Earliest Americans

It is generally believed that the Americas were peopled from Asia by way of the Bering Strait. Migrations were probably made by several kinds of peoples—small groups of hunters pursuing the mammoth, mastodon, woolly rhinoceros, and prehistoric bison—over a long period of time. Most scientists believe the earliest migrations were 12,000 to 14,000 years ago. Some believe the migration may have begun as early as 35,000 years ago, but dates earlier than 14,000 years ago have not been generally accepted because of problems in interpreting the evidence.

The early peoples of the Americas are known mainly from the distinctive points used on their spears or arrows. Points are named for three sites in New Mexico where they were first found. Sandia Cave points are estimated to be 12,000 years old; Clovis points, about 11,000 to 11,500. First to be found, in 1926, was a Folsom point that had killed an Ice Age bison and so was at least 10,000 years old. Since then many more have been found.

Much later, but also in the Southwest, lived several groups who developed a high degree of civilization. One group—called Anasazi, meaning “ancient ones,” or Basket-makers, because of their fine baskets—were predecessors of Pueblo peoples that included the Cliff Dwellers. The Cliff Dweller apartment-style houses at Mesa Verde were built into canyon walls. They resembled the community dwellings built on flat land by related Pueblo groups.

Another group, the Hohokam, built courts for playing ball games and extensive irrigation works along the Gila River.

The Mound Builders left remains over the central and southern states. Some were effigy mounds—mounds in the form of serpents, eagles, turtles, or other animals. (For an example, Some were burial mounds, usually conical. Flat-topped, or platform, mounds may have been bases for temples. Some enclosures may have been forts. In these earth mounds have been found statues, ornaments, and tools of stone and of copper.