The first accepted evidence we have of human beings on the Central Plains is around 12,000 years old. Archaeologists have found spear points near Clovis, New Mexico, and elsewhere that date from that era. There is some evidence that human beings may have lived here even earlier, but that evidence is disputed. Most scientists believe the ancestors of today's Native Americans walked across a "land bridge" from Asia to North America near the end of the great Ice Age. It is believed that what is now Russia and Alaska were connected by a strip of land that later sank beneath the northern Pacific Ocean. These early nomads on the Plains are now called Paleo-Indians. Scientists believe that Paleo-Indian culture was the dominate culture on the plains between 11,500 and 8,000 years ago. Paleontologists have divided Native American cultures into several timeline periods.
The Paleo-Indians moved around a lot and hunted big game as their primary source of food. Some Paleo-Indian artifacts have been found near the bones of mammoth and large bison, the ancient form of buffalo. There is a lot to learn when archaeologists look at the bones and artifacts from the places where Paleo-Indians killed and butchered their prey. We know that they lived in small temporary camps and moved from place to place, probably following their prey. We know they hunted mammoths, camels, ground sloths, extinct forms of bison, and other animals. While they ate a lot of meat, Paleo-Indians also gathered plants to supplement their diets. Sometimes they would drive mammoths over a cliff or into a muddy swamp area where the large animals would get "bogged down," making it hard for them to escape and easy for the Paleo-Indians to kill the mammoth. They used spears tipped with large, well-crafted rock points. These chipped stone points were typically large, leaf-shaped and stemmed. They are the most conspicuous and readily recognizable artifacts found for this period. There are a number of different styles of points that were produced, each with its own type name. The most famous and earliest being the Clovis and Folsom points. These points were named after Paleo-Indian cultures that lived in New Mexico but roamed up into Nebraska. It's hard to find evidence of the activities of these early Nebraska inhabitants because much of it is buried deep below the surface. Occasionally the remains of their kill sites and camps are uncovered by erosion or construction digs. Very little evidence of shelters has been found, and it is assumed that the tribes probably used simple skin tents or brush shelters. Few sites of this period have been excavated in Nebraska. It is clear from surface finds, however, that these people did range widely over the state. Toward the end of the period, the weather in the region and the plants growing here shifted toward what we experience today — a plains grassland environment. Many of the large game species died and became extinct. The animal species that were left were largely that same species we find today. These changes altered the lives of the Paleo-Indians, and we can see those changes in the types of artifacts that are recovered.
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