6th millennium BC in North American history

7th millennium BC - 6th millennium BC - 5th millennium BC

The 6th millennium BC in North American history provides a time line of events occurring within the present political boundaries of United States (including territories) from 6000 BC through 5001 BC in the Gregorian calendar. Although this time line segment may include some European or other world events that profoundly influenced later American life, it focuses on developments within Native American (and Polynesian) communities. Because the indigenous peoples of these regions lacked a written language, we must glean events from the admittedly very incomplete archaeological record and place them in time through radiocarbon dating techniques.

Because of the inaccuracies inherent in radiocarbon dating and in interpreting other elements of the archaeological record, most dates in this time line represent approximations that may vary a century or more from source to source. The assumptions implicit in archaeological dating methods also may yield a general bias in the dating in this time line.

• 6000 BC: Ancestors of Penutian-speaking peoples settle in the Northwestern Plateau.

• 6000 BC: Nomadic hunting bands roam Subarctic Alaska following herds of caribou and other game animals.

• 6000 BC: Aleuts begin to arrive in the Aleutian Islands.

• 5700 BC: Cataclysmic eruption of Mount Mazama in Oregon.

• Natives of the Northwestern Plateau begin to rely on salmon runs.

• 5001 BC: Early cultivation of food crops began in Mesoamerica.

• 5001 BC: Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest from Alaska to California develop a fishing economy, with salmon as a staple.

• 5001 BC: The Old Copper Culture of the Great Lakes area hammers the metal into various tools and ornaments--knives, axes, awls, bracelets, rings, and pendants.