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Native American were the first people to live in Arizona. Native means the first people to live in a place. Native Americans have lived in Arizona for more than 11,000 years! They are often called Indians or American Indians. The early Native Americans did not use words to write down their history. We call them prehistoric people. Prehistoric means before history was written down.
Learning about Early People
How do we know about the first people who lived in Arizona! The men, women and children of long ago threw things away. The also dropped things. They left things behind when they moved. We call things that people made and left behind artifacts. Artifacts are things like tools, jewelry, baskets, and pots.
Archeologists are scientists who study clues to learn about people who lived long ago. Many of these clues are artifacts that are found buried in the ground. For thousands of years, wind blew dust over ancient homes and villages and covered them.
Read more about Prehistoric Arizona
Elephant Hunters
The first people in the Southwest were hunters and gatherers. They came here looking for food. They found animals to hunt. They also found wild berries, nuts and seeds to eat. The people were always on the move, looking for food.
Arizona was wetter and cooler than it is today. Thick grass fed many animals. The mammoth was the largest animal. The mammoths looked something like an early elephant.
Mammoth Hunt
Groups of hunters quietly waited for the mammoth or giant bison where the animals came to drink water. The men crept up to the huge animals and thrust in long spears with sharp stone points. After the hunt, the men ate some of the meat. Then they dried the rest in the sun and carried it back to the camp. Their families had meat for a long time. They also used the fur to make warm robes.
Archeologists have found two prehistoric hunting sites in southern Arizona. At one site they found eight spear points in the ones of one mammoth. The other site had bones from nine mammoths, a small horse, a bison, and a tapir.
After many years the climate slowly began to warm up. Mammoths and other animals became extinct. The people who loved after the elephant hunters are called Archaic people. Archaic means very old.
Archaic people moved from place to place. They hunted smaller, faster animals, such as deer. The people also fished in streams and lakes and searched for berries, roots, nuts and seeds.
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more about the Archaic Culture
Learning to Grow Corn
Later, the people learned to grow corn. They ground the corn wild seeds into flour. They held a stone called a mano in their hand. They used it to grind the seeds and nuts on a larger stone called a metate. Because the people grew some of their food, they could stay in one place longer. They did not have to move as much in search of food.
View Picture of a mano and metate
Tools
These early people made tools and weapons. They carved sharp edges on spear points. The sharpened stones to use as scrapers to clean the fur off animal skins. They carved animal bones to make fish hooks, needles, and awls. Awls were used to punch holes into animal hides so that the pieces could be laced together to make clothes.
Later the people made a spear thrower called an atlatl. It was a flat, smooth piece of wood about two foot long with two rawhide loop handles on one end. A long spear was places in the atlatl. When the hunter threw, the spear flew forward, but the atlatl stayed in his hand. With the atlatl, hunters could throw farther and faster.
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