Year of existence and where they lived: 1600 BCE to around 350 BCE in Gulf of Mexico.

Brief history: The Olmec were the first major civilization in Mexico. They lived in the tropical lowlands on the Gulf of Mexico in the present-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. The name Olmec is a Nahuatl—the Aztec language—word; it means the rubber people.  The Olmec are probably best known for the statues they carved: 20 ton stone heads, quarried and carved to commemorate their rulers. Because the Olmec did not have much writing beyond a handful of carved glyphs—symbols—that survived, we don't know what name the Olmec people gave themselves. However, the Mesoamerican accounts referred to the ancient Olmec as “Tamoanchan” meaning “The mouth of the Jaguar.”

Economics: Agricultural economy mainly based on the crops of maize corn, beans, and squash. The Olmec also had a network of long distance trade. Typical Olmec trade goods include obsidian, jade, serpentine, mica, rubber, pottery, feathers, and polished mirrors of ilmenite and magnetite. They have been believed to import and export mass amounts of sea shell and greenstone. The Olmecs practiced basic agriculture using the "slash-and-burn" technique, in which overgrown plots of land are burned: this clears them for planting and the ashes act as fertilizer.  

Technological achievements: The Olmec might have been the first people to figure out how to convert latex of the rubber tree into something that could be shaped, cured, and hardened. Also the Olmecs were the first Mesoamerican people to fathom the concept of zero, develop a calendar, and create a hieroglyphic writing system.

Architecture and housing: Olmec homes were very simple and made out of logs, heavy stone, and clay. Olmecs liked to live near floodplains so they built their houses on small mounds or platforms. They also lived in buildings with earth packed around poles which were used as sleeping areas, dining rooms, and shelter.

Traditions: The Olmec religious practices of sacrifice, cave rituals, pilgrimages, offerings, ball-courts, pyramids, and the seeming awe of mirrors, was also passed on to all subsequent civilizations in Mesoamerica until the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century CE. The Olmecs are also known for the immense stone heads they carved from a volcanic rock called basalt.

Name of civilization: Olmec (Tamoanchan)

Year of existence and where they lived: 1600 BCE to around 350 BCE in Gulf of Mexico.

Brief history: The Olmec were the first major civilization in Mexico. They lived in the tropical lowlands on the Gulf of Mexico in the present-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. The name Olmec is a Nahuatl—the Aztec language—word; it means the rubber people.  The Olmec are probably best known for the statues they carved: 20 ton stone heads, quarried and carved to commemorate their rulers. Because the Olmec did not have much writing beyond a handful of carved glyphs—symbols—that survived, we don't know what name the Olmec people gave themselves. However, the Mesoamerican accounts referred to the ancient Olmec as “Tamoanchan” meaning “The mouth of the Jaguar.”

Economics: Agricultural economy mainly based on the crops of maize corn, beans, and squash. The Olmec also had a network of long distance trade. Typical Olmec trade goods include obsidian, jade, serpentine, mica, rubber, pottery, feathers, and polished mirrors of ilmenite and magnetite. They have been believed to import and export mass amounts of sea shell and greenstone. The Olmecs practiced basic agriculture using the "slash-and-burn" technique, in which overgrown plots of land are burned: this clears them for planting and the ashes act as fertilizer.  

Technological achievements: The Olmec might have been the first people to figure out how to convert latex of the rubber tree into something that could be shaped, cured, and hardened. Also the Olmecs were the first Mesoamerican people to fathom the concept of zero, develop a calendar, and create a hieroglyphic writing system.

Architecture and housing: Olmec homes were very simple and made out of logs, heavy stone, and clay. Olmecs liked to live near floodplains so they built their houses on small mounds or platforms. They also lived in buildings with earth packed around poles which were used as sleeping areas, dining rooms, and shelter.

Traditions: The Olmec religious practices of sacrifice, cave rituals, pilgrimages, offerings, ball-courts, pyramids, and the seeming awe of mirrors, was also passed on to all subsequent civilizations in Mesoamerica until the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century CE. The Olmecs are also known for the immense stone heads they carved from a volcanic rock called basalt.

Name of civilization: The Aztecs

Year of existence and where they lived: 1325 to 1521 in Central America

Brief history: They were a Mesoamerican civilization that had to surrender because of the invasion of the Spanish army that was led by Hernán Cortés. Their last emperor was Moctezuma II. They are remembered as a fierce and bloodthirsty race because they sacrificed people to their gods. The tribal leader called Huitzilopochtli told his people to settle where they saw an eagle on a cactus with a snake in its beak. The Aztecs arrived at a lake named Lake Tetzcoco, there was an island in the middle and they saw the eagle that Huitzilopochtli predicted. Tenochtitlan was the capital of the Aztec empire, it was the world’s third largest city and had 200,000 citizens. 

