Introduction Paleo-Indians Columbus Discovers The New World
At certain periods during the Pleistocene Epoch, the temperatures turned cold enough to freeze much of the Earth’s water into ice. From about 25,000 to nearly 10,000 years ago, sea levels were as much as 135 m (440 ft) lower than they are today, and a natural land bridge, called Beringia, linked present-day Siberia and Alaska. Most anthropologists believe that Native Americans descend from Asian peoples who migrated into North America by way of this land bridge
The early colonizers of the Americas, known as Paleo-Indians, faced the challenge of adapting to vast new lands with a great diversity of local environments. These lands were themselves undergoing dramatic changes as the great ice sheets melted off and global climates rapidly warmed. Living in small bands of perhaps 25 to 75 people, Paleo-Indians had to learn how to survive in the new lands and to maintain contacts with distant kin. For this reason, they were highly nomadic, moving regularly and camping in easily transported animal-skin tents or other lightweight shelters. Equipped with an assortment of tools made from stone, bone, and wood, they hunted a variety of animals, from small prey such as turtles and birds, to large game, including deer and the occasional mammoth.
About 10,000 years ago the descendants of the first Americans had left traces of their presence in virtually every corner of the Americas, from high in the Rocky Mountains down to lush tropical lowlands near the equator. After that time, regionally distinctive ways of life began to appear throughout the Americas as Paleo-Indian groups adapted to local environments. In North America these environments included deciduous woodlands and evergreen forests, vast deserts, grassy prairies, fertile river drainages, and coastal lowlands. Paleo-Indians living in desert country became adept at collecting wild plant foods because game animals were scarce. Buffalo- (or bison-) hunting cultures appeared on the Great Plains, where large herds of the animals lived. People living in forests hunted woodland game animals, while those near rivers and lakes fished and hunted waterfowl. Along the coasts, Paleo-Indians fished and gathered shellfish. In time, agriculture spread to North America from Mesoamerica, where cultivation of food crops began as early as 7,000 years ago, and sophisticated farming cultures appeared in the southwestern and eastern regions of what is now the United States.
Columbus Discovers The New World
Estimation of how many people were living in the Americas when Columbus arrived in 1492. Estimates range from 40 million to 90 million for all of the Americas, and from 2 million to 18 million for the aboriginal population north of present-day Mexico. These figures are hypothetical; exact population figures are impossible to ascertain. Furthermore, the date of Columbus’s arrival was not necessarily the peak of the Native American population. Civilizations had risen and fallen before that time—the Adena-Hopewell culture, for example, flourished from 200 bc to ad 400 in eastern North America. Some anthropologists believe the peak occurred around ad 1200.
The number of distinct Native American groups or cultures that existed at the time of European contact is more difficult to estimate. For many native peoples, especially those who lived in areas with sparse resources, the family was the largest unit, while others were organized into bands. Some tribes did exist, but it is impossible to estimate their number, for smaller groups were constantly merging into new, larger groups, or in some cases, disappearing. Europeans applied the term nation to people with a common language and customs and a name for themselves, and by 1700, they were aware of some 50 or 60 distinct Indian “nations” east of the Mississippi River. The Spaniards found some 50 Indian nations in the West, including the Pueblo.