America Before Columbus

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Early Americans

American history does not begin with Columbus's 1492 arrival in America. America was settled long before the first european set shore on the continent. The beginning of civilization in America occurs down the last Ice age, some 20 to 10 thousand years ago. At that time, huge ice sheets created much lower sea levels creating a land mass between Asia and North America. In time, a gap in two large ice sheets would create a connection from lands near present day Alaska, though Alberta and into the continental United States, called the Bering land bridge.

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Nomadic Asians following herds of wild game traveled into the continental United States. A characteristic arrow point was found and first described near the present day town of Clovis, NM. Specialized tools and common burial practices have also been described in many sites found throughout North America.

Clovis man could be considered one of Americans earliest civilizations. It is not clear whether the Clovis people were one unified tribe or whether there were many tribes related by common technology and belief. Their nomadic trek across 2000 rugged miles in one of the great feats of pre-historical man. The Clovis culture disappears dramatically from the archaeological record 12,900 years ago. There is widespread speculation about what caused their disappearance. Theories range from the extinction of the mammoth to sudden environmental changes caused by a comet impacting or earth or the break of a massive freshwater lake, Lake Agassiz.

There is considerable controversy about Pre-Clovis settlement of North and South America. Comparative culture and linguistics offer evidence of influences of early America by several different contemporary cultures. Some genetic and time-dating studies point to the possibility that ancient Americans came from other places and arrived earlier than Clovis sites in north America. Perhaps some ancient settlers to the hemisphere traveled by boat along the seashore, or arrived by boats from the Polynesian islands

As time went on, many of these first settlers settled down and began to farm and domesticate animals. Groups of people formed stable tribes and formed a common language until more distant relatives could no longer understand them. Comparative linguistics, or the study of languages of different tribes show fascinating diversity with tribes showing similarities between tribes hundreds of miles apart, yet startling differences with neighboring groups.

At times and places tribes would gain regional importance and dominate large areas of American. Empires rose across the Americas that rivaled the greatest ones in Europe. For their time, some of these empires were highly advanced.

When referring to these empires, historians have difficulty, as the native people did not have a unified name for themselves. The term Indian came from the belief by Christopher Columbus that he had discovered India. Despite Amerigo Vespucci ascertaining that the Americas were not actually India, Indian continued to be used as the de facto name for native inhabitants until around 1960.

Early Empires of the Mississippi

Early North American Cultures