Economics: It is divided into 7 parts which are historic and geographic background, domestic economy, institutional economy, specialization, forms of distribution and commercialization, economic development, and future directions. The Aztec world was complex, hierarchical, and multifaceted, it was always in a state of demographic growth, recoveries from natural disasters, political alignments and realignments, and aggressive military engagements. It was characterized by intensive agriculture. The economy also had merchants, markets, and tribute systems. Some commoners worked as artisans. They made craft goods for noble families like jewelry and feather capes and headdresses. The wealthiest commoners became traders. They traded craft goods for feathers and precious stones. Traders could purchase goods made in the town and sell it to other towns. 

Technological achievements: They created a number system and calendar. They had two separate calendars. They had great knowledge about medicine and all kids had to go to school. They had a written code of behavior and laws. Their fabrics were beautiful and they wrote poems. Their artists were really good at designing and they used color. Their military was very strong. The Aztecs also built chinampas or artificial islands. The chinampas were a good place to farm so it fed a lot of Aztecs and made the population grow.

Architecture and housing: They built stone statues, pyramids, temples, causeways, aqueducts, and floating gardens. The Toltec influenced Aztec architecture, and culture. Some of Aztec stone structures still stand today. After the Aztecs cleared their forest, they built strong bases for their houses and villages. They never destroyed structures and they built new ones on top of old ones, so some temples had 4~5 layers beneath them. Because of the muddy soil, structures could sink, so they built structures over each other. The most important structure was the Templo Mayor, it was at the center of the sacred city and it was marked by rich pyramids. They had an altar of skulls which was made to show human skulls of war victims that were sacrificed. The temples were very tall because they wanted to be closer to their gods, and the sacrifices were at the top. 

Traditions (Art, writing, religion, etc): They were civilized and sophisticated. They made skilled and sensitive art, and had the most advanced calendar of their time. They used two interrelated calendars one was about agriculture and the other was about religion. They built amazing temples in well organized cities. Their culture was influenced by other civilizations and some of them are Teotihuacan and Tula. Their society was hierarchical and the status was shown by clothing and accessories. They worshiped many gods, and believed that they are in a cosmos made up of different layers. Some people think that they didn’t sacrifice people for religious reasons but rather to obtain protein by eating them. Their mythology had the idea that everything was destroyed to be recreated.

Name of civilization: The Iroquois

Year of existence and where they lived: 1450 till 1660 at the present day New York, parts of Pennsylvania, and southern Ontario and Quebec.

Basic information: Any tribe from the American tribes that lived in the Northern region and spoke the language from the Iroquoian family were the Iroquois. Some tribes are Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, Mohawk, and Tuscarora. The nations are also known as the Iroquois Confederacy and they named themselves Haudenosaunee. Warfare was important in society. For men, self-respect depended on achieving glory in wars. Captives were enclaves or adopted to replace dead family members. Losses to battle and disease increased the need for captives.  

Brief history: They came into conflict with the French in the late 17th century. The French were allies of their enemies which were the Algonquins and Hurons. They destroyed the Huron in 1648-1650. They launched raids on New France for 15 years. After the latter attack, led by Marquis de Denonville, the Iroquois carried the fight into the center of French territory. They wiped out Lachine and near Montreal in 1689. The wars were ended by some successful campaigns by the governor of New France, Comte de Frontenac from 1693-1696. For 125 years, they stood at the side from Albany to the Great Lakes. They kept a route from permanent settlement by the French which had the Dutch and English. The 6 Iroquois nations stayed enemies of the French, who were allied with their enemies. They depended on the British in Albany for goods and the Albany never attacked. When the Mohawks announced that they wanted to end the agreement, the British reacted quickly. The effort to triumph in the conflict with the French would become the French and Indian war.  

Economics: The Iroquois were farmers and hunters who did the slash-and-burn method of agriculture. They fished, gathered berries, plants, and roots. Their weapons were bows and arrows, stone axes, knives, and blowguns. 

Technological advancements: Their agriculture had a good sense of time. Their agriculturists palisaded their villages in time of need. They did slash-and-burn agriculture, which is a technique in which they burned old plants to make the soils richer so they could grow plants. Their crops were maize (corn), beans, and squash. Their surplus crops were dried and stored for the future. 

Architecture and housing: They built large longhouses and made saplings and used elm bark, each house housing many families. The longhouses were made of saplings and sheathed with bark. The longhouse was a unit of traditional society, and it was a form of social organization. 

