1. Prehistory of the West

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

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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. Geology of the West

8. 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.

9. 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

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

11. 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.

13. 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

14. 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.

15. 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]

16. Hohokam

17. Anasazi

18. 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