| Would you like to find out what those-in-the-know | | | | before 12,000 B.C.; a recent discovery of a |
| have to say about Native Americans? The | | | | hunting lookout in northern Alaska, for example, |
| information in the article below comes straight | | | | may date from almost that time. So too may the |
| from well-informed experts with special | | | | finely crafted spear points and items found near |
| knowledge about Native Americans. | | | | Clovis, New Mexico. |
| THE EARLIEST KNOWN SETTLERS OF THE | | | | Similar artifacts have been found at sites |
| NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT | | | | throughout North and South America, indicating |
| THE FIRST AMERICANS | | | | that life was probably already well established in |
| At the height of the Ice Age, between 34,000 | | | | much of the Western Hemisphere some time |
| and 30,000 B.C., much of the world's water was | | | | prior to 10,000 B.C. Around the time the |
| locked up in vast continental ice sheets. As a | | | | mammoth began to die out and the bison took its |
| result, the Bering Sea was hundreds of meters | | | | place as a principal source of food and hides for |
| below its current level, and a land bridge, known | | | | these early North Americans. Over time, as |
| as Beringia, emerged between Asia and North | | | | species of large game vanished whether from |
| America. At its peak, Beringia is thought to have | | | | over hunting or natural causes plants, berries, and |
| been some 1,500 kilometers wide. A moist and | | | | seeds became an increasingly important part of |
| treeless tundra, it was covered with grasses and | | | | the early American diet. Gradually, foraging and |
| plant life, attracting the large animals that early | | | | the first attempts at primitive agriculture |
| humans hunted for their survival. | | | | appeared. Native Americans in what is now central |
| The first people to reach North America did so | | | | Mexico led the way, cultivating corn, squash, and |
| without knowing they had crossed into a new | | | | beans, perhaps as early as 8,000 B.C. Slowly, this |
| continent. They would have been following game, | | | | knowledge spread northward. |
| as their ancestors had for thousands of years, | | | | By 3,000 B.C., a primitive type of corn was being |
| along the Siberian coast and then across the land | | | | grown in the river valleys of New Mexico and |
| bridge. | | | | Arizona. Then the first signs of irrigation began to |
| You may not consider everything you just read | | | | appear, and, by 300 B.C., signs of early village life. |
| to be crucial information about Native Americans. | | | | By the first centuries A.D., the Hohokam were |
| But don't be surprised if you find yourself recalling | | | | living in settlements near what is now Phoenix, |
| and using this very information in the next few | | | | Arizona, where they built ball courts and pyramid |
| days. | | | | like mounds reminiscent of those found in Mexico, |
| Once in Alaska, it would take these first North | | | | as well as a canal and irrigation system. |
| Americans thousands of years more to work | | | | Sometimes it's tough to sort out all the details |
| their way through the openings in great glaciers | | | | related to this subject, but I'm positive you'll have |
| south to what is now the United States. Evidence | | | | no trouble making sense of the information |
| of early life in North America continues to be | | | | presented above. |
| found. Little of it, however, can be reliably dated | | | | |