•According to a report published on its website, 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 experts believe. On Indigenous Peoples Day, seven regions in the U.S. stand out for their stories of Native Americans. 1. Chaco Canyon (New Mexico) This settlement, which was established many years ago, may be a translation of the Spanish word for “Native” in the region, and was the center of the Old Pueblo people between approximately 850 and 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. Experts estimate that the builders transported more than 200,000 wooden logs from distant mountains to construct these complex structures; the logs were mostly 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 in 1100 AD it housed 40,000 people — comparable in size to major cities in the Middle Ages in Europe. Strobel, a historian and Native American history expert at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, told Live Science: “It’s an incredibly important site.”
5. Walnut Canyon (Arizona)
Locals lived in “wattle and daub” houses — a frame of sticks plastered with clay or mud — along with large circular fields, wooden palisades, and dozens of ceremonial earthen mounds. According to excavation studies, many people from distant places also visited to attend ceremonies. The area now includes a park and a reconstructed “woodhenge” of wooden circles that follow sunrises and sunsets, along with the 100-foot (30-meter) high Monks Mound. Strobel thinks Cahokia may have been the most important site in the U.S. before the colony.
3. Mound Key (Estero Bay, Florida)
Mound Key was the largest Native American settlement site around Estero Bay. For long periods, it was made up of two small islands covered in mangroves, but over the centuries, feasts on shellfish built the area into two mounds covered in vegetation. 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 into a living maritime city by the people who lived there. Mound Key itself is estimated to consist of several million shells, most of them oysters.
4. Sitka (Alaska)
Sitka National Historical Park preserves the battlefield 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 U.S. in 1867). The conflict began in 1802 when Russian merchants built a fort in Sitka, entering the tribal lands, but the Tlingit warriors destroyed their enemy’s fort and drove the Russians out. They rebuilt it to withstand the expected Russian attack, but in 1804, when it was bombed by Russian ships, they were forced to abandon it. The dispute was not resolved until the U.S. bought Alaska, which was only fully resolved at that time.
5. Walnut Canyon (Arizona)
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 limestone and sandstone canyon about 10 miles southwest of Flagstaff. The cliff dwellings were built in natural caves within the limestone; this provided insulation from cold and heat, and their high location on the canyon floor served as a defense against attack.
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