippi River in Louisiana in 3400 BC. This was four hundred years before the Egyptian pyramids were built. The largest mound found in Louisiana was twenty-five feet high. The people in this group lived closely to bodies of water such as rivers and lakes and survived mainly on shellfish and fish. The Moundbuilders created relatively large piles of dirt domes that were used for marking territory, performing ceremonies, and were even sites for trade. The trade that was passed through consisted of beads, animal figurines, small stone tools and copper.…

    • 646 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Pre-Columbian Americas were the first to use tobacco. The American Indians grew the plants for healing and ceremonial reasons. They smoked the tobacco in pipes.…

    • 157 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    We now estimate that as many as seven million people were living in North America 500 years ago, and that their ancestors had been on this continent for at least thirteen thousand years. For all this time—hundreds of generations—they had remained isolated from Asia and Africa and Europe, building their own separate world. Over many centuries, these first North Americans developed diverse cultures that were as varied as the landscapes they lived in. And they developed hundreds of different languages.…

    • 2188 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The most viable Native American cultures is the Inca society, Firstly, because it is a peaceful culture, the chances of them engaging in a conflict is drastically reduced, leading to a prosperous and trustworthy society. Secondly, the Incas are very well known for being one of the most developed societies of the America, featuring aqueducts, taxes system, factories and roads. Finally, they are able to domesticate various animals, which means that they can use them to assist on daily activities such as work the land. In conclusion, the Incas had qualities that were essential for the development of a powerful society especially because of their high development that makes this culture on of the best and most viable.…

    • 118 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Iroquois Confederacy

    • 9092 Words
    • 37 Pages

    The Iroquois Confederacy, an association of six linguistically related tribes in the northeastern woodlands, was a sophisticated society of some 5,500 people when the first white explorers encountered it at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The 1990 Census counted 49,038 Iroquois living in the United States, making them the country's eighth most populous Native American group. Although Iroquoian tribes own seven reservations in New York state and one in Wisconsin, the majority of the people live off the reservations. An additional 5,000 Iroquois reside in Canada, where there are two Iroquoian reservations. The people are not averse to adopting new technology when it is beneficial, but they want to maintain their own traditional identity.…

    • 9092 Words
    • 37 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    History 276 Study Guide

    • 2414 Words
    • 10 Pages

    • Based on archaeological and genetic evidence, scholars believe that the first people to settle the Americas came across a natural land bridge from Siberia into Alaska..…

    • 2414 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since the beginning the question of when the first humans reached the Americas has been an ongoing study for anthropologist and archaeologist. All agree that the one thing we are sure about is the first inhabitants were Homo Sapiens Sapiens. The question of when and how humans first entered the "New World" is still a mystery. A number of theories have been proposed however there are three leading theories which try to explain the origin of humans in the New World.…

    • 923 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Take it all back

    • 912 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In history class, I have always been taught that the Native Americans settled down in North American first. Then the English colonists came overseas and launched the search for gold. In the meantime, they began to establish a colony. Ever since I can remember, the Native Americans have forever been the starting point of this country today. Without knowing their survival techniques to this foreign land, none of the settlers would have stuck around to really find out what this lovely piece of land has to offer.…

    • 912 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Inca Dance Culture

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The true indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian residents of the continent, their descendants and many ethnic groups who are associated with those historical civilizations. It is believed that humans did not simply evolve in the Americas, but instead arrived either by sea or with the help of a land bridge that previously linked North America with Asia. These people arrived in North America at least 12,000 years ago. In fact, there is recent evidence to suggest that "humans inhabited North America 50,000 years ago…long before the last ice age" (Science Daily). Next, these people branched out into hundreds of ethnically distinct nations and tribes. One of these tribes, the Incas, contributed much to what we now know as modern civilization.…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first group of people to migrate to a relatively bare and less frigid North America was Asians and their Native American descendants who unwittingly were the first to discover and create settlements in what is known today as North America. Long before any ships sailed from Europe in search of new land and a haven from the turmoil, starvation and disease that plagued their homeland, these nomadic hunters from Siberia had “discovered” Alaska and migrated in droves due to a more hospitable weather that was conducive to their nomadic lifestyle. The first passage of people from Asia to America probably took place during the prehistoric glacial period-either before 35,000 B.C.E. or about 10,000 years later-when huge amounts of the world’s water froze into sheets of ice (Davidson-Gineapp-Heyrman-Lytle-Stoff, 2005). The dramatic drop in the sea levels left the Bering Strait, once an impassable ocean, into a broad, grassy plain that served almost as a prehistoric interstate highway, allowing for the movement of humans and animals from the frozen tundra of Siberia into an ice-free Alaska. This migration went on undaunted even after the Bering Strait once again became submerged due to melting glaciers, and spread from the Alaskan coast, and ultimately into the American mainland and Mexico.…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Africans Before Columbus

    • 14900 Words
    • 60 Pages

    The earliest people in the Americas were people of the Negritic African race, who entered the Americas perhaps as early as 100,000 years ago, by way of the bering straight and about thirty thousand years ago in a worldwide maritime undertaking that included journeys from the then wet and lake filled Sahara towards the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, and from West Africa across the Atlantic Ocean towards the Americas.…

    • 14900 Words
    • 60 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Pre Spanish Period

    • 1873 Words
    • 7 Pages

    "Thank you, but I just tell him. Are there other people in the house? "…

    • 1873 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays