Native American History For Dummies

Part I

America Before It Was America

In this part . . .

The United States is just over two hundred years old, yet the land the country occupies has been here for millions of years, and there have been people living here for tens of thousands of years.

The debate as to how the Native peoples arrived here is ongoing, and include both overland and by water theories. The point is, the North American landmass has a lengthy history, and in this part we will look at what the land was like eons ago, how the first people arrived here, how tribes developed cultures, and where they all settled.

Chapter 1

The Rich, Troubled Past of the American Indian

In This Chapter

bullet Getting a new perception of the American Indian

bullet Checking out their ancient beginnings

bullet Sorting through struggles and successes

bullet Looking toward a bright future

All Americans need to know the undeniably wonderful, oftentimes troublesome, commonly awe-inspiring, sometimes regrettable history of our country. Economic miracle and global influence? Great. Slavery and the near-extinction of the Native American peoples? Not so great.

The American identity is multifaceted and has been forged in a cauldron of countless influences, one of the most important being the fact that the Indians were here first. Why is that important? For the same reason that many states have passed resolutions apologizing for slavery. The Indians were here when European explorers arrived and claimed the land as their own, using authority they believed was given to them by God himself.

That’s pretty powerful validation, when you think about it, and it helps explain how European settlers had zero qualms about taking what they wanted and eliminating Native peoples at will. They were doing God’s work.

The Price of Greatness

Knowing and understanding the genesis of what many believe is the greatest country in the history of civilization is important because it puts this achievement known as the United States in perspective. It illustrates that greatness often comes with a price, and that price is commonly the exploitation or elimination of others.

But don’t get me wrong: This is not a diatribe against the great American success story. It is simply a reminder that one of the signs of a truly evolved society is its willingness to admit the travails of its past, which America consistently does with dignity and grace.

The history of the American Indian is the story of ancient civilizations, ancient cultures, glorious rites and rituals, and evolved societies that were fully developed and functional when they first met the European explorers and settlers.

In Native American History For Dummies, you look at who Indians were, what happened to them, and who they are now. You can find out more about:

bullet Their homes

bullet Their hunting, trapping, fishing, and other survival practices

bullet Their rites of passage

bullet Their battles, both with Anglos and each other

bullet Their creation myths

bullet Their cultural practices

You will hear from great warriors and leaders, and hopefully gain that aforementioned perspective on how the creation of America impacted an entire race of people.

In the Beginning . . .

The first part of this book discusses the many theories put forth to explain how the Native peoples who were here when the first Europeans arrived got here.

Some say by land, some say by sea, but the bottom line and the undeniable historical and scientific fact is that there were certainly hundreds of thousands, and more likely millions of indigenous people already inhabiting the North American landmass when it was discovered.

The theories

A few theories as to how this huge population came into being in North America are looked at, including:

bullet The migration across the Bering Sea theory via the Beringia land bridge

bullet The arrival along the western coast by boat

bullet The theory that the Chinese may have been here first

bullet A similar theory that the Celts may have stopped by earlier

Why should you care about how the people we now know as Indians, Inuits, and Aleuts got here in the first place? Why is this important?

Because their history is your history, and it is critically important that science pinpoints the genetic ancestry of as many of the earth’s populations as possible. Such information has consistently been used to pinpoint important genetic and medical facts that have been used in the battle against disease and ethnic-specific medical problems.

Plus, it can’t be denied that even though Santayana’s reminder about those who don’t know their history are bound to repeat it is now something of a cliché, there is a huge amount of truth in it, and the reason history is studied is to not make the same mistakes over and over and over again.

The stages and waves

While studying Native American history, it is also of value to identify and discuss the different stages of cultural development and the geographical migration waves of Indian tribes and ethnic groups.

You will look at:

bullet Clovis and Folsom cultures

bullet Na-Dene culture

bullet The Inuits and the Aleuts

You also journey through the development stages that have come to be known as:

bullet Archaic

bullet Plano

bullet Pueblo

And don’t forget the K-Man

The discovery of the Kennewick Man was a huge step forward in . . . well, in making scientists and tribal peoples even more confused about the Paleoindian Period and who lived where, and when.

The K-Man was not supposed to be where they found him. Or it could actually be the other way around: The K-Man was not who scientists expected to find where they found him.

