Native Americans in the United States

:This article is about the people indigenous to the United States. For broader uses of "Native American" and related terms, see Native Americans.

Early history

See also: archeology of the Americas, models of migration to the New World, and indigenous people of the Americas for more detailed history and migration theories.

Related Topics:
Archeology of the Americas - Models of migration to the New World - Indigenous people of the Americas

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The Bering Strait Land Bridge theory

Based on anthropological and genetic evidence, some scientists believe that most Native Americans descend from people who migrated from Siberia across the Bering Land Bridge between 17,000–11,000 years ago, where the Bering Strait is today.

Related Topics:
Anthropological - Genetic - Migrated - Siberia - Bering Land Bridge - Bering Strait

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The exact epoch and route is still a matter of controversy.

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It should be noted, however, that many Native Americans reject theories of modern anthropology, having their own traditional stories that offer accounts to their origins, which are seen only as folklore by the scientific community.

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The primarily Siberian origin is widely regarded as the most likely, consisting of at least three separate migrations from Siberia to the Americas:

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• The first wave, during the late Pleistocene, would be the forerunners of the Clovis and Folsom cultures, both hunting the abundant large mammals of the virgin continent. This wave eventually spread over the entire hemisphere, as far south as Tierra del Fuego and is believed to have reached the New World no later than 11,000 years ago.
• The second migration brought the ancestors of the Na-Dene peoples. They lived in Alaska and western Canada, but some migrated as far south as the Pacific Northwestern U.S. and the American Southwest, and would be ancestral to the Dene, Apaches and Navajos. This group is believed to have reached North America between 6,000 to 8,000 years ago.
• The third wave brought the ancestors of the Inuit, Yupik and Aleut peoples. They may have come by sea over the Bering Strait, after the land bridge had disappeared. They are believed to have reached Alaska as early as 3,000 years ago.

In recent years, molecular genetics studies have suggested as many as four distinct migrations from Asia. These studies also provide surprising evidence of smaller-scale, contemporaneous migrations from Europe, possibly by peoples who had adopted a lifestyle resembling that of Inuits and Yupiks during the last ice age.

Related Topics:
Asia - Europe

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While many Native American groups retained a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle through the time of European occupation of the New World, in some regions, specifically in the Mississippi River valley of the United States, in Mexico, Central America, the Andes of South America, they built advanced civilizations with monumental architecture and large-scale organization into cities and states.

Related Topics:
Nomadic - Mississippi River - United States - Mexico - Central America - Andes - South America - Civilization - Architecture - Cities - State

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Settling down

By 1500 B.C. many tribes had settled into small indigenous communities. These began as temporary settlements built by the hunter-gatherers, and over the centuries they grew into small villages, mostly established in the river valleys of North America, where crops could be raised. While exhibiting widely divergent social, cultural, and artistic expressions, all Native American groups worked with materials available to them and employed social arrangements that augmented their means of subsistence and survival. Gradually, these communities became more sophisticated; examples of more complex societies included the tribes of the southern United States from the Atlantic Coast to the Mississippi River. These groups were the most highly developed Indian civilizations north of Mexico. They constructed large and complex earthworks, and were particularly skilled at small stone scupltures and engravings on shell and copper.

Related Topics:
North America - United States - Atlantic Coast - Mississippi River - Civilization - Mexico

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The large pueblos, or villages, built on top of rocky talleland or mesas of Southwest around A.D. 700, were a complicated aggregate of family apartments. Towns were one large complex of buildings, with multistoried houses arranged around courtyards or plazas. Wooden ladders provided access to upper levels. Under the courtyards, subterranean kivas, or ceremonial structures, served as meeting rooms for religious societies.

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