During the last ice age, a land bridge known as Beringia connected Asia and North America, allowing early human nomads to migrate and hunt for food. These early Americans were stone age people who relied on oral history and left no written records, relying on artifacts to learn about their lives. Around 7,000 BC, farming began in Central America, leading to the development of civilizations such as the Olmecs, Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas.

1. THE FIRST AMERICANS
Human Settlement in the Americas

2. The Last Ice Age: 1. Between 20,000
and 40,000 years ago during the last Ice Age, glaciers covered a large part of the Northern
Hemisphere (North America, Europe, and Northern Asia).
2. Water level in
oceans decreased due to increase in size of glaciers.
3. Land was exposed
in Bering Strait between Asia and North America.
4. Land bridge is
known as Beringia. About 750 miles wide.
ICE AGE: Period of time when glaciers covered many parts of the Northern Hemisphere.
GLACIERS: A huge sheet of ice.

5. Early American Migration:
1. Herds of animals migrated over land bridge.
2. Groups of human nomads followed herds.
3. Over thousands of years, early Americans migrated to all parts of the America’s.
NOMAD: A person or group of people who move from place to place in search of food.
Asia Bering Strait
North America

7. 4. These early
humans were
Stone Age
people. Stone
was their most
advanced form
of technology
for tools and
weapons.

8. 5. Early humans lived during the period of time known as
prehistory.
PREHISTORY: The period of time before humans learned to
write.
-Early humans did not know how to write, therefore, they left
no written records such as books, journals, or articles.
-Since early humans did not know how to write, archeologists
and historians have to rely on artifacts to learn about early
humans.
ARCHEOLOGIST: A scientists who searches for and studies
artifacts in order to learn how early people lived.
ARTIFACT: An object made by humans, such as tools, weapons,
and pottery, and left behind by them.
6. Knowledge and culture was passed on through oral history.
ORAL HISTORY: The passing on of a person or group’s history
through the telling of stories and singing of songs.
CULTURE: The way of life for a group of people.

9. First Americans:
1. Depended on hunting and gathering for food and clothing.
2. Could not farm.
3. Tools and weapons made from stone, bone, and wood.
4. Died in early 30’s.
5. Followed herds of animals across land bridge to North America.

11. Animals They Hunted:
• Wooly mammoth.
• Bear.
• Bison.
• Deer.
• Anything they could
catch and eat.

12. Farming:
1. Around 7,000 BC, humans in Central
America learned to farm.
2. At first, they grew corn, beans, and
squash.
3. Over time, other humans in the
America’s learned to farm.
4. This allowed for civilizations to
emerge.
5. The 1st civilizations were in Central and
South America.
– Olmecs, Mayans, Aztecs, and
Incas.
Squash Beans
Corn (Maize)

13. Native
American
Groups:
• By the time that the Europeans began arriving in the New
World, there were groups of Native Americans throughout the
America’s.