But they are not the first Europeans to reach this continent.įrom high ground in western Iceland the peaks of Greenland are sometimes visible, across 175 miles of water. Hunted to extinction in America, this useful creature will only become available again to the Indians through the event which destroys their way of life.
But in most parts of the continent the tribes continue to live a semi-nomadic existence, in the traditional manner of hunter-gatherers, even though they lack the one animal which makes movement on the plains easy. Farming, accompanied by village life, spreads up the east coast, where fields are cleared from the woodlands for the planting of maize. The period of greatest activity is from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD, by which time a vast number of mounds have been built throughout north America.ĭuring and after this period two regions of North America develop quite advanced farming societies - the Mississipi valley and the southwest. The earliest burial mounds in north America are those of the Adena culture of the Ohio valley, closely followed by nearby Hopewell tribes. From about 1000 BC great burial mounds begin to be constructed around tomb chambers of log or wood. The same cultural influence brings a custom eventually shared by many of the tribes, that of mound building. The natives of this region derive their crops from the more advanced civilization to the south, in Mexico. The first trace of settled village life is in the southwest, where by the 2nd millennium BC gourds, squash and corn (or maize) are cultivated (see hunter-gatherers). In the Arctic north, where there is very much more hunting than gathering, fish and seals are plentiful. In the desert regions of the southwest human subsistence depends on smaller animals and gathered seeds. On the grass plains of the midwest they hunt to extinction several American species, including the camel, mammoth and horse.
On the east side of the continent there are woodlands, where they kill elk and deer. The original people of north America live in a wide range of environments. The people of north America: 1500 BC - 1500 AD