Paleo-Indian

(noun)

A classification term given to the peoples who inhabited the Americas during the final glacial episodes of the late Pleistocene period.

Related Terms

  • Quaternary glaciation
  • knapping
  • Last Glacial Maximum (LGM
  • Last Glacial Maximum (LGM)
  • Clovis culture
  • flora
  • megafauna
  • Mexica
  • Last Glacial Maximum

(noun)

A classification term given to the first peoples that inhabited the Americas during the final glacial episodes of the late Pleistocene period.

Related Terms

  • Quaternary glaciation
  • knapping
  • Last Glacial Maximum (LGM
  • Last Glacial Maximum (LGM)
  • Clovis culture
  • flora
  • megafauna
  • Mexica
  • Last Glacial Maximum

Examples of Paleo-Indian in the following topics:

  • Early Lifestyles

    • Paleo-Indians subsisted as small, mobile groups of big game hunters, traveling light and frequently to find new sources of food.
    • Paleo-Indians, or Paleo-Americans, were the first peoples who entered and subsequently inhabited the American continent.
    • The Paleo-Indian would eventually flourish all over the Americas, creating regional variations in lifestyles.
    • During much of the Early and Middle Paleo-Indian periods, inland bands are thought to have subsisted primarily through hunting now-extinct megafauna. 
    • The Lithic peoples, or Paleo-Indians, were nomadic hunter-gatherers and are the earliest known humans of the Americas.
  • Migration to North America

    • Civilization in America began during the last Ice Age when nomadic Paleo-Indians migrated across Beringia.
    • The archeological evidence suggests that the Paleo-Indians' first dispersal into the Americas occurred near the end of the LGM. 
    • As early Paleo-Indians spread throughout the Americas, they diversified into many hundreds of culturally distinct tribes.
    • Paleo-Indian adaptation across North America was likely characterized by small, highly mobile bands consisting of approximately 20 to 50 members of an extended family.
    • It is believed that a small Paleo-Indian population of a few thousand survived the Last Glacial Maximum in Beringia.
  • Conclusion: Pre-Colonial Development of North America

    • Many separate indigenous cultures developed and prospered in North America after the first waves of nomadic Paleo-Indians migrated to the continent across Beringia near the end of the Last Glacial Maximum.
    • Civilization in America began during the last Ice Age when nomadic Paleo-Indians migrated across Beringia.
    • Some genetic research indicates that secondary waves of migration occurred after the initial Paleo-Indian colonization, but prior to modern Inuit, Inupiat, and Yupik expansions.
    • The Paleo-Indians would eventually flourish all over the Americas, creating regional variations in lifestyles while sharing a common style of stone tool production.
    • Three of the major cultural traditions that impacted the Southwest region include the Paleo-Indian tradition, the Southwestern Archaic tradition, and the Post-Archaic cultures tradition.
  • African and Asian Origins

    • Genetic studies, archaeological evidence, and scientific dating methods suggest that Paleo-Indians originated out of Africa and Asia.
    • Genetic evidence found in Paleo-Indians' mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) supports the theory of multiple genetic populations migrating from Asia.
    • Early Paleo-Indian groups could have readily replenished their food supplies, repaired clothing and tents, and replaced broken or lost tools.
    • Coastal or "watercraft" theories have broad implications, one being that Paleo-Indians in North America may not have been purely terrestrial big-game hunters, but instead were already adapted to maritime or semi-maritime lifestyles.
    • The route then crossed into the Arabian Peninsula, settling in places like the present-day United Arab Emirates and Oman, and then possibly going into the Indian Subcontinent.
  • Archaeology and History

    • A number of scientific studies into genetics, time-dating, and paleo-environmental data have been conducted to test these theories.
    • Genetic evidence found in Amer-Indians' mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) supports the theory of multiple, distinct genetic populations migrating from Asia.
    • Over the course of millennia, these Paleo-Indians spread throughout North and South America.
    • The Lithic stage or Paleo-Indian period is defined initially as a big-game period.
  • Great Basin Culture

    • Paleo-Indians were not numerous, and population densities were quite low during this time.
    • Ute religious beliefs borrowed heavily from Plains Indians after the arrival of the horse.
  • Innovation and Limitation

    • These early Paleo-Indians soon spread throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes.
  • Southwestern Culture

    • Three of the major cultural traditions that impacted the region include the Paleo-Indian tradition, the Southwestern Archaic tradition, and the Post-Archaic cultures tradition.
    • The American Indian Archaic culture eventually evolved into two major prehistoric archaeological culture areas in the American Southwest and northern Mexico.
    • For the Pueblos and other Southwest American Indian communities, the transition from a hunting-gathering, nomadic experience to more permanent agricultural settlements meant more firmly established families and communities.
  • American Indians and the War Effort

    • Some 44,000 American Indians served in the United States military during World War II.
    • At the time, this was one-third of all able-bodied Indian men from 18 to 50 years of age and 10% of all Indian population.
    • The overwhelming majority of American Indians welcomed the opportunity to serve.
    • Many military awards offered to American Indian soldiers were later used during the termination period by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as proof that American Indians were eager to assimilate into white mainstream American culture.
    • The war's aftermath, says historian Allison Bernstein, marked a "new era in Indian affairs" and turned "American Indians" into "Indian Americans."
  • American Indian Rights

    • The fight for American Indian rights expanded in the 1960s, resulting in the creation of the American Indian Movement.
    • With the passage of the Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA) in 1968, also called the Indian Bill of Rights, American Indians were guaranteed - at least on paper - many civil rights.
    • After decades of unequal schooling between American Indian children and white children, often stemming from racist policies and insufficiently funded schools, the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) was formed in 1969 to fight for equal education for American Indians.
    • One of the primary advocacy organizations for American Indian Rights, the American Indian Movement (AIM), was also formed during the 1960s.
    • The American Indian Movement (AIM) is an activist organization in the United States founded in 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by urban American Indians.
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