Archaeologists and historians divide the history of North America's native people into a number of time periods, both to emphasize features share by cultures at one time as well as highlight their differences from cultures of other times. Unfortunately, there's little agreement on how best to divide the past that is useful and/or consistent across native North America. The one used here divides the native people's history into two big blocks: the period before the coming of the Europeans and Ameropeans (American born descendants of European settlers), often called the "pre-Columbian" or "prehistoric" period, with three major subdivisions; and the post-Columbian period, divided into a number of small time blocks.
The Paleo-Indian period covers that span of time during which people first came into the Americas. Since there is great controversy surrounding exactly when the first people came to the Americas, no fixed starting point for the Paleo-Indian periods be can be given. Some scientists say humans came into the Americas no earlier than 13,000 years ago, while other scientists believe that people were living in the Americas long before 13,000 years ago. Also, the origin tales of many of the Native American societies state that they were created in essentially those geographical locations where they were when first encountered by Europeans; thus, the Indians have always been in the Americas. The Paleo-Indian period ends with the major climatic changes (and accompaning flora and faunal changes) brought about by the end of the Pleistocene (Ice Ages), some 10,000 years ago, although certain lifestyles (i.e., traditions) which originated during the late Ice-Age continued into the succeeding Holocene (post 10,000 years ago) in some regions of the Americas for several thousands of years. One such example are the bison hunters who lived across the arid grasslands of central North America from about 11,000 years ago until about 8,000 years ago. The best known are the peoples and cultures of the Folsom tradition. Like Clovis before them, Folsom people made very distinctive fluted points which they used in hunting bison. After Folsom come a number of late Plains Paleo-Indian traditions, some of which were oriented toward open plains bison hunting while others were adapted to hunting and foraging in foothill and mountain areas.
A very different late Paleo-Indian tradition is the San Dieguito Complex of southern California and dating to as early as 11,000 years ago (roughly contemporaneous with Clovis). Although there is little direct evidence of their subsistence patterns, archaeologists have surmised on the basis of San Dieguito site distribution that they exploited a wide variety of marshland and lakeside resources. Just north of the San Dieguito Complex, along the southern California coast, lived people who were, as early as 10,000 years ago, exploiting fish and marine mammals, as well as shellfish.
The Archaic is an outgrowth of the Paleo-Indian period and spans the time from the end of the Pleistocene until about 4,000 to 5,000 years ago. It was during this time that the Paleo-Indians spread out across the Americas, moving into every habitable portion of the continents, adjusting and adapting to regional extremes of temperature and climate, to the mountains and valleys, lush woodlands and dry deserts, verdant prairies and arid tundra, coastal marshlands and inland lakes. Over time, increasingly varied Indian cultures evolved so that by the end of the Archaic, North America was a veritable patchwork of differing cultures, languages, and societies.
The end of the Archaic is difficult to fix. As early as 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, societies in many places in North America began to do things differently: moving away from mainly egalitarian social systems to extremely complex, often highly stratified, soci-political systems; shifting from nomadic to sedendtary settlement patterns and living in large, permanent villages and towns; experimenting with a variety of indigenous North American plants, some of which would be domesticated in the following period; engaging in a wide range of environmental management practices, including the use of fire; manufacturing pottery; engaging in long distance trade. On the other hand, many archaic period societies maintained an archaic way of life until less than 100 years ago.
The Formative period, beginning at various times between 3,000 - 5,000 years ago, witnessed a flowering of native societies. Archaic period trends became dominant themes during the formative. In some geographical regions, people engaged in full-time agriculture, lived in cities of 10,000+ people, and elevated their leaders both architecturally and socially. For example, at the ancient city of Cahokia, leaders, who may have been considered as living embodiments of gods and goddesses, lived on top of giant earthen mounds which soared several hundreds of feet into the air. In what is now the southwestern U.S., societies who are glossed under the term Anasazi, erected multi-room, mulit-storied apartment complexes, built roads to connect their towns and cities with each other, and engaged in long-distance trading with the might empires of Mesoamerica.
The Formative period ends with, or perhaps slightly before, the European colonization of North America. I say "perhaps slightly before" as there are indications that prior to European settlement of North America, European fishers were regularly visiting the rich fishing grounds off of present-day Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Maine. In the process, these fishers often came ashore to acquire water, food, timber, and fuel, and it's possible that they may also have infected the local Indian populations with diseases. Given the near lack of genetic immunity to these diseases, coupled with the dense population in northeastern North America, it's possible that disease were beginning to decimate many of the Formative period societies before actual European settlement.
Next Destination? |
Native Peoples of North America
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Updated: 09 Mar 2000
by
crsmith