Controversy has raged ever since the remains of the indigenous male known as Kennewick Man was discovered in 1996. As many as five tribes initially claimed ownership of the remains of someone they believed was their ancestor, and it took a court ruling rejecting their claims for kinship to get them to drop their suits.

So who owns the Ancient One?

Right now, we do. Yeah, that’s right. I’m talking to you. The American people own the remains of Kennewick Man. Well, more accurately, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a federal agency, owns the remains because they were found on land controlled by the Corps. (See Chapter 2 for more on Kennewick Man.)

The Tribes of Then and Now

The tribal migration patterns resulted in Indian settlements all across North America, from the northwest forests and western shores, to the plains, the southeast and southwest, and the northern woodlands.

Some tribes were enormous; many were very small. An overwhelming number of tribes are now extinct.

The Five Civilized Tribes were the tribes that had the largest populations, inhabited the most land, and had the most influence, both among other tribes and with the white man. The Five Civilized Tribes are the tribes the Anglos negotiated with, and did business with.

They consisted of:

bullet The Cherokee

bullet The Choctaw

bullet The Seminole

bullet The Chickasaw

bullet The Creek

Other important tribes included the Navajo, the Lakotas, Nakotas, and Santee, the Chippewa, the Pueblo, the Apache, the Iroquois, and the Arctic tribes.

Native American History For Dummies provides concise biographies of these varied tribes, with emphasis on how and where they lived, what they were known for, and what their status is today.

Unexpected Visitors

Once the Europeans arrived, the Indian tribes had to deal with them.

Whether they liked it or not. Whether they wanted to or not.

Columbus was first to come in contact with tribal peoples, specifically the Arawaks on the Bahamas, and later Haiti, and that intercourse didn’t go all that well for the Natives. Columbus put them to work as slaves, sent many back to Spain as slaves, and, as the historical record unequivocally shows, treated them . . . well, let’s just say it was as though the Golden Rule didn’t exist for the Italian explorer and his men.

Spanish and French explorers soon followed Columbus. After all, the so-called New World was like a bottomless treasure chest of natural resources, fur-bearing wildlife, game, fish, and other riches that were absolutely irresistible to Europeans.

Soon to follow were such explorers as:

bullet John Cabot

bullet Amerigo Vespucci

bullet Ponce de Leon

bullet Hernando Cortez

bullet Jacques Cartier

bullet Hernando De Soto

bullet Francisco Vasquez de Coronado

bullet Marquette and Jolliet

bullet La Salle

A Plethora of Persistent Personalities

Tribes always were, and still are, the foundation and cornerstone of Native American life and culture. (See Chapter 17 for more on the familial and organizational structures of American Indian societies.)

Indians identify themselves by their tribe. I’m Choctaw. I’m Navajo. I’m Cree. Tribal identity is as important to American Indians as national ethnicity is to European-descended people of America: I’m Italian American. I’m African American. I’m Polish American."

Yet it is commonly the fascinating people of the tribes, specific tribes’ memorable individuals, that are spoken of most often these days. Native American leaders and warriors have permeated white culture. Their names have truly become household names:

bullet Geronimo

bullet Cochise

bullet Sitting Bull

bullet Crazy Horse

bullet Pocahontas

bullet Tecumseh

bullet Chief Seattle

bullet Sacagawea

From the 16th century through today, Indian tribes have produced great leaders who have often been visionaries working diligently to maintain the aforementioned tribal identity and not allow their pasts to fade away into the annals of time.

Their aspirations have not always been fulfilled, and many iconic American Indian leaders have watched sadly as their tribes were dispersed, or their land was taken, or their past was forgotten.

Things are somewhat better these days.

Native American culture is thriving and many tribes have Web sites and historical foundations and museums working to educate people — both tribal and Anglo — about Indian history and the roles tribes have played before, during, and currently in the history of America.

The U.S. government, through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, strives to support Native American community efforts, and laws have been passed to protect rights that have been commonly trampled on in the past.

The Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of the American Indian also works diligently to chronicle Indian history and culture.

War Stories

The history of Indians in America has been violent.

But not always.

Treaties were signed and peace did exist for great lengths of time between tribes and the white, as well as between rival tribes.

But warfare was one of the main causes for the devastating population losses tribes suffered through in the 16th through 19th centuries. Interestingly, both the whites and the Indians had advantages and disadvantages. Whites had superior firepower, but Indians were incredibly skilled at surreptitious movement and attacking from concealment.