Traditions (Art, writing, religion, etc.): The longhouse was the basic unit of the traditional Iroquois society, and it used a nested form of social organization. Households were divisions of clans, and many clans had had a moiety, and the two moieties combined to make a tribe. Groups of men built houses, fished, hunted, and engaged in military activities. Women grew crops of corn (which is also called maize), beans, and squash. They also gathered wild foods and prepared clothing. After the autumn harvest, family deer hunting parties were held in the forests. They returned to the villages in the middle of winter. In spring, the families hunted fish so they had to go near streams. Their religious origins were based on tradition in which a woman fell from the sky. Other parts were supernatural aggression and cruelty, sorcery, torture, cannibalism, star myths, and journeys to the other world. The ceremony cycle had 6 agriculture festivals showing long prayers of thanks. Their crops were used in ceremonies.

Name of civilization: California Indians

Year of existence and where they lived: not exact~1542

Brief history: The California Indians spoke the Penutian language and originally consisted of seven dialectically and territorially separated factions. There were also more than 100 villages when contacted by Europeans.

Economics: The Californians worked different jobs for men and women. Even on the generous planes of canyons, men were necessary for the indigenous society. The Spaniards hated the idea of Zoya. Because of colonialism, Zoya was expelled from society and lost its home. Zoya is traditionally a death-and-future ritual. The Nizenan, Maidu, Pomo, and Patwin practiced the noodle religion. The noodle practice wears epic ritual dances and out-of-the-box clothes. In the south, the Toloache religion dominated the tribes. Ruisen and Digno rituals drink hallucinogens and start. And hallucinogens drove people crazy.

Technological achievements:Making baskets is an important part of the California Indians. They put food in baskets or made bowls, ritual supplies, and men's and women's free baskets. The baskets were often made by women.

Architecture and housing:California Indians lived mostly in groups near the coast because they were giving acorns, fishing, or hunting animals that lived near the coast. Their main residences were also semi-basement dirt-covered houses, and their mountain shelters were temporarily banked with bark on infusion frames.

Traditions (Art, writing, religion, etc): California Indians participated in noodle worship, which included various rituals, animal-skinned costume dances, and mimicking the spirits. A traditional Miuk society was organized into contrasting halves, or parts, each with multiple lineages. The parts controlled both kinship and politics, regulating issues such as ancestry, marriage, and relationships with other tribes. And California Indians called the Shastan religion guardian spirit and shamanism.

Name of civilization: The Southeast Indians

Year of existence and where they lived: 12,000 to 14,000 years ago

The southeast Indians lived A coastal lowland belt broadly encompassing the subtropical zone of southern Florida. To the north, this gives way to the scrub forest, sandy soil, and savanna grassland of the coastal plains, as well as the alluvial floodplains of the Mississippi River. Academic knowledge of Southeast culture relies on evidence from a variety of sources, including relics, historical documents, ethnography, linguistics, folklore, and oral history. Mississippi people maintained great craft traditions and also engaged in long-distance trade throughout the Southeastern and surrounding cultural areas. The economic center of the Southeastern region is corn. Distributed small villages, each containing a special cooking room in addition to warehouse buildings and one or more residences, were arranged at the bottom of the valley or along rivers. In contrast, there were densely nucleated settlements, often surrounded by protective timber barriers. Significant types of changing housing existed. In most areas, people built winter "hothouses" with tightly sealed circular conical roofs, except for entrances and smoke holes.

of civilization: The Pueblo Indians

Year of existence and where they lived: ad 100 to 1600

The Pueblo Indians lived in Southeast America. The Pueblo Indians are thought to be the descendants of the prehistoric. Pueblo Indians made pottery.

The Pueblo Indians trade or sell pottery to different people. Traditionally, women were primarily responsible for farming, but men were also responsible for farming as the importance of hunting decreased. But Many of the Rio Grande Puebloans had special hunting societies, hunting deer and antelopes in the mountains, and eastern Puebloans, such as Taos and Picuris, sometimes sent hunters to the plains to catch bison. The entire Pueblo tribe jointly hunted rabbits, and women gathered and ate wild plants. Due to changes in residential patterns and the extensive dispersion of the Tohono O'odham fields, people did not have to form large villages or unified tribal political organizations, so the largest organizational unit was a group of related villages. Villages tended to consist of several families connected throughout the male community. Tohono O'odham had much less contact with settlers and maintained more of its traditional culture than Pima.

Name of civilization: The Inuits

Year of existence and where they lived: Around 1000 till 1953. They lived near and above the Arctic Circle which includes northernmost parts of present day Alaska, Canada, and some parts in America. More specifically Quebec, Ontario, and North Carolina.

