•According to a report published on the site, the pre-historic period of Native Americans dates back decades, and research suggests that prehistoric humans have been in the Americas for much longer than most scholars believe. On Indigenous Peoples Day, seven regions in the United States stand out for their stories of Native Americans.
1. Chaco Canyon (New Mexico)
This settlement, which was founded many years ago, may have been named after the Spanish word for “Native” in the region, and was the center of the Ancient Pueblo people from about 850 to 1250 AD. At its heart is Pueblo Bonito (“Beautiful Village”), a four-story stone structure with more than 600 rooms and 35 underground ceremonial chambers called kivas.
Experts estimate that the builders of these complex structures transported more than 200,000 wooden logs from distant mountains, which were used to reinforce buildings made of blocks of sandstone. The town was once at the center of trade routes stretching more than 400 miles (640 kilometers), and excavations of imported Mexican parrots and cacao confirm trade with distant regions.
2. Cahokia (Illinois)
Cahokia was the largest Native American settlement in Mexico and hosted 40,000 people in AD 1100 — comparable in size to major cities in the Middle Ages in Europe. Strobel, a historian and Native American historian at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, told Live Science: “It’s an incredibly important site.”
5. Walnut Canyon (Arizona)
Walnut Canyon was the largest Native American settlement site around Estero Bay. For long periods, it was two small islands formed by mangroves, but over the centuries, feasts on shellfish built the area into two vegetated mounds. In some places, the mounds rise more than 30 feet (9 meters) above the water; they are now so large that they are divided only in high water.
Before Europeans arrived in the 16th century, this shelled island was called Calos and was transformed by its inhabitants into a living maritime city. Mound Key itself is estimated to consist of several million shells, most of them oysters.
6. Sitka (Alaska)
Sitka National Historical Park preserves the site of the 1804 Battle of Sitka, the last major armed conflict between Europeans and the people of Alaska. At the time, Russia claimed Alaska (it sold it to the United States in 1867). The battle began in 1802 when Russian traders built a fort in Sitka, encroaching on Tlingit tribal lands, but the Tlingit destroyed the enemy fort and drove the Russians out. They rebuilt it to withstand a subsequent expected Russian attack, but were forced to abandon it when it was bombed by Russian ships in 1804. The dispute was not resolved until the United States purchased Alaska.
7. Walnut Canyon (Arizona)
Walnut Canyon was the largest Native American settlement site around Estero Bay. For long periods, it was two small islands formed by mangroves, but over the centuries, feasts on shellfish built the area into two vegetated mounds. In some places, the mounds rise more than 30 feet (9 meters) above the water; they are now so large that they are divided only in high water.
This area preserves cliff dwellings built by the Kuzay Sinagua people between A.D. 1125 and 1250. People can reach the site by walking along a deep sandstone and sand dune canyon about 10 miles southwest of Flagstaff. The cliff dwellings were built in natural caves within the sandstone; this provided them with insulation from cold and heat, and their high locations on the canyon floor served as defense against intruders.
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