
10 Oldest Indigenous Groups in the America
- 1. Clovis First Appeared: c. 11,500 BCE ...
- 2. Ancestral Puebloans First Appeared: c. 10,000 BCE ...
- 3. Zuni First Appeared: 2,500 BCE ...
- 4. Yokut First Appeared: Unknown, but most likely have ancient origins ...
- 5. Arikara/Sahnish First Appeared: Unknown ...
- 6. Guaraní Peoples First Appeared: Unknown, but prior to the sixteenth century ...
- 7. Mojave First Appeared: Unknown, but prior to the sixteenth century ...
- 8. Arapaho ...
What is the oldest human settlement in North America?
Meadowcroft Rockshelter: North America’s Oldest Human Settlement. One day in 1955, Albert Miller made his way up to a hillside rock overhang on his farmland in Avella, Pennsylvania. There he noticed several curious objects in a recently dug groundhog hole.
What is the history of Native American history?
The histy of Native Americans in the United States began in ancient times tens of thousands of years ago with the settlement of the Americas by the Paleo-Indians. Anthropologists and archeologists have identified and studied a wide variety of cultures that existed during this era.
What are the 10 oldest indigenous groups in the US?
10 Oldest Indigenous Groups in the America. 1 1. Clovis. First Appeared: c. 11,500 BCE Location: United States, Mexico and Central America Language: Multiple photo source: AP. 2 2. Ancestral Puebloans. 3 3. Zuni. 4 4. Yokut. 5 5. Arikara/Sahnish. More items
What is the earliest known place of habitation in North America?
Even more remarkable is that the rock shelter showed signs of continuous human habitation up until the 18th century, making it not only the earliest known place of human habitation in North America, but also the longest continually used site.

What's the oldest settlement in North America?
St. AugustineSt. Augustine, founded in September 1565 by Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles of Spain, is the longest continually inhabited European-founded city in the United States – more commonly called the "Nation's Oldest City."
What were the first 3 settlements in America?
The invasion of the North American continent and its peoples began with the Spanish in 1565 at St. Augustine, Florida, then British in 1587 when the Plymouth Company established a settlement that they dubbed Roanoke in present-day North Carolina.
What is the oldest Native American civilization?
CaralWith more than 5 thousand years old, Caral is considered the oldest civilization in the American continent. Between the years 3000 and 2500 B. C., the people from Caral began to form small settlements in what is now the province of Barranca, that interacted with each other to exchanged products and merchandise.
What is the oldest known settlement?
About 6,000 years ago, humans first set up camp on this site called Erbil Citadel, or Qalat as it is known locally. That makes Erbil Citadel, located in the center of Erbil, Iraq, the oldest continuously occupied human settlement.
What were the first settlements in America?
What were the first three settlements in America? The first settlements in North America were: Vineland by the Vikings, St. Augustine by the Spanish, and Roanoke by the British.
Who landed in America first?
Five hundred years before Columbus, a daring band of Vikings led by Leif Eriksson set foot in North America and established a settlement.
When was the first Native American tribe?
The ancestors of living Native Americans arrived in what is now the United States at least 15,000 years ago, possibly much earlier, from Asia via Beringia.
Who were the first people to live in America?
Ice age. During the second half of the 20th Century, a consensus emerged among North American archaeologists that the Clovis people had been the first to reach the Americas, about 11,500 years ago. The ancestors of the Clovis were thought to have crossed a land bridge linking Siberia to Alaska during the last ice age.
What's the oldest human remains ever found?
The oldest known evidence for anatomically modern humans (as of 2017) are fossils found at Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, dated about 360,000 years old. Anatomically modern human remains of eight individuals dated 300,000 years old, making them the oldest known remains categorized as "modern" (as of 2018).
Where is the oldest place on Earth?
Accessibility links. Is the Pilbara the oldest place on Earth? Dating to around 3.6 billion years ago, the Pilbara region of Western Australia is home to the fossilised evidence of the Earth's oldest lifeforms.
