Most peoples listed in this book existed as tribal entities when Europeans first came into contact with Native North Americans. A few formed into tribal groups in postcontact times. Some tribes have since become extinct. These various tribes are central to the study of Indian peoples. However, Native American studies also involve the story of the ancestors of these tribal Indians—Prehistoric Indians. The term prehistoric means whatever occurred before there were written records. Another term, precontact, refers to those peoples who had no contact with non-Indians. Another label applied is pre-Columbian, referring to Indians and cultures before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in 1492.
Who were the early Indians? Did Indians always live in the Americas? If not, where did they come from? How did they live? What kind of tools did they make?
Scholars have not always known the answers to these questions. Archaeologists, who search for and analyze ancient material remains, and anthropologists, who study physical and cultural characteristics of humankind, have attempted to piece together information concerning ancient inhabitants of the Americas. Other scientists have helped them decipher these clues: paleontologists, who study fossils and ancient life forms; geologists, who study rock formations; and chemists, who study the composition of matter.
Knowledge of ancient Indians, as well as that of prehistoric peoples in all parts of the world, remains to a large degree hypothetical. Most human remains have disappeared, other than scattered bones; most ancient artifacts have decayed, other than stone articles and potsherds (pottery fragments). Moreover, scientific techniques for dating ancient matter, such as dendrochronology, the study of annual growth of tree rings preserved in wood samples, and radiocarbon dating, measuring the amount of C-14 (the radioactive isotope of carbon) present in materials with organic content, must allow for a margin of error.
As a result, the study of ancient Indians can be confusing. One scholar might have a theory about the migrations of a people, with which other scholars disagree. Another might use one term to label a period of prehistory or a cultural group or an artifact, while others apply different terms. Or a scholar might assign a set of dates for the existence of an ancient people that are different from those given by others. In any case, the following categories provide a general structure for organizing knowledge surrounding the evolving lifeways of prehistoric peoples of North America.
World History
