While there is controversy regarding when the first people arrived in North America, by around 11,500 years ago a culture known as Clovis is evident. Clovis spear points are very distinctive and have been discovered broadly across North America and into Central America. While we know that archaeological sites such as Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania and Monte Verde in Chile predate Clovis, Clovis people left a legacy.

Paleoindians also left us a legacy that we can marvel at. In a day and age when technology change is so prevailent, these people invented a simple device known as an "atlatl". This is simply a device that enabled them to increase their efficiency to hunt big game. It was a "spear thrower" and extended their arms and most importantly increased the force by which they could throw a spear with a new killing force.

The Anasazi ("the ancient ones") lived in northeastern Arizona, southern Utah, and northwestern New Mexico. The center of the Anasazi world was Chaco Canyon. Chaco Canyon was a center of interaction and an extensive road system leads in and out of the canyon. A series of large puebloes (villages) cluster within the canyon making Chaco the largest aggregate of people the Southwest probably ever saw.

Cahokia in the area of St. Louis was another major center of interaction and population. When it was occupied, Cahokia was larger than London. It was a center for trade and a political center where tribal chiefs ruled from the top of large earthen mounds such as Monk's Mound.

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Chaco Canyon	Cahokia	Clovis Points	The Atlatl