North American History

Early Archaic

• 8000 BC: The last glacial period ends, causing sea levels to rise and flood the Beringia land bridge, closing the primary migration route from Siberia.
• 8000 BC: Sufficient rain falls on the American Southwest to support many large mammal species–mammoth, mastodon, and a bison species-—that soon go extinct.
• 8000 BC: Hunters in the American Southwest use the atlatl.
• 7500 BC: Early basketry.
• 7000 BC: Northeastern peoples depend increasingly on deer, nuts, and wild grains as the climate warms.
• 7000 BC: Native Americans in Lahontan Basin, Nevada mummify their dead to give them honor and respect, evidencing deep concern about their treatment and condition.

Middle Archaic

• 6500 BC–200 AD: The San Dieguito-Pinto tradition and Chihuahua Tradition flourish in the Southwest.
• 6000 BC: Ancestors of Penutian-speaking peoples settle in the Northwestern Plateau.
• 6000 BC: Nomadic hunting bands roam Subarctic Alaska following herds of caribou and other game animals.
• 6000 BC: Aleuts begin to arrive in the Aleutian Islands.
• 5700 BC: Cataclysmic eruption of Mount Mazama in modern-day Oregon.
• 5500 BC–500 AD Oshara Tradition, a Southwestern Archaic Tradition, arises in north-central New Mexico, the San Juan Basin, the Rio Grande Valley, southern Colorado, and southeastern Utah.
• Natives of the Northwestern Plateau begin to rely on salmon runs.
• 5000 BC: Early cultivation of food crops began in Mesoamerica.
• 5000 BC: Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest from Alaska to California develop a fishing economy, with salmon as a staple.
• 5000 BC: The Old Copper Culture of the Great Lakes area hammers the metal into various tools and ornaments, such as knives, axes, awls, bracelets, rings, and pendants.
• 5000 BC–200 AD: The Cochise Tradition arises in the American Southwest.
• Native Americans in the northern Great Lakes produce copper tools, ornaments, and utensils traded throughout the Great Plains and Ohio Valley.
• Shell ornaments and copper items at Indian Knoll in Kentucky evidence an extensive trade system over several millennia.
• 4000 BC: Inhabitants of Mesoamerica cultivate maize (corn) while Peruvian natives cultivate beans and squash.
• 4000–1000 BC: Old Copper Complex emerges in the Great Lakes region
• 3500 BC: The largest, oldest drive site at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, Alberta, Canada.
• 3500–3000 BC: Construction of extensive mound complex built at Watson Brake in the floodplain of the Ouachita River near Monroe in northern Louisiana.
• Shell ornaments and copper items at Indian Knoll, Kentucky evidence an extensive trade system over several millennia.

Late Archaic

• 3000 BC: Cultivation of the sunflower and marsh elder begins in the American South; northeastern natives cultivate amaranth and marsh elder. After harvesting these plants, the people grind their seeds into flour.
• 3000 BC: The Cochise tradition of the American Southwest begin cultivating a primitive form of maize imported from Mesoamerica; common beans and squash follow later.
• 3000 BC: Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest begin to exploit shellfish resources.
• 3000 BC: Fishing in the Northwestern Plateau increases.
• 3000 BC: Natives speaking the Algonquian languages arrive in the Northeastern Woodlands from the south.
• Shell ornaments and copper items at Indian Knoll, Kentucky evidence an extensive trade system over several millennia.
• 2888 BC: People of the Stallings culture on the Savannah River begin making pottery, at a time that pottery making was spreading in South America, but had not reached Mesoamerica.^[10]
• 2500–800 BC: The Arctic Small Tool tradition develops on the Alaska Peninsula, near Bristol Bay, and on the eastern shores of the Bering Strait in Alaska.
• 2500–1800 BC: Aleutian tradition emerges in Alaska.
• 2500: Independence I people enter Greenland from North America. The last archaeological evidence of Independence I is from 1730 BC.
• 2400 BC: Saqqaq people enter Greenland from Siberia and live there until 400 BC.
• 2500 BC: The Cochise tradition become skilled farmers of the American Southwest.
• 2100 BC: Maize cultivation begins in Aridoamerica.
• 2000-1000 BC: Poverty Point culture in northeastern Louisiana features stone work, flintknapping, earthenware, and effigy, conical, and platform mounds, as well as planned settlements on concentric earthen ridges
• 1500 BC: Salishan speakers arrive in Northwestern Plateau region.
• 1500 BC–1000 AD: Intermediate Horizon (or Campbell Tradition) emerged among Indigenous peoples of California
• Shell ornaments and copper items at Indian Knoll, Kentucky evidence an extensive trade system over several millennia.
• 1000 BC: Athapaskan-speaking natives arrive in the North American Arctic, possibly from Siberia.
• 1000 BC: Pottery making widespread in the Eastern woodlands.