Some of the more important battles — meaning influential and impacting both the Indians and the Europeans (see Chapter 11 for more on our violent past) — in chronological order, covered in this volume include:

bullet King Philip’s War

bullet The French and Indian Wars

bullet Pontiac’s Rebellion

Also, Indians fought — on both sides — in the major wars as well:

bullet The American Revolution

bullet The War of 1812

bullet The Civil War

Many battles with Indians have now become an iconic part of our history and their names have morphed into having more meaning than simply identifying where the conflict took place.

Movies are made, books are written, and even people who have limited knowledge of history have heard of Little Big Horn and Wounded Knee.

Dysfunction Junction

Relations between the United States government and American Indians have been troubled from the start. That’s an undeniable historical fact. This reality resonates throughout the Native American community today, and permeates the Indian culture and zeitgeist.

The U.S. was formed at the expense of the indigenous peoples, yet great effort has been consistently made to remedy the wrongs and repair the damage.

Treaties were broken; tribes were relocated; children were taken from their parents and placed in government schools. Reservations were offered as a trade-off for land grabs, yet they were often inferior in all ways.

Sovereignty works

There’s still a lot of catching up to do, but Indian self-determination is, as Harvard professor Joseph P. Kalt, author of a 2005 Harvard Ameri- can Indian Project survey, says, the best policy in 100 or 200 years for solid progress in taking the tribes out of poverty.

‘Self-rule, Kalt wrote, brings decision making home, and local decision makers are held more accountable to local needs, conditions and cultures than outsiders.

The seven ways

Over the centuries of U.S.-Indian relations, the United States has implemented seven specific approaches to dealing with the Indians.

They were/are:

bullet Treaties (1608–1830)

bullet Removal (1830–1850)

bullet Reservations (1850–1871)

bullet Assimilation (1871–1928)

bullet Reorganization (1928–1942)

bullet Termination (1943–1968)

bullet Self-determination (1968–present)

Currently, self-determination is the official policy of the United States government. Indian tribal nations are sovereign entities, and the U.S. deals with them like individual countries. They make their own laws, impose and collect their own taxes, and yet are still an important part of America.

Stepping up

The U.S. has not shirked from remedying wrong. In the last 35 or so years, many acts, bills, and programs have been passed and launched to benefit the Native American community, including:

bullet The Indian Self Determination and Education Assistance Act (1975)

bullet The Indian Health Care Improvement Act (1978)

bullet The American Indian Religious Freedom Act (1978)

bullet The Indian Child Welfare Act (1978)

bullet The Native American Graves and Repatriation Act (1990)

Daily Life

The history of any ethnic group is also told by how it lived and continues to live on a day-to-day basis.

A group’s living arrangements, its eating habits, the clothes it wears, the games its children play, its religious beliefs, its parenting practices, its art and music . . . all these elements combine to paint a rich and textured portrait of a people.

Regarding sustenance, Native Americans relied for food on

bullet Hunting

bullet Trapping

bullet Fishing

bullet Crops

Trading also played a huge role in the daily lives of many Indian tribes. The Indian’s talent for trapping and skinning fur-bearing animals created an economic dynamo to satisfy the European demand for North American animal furs.

Natives also made their own clothing from deer and buffalo hides, which included footwear in the form of boots, moccasins, and snowshoes.

All parts of the animals were used, plus Indians made use of the other bounties of the natural world including:

bullet Shells

bullet Stones

bullet Bark

bullet Feathers

Home Is Where the Hearth Is

Native American tribes were markedly different in how and where they lived. It often comes as a surprise to people that Indians employed many more types of homes and domiciles than just the tipi.

Some of these included

bullet Plankhouses

bullet Longhouses

bullet Hogans

bullet Chickees

bullet Tipis

bullet Wigwams

bullet Lean-tos

bullet Igloos

bullet Earth homes

Prey tell

The white man introduced the Indian to the rifle and that enormously changed the way Native peoples hunted.

Prior to the use of firearms, Indians used bows and arrows for distance hunting, knives for close-up killing, and traps for prey that they couldn’t spend time stalking. They would set the traps and return days later, usually to find an animal snared.

