North America’s human landscape closely mirrors that of its physical environment: varied, rich, and constantly changing. From their beginnings to the present day, the peoples of North America have worked with and against their surroundings in order to survive and prosper.
Indigenous cultures shaped, and were shaped by, the geography of North America. The first North Americans are believed to have migrated from Siberia, in northeast Asia, by crossing a land bridge over the Bering Strait. These populations fanned out southward, to present-day Florida, California, Mexico, and Central America.
The Olmec and the Maya, indigenous to Central America, built the first cities on the continent, eventually leading to the great urban areas of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. These cities, in what is now central Mexico, boasted sophisticatedengineering structures, such as canals, apartment buildings, and irrigation systems.
Many of these early North American cultures were scientifically and agriculturally advanced. Mayan calendars and almanacs recorded celestial events such as eclipses and seasonal changes. The Mayans were also mathematically advanced. Their counting system was able to represent very large numbers using only three symbols: dots, lines, and a football-shaped symbol that indicated a zero. The Mayans were, in fact, the first culture to have a written symbol for zero.
Cultures throughout southern North America harvested corn, squash, and beans in regular cycles. This sort of agriculture allowed major civilizations to develop. People were no longer bound to produce food and shelter for their families—some people could work in the food and construction industries while others became engineers, artists, and political leaders. Leading North American civilizations include the Maya and Aztec, in what is now Mexico, and the Iroquois, native to southeastern Canada and the northeastern United States.
The vastness of the northern part of the continent encouraged other indigenous communities to live nomadic lifestyles. These cultures did not establish urban areas or agricultural centers. Instead, they followed favorable weather patterns, natural agricultural cycles, and animal migrations.
The Plains Indians, for example, followed the seasonal grazing and migration of the American bison. Plains Indians include Lakota, Blackfoot, and Nez Perce. Plains Indians ate bison meat as their primary source of food, and used hides and bones to create dwellings, tools, and clothing. The range of the bison, which stretched from the southern Prairie Provinces of Canada, through the Great Plains, to the U.S.-Mexico border, coincided with the extent of Plains Indian communities. They were so interdependent that the eventual extinction of bison in many areas of the United States—through overhunting, development, and anti-indigenous federal policies—dramatically weakened the power and influence of the Plains people.
The environment also impacted the traditional beliefs and social structure of North American indigenous communities. For instance, the Inuit, native to the Arctic, were deeply influenced by the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights. They believed the amazing light displays were images of their family and friends in the afterlife, the souls of animals and spirits, and visual guides for hunting. Inuit also believed that all things have souls, and that spirits existed to protect those souls. By respecting the ecosystem (the living and nonliving things in an environment), Inuit communities aimed to maintain a balanced existence.