4.8 America: 5000 to 3000 b.c.

North america

Back to America: 8000 to 5000 B.C.

1. far north and canada

In the far north there was a micro-blade tradition called "Little Arm" with evidence of caribou and elk hunting dated from 5,500 to 4,000 B.C. In Canada by 4,000 B.C. the Maritime Provinces were settled by hunters, fishers, and gatherers. The Columbia plateau folks, previously mentioned, were hunting elk and deer in the forests of Douglas fir and western yellow pine, and fishing for salmon in the Columbia by 9,000 B.C. (Ref. 209 , 45 )

2. the united states

Between 5,000 and 3,800 B.C. the temperature lowered again and precipitation increased so that some game returned as the climate approached what it is today. Even so the hunting cultures gradually gave way to a type in which the people were not specialized in a single skill but were versatile enough to attempt other things.

In the Eastern Woodlands there was now a "Middle Period" with great variation from area to area. Some used antlers and bones for fish-hooks, spears and harpoons, some learned to use copper for tools and ornaments. In the latter respect, a distinctive culture of the Great Lakes and upper Mississippi Valley, beginning about 4,500 B.C., was the "Old Copper Culture" in which the metal was worked either in the cold or hot state, but it was never melted or cast. Knives, barbed harpoon points and atlatl weights (throwing sticks) were made in this way. There was no big game present and most of the inhabitants of the eastern societies used steatite vessels. The earliest of the Archaic Cultures is sometimes called the southern "Indian Knoll Society", with a later northern Lauretain Culture about the Great Lakes and on eastward where along the Labrador coast it eventually came face to face with Eskimos. (Ref. 64 , 45 , 209 )

The western Desert Culture was oriented toward plants, collecting of small seeds and roots for food. Plant fibers were used for baskets, footwear and nets for snares.

In the southwest, the Chircahua Phase of the Cochise Culture made its appearance about 5,000 B.C. and was to last about 3,000 years. It was there that maize first appeared in the United States, sometime between 3,000 and 2,000 B.C., apparently brought up from Mexico where it had been cultivated long before. The Cochise could grow the corn because they had the soil, the right growing season and the necessary skills and tools. They could already weave baskets in which to store it and had long used grinding tools to pulverize seeds and nuts. This early desert society later gave way to the Pueblo and Mexican empires. In California the San Diego County Archeological Society recently brought suit against a land development firm, alleging that it intentionally marred a site thought to have been occupied by La Jolla Indians 3,000 to 7,000 years ago