Who was the first human on earth?
Homo habilisThe First Humans One of the earliest known humans is Homo habilis, or “handy man,” who lived about 2.4 million to 1.4 million years ago in Eastern and Southern Africa.
Where were most of the first settlements in America found?
The first colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Many of the people who settled in the New World came to escape religious persecution. The Pilgrims, founders of Plymouth, Massachusetts, arrived in 1620. In both Virginia and Massachusetts, the colonists flourished with some assistance from Native Americans.
What are early settlements?
The practice of settling a trade before the usual settlement date. This is fairly unusual; most contracts are settled between one and three days later.
What was the second English settlement in America?
In 1620, a group of Puritans established a second permanent colony on the coast of Massachusetts.
Where were early settlements located?
By about 14,000 years ago, the first settlements built with stone began to appear, in modern-day Israel and Jordan. The inhabitants, sedentary hunter-gatherers called Natufians, buried their dead in or under their houses, just as Neolithic peoples did after them.
Where is the oldest human settlement in North America?
Meadowcroft Rockshelter: North America’s Oldest Human Settlement. One day in 1955, Albert Miller made his way up to a hillside rock overhang on his farmland in Avella, Pennsylvania. There he noticed several curious objects in a recently dug groundhog hole. Picking them up, he realized they were of Native American origin.
What was the oldest thing ever found in North America?
Archeologists have even discovered a 12,000-year-old spearhead —the oldest ever found in North America.
What is the longest continuously used rock shelter in North America?
Even more remarkable is that the rock shelter showed signs of continuous human habitation up until the 18th century, making it not only the earliest known place of human habitation in North America, but also the longest continually used site. Meadowcroft Rockshelter (image courtesy of Meadowcroft, copyright Ed Massery)
When did the Paleo Indians arrive?
The Cultural areas of pre-Columbian North America, according to Alfred Kroeber. The Paleo-Indian or Lithic stage lasted from the first arrival of people in the Americas until about 5000/3000 BCE (in North America).
Why did the United States settle in the Northwest Territory?
The United States was eager to expand, to develop farming and settlements in new areas, and to satisfy land hunger of settlers from New England and new immigrants. The belief and inaccurate presumption was that the land was not settled and existed in a state of nature and therefore was free to be settled by citizens of the newly formed United States. In the years after the American Revolution, the newly formed nation set about acquiring lands in the Northwest Territory through a multitude of treaties with Native nations. The coercive tactics used to obtain these treaties often left the Native Nations with the option to sell the land or face war. The states and settlers were frequently at odds with this policy. Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance in 1787, which was conceived to allow for the United States to sell lands inhabited by the Native nations to settlers willing to move into that area.
What was the Iroquois League of Nations?
The Iroquois League of Nations or "People of the Long House", based in present-day upstate and western New York, had a confederacy model from the mid-15th century. It has been suggested that their culture contributed to political thinking during the development of the later United States government.
Why did Native Americans fight in the French and Indian War?
Native Americans fought on both sides of the conflict. The greater number of tribes fought with the French in the hopes of checking British expansion. The British had made fewer allies, but it was joined by some tribes that wanted to prove assimilation and loyalty in support of treaties to preserve their territories. They were often disappointed when such treaties were later overturned. The tribes had their own purposes, using their alliances with the European powers to battle traditional Native enemies.
What was the Archaic period?
The Archaic period lasted until about 1000 BCE. A major culture of the Archaic stage was the Mound builders, who stretched from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Since the 1990s, archeologists have explored and dated eleven Middle Archaic sites in present-day Louisiana and Florida at which early cultures built complexes with multiple earthwork mounds; they were societies of hunter-gatherers rather than the settled agriculturalists believed necessary according to the theory of Neolithic Revolution to sustain such large villages over long periods. Native American cultures are not included in characterizations of advanced Stone Age cultures as " Neolithic ," which is a category that more often includes only the cultures in Eurasia, Africa, and other regions.