All aboard

Traveling on foot was de rigueur for tribal peoples, although they were also very adept at figuring out labor- and time-saving other ways of traveling. Waterways were especially useful for covering long distances in a short period of time, and some of the vehicles they used included:

bullet Dugout and bark canoes — water

bullet Kayaks and umiaks — water

bullet Balsa boats — water

bullet Bull boats — water

bullet Snowshoes — snow

bullet Plank boats — water

bullet Travois — land

bullet Sleds and toboggans — snow

Family First

An important facet of Native American societies is the family, which forms the core unit of the tribe. In Chapter 17 the family structure of American Indians is discussed, including the difference between patriarchal and matriarchal family types.

A woman’s work

The role of women in Native American culture was an enormous surprise to the Europeans, who were quite literally shocked at the authority women wielded in both the family and the tribe.

Tribal women in the 16th through 19th centuries were enormously important in terms of tribal solidarity and the continuing maintenance of a sense of community, and their duties included:

bullet Keeping the household supplied with whatever it needed

bullet Constructing the home

bullet Cooking for the family

bullet Monitoring and restocking the water supplies

bullet Having almost total responsibility for and oversight of the family’s children

bullet Maintaining the vegetable garden

bullet Tanning the hides, if the tribe was in the fur business

The kids are alright

In the pre-reservations era for Native Americans, children were somewhat indulged, yet also expected to contribute to the welfare of the tribe, and achieve certain ritualistic milestones in order to officially move into adulthood.

Puberty and first menses were epic transitions into adulthood for tribal children, and for males this commonly required some type of fasting, isolation, or physical endurance tests (or all of the above) for graduation into the world of tribal adults.

Language Lab

There were almost as many Native American languages as there were tribes prior to contact with the Europeans explorers and settlers.

There was very little written down, and tribes both communicated and passed down tribal traditions and legends through the use of sign language, the spoken word, and pictographic symbols.

Language groups

The Native American language families included these groups:

bullet Algic (Algonquin)

bullet Iroquoian

bullet Muskogean

bullet Siouan

bullet Athabaskan

bullet Uto-Aztecan

bullet Salishan

Today, there are approximately 175 Native American languages, yet a staggering 90 percent of them are what is known as moribund. This means they are not being used enough, or passed down enough to younger generations, to survive much longer.

More than words . . .

Indians did, in fact, use smoke signals to communicate among tribes.

They also used pictures when communications needed to be recorded on paper or bark. The Native American pictographic symbols and drawings illustrate the validity of the old adage about a picture being worth a thousand words. A simple line drawing could easily recount a history, give instructions, chronicle the change of a season, and provide at a glance detailed information that would take lots of words (even if, perhaps, not a thousand), to write or speak.

Words as weapons

Language is a tool that can be used to educate, communicate, and do damage.

The historical record is awash with racist essays and diatribes against Native Americans by white writers, and today there exists Indian literature that not only counters such stereotypical hogwash, but paints a rich and multifaceted portrait of Indians.

If you want to know what real Indians are like, then it is critical that you read literature by real Indians, like:

bullet Louise Erdrich

bullet Leanne Howe

bullet Susan Power

bullet Wendy Roses

Pray Tell

Native American spirituality is a topic that can, and has, filled many, many books.

And as with Indian languages, there are almost as many tribal belief systems and creation myths as there are/were tribes.

Although it has become something of a cliché to describe Native American religious beliefs as nature based, it is true that the natural world informed and validated tribal beliefs in a nature spirit (commonly called Wakan Tanka) that was, in one sense, the manifestation of God and the spirit of life in the world.

Animal spirits

Animals play a large role in Indian spirituality and have their own spirits as well as having participated in the creation of the universe.

Animals and birds that appear in Indian creation myths include

bullet Beavers

bullet Buzzards

bullet Coyotes

bullet Crows

bullet Deer

bullet Dogs

bullet Ducks

bullet Eagles

bullet Foxes

bullet Geese

bullet Hummingbirds

bullet Mountain lions

bullet Parrots

bullet Serpents

bullet Tarantulas

bullet Turtles

bullet Water beetles

bullet Wolves

Water

Many Indians believe that all life comes from the water. Many creation myths are very specific: Before there was anything, there was water. Some creation myths state that all of reality was beneath the water at the beginning of time. This sacred belief has been validated by science, which uncovered the secrets of how life sprang from the sea and moved onto dry land.

Indians also have creation myths revolving around:

bullet A first man and a first woman

bullet The wind

bullet The underworld

See Chapter 19 for details on these and other tribal deities.

