North America & North America & Montana Pre-HistoryMontana Pre-History

Early MontanaEarly Montana

Pre-Historic PeoplesPre-Historic Peoples

Migration RoutesMigration Routes

Early People of Present-Day MontanaEarly People of Present-Day Montana

After the Dinosaurs Huge Mammals Roamed the After the Dinosaurs Huge Mammals Roamed the Americas….Americas….

Large Pre-Historic AnimalsLarge Pre-Historic Animals

• Woolly mammoth• Mastodon• Steppe bison• Giant ground sloth• Giant beaver• North American horse • Camel• Saber Tooth Cat

How & When did Humans How & When did Humans Arrive in the Americas?Arrive in the Americas?

MigrationMigrationSS•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

BeringiaBeringia

Land Land RoutesRoutes

Siberia

North America

Land Bridge

Coastal

Routes

How do we know this stuff?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)

SS

TT

RR

AA

TT

AA

Creation StoriesCreation 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 1Who were the 1stst Americans? Americans?Where did they originate?Where did they originate?

• Differing theories

Kennewick ManKennewick 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?Family Resemblance?

Movin’ to MontanaMovin’ 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 AncestorsPre-Historic Indian Ancestors

• Paleo-Indian or Clovis people

• Hunter/Gatherers

• Named for shape they gave their spear points

AtlatlAtlatl

THE END