| History : Alabama |
 03 Jul 2006 |
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Among Native American people once living in present Alabama were Alabama (Alibamu), Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Koasati, and Mobile. Trade with the Northeast via the Ohio River began during the Burial Mound Period (1000 BC-A.D. 700) and continued until European contact. Meso-American influence is evident in the agrarian Mississippian culture that followed.
The French founded the first... |
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| History : Alaska |
03 Jul 2006 |
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The first written accounts indicate that the first Europeans to reach Alaska came from Russia. Vitus Bering sailed east and saw Mt. St. Elias. The Russian-American Company hunted sea otters for their fur. The colony was never very profitable, because of the costs of transportation.
Alaska was first inhabited by humans who came across the Bering Land Bridge. Eventually, Alaska became populated... |
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| History : Arizona |
24 May 2006 |
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O'odham words "alĭ ṣon" ("small spring"), actually the name of a town which is called "Arizonac" in English. Arizonac is a small town about eight miles (12 km) south of the United States–Mexican border. Historically, it may have been "alĭ son" or even "alĭ sona". The O'odham "l" is a voiced alveolar lateral fricative, which might sound to a Spanish or English speaker like an "r" sound. Later in the... |
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| History : Arkansas |
03 Jul 2006 |
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The first European who arrived in Arkansas was the Spaniard Hernando de Soto, explorer at the end of the 16th Century. The early Spanish or French explorers of the state gave it its name, which is probably a phonetic spelling for the French or Catalan word for "downriver" people, a reference to the Quapaw people and the river along which they settled. Other Native American nations that lived in Arkansas... |
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| History : Colorado |
04 Jul 2006 |
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Colorado's earliest inhabitants were the Basket Makers, Native Americans who settled in the mesa country before the beginning of the Christian era. Later people known as cliff dwellers inhabited the area, building their pueblos in canyon walls.
The first European to enter the region was probably the Spanish conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in the 16th cent. Spain subsequently claimed... |
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| History : Connecticut |
04 Jul 2006 |
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The name "Connecticut" comes from the Mohegan Indian word "Quinnehtukqut" meaning "Long River Place" or "Beside the Long Tidal River." Connecticut is the fifth of the original thirteen states. The first Europeans to settle permanently in Connecticut were English Puritans from Massachusetts in 1633. Historically important colonial settlements included Windsor (1633), Westhersfield (1634), Saybrook... |
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| History : Georgia |
04 Jul 2006 |
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The local moundbuilder culture, described by Hernando de Soto in 1540, completely disappeared by 1560. Early on, in the course of European exploration of the area, a number of Spanish explorers visited the inland region of Georgia.
The conflict between Spain and Britain over control of Georgia began in earnest in about 1670, when the British, moving south from their Carolina colony in present-day... |
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| History : Hawaii |
05 Jul 2006 |
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Anthropologists believe that Polynesians from the Marquesas and Society Islands first populated the Hawaiian Islands at some time after AD 300-500, although recent evidence has pointed to an initial settlement of as late as AD 800-1000. It is not resolved whether there was only one extended or two isolated periods of settlement. The latter view of an initial Marquesan settlement, followed by isolation... |
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| History : Idaho |
06 Jul 2006 |
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Humans may have been present in the Idaho area as long as 14,500 years ago. Excavations at Wilson Butte Cave near Twin Falls in 1959 revealed evidence of human activity, including arrowheads, that rank among the oldest dated artifacts in North America. Native American tribes predominant in the area included the Nez Perce in the north and the Northern and Western Shoshone in the south.
Idaho, as... |
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| History : Indiana |
06 Jul 2006 |
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The area of Indiana has been settled since before the development of the Hopewell culture (ca. 100–400 CE). It was part of the Mississippian culture from roughly the year 1000 up to the conventional end of Mississippian dating ("contact with Europeans"). The specific Native American tribes that inhabited this territory at that time were primarily the Miami and the Shawnee. The area was claimed for... |
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| History : Iowa |
06 Jul 2006 |
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In prehistoric times, the Mound Builders, a farming people, lived in the Iowa area. When Europeans first came to explore the region in the 17th cent., various Native American groups, including the Iowa, reputedly the source of the state's name, occupied the land. The Sac and Fox also ranged over the land, but it was the combative Sioux who dominated the area. In 1673 the French explorers Father Jacques... |
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| History : Kansas |
06 Jul 2006 |
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For millenia, the land that is presently Kansas was inhabited by Native Americans. Francisco Vásquez de Coronado was the first European to set foot in present-day Kansas, exploring the area in 1541. In 1803, most of Kansas was secured by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Southwest Kansas, however, was still a part of Spain, Mexico, and the Republic of Texas until the conclusion... |
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| History : Louisiana |
07 Jul 2006 |
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Louisiana has a long and colorful history. The region was possibly visited by Cabeza de Vaca and his fellow survivors of a Spanish expedition of 1528, and it was certainly seen by some of De Soto's men (1541–42). In 1682, La Salle reached the mouth of the Mississippi and claimed for France all of the land drained by that river and its tributaries, naming it Louisiana after Louis XIV. Europeans did... |
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| History : Maine |
07 Jul 2006 |
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The original inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine were Algonquian-speaking peoples including the Wabanaki, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscots. The first European settlement in Maine was in 1604 by a French party that included Samuel de Champlain, the noted explorer. The French named the area that includes Maine as Acadia. English colonists sponsored by the Plymouth Company settled in 1607. The... |
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| History : Maryland |
07 Jul 2006 |
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In 1629 George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, applied to Charles I for a new royal charter for what was to become the Province of Maryland, which was at the time the northern part of Virginia. George Calvert died in April 1632, but a charter for "Maryland Colony" (in Latin, "Terra Maria") was granted to his son, Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, on June 20, 1632. The new colony was named in honor... |
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| History : Michigan |
07 Jul 2006 |
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Michigan was home to various Native Americans centuries before colonization by Europeans. When the first European explorers arrived, the most populous and influential tribes were Algonquian peoples - specifically, the Ottawa, the Anishnabe (called "Chippewa" in French, after their language, "Ojibwe"), and the Potawatomi. The Anishnabe were the most populous, estimated at between 25,000 and 35,000... |
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| History : Minnesota |
07 Jul 2006 |
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Archaeological evidence indicates that Minnesota was inhabited long before the time of the Mound Builders. A skeleton (“Minnesota Man”), found in 1931 near Pelican Falls, is believed to date from the late Pleistocene epoch, c.20,000 years ago. Many important archaeological finds relating to the early inhabitants of North America have been made in Minnesota.