Rituals

Native American spirituality commonly employs rites, ceremonies, and rituals to focus the percipient’s spirit and enhance the experience.

These include

bullet Chanting

bullet Dancing

bullet Meditation

bullet Prayer

bullet Singing

bullet Sweat lodges

bullet Vision quests

A church where drugs are legal?

The Native American Church is the only religious establishment in the United States in which members that can legally use the drug peyote in their religious ceremonies.

Some of the tools used for these rituals include

bullet Drums

bullet Foods

bullet Musical instruments, especially flutes

bullet Peyote

bullet Prayer beads

bullet Rattles

bullet Sacred garments

bullet Stone and wood fetishes

Christian Indians

Many Native Americans today are practicing Christians who strive to incorporate traditional Indian beliefs and practices into Christian dogma and rituals.

Some crossover practices include

bullet Using holy water and crosses in ceremonies

bullet Saying Christian prayers during tribal ceremonies, like sweats

bullet Calling peyote a sacrament, a common Christian term

bullet Incorporating sacred Indian pipes into Masses and other Christian ceremonies

bullet Christian ministers and Catholic priests participating in sacred Sun Dances

The Indian Population Decline . . . and Hope for the Future

It is estimated that nine out of ten Native Americans died in the period between initial European contact and the end of the 19th century.

The causes for this enormous number of deaths were

bullet Exposure to diseases for which they did not have immunity

bullet Violent conflict with Anglos

bullet Violent internecine conflicts among tribes

bullet Starvation and death from illness from forced relocation

See Chapter 20 for details on the staggering population loss experienced by Indians in North America during the period of European exploration and settlement.

Native American Identity Today

Today, tribes must be federally identified as an official tribal nation in order to avail members of government programs, as well as establish and implement sovereignty regarding laws and official policies.

Not every tribe that requests federal recognition gets it.

And not every person who wishes to claim membership in a particular tribal nation is granted citizenship. There are blood quantum requirements that effectively determine whether or not someone is officially Cree, or Cherokee, or Navajo, and so forth.

Don’t all tribes own casinos?

There is a pervasive misconception in America today that all tribes own casinos and all tribes are getting rich from owning casinos. Would that this were true, eh?

The truth is somewhat different.

Of the over 560 federally recognized tribal nations, only around 200 or so own and operate casinos. There are currently around 360 Indian casinos in the United States, and the overwhelming majority of them are nowhere near as successful as the ones we read about in the papers all the time, like the Mashantucket Pequot and Foxwoods casinos in northeastern Connecticut.

It’s been estimated that of the 360 casinos, around 10 percent of them — maybe 30, 35 establishments — generate three-quarters of all the tribal casino revenue in the country. Obviously this means that the 90 percent of the remaining casinos share a very small piece of the gaming pie.

Problems and solutions

The American Indian in today’s U.S. has problems, although the progress being made in education, income, health, life expectancy, and entrepreneurship is encouraging and ongoing.

Education

Educational levels are improving steadily. In 2000, almost 71 percent of all Native Americans had earned a high school degree.

This was around 15 points below the national U.S. average, but this was a marked improvement over this same statistic in 1990.

Alcoholism

The trend in Native American communities is toward reversing the devastation alcoholism has wreaked upon their people. Alcohol abuse is a huge problem among American Indians, yet as they say, knowing you have a problem is the first step toward correcting it.

And today, there are programs and a new attitude about alcohol that bodes well for the future and for Native American children who currently abuse alcohol at ten times the average national rate among other children.

Offshore banking

Some Indians are in the international banking business these days and they’re making serious money at it, too.

The Blackfeet Tribe of Montana, for example, led the way in 1999 with the formation of their groundbreaking endeavor, the Glacier International Depository.

Mineral rights

Many tribal nations now look to the mineral rights on the lands they own as a source of income to the tune of $245 million in the U.S. in the year 2000.

What minerals are Indians selling for profit? Here’s a breakdown:

bullet Gas: 45 percent

bullet Coal: 27 percent

bullet Oil: 22 percent

bullet Other: 6 percent

Tribes are also into wind farms, biodiesel, hydroelectric plants, and biomass (logging and mill residue).

A Bright Future

Native Americans have suffered in the past, and it has taken decades to begin the process of turning around the headlong rush into poverty, lack of education, and dependence on the government.

