The North American Indian heritage
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
Cape DezhnyovNASA satellite image of Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of the
Chukchi Peninsula, Russia (left), with the Bering Strait (centre) and the Seward Peninsula of
Alaska, U.S. (right).
See how uranium-thorium dating of artifacts is used to determine when humans arrived in
North AmericaLearn about a controversial 2017 study that used thorium/uranium dating of
broken mastodon bones to argue that a prehistoric human species, such as Neanderthals, lived in
North America some 130,000 years ago.
Recent News
The date of the arrival in North America of the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans) emerged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty.
According to prevailing thought, it is relatively certain that they were Asiatic peoples who
originated in northeastern Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait (perhaps when it was a land
bridge) into Alaska and then gradually dispersed throughout the Americas. The glaciations of the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago) coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into North America for extended periods of time. It was
only during the interglacial periods that people ventured into this unpopulated land. Some
scholars claim an arrival about 60,000 years ago, before the last glacial advance (Wisconsin
Glacial Stage). The latest possible date now seems to be about 20,000 years ago, with some
pioneers filtering in during a recession in the Wisconsin glaciation.
These prehistoric invaders were Stone Age hunters who led a nomadic life, a pattern that
many retained until the coming of Europeans. As they worked their way southward from a
narrow, ice-free corridor in what is now the state of Alaska into the broad expanse of the
continent—between what are now Florida and California—the various communities tended to
fan out and to hunt and forage in comparative isolation. Until they converged in the narrows of
southern Mexico and the confined spaces of Central America, there was little of the fierce
competition or the close interaction among groups that might have stimulated cultural
inventiveness. Although great architectural and scientific advances did occur in Mesoamerica,
there was markedly less in the way of metallurgy, transportation networks, and complex
commerce than among the contemporary civilizations of Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.
Subsequently, the Toltec and Aztec created some remarkable cities in the high Mexican Plateau
and developed a society whose crafts and general sophistication rivaled those of Europe. These
dense populations were based on a productive agriculture that relied heavily on corn (maize),
beans, and squash, along with a great variety of other vegetables and fruits, fibres, dyes, and
stimulants but almost no livestock.
The size of the pre-Columbian aboriginal population of North America remains uncertain,
since the widely divergent estimates have been based on inadequate data. Luis de Velasco, a
16th-century viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), put the total for the West Indies, Mexico, and
Central America at about 5,000,000; some modern scholars, however, have suggested a figure
two to five times larger for the year 1492. The pre-Columbian population of what is now the
United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated
at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. By that time, the Indians there had not yet
adopted intensive agriculture or an urban way of life, although the cultivation of corn, beans, and
squash supplemented hunting and fishing throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and
in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River region, as well as along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coastal Plain. In those areas, semisedentary peoples had established villages, and, among the
Iroquois and the Cherokee, powerful federations of tribes had been formed. Elsewhere, however,
on the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the northern Appalachians, the Cordilleras, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Coast, hunting, fishing, and gathering constituted the basic economic
activity; and, in most instances, extensive territories were needed to feed and support small
groups.
The history of the entire aboriginal population of North America after the Spanish conquest
has been one of unmitigated tragedy. The combination of susceptibility to Old World diseases,
loss of land, and the disruption of cultural and economic patterns caused a drastic reduction in
numbers—indeed, the extinction of many communities. It is only since about 1900 that the
numbers of some Native American peoples have begun to rebound.
