10th millennium BC in North American history

11th millennium BC - 10th millennium BC - 9th millennium BC

The 10th millennium BC in North American history provides a timeline of events occurring within the North American continent from 12,000 years ago through 9001 BC in the Gregorian calendar. Although this timeline segment may include some European or other world events that profoundly influenced later American life, it focuses on developments within Native American communities. The archaeological records supplements indigenous recorded and oral history.

Because of the inaccuracies inherent in radiocarbon dating and in interpreting other elements of the archaeological record, most dates in this timeline 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 timeline.

• 9500 BC: Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets retreat enough to open a habitable ice-free corridor through Canada along the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains.
• 9500 BC: People craft early Clovis spear points, knives, and skin scrapers from rock in New Mexico.
• 9250–8950 BC: Clovis points - thin, fluted projectile points created using bifacial percussion flaking - are created by Clovis culture peoples in the Plains and Southwestern North America
• 9001 BC: Archaeological materials found on the Channel Islands of California and in coastal Peru.