There are some experts who argue on the... |
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| History : Mississippi |
07 Jul 2006 |
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Mississippi was part of the Mississippian culture in the early part of the second millennium AD; descendant Native American tribes include the Chickasaw and Choctaw. Other tribes who inhabited the territory of Mississippi (and whose names became those of local towns) include the Natchez, the Yazoo, and the Biloxi.
The first expedition into the territory that became Mississippi was that of Hernando... |
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| History : Montana |
10 Jul 2006 |
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Native Americans were the first inhabitants of Montana. Groups included the Crows in the south-central area, the Cheyenne in the southeast, the Blackfeet, Assiniboine and Gros Ventres in the central and north-central area and the Kootenai and Salish in the west. The smaller Pend d'Oreille and Kalispel tribes were found around Flathead Lake and the western mountains, respectively.
Subsequent to... |
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| History : Nebraska |
10 Jul 2006 |
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The Kansas-Nebraska Act became law on May 28, 1854; it established the U.S. territories of Nebraska and Kansas. The territorial capital of Nebraska was Omaha.
In the 1860s, the first great wave of homesteaders poured into Nebraska to claim free land granted by the federal government. Many of the first farm settlers built their homes out of sod because they found so few trees on the grassy land.
Nebraska... |
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| History : Nevada |
10 Jul 2006 |
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In the 1770s several Spanish explorers came near the area of present-day Nevada but it was not until half a century later that fur traders venturing into the Rocky Mts. publicized the region. Jedediah S. Smith came across S Nevada on his way to California in 1827. The following year Peter Skene Ogden, a Hudson's Bay Company man trading out of the Oregon country, entered NE Nevada. Joseph Walker in... |
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| History : New Hampshire |
10 Jul 2006 |
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New Hampshire was explored 1600-1605 and first settled in 1623. By 1631 the Upper Plantation comprised modern-day Dover, Durham and Stratham; in 1679 it became the "Royal Province." Indian raids were a serious problem before 1763.
It was one of the thirteen colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. It was the first state to declare its independence, but the only battle... |
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| History : New Jersey |
10 Jul 2006 |
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The history of New Jersey goes back to Dutch and Swedish communities established prior to settlement by the English. Dutch claims to the Hudson and Delaware valleys were based on the voyages of Henry Hudson, who sailed into Newark Bay in 1609. Under the auspices of the Dutch West India Company patroonships were offered for settlement, and small colonies were located on the present sites of Hoboken,... |
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| History : New Mexico |
11 Jul 2006 |
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Use of the land and minerals of New Mexico goes back to the prehistoric time of the early cultures in the Southwest that long preceded the flourishing sedentary civilization of the Pueblos that the Spanish found along the Rio Grande and its tributaries. Many of the Native American pueblos exist today much as they were in the 13th cent. Word of the pueblos reached the Spanish through Cabeza de Vaca,... |
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| History : New York |
11 Jul 2006 |
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The first European settlers in the area now known as the State of New York were Dutch settlers in the colony known as New Amsterdam, beginning in 1613. These settlers were claiming this land as theirs, marginalizing the aboriginal inhabitants who had been living there since the Pleistocene epoch. The English traded the modern-day country of Suriname for New Amsterdam in 1664; they renamed it New York,... |
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| History : North Carolina |
11 Jul 2006 |
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North Carolina was originally inhabited by many different native peoples, including the Cherokee, Tuscarora, Cheraw, Pamlico, Meherrin, Coree, Machapunga, Cape Fear, Waxhaw, Saponi, Tutelo, Waccamaw, Lumbee, Coharie, and Catawba. North Carolina was the first American territory the English attempted to colonize. Sir Walter Raleigh, for whom the state capital is named, chartered two colonies on the... |
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| History : North Dakota |
11 Jul 2006 |
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Prior to European contact, Native Americans inhabited North Dakota for thousands of years. The first European to reach the area was the French-Canadian trader La Vérendrye, who led an exploration party to Mandan villages about 1738.
