ABSTRACT

The majority of the original inhabitants of the North American continent migrated there from north-east Asia across the Bering Straits, over a time-span of perhaps 12,000 to 60,000 years ago. Arriving as hunters, the movement of peoples across North America (and further south into Central and South America) led to the development of numerous tribes, displaying a wide variety of languages and lifestyles. Most tribes continued to rely primarily on hunting and gathering, but in certain areas, notably the east and south-west, tribes became more sedentary as they learned to grow crops, mainly maize, squash and beans. The most densely populated areas in aboriginal America lay along the eastern and western seaboards, where food supplies were most plentiful.