Hey Kelv, I'm really enjoying your Blog! Great reading your Q's and A's section. Bert is chomping at the bit to get out on the road and doing some miles! All the best in your journey and chat soon. Simon
Heard you were chatting to my Mum on messenger last night - the wonders of science, eh?
Good to see a new map to follow your progress - I've been looking at a few myself so lets get straight on to tonight's
HISTORY LESSON!
I'll take you way back tonight, and I mean way back. All of what follows is subject to conjecture, and is of dubious origin ;)
Humans entered the Americas via a land bridge across the Bering Straits. Who knows how long ago that was. Between 15-40,000 years ago? The ice sheet of the Pleistocene age was retreating, allowing small groups of hunters to venture south and seek food.
What can be dated is the Clovis Point, 13,000 years old and named after a site in New Mexico. These spear heads were used to hunt Mastodons, but after the Mastodons became extinct (possibly from Tuberculosis) they were later replaced by the lighter Folsom Point, used to hunt Bison. These have been dated from 9500 BC to 8000 BC. Later followed the Plano Point, distinct to the Plains Culture and found in Wyoming and Colorado.
The aim of these peoples was not to explore, or conquer. They travelled in small groups, gathering, fishing and hunting. Totally dependent on local resources, an increase in numbers during times of scarcity would threaten their existence. Thus following a nomadic life (as forming permanent settlements was impossible - agriculture was in its infancy) bands constantly divided and became distinct groups.
These peoples developed in isolation from the rest of the world, apart from a few rare meetings. So when European contact was first made in 1492, they had no knowledge of gunpowder, glass, the written word, the plough or the wheel. There was no pan-Indian identity, and estimates are that the native inhabitants spoke 2,200 different languages.
Meanwhile few people lived in Oklahoma. The earlier Plains Culture had dispersed. It was only the introduction of the horse by Spanish Conquistadors which gave the mobility required to repopulate the area. This gave rise to the nations of the Comanche and Apache to the west of Oklahoma, Osage, Kiowa and Kansa to the North, the Wichita to the South and the Quapaw to the East.
Although isolated groups survived almost intact at the start of the last century, most tribes in this area lived a short turbulent life.
3 comments:
Hey Kelv, I'm really enjoying your Blog! Great reading your Q's and A's section. Bert is chomping at the bit to get out on the road and doing some miles! All the best in your journey and chat soon. Simon
Hi Kelv,
Heard you were chatting to my Mum on messenger last night - the wonders of science, eh?
Good to see a new map to follow your progress - I've been looking at a few myself so lets get straight on to tonight's
HISTORY LESSON!
I'll take you way back tonight, and I mean way back. All of what follows is subject to conjecture, and is of dubious origin ;)
Humans entered the Americas via a land bridge across the Bering Straits. Who knows how long ago that was. Between 15-40,000 years ago? The ice sheet of the Pleistocene age was retreating, allowing small groups of hunters to venture south and seek food.
What can be dated is the Clovis Point, 13,000 years old and named after a site in New Mexico. These spear heads were used to hunt Mastodons, but after the Mastodons became extinct (possibly from Tuberculosis) they were later replaced by the lighter Folsom Point, used to hunt Bison. These have been dated from 9500 BC to 8000 BC. Later followed the Plano Point, distinct to the Plains Culture and found in Wyoming and Colorado.
The aim of these peoples was not to explore, or conquer. They travelled in small groups, gathering, fishing and hunting. Totally dependent on local resources, an increase in numbers during times of scarcity would threaten their existence. Thus following a nomadic life (as forming permanent settlements was impossible - agriculture was in its infancy) bands constantly divided and became distinct groups.
These peoples developed in isolation from the rest of the world, apart from a few rare meetings. So when European contact was first made in 1492, they had no knowledge of gunpowder, glass, the written word, the plough or the wheel. There was no pan-Indian identity, and estimates are that the native inhabitants spoke 2,200 different languages.
Meanwhile few people lived in Oklahoma. The earlier Plains Culture had dispersed. It was only the introduction of the horse by Spanish Conquistadors which gave the mobility required to repopulate the area. This gave rise to the nations of the Comanche and Apache to the west of Oklahoma, Osage, Kiowa and Kansa to the North, the Wichita to the South and the Quapaw to the East.
Although isolated groups survived almost intact at the start of the last century, most tribes in this area lived a short turbulent life.
laters!
You have missed out the entire east coast, go back and start again...
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