Why did the tribes use horses?
The tribes trained and used horses to ride and to carry packs or pull travois. The people fully incorporated the use of horses into their societies and expanded their territories. They used horses to carry goods for exchange with neighboring tribes, to hunt game, especially bison, and to conduct wars and horse raids.
Where are the Etowah Indian mounds?
Etowah Indian Mounds ( 9BR1) are a 54-acre (220,000 m 2) archaeological site in Bartow County, Georgia south of Cartersville, in the United States. Built and occupied in three phases, from 1000–1550 CE, the prehistoric site is on the north shore of the Etowah River.
What happened to Native Americans after the French and Indian War?
After siding with the French in numerous battles during the French and Indian War and eventually being forcibly removed from their homes under Andrew Jackson ’s Indian Removal Act, Native American populations were diminished in size and territory by the end of the 19th century. Below are events that shaped Native Americans’ tumultuous history ...
What were the events that shaped the Native Americans' tumultuous history following the arrival of foreign?
Below are events that shaped Native Americans’ tumultuous history following the arrival of foreign settlers. 1492: Christopher Columbus lands on a Caribbean Island after three months of traveling. Believing at first that he had reached the East Indies, he describes the natives he meets as “Indians.”.
How did Native Americans respond to the explorers?
As explorers sought to colonize their land, Native Americans responded in various stages, from cooperation to indignation to revolt. As explorers sought to colonize their land, Native Americans responded in various stages, from cooperation to indignation to revolt.
What treaty was signed in 1785?
1785: The Treaty of Hopewell is signed in Georgia, protecting Cherokee Native Americans in the United States and sectioning off their land. 1788/89: Sacagawea is born. 1791: The Treaty of Holston is signed, in which the Cherokee give up all their land outside of the borders previously established.
What happened in October 1540?
October 1540: De Soto and the Spaniards plan to rendezvous with ships in Alabama when they’re attacked by Native Americans. Hundreds of Native Americans are killed in the ensuing battle.
How many Cherokees died in the Mississippi River?
1838: With only 2,000 Cherokees having left their land in Georgia to cross the Mississippi River, President Martin Van Buren enlists General Winfield Scott and 7,000 troops to speed up the process by holding them at gunpoint and marching them 1,200 miles. More than 5,000 Cherokee die as a result of the journey.
How much land did the Creeks cede?
The Creeks cede more than 20 million acres of land after their loss. May 28, 1830: President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act, which gives plots of land west of the Mississippi River to Native American tribes in exchange for land that is taken from them.
How long ago did Native Americans live?
Archaeologists can trace the ancestry of Native Americans to at least twelve thousand years ago , to the time of the last Ice Age in the Pleistocene epoch. During the Ice Age, ocean levels dropped and revealed land that had previously been under the Bering Sea. Native American ancestors walked on that land from present-day Siberia to Alaska. Evidence suggests that their population grew rapidly and that they settled throughout Canada, the Great Plains, and the Eastern Woodlands, which included the North Carolina area.
Where did the Woodland Indians live?
Though remains of their settlements can be found throughout North Carolina, these Indians tended to live in semi permanent villages in stream valleys.
What was the name of the settlement that took up more of the Tuscarora land?
The settlement of New Bern in 1710 took up even more of the Tuscarora land and may have provoked the Tuscarora Indian War (1711–1714). In 1711 the Tuscarora attacked White settlements along the Neuse and Pamlico Rivers. They were defeated in 1712 by an army led by Colonel John Barnwell of South Carolina.
Where did the Tuscarora live?
But the Iroquoian-speaking Tuscarora stayed, living in villages along the Pamlico and Neuse River s.
Where do the Cherokee live?
Together, their descendants make up the Eastern Band of the Cherokee and now live in the Qualla Boundary, a reservation in five different counties in western North Carolina. Several other modern Native American groups, such as the Lumbee, the Haliwa-Saponi, and the Coharie, live in North Carolina.
