Towards the end of the last ice age North and South America were populated. Since the seas were lower then there was no Bering Strait. People could simply walk to Alaska. However, the way south from there was almost entirely ice-covered. It was only the stretch of coast along southern Alaska and British Colombia which was not ice-covered. At least there were islands and peninsulas one could see between. People could get between them with boats made of skins on a wooden frame. Such have been used by Eskimos in historical times. Something comparable was used by the Native Americans’ ancestors.
The Native Americans mainly descend from this immigration wave. There was one additional wave at the end of the last ice age. This took with it dogs with origin in Eurasia. Many Native American tribes have admixture from this immigration wave. Foremostly it is found among the speakers of Na-Dene languages. Not long after this wave one got back into Eurasia. A few centuries later the seas rose enough to form the Bering Strait. After that people did not have much contact.
Around 5,000 years ago the Eskimo-Aleut culture arose in the area around the Bering Strait. Unlike other Arctic peoples it could hunt whales efficiently. This made it possible for it to survive climate change. The Arctic part of North America is at the limit of what humans can cope with. Small changes in weather patterns can then knock out entire cultures. To be able to efficiently hunt whales became an insurance against that.
The Eskimos could then take over areas which other cultures had abandoned. Then they could stay there even if the climate got colder.
By then agriculture had arisen in other places. It now seems likely there were four different origins. These four origins gave rise to groups of cultures:
• The one in the Amazon gave rise to the Amazonian Natives.
• The one in the Andes Mountains gave rise to what has been called Highland Natives.
• The one in Middle America gave rise to the Mesoamericans.
• The one in southeastern US gave rise to the Mound Builders.
Curiously, the Lima bean has started to be cultivated twice. Once in the Andes Mountains and once in Middle America. I think it was possible because this plant has a large extent over some different climates. It is not that common for suitable plants to have this.
The most important crop from the Amazon is cassava. Other root vegetables, grains and legumes seem to have been imported later. On the other hand they were alone in making land arable themselves. I think they by chance discovered it grows well on garbage dumps. What if one would spread out what was found in garbage dumps? So developed the black soils found spread out in the Amazon. These consist of a mixture of charcoal, compost and potsherds. Without it state societies would have been limited to sediment-laden rivers. Their yearly flooding renews the otherwise nutrition-poor soil.
Staples crops from the Andes Mountains are mashua, oca, peanut, potato, quinoa and sweet potato. The Andes was the only area where there were large animals to domesticate. Guanaco and vicuña become llama and alpaca. Particularly the llama mattered for the development of society. A llama can’t carry more than a human can. But llamas can eat things which are uneatable to us. Then it produces manure which can be used as fertiliser too. The later also applies to the alpaca otherwise mostly kept for wool.
Middle America’s most important crops were amaranth, jícama, maize and poroto. I no longer think the population there generally lived on 90% maize. This was something the Mayans were forced to by overpopulation. We are talking about a short period of the 9th century here. Otherwise, their diet was more varied. Mesoamericans were the only ones with a fully developed writing system. What has been written in Classical Mayan can be read nowadays.
The Mound Builders was the group of cultures developing last. Their most nutritious own plants were Carolina canarygrass (Phalaris caroliniana) and little barley (Hordeum pusillum). Both are close to the limit of what is called large-seeded grasses. To breed considerably larger seeds people have not succeeded to either. So they long remained semi-agrarian. Not until maize and proto reached the area from Middle America could people become farmers full-time. This delayed their development towards a more complex society.
One may wonder why no domesticated animals spread from the Andes Mountains to Mexico. The explanation is that llamas and alpacas can’t cope with the Isthmus of Panama’s climate. It is too hot and moist there. Overall there was very little contact between any other than adjacent cultural areas. Without regular trade Mesoamerican writing could not spread. At the same time it took until the Middle Ages before metal extraction reached them. Iron smelting and useable wheels were never invented at all. I think the reason was the Native Americans were relatively few. In 1492 both continents had a combined population smaller than China’s. There were simply fewer people able to come up with ideas. If someone come up with something useful it could not so easily spread either.
About 2,700 years ago copper extraction was invented in the Andes Mountains. Bronze was invented by the Moche culture and was taken up in the Andes and along South America’s west coast. When they got contact with Europeans people along this coast had sails. If they invented it themselves is unclear. This depends on if the Purépechans had literally sailed from South America. They at least appears to be first to make bronze in Middle America.
For certain Polynesians reached South America in the 11th century. They landed in Ecuador and along Colombia’s west coast. Both groups earned from this contact. The locals got coconut palm and the Polynesians got sweet potato. Some Native Americans from the area joined the Polynesians. At the same time some Polynesians joined various Native American tribes. Their descendants can be traced by certain genetic markers. Some Native American tribes have oral tradition about their ancestors coming across the sea from the west. Stone statues with certain traits have been found on Pacific islands. These traits they have in common with cultures in South America
Already in the 10th century Greenland was reached by Scandinavians. (It is now thought the name Greenland was to make it sound better.) Around the year 1000 whites landed in what is now eastern Canada. Ruins of their buildings have been found on Newfoundland. They kidnapped Native American women and took them as slaves to Iceland. At least one female line has survived there until today. However, settlements outside Greenland could not be upheld. A group of a few thousand people survived in southwestern Greenland for several hundred years. There they bred livestock and hunted reindeer and seals. In contrast people for some reason ate very little fish and shellfish. To get hold of wood and iron they regularly visited Labrador. This group eventually perished as consequence of climate change. Something which has happened several times on Greenland.
It should be pointed out that horses are not indigenous to North America. They were introduced by Europeans to Mexico in the 16th century. Parts of the prairie was then inhabited by hunter-gatherers on foot. Other parts were inhabited by semi-agrarian peoples. In summer they grew crops in the area’s river valleys. In winter they hunted and got across it by dog sleigh. When both groups got horses they become dependent on bison. But this way of living did not exist over a long time enough to reach economic balance. Moreover, commercial hunting was conducted mostly by whites during the 19th century. In addition, there were contagious diseases spread from cattle. The result was bison coming close to extinction.
Overall I think the Native American’s reputation as eco-friendly is exegeted. I think this is foremostly a matter of which ones survived. Some cultures were not so eco-friendly. However, in the age of Cristoforo Colombo all those cultures had already collapsed like the Maya. The Mesoamericans and the peoples of the Andes mountains were conquered by Spain early on. The Amazonian Natives and the Mound Builders collapsed in the 16th century too. What was left of Native American peoples all lived relatively sparsely. This enabled an awareness of nature’s own processes. An awareness long missing in Europeans and those of European descent.
Uploaded on the 18th of April 2025.
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