North America Montana PreHistory Early Montana PreHistoric Peoples

North America & Montana Pre-History Early Montana Pre-Historic Peoples Migration Routes Early People of Present-Day Montana

After the Dinosaurs Huge Mammals Roamed the Americas….

Large Pre-Historic Animals • • Woolly mammoth Mastodon Steppe bison Giant ground sloth Giant beaver North American horse Camel Saber Tooth Cat

How & When did Humans Arrive in the Americas?

Migration. S • Multiple migrations of pre-historic peoples from Asia • 12, 000 -30, 000 years ago • Land Bridge (Beringia) -original theory, most widely accepted • Coastal Routes by sea -additional routes -recent research seems to confirm multiple routes • Paleo-Indians/Clovis People

Beringia

Land Routes

Land Bridge Siberia North America

Coastal Routes

How do we know this stuff? • Archaeologists and geologists study layers or strata in the earth (bottom layers are older, top layers are newer) • Radiocarbon dating (tests organic materials to determine age) • DNA & Linguistics (compares DNA and languages to find connections between people in different parts of the world)

S T R A T A

Creation Stories • Each Indian tribe today has its own creation story. • Passed down through oral traditions • Some call them legends or myths, but many tribal members believe in these creation stories like members of any other religion. • Many tribes believe they were always here based on their creation stories.

Who were the 1 st Americans? Where did they originate? • Differing theories

Kennewick Man • Skeleton found near Kennewick, Washington ½ buried in Columbia River bank • Approx 9300 years old • Unique (“Caucasian” features? ) • Umatilla Indian Tribe objected to examination of skeleton • Indian Grave Repatriation Act • Evidence links ancestry to Japan

Family Resemblance?

Movin’ to Montana • Pre-Historic peoples arrived in MT about 12, 000 years ago (10, 000 B. C. ) • People were highly mobile and lived in small groups, which was better for hunting • Followed herds of Mammoth • Before 1600 the only tribes to live in MT were in the western mountains – Kootenai – Flathead or Salish

Paleo-Indians or Clovis People

Pre-Historic Indian Ancestors • Paleo-Indian or Clovis people • Hunter/Gatherers • Named for shape they gave their spear points

Atlatl

THE END