FAQ · History 5

An encyclopedia entry on Native American creation stories says there is no single account, and that these cosmogonies treat time as cyclical and tie human life to a power in nature. It describes the earth-diver story as one of the oldest and most widespread in North America: a primordial ocean covers the earth, and an animal such as a turtle, duck or muskrat dives for mud from which the land is formed, sometimes guided by a creator. The other common type, the emergence story, is especially strong in the Southwest, where people, animals and plants are said to have been made in underworlds and to have traveled up to the present world, a pattern the entry links to the ancestors' movement across North America and on into Central and South America. The same entry says the stories also encode local history and geography, because they were passed orally by elders or designated storytellers and changed as tribes moved, as in the Sioux emphasis on water and on the turtle, beaver and loon from a period near Lake Superior. Scholars cited there, including David Leeming and Jake Page, connect shared motifs to ancestry among peoples who crossed the Bering Strait from Asia. The entry groups the stories by seven North American culture areas and says neighboring tribes often share motifs, while stories still differ with climate, food and territory, from ocean-centered California tales to corn harvest stories in the Southwest.

South America was once part of the Gondwana landmass before separating from Africa and Antarctica. This separation turned the continent into an isolated island-continent for approximately 30 million years, allowing unique species to evolve. Following the mass extinction of dinosaurs, neotropical rainforest biomes like the Amazonia began to develop. About 3 million years ago, the formation of the Panamanian land bridge connected South America to North America. This event triggered the Great American Interchange, where animals from both continents expanded their ranges. Consequently, about 60% of present-day South American mammals evolved from North American species.

Ancient Beringians were a previously unknown Indigenous American population identified through archaeological findings in Alaska. DNA sequencing from remains found at the Upward Sun River site suggests they may represent a common ancestral group for contemporary Indigenous populations. This discovery provides direct genomic evidence that there might have been only one wave of migration occurring about 20,000 years ago. Such findings challenge previous theories that suggested multiple migration waves or distinct Northern and Southern branches. Instead, genetic evidence indicates that branching and division likely occurred after this initial settlement.

Before European colonization, several significant political entities existed in the Americas. The Kingdom of Cusco was founded around 1230 and served as the predecessor to the Inca Empire. The Inca Empire, also known as Tahuantinsuyu, rose in 1438 and became the largest empire in the Pre-Columbian Americas. Another notable entity was Chimor, a monarchy that lasted from 900 until the Incan conquest in 1470. Additionally, there were 12 major Aymara kingdoms that flourished between 1150 and 1477 following the collapse of the Tiwanaku Empire.

British colonial governments were categorized into three forms: provincial, proprietary, and charter. All these governments were subordinate to the King of England and were overseen by the Board of Trade in London starting in the late 17th century. In provincial colonies, the king appointed a governor and a council to manage executive powers and advise the leader. Proprietary colonies were governed by lord proprietors who appointed the governor instead of the king. Charter colonies functioned as political corporations, though some provincial charters were eventually issued to replace revoked ones.