What did the Archaic people do?
They traveled widely on foot to gather food, to obtain raw materials for making tools or shelters, and to visit and trade with neighbors. Some Archaic people may have used watercraft, particularly canoes made by digging out the centers of trees.
How did European settlement affect Native Americans?
Settlement by European Americans also pushed many Native Americans off their land. Some made treaties with the Whites, giving up land and moving farther west. Others fought back in battle but lost and were forced to give up their lands. These battles, as well as war with other Native American tribes, also killed many.
What are the indigenous peoples?
Indigenous peoples are the oldest inhabitants of the American continents. Prior to, during and after colonization, thousands of tribes, from Canada to Patagonia, have thrived in established societies with their own cultural, social and religious practices. The list below is not exhaustive by any means, but it demonstrates the varied and lasting diversity of Indigenous Americans. To learn more about Native history and current news– visit tribal websites, contact local experts and follow Indigenous activists on social media.
Where did the Arapaho tribe come from?
The Arapaho tribe originates from the Midwestern United States and originally lived a more nomadic lifestyle following buffalo and sleeping in portable teepees. After European colonization, horseback riding became a part of the Arapaho hunting tradition.
What tribes are in the Arikara tribe?
The Arikara tribe is part of the North American Plains Indians group, which also includes the Cheyenne, Apache, Mandan, Osage Nation and Pawnee trib es—the latter of which the Arikara people broke away from centuries ago. Like Puebloans, past Arikara people built and lived in clay dwellings and harvested maize, beans, squash, sunflowers and tobacco in addition to hunting. In terms of spiritualism, the Arikara tribe creates sacred bundles that allow for divine communication and are protected by designated bundle keepers. Due to imperialism, the Arikara tribe became temporarily nomadic during the eighteenth century and, after suffering massive losses due to European diseases, formed a coalition with the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes called the Three Affiliated Tribes or MHA Nation.
What did the Arikara tribe harvest?
Like Puebloans, past Arikara people built and lived in clay dwellings and harvested maize, beans, squash, sunflowers and tobacco in addition to hunting. In terms of spiritualism, the Arikara tribe creates sacred bundles that allow for divine communication and are protected by designated bundle keepers.
How many Arapaho tribes are there?
Due to a split in the mid-nineteenth century, there are now four federally recognized Arapaho tribes.
When did the Puebloans start to disperse?
Prehistoric ancestors to modern tribes, the ancestral Puebloans started to diverge and disperse as a result of violent European colonization in the mid sixteenth century.
Where did the Clovis come from?
One of the oldest known groups, the Clovis most likely arrived to the North continent from Asia via the Bering Strait. While anthropologists doubt that they were the first people here, they are still ancestors of several modern tribes. For a while, historians believed Clovis people hunted mammoths using specially designed spearheads. Today, most posit that their diet was a more reasonable combination of foraged plants, small game and fish. Like many prehistoric cultures the Clovis later dispersed and developed into other distinct groups.
When did humans first settle in Alaska?
The earliest archaeological evidence for human settlement in Alaska—nothing more than small scatters of stones and bones—dates to about 11,500 years ago . From that date onward, there has been continuous human occupation in the Arctic into modern times. During the height of the Würm glaciation (called the Wisconsin in the New World), northern North America was mantled by two vast ice sheets that extended from Greenland to British Columbia. There may have been a narrow, ice-free corridor between them, but it would not have supported animal or plant life. Most likely, people from Alaska hunted and foraged their way south onto the Great Plains as the ice sheets receded rapidly after 13,000 years ago. Despite occasional occurrences of 12,000-year-old artifacts in North America, the first widespread settlement of the Americas as a whole dates with great consistency to about 11,000 years ago (9000 B.C.E.). Within a few centuries, perhaps no more than 500 years, hunter-gatherer groups had colonized the entire Americas, from ice-free Nova Scotia in the north to Patagonia in the south.
Where did Native Americans come from?
