1. North America & Montana Pre-History
Early Montana
Pre-Historic Peoples
Migration Routes
Early People of Present-Day Montana

2. After the Dinosaurs Huge Mammals Roamed the Americas….

3. Large Pre-Historic Animals
Woolly mammoth
Mastodon
Steppe bison
Giant ground sloth
Giant beaver
North American horse
Camel
Saber Tooth Cat

4. How & When did Humans Arrive in the Americas?

5. MigrationS Multiple migrations of pre-historic peoples from Asia
12,000-30,000 years ago
Land Bridge (Beringia)
-original theory, most widely accepted
Coastal Routes by sea
-additional routes
-recent research seems to confirm multiple routes
Paleo-Indians/Clovis People

6. Beringia

7. Land Routes

8. Land Bridge
Siberia
North America

9. Coastal
Routes

11. How do we know this stuff?
Archaeologists and geologists study layers or strata in the earth (bottom layers are older, top layers are newer)
Radiocarbon dating (tests organic materials to determine age)
DNA & Linguistics (compares DNA and languages to find connections between people in different parts of the world)

12. S T R A

13. Creation Stories Each Indian tribe today has its own creation story.
Passed down through oral traditions
Some call them legends or myths, but many tribal members believe in these creation stories like members of any other religion.
Many tribes believe they were always here based on their creation stories.

14. Who were the 1st Americans? Where did they originate?
Differing theories

15. Kennewick Man
Skeleton found near Kennewick, Washington ½ buried in Columbia River bank
Approx 9300 years old
Unique (“Caucasian” features?)
Umatilla Indian Tribe objected to examination of skeleton
Indian Grave Repatriation Act
Evidence links ancestry to Japan

16. Family Resemblance?

17. Movin’ to Montana
Pre-Historic peoples arrived in MT about 12,000 years ago (10,000 B.C.)
People were highly mobile and lived in small groups, which was better for hunting
Followed herds of Mammoth
Before 1600 the only tribes to live in MT were in the western mountains
Kootenai
Flathead or Salish

18. Paleo-Indians or Clovis People

19. Pre-Historic Indian Ancestors
Paleo-Indian or Clovis people
Hunter/Gatherers
Named for shape they gave their spear points

21. Atlatl

22. THE END