Basic information: The topography was relatively flat, and the climate is very cold for most of the year. The northerly location is in the diurnal cycle. In winter the sun might be above the horizon for 1-2 hours, but it is reversed during the summer. Their traditional languages are in the Eskimo-Aleut family. Bands were the form of social organization and membership was based on kinship and marriage. There were many different tribes in the Inuit. Seasonal gatherings in the bands usually happened at fishing locales. In the region where there were the Appalachian Mountains, the slopes were steep. But climates were temperate with moderate precipitation. There were also coastlines and abundant rivers and lakes. There were also tribes that spoke languages from the Algonquian language families. 

Economics: They relied on hunting and gathering. The summers supported growing vegetation and it made herds of caribou and other animals to the north. On the coasts, sea mammals and fish were hunted for food and other resources. 

Technological advancements: They made snowshoes, toboggans (sleds), and fur clothing. The Igloo is their most important invention.

Architecture and housing: Dome-shaped houses were common and they are now called igloos. They kept some warmth in the houses during winter. They also built semi-subterranean houses to withstand very cold weather. 

Traditions (art, religion, etc.): Fur clothing, dog sleds, mythology, and storytelling traditions were important parts of their culture. Sled dogs would sometimes run 131 miles a day.

Year of existence and where they lived: The Maya civilization occupied a wide territory that included southeastern Mexico and northern Central America, and collapsed between A.D. 800 and 1000.

Brief History:  As early as 1500 BCE the Maya had settled in villages and were practicing agriculture. The Classic Period of Mayan culture lasted from about 250 CE until about 900. At its height, Mayan civilization consisted of more than 40 cities, each with a population between 5,000 and 50,000.

Economics: The earliest Mayan economy was based on agriculture, and the Maya cultivated crops such as cassava, squash, beans, and corn, which was their staple crop. The land of the Mayan culture consisted of mountainous hillsides, swamps and rainforest, which took great skill to learn to cultivate.

Technological achievements: The Maya had many achievements, such as advancing language and writing systems as well as books. Their most famous invention is” The Fabled Mayan Calendar. The Mayans' Astronomy was incredibly accurate, and Mayan medicine and agriculture was highly advanced for their time. 

Architecture and housing: Ordinary Maya homes were not built on platforms like the city temples and palaces but on ground level. They were built in an oval shape, from wooden poles with clay and mud (wattle and daub). Stone walls were rare for the Mayans. The focal points of Mayan architecture were corbelled doorways, vaults, and roofs to keep the rain and snow out. It uses overlapping stones to cover gaps between supports.

Traditions: The Maya referred to their practice of feasts and rituals as costumbre. Blood was often part of these Maya rituals, sometimes acquired by human bloodletting and animal or human sacrifice. Maya funerals were ritualistic and involved cremation and burial of the body as well as traditions to free the K'uh (god).The Maya

Name of Civilization: The Maya (Mesoamerican civilization that existed from antiquity to the early modern period.) 

Year of existence and where they lived: The Maya civilization occupied a wide territory that included southeastern Mexico and northern Central America, and collapsed between A.D. 800 and 1000.

Brief History:  As early as 1500 BCE the Maya had settled in villages and were practicing agriculture. The Classic Period of Mayan culture lasted from about 250 CE until about 900. At its height, Mayan civilization consisted of more than 40 cities, each with a population between 5,000 and 50,000.

Economics: The earliest Mayan economy was based on agriculture, and the Maya cultivated crops such as cassava, squash, beans, and corn, which was their staple crop. The land of the Mayan culture consisted of mountainous hillsides, swamps and rainforest, which took great skill to learn to cultivate.

Technological achievements: The Maya had many achievements, such as advancing language and writing systems as well as books. Their most famous invention is” The Fabled Mayan Calendar. The Mayans' Astronomy was incredibly accurate, and Mayan medicine and agriculture was highly advanced for their time. 

Architecture and housing: Ordinary Maya homes were not built on platforms like the city temples and palaces but on ground level. They were built in an oval shape, from wooden poles with clay and mud (wattle and daub). Stone walls were rare for the Mayans. The focal points of Mayan architecture were corbelled doorways, vaults, and roofs to keep the rain and snow out. It uses overlapping stones to cover gaps between supports.

Traditions: The Maya referred to their practice of feasts and rituals as costumbre. Blood was often part of these Maya rituals, sometimes acquired by human bloodletting and animal or human sacrifice. Maya funerals were ritualistic and involved cremation and burial of the body as well as traditions to free the K'uh (god).

