Native and indigenous people (Beginning to 1600)

By Wilma Reece
  • Period: 40,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE

    Paleo Indians

    Paleo Indians crossed a land bridge from Siberia across Beringia into Alaska.
  • 9998 BCE

    Unangan (Aleut)People

    Settle the Island chain stretching south and west from the Alaska Peninsula
  • Period: 8000 BCE to 2996 BCE

    The Archaic Period

    Archaic peoples lived in larger groups, were sedentary for part of the year, and had a varied diet that eventually included som cultivated foods.
  • 4497 BCE

    Muscogee People

    Build circular earthwork mounds- The earliest evidence of human habitation in North America.
  • 1100

    Hopi Indians

    Oraibi a Hopi village in Navajo country, Arizona was settled, making it one of the oldest inhabited settlements in the US.
  • 1190

    Puebloans

    Construction begins on the cliff palace by Ancestral Puebloans in Modern dat Colorado
  • 1492

    First Contact

    Christopher Columbus first came in contact with Native people.
  • 1513

    Calusa Indians

    Juan Ponce de Leon encountered Calusa indians while exploring Floridas Gulf coast near Charlotte Harbor.
  • 1521

    The Aztec

    Hernan Cortes invades Mexico, completes his conquest of the Aztec empire and establisjhed the colony of New Spain.
  • 1524

    The first kidnapping in America

    The first kidnapping in America occurred on July 8th 1524 when Italian explorers kidnapped an Indian child to bring to France.
  • 1528

    The first significant exploration of Florida

    Panfilo de Narvaez saw Indian houses near Tampa bay, on April 16th 1528 Narvaez claimed Spanish Royal title to the land.
  • 1539

    First Large scale Massacre

    Hernando De Soto landss at Tampa Bay and begins an expedition across the southeast. After defeating resisting Timucan Warriors, Hernando executed 1000 of them in first large scale massacre by Europeans. Know as the Napituca Massacre.
  • 1540

    Invasion of Zuni Pueblo

    Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led Mexicos invasion of the north with a force of 300 conquistadors and more than 1000 indian allies. They found a small villge, the Zuni Pueblo of Hawikuh, whose warriors answered with arrows when Coronado demanded that they swear loyalty to his king. within an hour the spaniards over run the pueblo and within the next few weeks, they conquered the other Zuni in the region
  • Oct 18, 1540

    Spaniards and The Choctaw

    Hernando De Sotos expedition was ambushed by a choctaw tribe in Alabama who killed their livestock and 200 spaniards. The remaining spaniards then burned down their compound, killing some 2500 who were inside.
  • 1542

    "New Laws"

    Spanish emperor Carlos V to impose New laws on the Spanish colonies, ending encomienda system that gave settlers the right to Indian slave labor.

  • Possession of Hopi Land

    Juan de Onate declared possession of Hopi land(what is now Arizona)in the name of the spanish Crown.

  • Diseases

    Europeans of the time held steadfastly to the belief that their introduced diseases were acts of god being done on their behalf. One settler proclaimed while speaking about the deaths of Native Americans for it pleased god to effect these Indians with such a deadly sickness, that out of every 1000, over 950 of them had died.