AMERICAN FIRST SETTLERS

American First Settlers

American First Settlers

Introduction

Many peoples have contributed to the development of the United States of America. America is known as the melting pot because it has always been a nation composed by immigrants of all races. The first humans to inhabit the North American continent were migrants from northeast Asia and the Pacific Islands who established settlements in North America as early as 8000 BC and possibly much earlier. These migrants drifted in small groups to North America and came in five different waves.

Background

These early immigrants survived the harsh times and difficult American climate as well as the wilderness on primitive basic instincts. The immigrants where mainly hunters and gatherers who had little control over their environment and food supply. One early tribe known as "The Red Paint People" is among the first early American culture group to be known to hunt large whales and sword fish? something no other tribe was capable of. This same tribe is also known for the oldest burial mounts found in America? to protect themselves form the cold in winter? most tribes constructed snug homes and wore the furs of their prey on their backs. They survived on their hunting of small animals and fishing (except for the Red Paint People).

Details

This first wave of immigrants became the forerunners to latter tribes and civilizations such as the Algonquian? Iraqi? Siovian? Aztec? and Mayan Indians among others. The second wave of Immigrants to arrive in America lived similar lifestyles to the first and spoke the language "Nadene" which is the root of the Navajo and Apache languages. A third wave of Natives where known as Inuits or Eskimos.

Not all of the early settlers where of Asiatic origin. The Norse Vikings explored the North American mainland in the 10th and 11th centuries and settled there briefly. In the year 1014 the Norse started a colony called Vinland. Although the Norse immigrants did not cause much impact on the native Indian people? the Indians where not pleased by their stay. It was the Norse who destroyed their own colony after a series of quarrels amongst themselves and sailed back to their homeland.

As the climate conditions changed in America? people adapted to the new conditions and were motivated to spread south of the region. When the largest animals failed to adapt to the new warmer climates they became extinct and this resulted in a decline in human population. The early migrants depended then on the hunt and raise of smaller animals. The enormous region stretching eastward from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean was comparatively thinly populated by tribes whose economies were usually founded on hunting and gathering? fishing? and farming. Their technology was as sophisticated as spears and hunting knifes. Unlike the Europeans of the time who domesticated large animals such as horses? cattle and sheep? the Indians in America aside from dogs did not domesticate any larger animals.

Not all Indians lived off hunting and raising their own ...