The trading arrangement between tribes was such that North Dakota tribes rarely dealt directly with Europeans. However, the native tribes were in sufficient contact... |
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| History : Oklahoma |
12 Jul 2006 |
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Oklahoma's Native American population is the largest in the nation—252,420 at the 1990 census. Several indigenous cultures existed in the area before the first European visited in 1541. Francisco Coronado almost certainly crossed Oklahoma in that year, and Hernando De Soto may have visited E Oklahoma. Later Juan de Oñate passed through W Oklahoma, and some other Spanish explorers and traders and French... |
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| History : Oregon |
12 Jul 2006 |
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Oregon's earliest residents were several Native American tribes, including the Bannock, Chinook, Klamath, and Nez Perce. James Cook explored the coast in 1778 in search of the Northwest Passage. The Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled through the region during their expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase. They built their winter fort at Fort Clatsop, near the mouth of the Columbia River. Exploration... |
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| History : Pennsylvania |
12 Jul 2006 |
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Before the state existed, the area was home to the Delaware (also known as Lenni Lenape), Susquehannock, Iroquois, Eriez, Shawnee, and other Native American tribes.
In 1643, the southeastern portion of the state, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, was settled by Sweden as part of New Sweden, with a capital city of New Gothenburg built on Tinicum Island in the Delaware River, south of present-day... |
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| History : Rhode Island |
13 Jul 2006 |
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In 1614 the Dutch explorer Adriaen Block visited the island that is now called Block Island. Native American inhabitants included the Narragansett tribe, occupying most of the area, and the closely related Niantic tribe. Most of the Native Americans were decimated by introduced diseases, intertribal warfare, and the disastrous King Philip's War, but remnants of the Niantic merged into the Naragansett... |
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| History : South Carolina |
13 Jul 2006 |
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The colony of Carolina was settled by English settlers sent by the Lords Proprietors in 1670, followed by French Huguenots. The Carolina upcountry was settled largely by Scotch-Irish migrants from Pennsylvania and Virginia. North Carolina was split off in 1712. Carolina became a royal colony in 1729. The state declared its independence from Great Britain and set up its own government on March 15,... |
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| History : South Dakota |
13 Jul 2006 |
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Human beings have lived in what is today South Dakota for at least several thousand years. French and other European explorers in the 1700s encountered a variety of groups including the Omaha and Arikara (Ree), but by the early 1800s the Sioux (Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota) were dominant. In 1743, the LaVerendrye brothers buried a plate near the modern capital Pierre (pronounced as "peer") claiming... |
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| History : Texas |
13 Jul 2006 |
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The region that is now Texas was early known to the Spanish, who were, however, slow to settle there. Cabeza de Vaca, shipwrecked off the coast in 1528, wandered through the area in the 1530s, and Coronado probably crossed the northwest section in 1541. De Soto died before reaching Texas, but his men continued west, crossing the Red River in 1542. The first Spanish settlement was made (1682) at Ysleta... |
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| History : Utah |
14 Jul 2006 |
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Native Americans have lived in what is now Utah for several thousand years; most archeological evidence dates such habitation about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Some left petroglyphs and pictographs which exist throughout the state.
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado may have crossed into what is now southern Utah in 1540, when he was seeking the legendary Cíbola.
A group led by two Catholic priests—sometimes... |
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| History : Washington |
17 Jul 2006 |
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Prior to the arrival of explorers from Europe, this region of the Pacific Coast had many established tribes of Native Americans, each with its own unique culture. Today, they are most notable for their totem poles and their ornately carved canoes and masks. Prominent among their industries were salmon fishing and whale hunting. In the east, nomadic tribes traveled the land and missionaries such as... |
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| History : West Virginia |
18 Jul 2006 |
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The Mound Builders were the earliest known inhabitants. When the first Europeans arrived, however, the region was for the most part unpopulated, serving as a common hunting ground (and therefore a battleground) for the settlers and Native Americans. This part of Virginia, which later became West Virginia, was penetrated by explorers and fur traders as early as the 1670s. It was cut off from the eastern... |
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| History : Wisconsin |
18 Jul 2006 |
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In 1634, Frenchman Jean Nicolet became Wisconsin's first European explorer, landing at Red Banks, near modern-day Green Bay in search of a passage to the Orient. The French controlled the area until it was ceded to the British in 1763.
After the American Revolutionary War, Wisconsin was part of the U.S. Northwest Territory. It was then governed as part of Indiana Territory, Illinois Territory,... |
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| History : Wyoming |
29 Jun 2006 |
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The region known today as the state of Wyoming was originally inhabited by several Native American groups. The Crow, Arapahoe, Sioux, and Shoshone were but a few of the original inhabitants encountered when white explorers first entered the region. Although French trappers may have ventured into the northern sections of the state in the late 1700s, John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition,... |
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