Dental morphology, genetics, and archaeology show that the biological and cultural roots of the Native Americans lie in northern China and extreme northeast Asia. We do not know when modern humans first settled in China. Although Chinese archaeologists claim that Homo sapiens sapiens evolved ...
What are the Clovis people known for?
The Clovis people. The Clovis people (named after a site near Clovis, New Mexico) are best known for their characteristic stone projectile points, fluted at the base for mounting in a wooden shaft. These people preyed on game of every size and also foraged plant foods.
Where did humans settle in Brazil?
There are affirmations of humans occupying Boqueirao de Pedra Furada in northeastern Brazil at least 40,000 years ago. Only a few scholars accept this claim or other much heralded occupations said to have occurred between 40,000 ...
Where did the first people settle in Siberia?
The earliest human settlement of extreme northeast Siberia. The earliest human settlement of extreme northeast Siberia, from Lake Baikal eastward, took place late in the Ice Age. This was after the last glacial climax 18,000 years ago, when warmer conditions opened up hitherto uninhabited steppe-tundra. The first settlers were few in number, living ...
Where did modern people hunt?
Anatomically modern people were hunting and foraging in the Ordos area of Mongolia by 35,000 years ago. Ten thousand years later, a vast area between Mongolia in the west and the Pacific coast in the east supported a highly varied population of hunter-gatherers exploiting game and plant foods as well as coastal resources.
Why did the bison go extinct?
By 8800 B.C.E., most large late Ice Age animals except for the bison were extinct, probably as a result of rapid climate change and drought. Some experts believe that human predators helped in the process of extinction by exploiting slow-breeding mammals like the mammoth and mastodon.

Overview
Eurasian migration
According to the most generally accepted theory of the settlement of the Americas, migrations of humans from Eurasia to the Americas took place via Beringia, a land bridge which connected the two continents across what is now the Bering Strait. The number and composition of the migrations is still being debated. Falling sea levels associated with an intensive period of Quaternary gla…
European exploration and colonization
After 1492 European exploration and colonization of the Americas revolutionized how the Old and New Worlds perceived themselves. One of the first major contacts, in what would be called the American Deep South, occurred when the conquistador Juan Ponce de León landed in La Florida in April 1513. He was later followed by other Spanish explorers, such as Pánfilo de Narváez in 1528 and He…
16th century
The 16th century saw the first contacts between Native Americans in what was to become the United States and European explorers and settlers.
One of the first major contacts, in what would be called the American Deep South, occurred when the conquistador Juan Ponce de León landed in La Florida in April 1513. There he encountered the Timucuan and Ais peoples. De León returned in 1521 in an attempt at colonization, but after fier…
17th century
Through the mid 17th century the Beaver Wars were fought over the fur trade between the Iroquois and the Hurons, the northern Algonquians, and their French allies. During the war the Iroquois destroyed several large tribal confederacies—including the Huron, Neutral, Erie, Susquehannock, and Shawnee, and became dominant in the region and enlarged their territory.
King Philip's War, also called Metacom's War or Metacom's Rebellion, was an armed conflict bet…
18th century
Between 1754 and 1763, many Native American tribes were involved in the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War. Those involved in the fur trade in the northern areas tended to ally with French forces against British colonial militias. Native Americans fought on both sides of the conflict. The greater number of tribes fought with the French in the hopes of checking British expansion. The B…
19th century
As American expansion continued, Native Americans resisted settlers' encroachment in several regions of the new nation (and in unorganized territories), from the Northwest to the Southeast, and then in the West, as settlers encountered the tribes of the Great Plains.
East of the Mississippi River, an intertribal army led by Tecumseh, a Shawnee c…
20th century
On August 29, 1911 Ishi, generally considered to have been the last Native American to live most of his life without contact with European-American culture, was discovered near Oroville, California after a forest fire drove him from nearby mountains. He was the last of his tribe, the rest having been massacred by a party of White "Indian fighters" in 1865 when he was a boy. After being jailed i…