For the most part, these Native 

 Americans have been disregarded and 

 unappreciated. Few people know of 

 their history, their culture or even the 

 tremendous contributions they have 

 made to our society today. 



Native Americans first inhabited 

 the continent some 30,000 to 40,000 

 years ago. Scholars generally agree 

 that these first Americans walked to 

 North America from Asia. During the 

 last ice age, when sea level dropped, a 

 land bridge was exposed between Asia 

 and Alaska along the Bering Strait. 



Anthropologists have found 

 distinct similarities in hair, skin color, 

 blood type and teeth of Native 

 Americans and the inhabitants of 

 Siberia. For instance, Native Ameri- 

 cans and northern Asians commonly 

 have shovel-shaped front teeth that 

 differ from other people. 



The Indians gradually spread 

 eastward and southward in small 

 bands across North and South 

 America. These early North Ameri- 

 cans hunted large game — woolly 

 mammoths, mastodons, giant deer, 

 giant bison, elks and others. 



David Phelps, an archaeologist at 

 East Carolina University, estimates 

 that Native Americans had been living 

 in coastal North Carolina since 12,000 

 B.C., and perhaps longer. 



The people of this era, 14,000 B.C. 

 to about 8000 B.C., are called Paleo- 

 Indians. Living in small groups, these 

 Native Americans roamed their 

 territories alongside herds of large and 

 small game characteristic of the final 

 centuries of the last ice age. 



These people hunted with spears 

 and had a survival toolbox that 

 consisted of stone, bone, wood and 

 skin implements. 



"The most amazing tool was the 

 atlatl, which was really a spear- 

 thrower," Knick says. "A spear- 



thrower is a wooden stick with a hook 

 on one end of it, which has a stone 

 weight attached at the hooked end. 



"You use that spear-thrower as an 

 additional length of your arm, in 



WITH MUCH FANFARE 

 AND HOOPLA, 

 THE UNITED STATES 

 WILL CELEBRATE 

 CHRISTOPHER 



COLUMBUS' 

 DISCOVERY OF 

 AMERICA THIS FALL. 

 ALTHOUGH MANY 

 HISTORIANS NOW 

 QUESTION THAT 

 COLUMBUS WAS THE 



"FIRST" EUROPEAN 

 DISCOVEREROF THIS 

 NEW WORLD, WE WILL 

 NONETHELESS 

 CELEBRATE HIS 

 VOYAGE AS THE KEY 

 EVENT THAT OPENED 



THE GATE FOR 

 EUROPEAN DISCOVERY 

 AND EXPANSION. 

 BUT AS SURE AS 

 COLUMBUS OPENED 

 THE DOOR 

 FOR EUROPE 

 TO COME CALLING, 

 HE SHUT IT ON THOSE 

 WHO TRULY HAD THE 

 RIGHT TO CLAIM THE 

 FORESTS AND 

 THE PLAINS, 

 THE RIVERS AND 

 THE VALLEYS AS 

 THEIR OWN — 

 THE AMERICAN 

 INDIANS. 



essence, to propel the spear farther and 

 faster," Knick adds. "It's a real 

 technological leap into the future." 

 Paleo-Indians roasted their food 



over open fires or boiled it in pits lined 

 with skins. They heated the water by 

 dropping hot stones into it. 



Phelps, who has specialized in 

 unearthing clues about the Indians, has 

 uncovered only limited artifacts from 

 this era. The scarcity of remains can 

 be explained by several factors. 



First, time, weather and develop- 

 ment destroyed all but a few stone 

 artifacts. Secondly, many of the sites 

 where these early Americans camped 

 in coastal North Carolina are under- 

 water today. This was the end of the 

 last ice age, and sea level was much 

 lower. The Indians tended to camp 

 alongside rivers and streams. Subse- 

 quently, when the climate warmed and 

 sea level rose, these sites and their 

 artifacts were inundated. 



Following the Paleo-Indian era 

 came a period from about 8000 B.C. 

 to 2000 B.C. or 1000 B.C. that 

 archaeologists call the Archaic Period. 

 During this time, the glaciers of the 

 ice age receded, the climate warmed 

 and subsequent changes occurred in 

 plant and animal life. 



Many of the large mammals 

 present in the ice age became extinct. 

 In North Carolina, the forests changed 

 from those dominated by pine, birch 

 and hemlock to woodlands mixed 

 with oak and hickory. 



As a result of these environmental 

 changes, the Indians changed too. In 

 the absence of large game, these 

 skilled marksmen hunted deer, bears 

 and rabbits. They also incorporated 

 berries, nuts, grasses, tubers and 

 flowers into their diet. 



Native Americans of the Archaic 

 Period curbed their wandering. Instead 

 of constantly following herds of 

 animals, they established seasonal 

 camps to take advantage of the 

 periodic abundance of certain foods. 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 3 



