United States History To 1877

Modern scientists are still trying to determine how the first people came to North and South America. The story of the first Americans is still being pieced together by experts in archaeology, the study of ancient peoples. Archaeologists learn about the past from artifacts, things lef behind by early people, such as stone tools, weapons, baskets, and carvings. Their discoveries show that many early peoples may have come across a land that later sank into the sea. It was not the mythical Atlantis, however, but a strip of land called Beringia that once joined Asia and the Americas. Crossing the Land Bridge During its long history, the earth has passed through several Ice Ages. These are periods of very cold temperatures when part of the earth was covered with large ice sheets. Much of the water from the oceans was frozen into these sheets, or glaciers. For that reason the sea levels were much lower than they are today. The most recent Ice Age began 100,000 years ago and ended about 12,000 years ago. During this period many scientists think the lower sea level exposed a wide strip of land between Asia and North America. This land bridge would have run from Siberia in northeastern Asia to present-day Alaska, the westernmost part of the Americas. The land bridge, Beringia, now lies under the Bering Strait. One popular scientific theory states that the first Americans were people from Asia who crossed over Beringia during the last Ice Age. These early peoples reached the Americas thousands of years ago. In Search of Hunting Grounds The early Americans were nomads, people who moved from place to place. They gathered wild grains and fruits but depended on hunting for much of their food. While traveling in search of animals to hunt, they crossed Beringia into what is now Alaska and Canada. The crossing of the land bridge was a migration, a movement of a large number of people into a new homeland. It did not happen in a single journey. As the centuries passed, many groups of people traveled from Asia either on foot across the land bridge or in boats. From the north, the migrants gradually moved into new territory. They spread out across the Americas, going as far east as the Atlantic Ocean and as far south as the tip of South America. Hunting for Food Native American legends tell of giant beasts that roamed the earth in ancient times. When the first Americans arrived from Asia, they did indeed find huge mammals. There was the saber-toothed tiger, the woolly mammoth, and the mastodon. The mammoth and mastodon resembled modern elephants in size and shape but had shaggy fur and long tusks. The early Americans were skilled at hunting these beasts. The hunters shaped pieces of stone and bone to make tools for chopping and scraping. They chipped rocks into extremely sharp points and fastened them on poles to make spears. Bands of hunters armed with these spears stalked herds of bison, mastodons, or • The earth enters a long Ice Age. • Water from the ocean freezes. • Sea levels drop, exposing the Beringia land bridge. • Hunters from Asia cross into North America. • People spread into Central America and South America. • The early Americans create new cultures. The settlement of the Americas can be traced to a geographic element—the earth’s climate. Analyzing Information What happened when sea levels dropped? 0 1,000 kilometers Azimuthal Equidistant projection 0 1,000 miles N S WE 100°W 60 80°W °W 40°W 20°W 120°W 140°W 0° 20°S 40°S 60°S 180° 160°E 20°N 40°N 0° EQUATOR TROPIC OF CAPRICORN TROPIC OF CANCER ARCTIC CIRCLE ATLaNTIC OCEaN PaCIFIC OCEaN Gulf of Mexico ARCTIC OCEaN Bering Strait Caribbean Sea R O CKY M O U N TAINS AN D E S NORTH AMERICA CENTRAL AMERICA SOUTH AMERICA ASIA EUROPE AFRICA Folsom Tepexp Dan 18 CHAPTER 1 The First Americans Americas were cut off from Asia. At the same time, the hunters of America faced a new challenge. The mammoths and other large animals began to die out, either from being overhunted or because of changes in the environment. The early Americans had to find other sources of food. Describing How did early American nomads hunt for food? Settling Down As the large animals disappeared, the early Americans found new sources of food. They hunted smaller game, such as deer, birds, and rodents. Those who lived along rivers or near the seacoast learned to catch fish with nets and traps. They continued to gather wild berries and grains. mammoths and then charged at the animals, hurling their weapons. A single mammoth provided tons of meat, enough to feed a group of people for months. The hunters and their families used every part of the animal. They made the skin into clothing, carved the bones into weapons and tools, and may have used the long ribs to build shelters. About 15,000 years ago the earth’s temperatures began to rise. The Ice Age was drawing to an end. As the great glaciers melted, the oceans rose, and Beringia was submerged again. The Prehistoric Migrations Through the Americas Over thousands of years, prehistoric people migrated from other lands to the Americas. 1. Movement Along what major mountain ranges did the migration routes flow? 2. Interpreting Information How was it possible for prehistoric people to cross the Bering Strait? Glaciers Land exposed during the Ice Age Possible migration routes Known sites of prehistoric hunters Motion In Planting Seeds About 9,000 years ago, people living in present-day Mexico made a discovery that would shape the lives of Native Americans for thousands of years. They learned to plant and raise an early form of corn called maize. Their harvests of maize provided a steady, reliable source of food. No longer did they have to move from place to place in order to find food. Early Americans in Mexico also experimented with other kinds of seeds. They planted pumpkins, beans, and squashes. They soon began producing more than enough food to feed themselves. The population grew along with the growing food supply. Early Communities With rising numbers of people and a dependable supply of food, early Americans in Mexico started to form stationary communities. Scientists have found traces of early villages that date from about 5,000 years ago. Scientists use a method