Brief history: The Inca Empire was the last chapter of thousands of years of Andean civilizations. The Andean civilization is one of at least five civilizations in the world deemed by scholars to be pristine. The meaning of a pristine civilization refers to a civilization that has developed independently of external influences and is not a derivative of other civilizations.

Economics: The Incas traded bronze, animals, crops, and different tools to each state in turn for money or other materials. Higher points on the empire grew crops like potatoes and lower points grew corn and raised llamas. The government controlled the economy and maintained trade.

Technological advancements: The Inca built a variety of bridges including suspension bridges and pontoon bridges. One of the main forms of medicine used by the Inca was the coca leaf. The Inca developed aqueducts to bring fresh water into town. The basic unit of distance used by the Inca was one pace or a "thatki".

Brief History and culture: The Mississippian culture was a Native American civilization that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 to 1600, varying regionally. It was known for building large, earthen platform mounds, and often other shaped mounds as well. It was composed of a series of urban settlements and satellite villages linked together by loose trading networks. The largest city was Cahokia, believed to be a major religious center located in what is present-day southern Illinois.

Economics: Although hunting and gathering and the cultivation of native plants remained important, Mississippian economy was based largely on corn agriculture. Within the first two centuries of the period, beans were added to their diet. Mississippians expanded their small gardens into larger farms.

Technological advancements: Among the many technological innovations were the introduction of small projectile points, indicative of the use of the bow, and the use of new manufacturing techniques in ceramics.

Culture: Mississippi's rural heritage continues to be a strong influence on the lifestyles and recreational habits of its residents. Hunting, fishing

Economics: The traditional Northwest Coast Indian economy was complex and highly efficient in its use of natural resources. The tribes had access to abundant aquatic resources, including salmon, herring, halibut, cod, and more. In the summer, the tribes would catch and gather food, and then process it for storage during the winter.

Technological advancements. The indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast drew from the heavily wooded environment for much of their technology. Woodworking was facilitated by the abundance of easily worked species of trees, especially the giant arborvitae and the redwood. The trunks of these trees could be split into planks or hollowed out into canoes, containers, and other useful objects.

Name of Civilization: The Great Plains Indians (also known as Native Americans of the Plains and Prairie, Indigenous Peoples of the Great Plains)

Year of existence and where they lived: On the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) of North America, and existed during the 18th and 19th century.

Brief History: The Indians in the Great Plain had lived in the region for around 13,000 years. The people were originally hunter-gatherers, and often hunted bison, which were common in the Plains, to use in everyday life, such as food, cups, decorations, crafting tools, knives, and clothing. The tribes  followed the seasonal grazing and migration of the bison. The Plains Indians lived in tipis, because they were easily disassembled and allowed the nomadic life of following game. The cultures developed horticulture, then agriculture, as they settled in sedentary villages and towns. Maize, originally from Mesoamerican and spread north from the Southwest, became widespread in the south of the Great Plains around 700 CE.

Economics: The Great Plains have remained basically an agricultural area producing wheat, cotton, corn (maize), sorghum, and hay and raising cattle and sheep. Also trade between Plain tribes often involved exchanging items of prestige and products from hunting, like bison robes, dried meat, and tallow for agricultural products, such as corn and squash. Later, Plains cultures began to trade with European Americans who increasingly encroached upon their lands and lives.

Technological Achievements: The Great Plain Indians invented many kinds of inventions like Windmill, Dry farming, barbed wire, sulky plough, and New wheat in the 1870s by some Russian immigrants, known as Mennonites. Also, in the 1860s, Plains farmers were using steel plows, threshing machines, seed drills, and reapers. These new machines made dry farming possible. Still, soil on the Plains could blow away during a dry season.

Architecture and housing: ​​Plains Indian tribes created teepees, which were made out of bison skins laid over wooden poles. These tribes lived in the Great Plains region of the United States. The main materials used in creating teepees were the skins of bison and the poles of trees that were in the area. Also, some early square and rectangular houses utilized wall systems of closely spaced posts that were wattled and daubed with clay. Clays were also used in the southwestern Plains to plaster floors, make wall bricks, and raise puddled walls.

Traditions: Historically, Plains folk seemed to enjoy just about any excuse to get together and have fun: parades, races, speeches, contests, dressing up (even cross-dressing), role reversals, and general carousing typically accompany seasonal festivals. The Plains Indians believed that everything in nature had a spirit. This included animals, plants, rocks, rivers and human beings. Plains Indians believed they should work together with the spirits rather than trying to control them. It was believed spirits could be contacted through visions and ceremonial dances.