Prehistory of the West

What is Prehistory? Period of time before written records the events or conditions leading up to a particular occurrence or phenomenon.

time spanning from the formation of the Earth to the documentation of local history in written form

Paleozoic era 542 million years ago to 251 million years ago what is now "North" America was actually in the southern hemisphere. subdivided into six geologic periods (from oldest to youngest): the Cambrian the largest number of creatures evolve in the history of Earth during one period Ordovician primitive fish, cephalopods, and coral Silurian early plants are the forerunners of all plant life on land Devonian where the first trees evolved, as well as seeds “The Age of Fish” Carboniferous Tropical swamps dominated the earth large amounts of trees created much of the carbon for the coal that is used today evolution of amniotic eggs Permian all continents joined together to form the super-continent Pangaea

Mesozoic era lasted about 180 million years, and is divided into three periods, the Triassic, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous. Dinosaurs evolved dominant terrestrial vertebrates for 135 million years

Cenozoic era Age of Mammals, because the largest land animals have been mammals during that time. the western states were home to small primitive camels and horses Saber-toothed cats, woolly mammoths, mastodons, and dire wolves roamed the land. Humans arrived

Geology of the West

Geologic Past Sixty million years ago The mountains of western Montana were formed by massive shifts of the earth’s surface and the explosive spurting of lava through volcanoes and fissures.

Ancient seas and lakes rose and fell, covering at various times all of today’s Montana, leaving behind fascinating geological formations and sedimentary deposits of limestone, phosphates, and many other compounds

Great swamps formed east of the mountains and were later buried to become coal and oil fields.

Glacial Moving Glaciers moved south from present day Canada into present day Montana. Four different times the glaciers moved south as far as Great Falls and Glendive. Each time the glaciers melted and receded Forming U-shaped valleys and causing debris to dam huge lakes.

First People of Western United States The Ice Age Migration to the Western Hemisphere Theories: Came from Europe in small boats, following the North Atlantic route Routes later taken by the Vikings Followed other animals from northeast Asia

Paleo‐Indians hunter‐gatherers developed a fluted stone point lived in small groups of not more than fifty people developed a fluted stone point made their hunting more efficient North America can be divided into regions Southwest, Great Plains, and Eastern Woodlands.

The Southwest Hohokam Anasazi irrigation canals to water their fields lived in permanent villages with as many as several hundred residents Anasazi permanent homes and developed villages [huh-hoh-kuh m] [ah-nuh-sah-zee]

Hohokam

Anasazi

The Great Plains horse culture-fully nomadic hunters, relying on bison and other Plains animals to provide food, clothing, and shelter The horse, introduced with the arrival of the Europeans in the sixteenth century horse culture-fully nomadic Blackfoot, Arapaho, Assiniboine, Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Gros Ventre, Lakota, Plains Apache, Plains Cree, semi-sedentary-lived in villages, raised crops, and actively traded with other tribes Arikara, Hidatsa, Iowa, Mandan, Omaha, Osage, Pawnee