called carbon dating to find out how old an artifact is. By measuring the amount of radioactive carbon that remains in something that was once alive—such as a bone or a piece of wood—they can tell approximately how long ago it lived. Carbon dating is imprecise and can only give a rough estimate of an artifact’s age. Sometime afer the early settlements in Mexico, people began farming in what is now the southwestern United States. Not all the early peoples in the Americas farmed, however. Some remained nomadic hunters, and others relied on fishing or trading instead of agriculture. The Growth of Cultures Farming allowed people to spend time on activities other than finding food. Knowing that they would harvest an abundant supply of grains and vegetables, the people of ancient Mexico began to improve their lives in other ways. They built permanent shelters of clay, brick, stone, or wood. They made pottery and cloth and decorated these goods with dyes made from roots and herbs. They also began to develop more complex forms of government. Agriculture changed the lives of these early people and led to a new culture, or way of life. Rather than move from place to place in search of food, the people who farmed were able to settle down. They formed communities and developed common customs, beliefs, and ways of protecting themselves. Over time, the many different groups of people living in the Americas developed their own cultures. Summarizing What did farming mean for nomadic people? Checking for Understanding 1. Key Terms Use each of the following terms in a complete sentence that will help explain its meaning: archaeology, artifact, Ice Age, migration, culture. 2. Reviewing Facts Why did the first people come to the Americas? Reviewing Themes 3. Geography and History How did an Ice Age make it possible for Asian hunters to migrate to the Americas? Critical Thinking 4. Determining Cause and Effect How do you think the first Americans discovered that they could grow their own plants? 5. Organizing Information Re-create the diagram below and explain how early Native Americans depended on their environment and natural resources. Analyzing Visuals 6. Geography Skills Study the map on page 18. In which direction did the travelers migrate across the Bering Strait? CHAPTER 1 The First Americans 19 Examples Geography Create a version of the map on page 18. Your version can be larger, if needed. Label all land masses and bodies of water. Illustrate the map to tell the story of how the first Americans migrated to North America. Study Central TM To review this section, go to and click on Study CentralTM tarvol1.glencoe.com . NOTEBOOK New Ways to the New World An old Virginia sandpit may change our views of the earliest Americans T HAS BEEN CALLED THE GREATEST STORY OF IMMIGRATION TO THE Americas. At the end of the last Ice Age, brave women and men from Siberia walked across the Bering Sea land bridge. This is a piece of land that once connected the Asian continent with North America. Within 500 years, their descendants had settled most of the hemisphere, from the Arctic Circle to the tip of South America. But it seems they may not have been first. I Cactus Hill Well known archaeologist JOSEPH MCAVOY and his team reported that they have located an ancient campsite that is about 18,000 years old. The place, known as Cactus Hill, is about 45 miles south of Richmond, Virginia (see map). Scientists now believe the site may actually be thousands of years older than the land-bridge site. If that’s true, then people were living in North America much earlier than once believed. “If the dates hold up, and I think they will,” says archaeologist Dennis Stanford, “this is probably some of the oldest material in North America, if not the entire New World.” For decades, experts thought that 11,200-year-old stone spear points from a site in Clovis, New Mexico, were the earliest evidence of settlement in the hemisphere. But since the 1970s, older sites have been discovered on both sides of the North American continent. The most important finding has been a 17,000-year-old rock shelter in Meadowcrof, Pennsylvania. McAvoy and wife, Lynn, working on what may be one of the oldest campsites in the Americas GARRETT—NAT’L GEOGRAPHIC CACTUS HILL More Proof Now Cactus Hill presents still more proof that humans settled in North America earlier than anyone had thought. McAvoy’s team has unearthed a variety of stone tools, probably used for hunting and butchering animals. The team also found burned bones of mud turtles, whitetailed deer, and other mammals, and bits of charcoal lef over from hunters cooking the animals. High-tech instruments were used to figure out how old the bones and objects are. The Meadowcrof rock shelter’s chief archaeologist, James Adovasio, says: “This is another indication that people were running around North America earlier than 13,000 years ago.” 20 TIME GRAPHIC BY LON TWEETEN PREHISTORY How Did People Arrive? How could they have reached North America? One possibility is that they came by boat along the eastern and western coasts of the Americas. A 12,500year-old settlement in Monte Verde, Chile, for example, might have been reached easily by water. “That’s possible,” says James Adovasio. “You had southeast Asians sailing to Australia more than 50,000 years ago.” The most startling idea is raised by Dennis Stanford, who says the Cactus Hill tools resemble even older ones found in Spain and France. He thinks that the first people to reach the Americas managed to cross the Atlantic from what is now Spain and Portugal some 17,000 to 18,000 years ago. For now, few scientists are willing to go so far. “I think people did have the capacity to sail across the Atlantic,” says Adovasio. “But I still think 99.9 percent of the settling of the Americas occurred through the interior or along the coast from the Bering Sea.” BY LAND OR BY SEA? Cactus Hill lends weight to the theory that the first Americans arrived by sea. Cactus Hill (Va.) 16,000–18,000 years old 21 c. 1500 B.C. Rise of the Olmec in Mexico c. A.D. 700 Maya civilization at its height in Central America c. A.D. 1325 Aztec establish Tenochtitlán in Mexico c. A.D. 1400 Inca Empire begins to expand Cities and Empires