Today, a new generation of Native Americans are PhDs, doctors, lawyers, accountants, computer designers, and every other profession in America. College is now considered very important for young Indians (although for many, it is still an unattainable dream) and the number of Native American self-owned businesses climbs annually.

In Native American History For Dummies, you’ll find out about not only the rich and troubled past of the American Indian, but also about the opportunities and achievements taking place today, and the ones that will assuredly take place in the future.

Chapter 2

The Great Migrations

In This Chapter

bullet Exploring how American Indians arrived in the Americas

bullet Checking out the three waves of immigration

bullet Uncovering early periods of development

The following key questions regarding the origin of the Indian population of the North American continent have still not been answered with absolute certainty:

bullet Who was here?

bullet How’d they get here?

bullet How many people were there?

Although valiant efforts have been made to accurately account for the creation of the Indian population of North America, no theories to date have answered everyone’s questions with certainty, nor can scientists, historians, and Native Americans agree to the validity of one theory over another.

In this chapter, you get a glimpse at some of the wide-ranging and varying theories as to how the people now who are now known as American Indians, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and First Nations in Canada got here in the first place. You can also discover details on their culture, tools, and how their way of life evolved during the early periods of their civilization on the American continents.

How’d Everyone Get Here Anyway?

The most commonly accepted scientific theory on how American Indians came to be in the Americas is that they came from Asia. Sure, this is now being challenged (like, on a daily basis) but many historians and scholars still consider the from Asia theory the most likely explanation.

How they got here exactly, is subject to some debate. In fact, some people believe they came by another route, or even originated here. Some of the artifacts found in North America contradict different theories. The following sections explore these theories and the evidence to support them.

Crossing a bridge to somewhere: Beringia

The standard scientific theory on how North America was populated is that groups from Asia migrated into Alaska (sometimes referred to as the overland migration theory). The waters in the Bering Strait are relatively shallow. During some of the occasional ice ages, sea levels dropped as much as 200 feet around the world. This lowering of the level of the ocean exposed this section of land between the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea of the north Pacific.

This land bridge is often called Beringia. It stretched from the eastern point of modern-day Siberia to western Alaska. Experts believe this area could have covered as much as 1,000 miles from north to south.

When did Beringia appear and when did people start moving across it from Asia? That answer is up for debate. This is just one of the many controversies surrounding the origins of the Native people of the Americas. Many experts agree that during several of the short ice ages during the last 100,000 years, land was exposed in Beringia.

Does DNA divulge any details?

Research in mitochondrial DNA has suggested that people were in North America at least 25,000 years ago. This research is based on DNA mutations found in people of American Indian ancestry. The current theory is that mutations occur in DNA at a fairly regular interval. By looking at the differences between two different groups, you can tell when they split off from each other. The 25,000-year figure is derived by comparing certain American Indian groups and other groups that remained in Asia.

The general consensus is that the major exodus along this route took place between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. There is evidence to show there were several waves of migration into North America.

Even CSI would be stumped

Why is there such a discrepancy in the dates of the migration? Very few ancient artifacts made by humans have been found in this area. The constant advance and retreat of the glaciers of the polar ice cap have scraped much of the land clean. Many of these areas are still under ice or sedimentation. Without artifacts that can be dated, it is difficult for scientists to accurately determine when people first appeared here.

Another commonly accepted part of the land bridge theory is that during the ice ages northern Alaska and Canada were covered by glaciers that were many hundreds of feet thick. This was also believed to be the case along the coastal areas or the northeastern Pacific. However, there was a wide central area that might have been clear of ice. This area ran along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains into the Great Plains. Soil core samples of some sections of this part of North America have shown there were areas that were free of ice during these short ice ages. This would have left a wide path open for migrating groups to follow in a general southeasterly direction.

Why’d they come?

Why would people leave Asia and travel through unknown areas into North America?

The most commonly held belief is that these people were nomadic in nature. They would often follow the large herds of migrating animals. These animals were their main source of food. Humans often made their clothing, shelter, and the simple tools they had from these animals. With fresh pastures opening up because of the creation of the land bridge, some herds migrated to the east. As the herds moved east, the human nomads followed them.

It is also possible that some animals that originated in North American might have moved west into Asia. Some groups might have moved east to find their source. Some anthropologists think part of the reason for the migration might have also been due to conflicts with other groups in Asia. Some tribes might have traveled east to look for