Indigenous Peoples of the Americas in Prehistoric Times

At the time of the first European contact, North and South America may have been populated by more than 90 million indigenous peoples: about 10 million in America north of present-day Mexico; 30 million in Mexico; 11 million in Central America; 445,000 in the Caribbean islands; 30 million in the South American Andean region; and 9 million in the remainder of South America. These population figures are a rough estimate; some authorities cite much lower figures. Exact figures, of course, are impossible to determine; when colonists began keeping records, the native populations had already been drastically reduced by war, famine, forced labor, and epidemics caused by the new pathogens brought by Europeans.

Evidence indicates that the first peoples to migrate into the Americas, coming across the Bering Land Bridge (Beringia) from northeastern Siberia into Alaska, would have been carrying stone tools and other equipment of types exemplified by Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic styles. These lithic (stone-tool-using) peoples would have lived in bands of about 100 individuals, fishing and hunting herd animals, such as reindeer and mammoths. They would have used skin tents for shelter, and they would have tanned reindeer skins and sewn them into clothing similar to that made by the Inuit: parkas, trousers, boots, and mittens. 

These people would have been nomadic, moving camp at least several times each year to take advantage of seasonal sources of food. It is likely that they gathered each summer for a few weeks with other bands to celebrate religious ceremonies and to trade, compete in sports, and visit. At such gatherings, valuable information could be obtained about new sources of food or raw materials, such as stone for tools. Sometimes, such news might lead families to move into new territory: eventually into Alaska, and then farther south, into America.

Evidence for the earliest migrations into the Americas is scarce and usually not as clear as archaeologists would wish. In the Yukon, bone tools have been discovered that have been radiocarbon dated to 27,000 BC, but it is possible that a native at a later time picked up pieces of bone that were already ancient to make into new tools. Campfire remains in the valley of Mexico have been radiocarbon dated to 21,000 BC, and a few chips of stone tools have been found near the hearths, indicating the presence of humans at that time. In a cave in the Andes Mountains of Peru near Ayacucho, archaeologists have found stone tools and butchered game bones that have been dated to 18,000 BC. A cave in Idaho in the US contains similar evidence – stone tools and butchered bone – dated to 12,000 BC.

In none of these sites do distinctive American styles characterize the artifacts. Artifacts having the earliest distinctive American styles appeared about 11,000 BC and are known as Clovis stone blades. Clovis culture represents the first widespread, continent-wide society in North America. They are named after the type-site discovered in the 1920s near Clovis, New Mexico, where their signature artifacts were first unearthed.