Native American history timeline
This chart puts 20 Native American cultures and nations on one timeline in order, from Adena culture (c. 500 BCE to 100 CE) to Lakota (Teton Sioux) (c. 1700 CE to the present).
See it on the interactive chart
- Adena culturec. 500 BCE to 100 CE
- Marksville culture100 BCE to 400 CE
- Hopewell traditionc. 100 BCE to 500 CE
- Mogollon culturec. 200 to 1450 CE
- Hohokamc. 300 to 1450 CE
- Pacific Northwest peoplesc. 500 CE to the present
- Coles Creek culture700 to 1200 CE
- Ancestral Puebloansc. 750 to 1300 CE
- Chaco Canyon (Chacoan system)c. 850 to 1150 CE
- Mississippian culturec. 900 to 1600 CE
- Thule culturec. 1000 to 1600 CE
- Cahokiac. 1050 to 1350 CE
- Monongahela culture1050 to 1635 CE
- Plaquemine culturec. 1200 to 1700 CE
- Pueblo peoples (Hopi, Zuni, Rio Grande)c. 1300 CE to the present
- Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee)c. 1450 CE to the present
- Navajo (Diné)c. 1500 CE to the present
- Inuit peoplesc. 1600 CE to the present
- Lakota (Teton Sioux)c. 1700 CE to the present
- Comanche empire (Comancheria)c. 1706 to 1875 CE
- Uto-Aztecan
- People or culture without a state
In order
Adena culture
Early Woodland societies centered on Ohio that buried their dead, often cremated, with rich grave goods under conical earth mounds. The Great Serpent Mound has been attributed to them, but without conclusive evidence.
Marksville culture
Culture of the Lower Mississippi valley and the Gulf Coast as far as Mobile Bay, contemporary with the Hopewell cultures of Ohio and Illinois. Burial mounds for high-status people held copper panpipes and other imported goods. It is considered ancestral to the Natchez and Taensa.
Hopewell tradition
A network of Middle Woodland communities along rivers of the Midwest and Northeast, linked by trade from Lake Ontario to Florida. Their mounds held copper, mica and obsidian brought from hundreds of miles away. Their languages are unknown.
Mogollon culture
Farmers of southern New Mexico and Arizona, northern Mexico and west Texas who lived in pithouses and, from the 11th century, surface pueblos. Their Mimbres branch is famous for its painted pottery.
Hohokam
Desert farmers of the Phoenix basin whose canals on the Salt and Gila rivers formed the most complex irrigation network in the pre-contact Western Hemisphere. They built ballcourts and platform mounds, and their society collapsed around 1450.
Pacific Northwest peoples
Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Kwakwaka'wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth and Coast Salish salmon fishers known for cedar plank houses, totem poles and the potlatch. Canada banned the potlatch from 1885 to 1951.
Coles Creek culture
Late Woodland culture of the Lower Mississippi valley in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi that followed Troyville. It built flat-topped platform mounds around central plazas, and by 1000 CE simple elite polities had begun to form.
Ancestral Puebloans
Farmers of the Four Corners who built multi-storey pueblos and cliff dwellings such as Mesa Verde's Cliff Palace. They left in the 12th and 13th centuries, Mesa Verde during the Great Drought of 1276 to 1299, moving south to Arizona and New Mexico, home to Pueblo peoples today.
Chaco Canyon (Chacoan system)
Major Ancestral Puebloan center in northwest New Mexico, flourishing from about 900 to 1150, with great houses such as Pueblo Bonito, which had at least 650 rooms. Built roads radiated from the canyon to outlying great houses.
Mississippian culture
Maize-farming chiefdoms of the Southeast and Mississippi valley who built platform mounds topped by temples and elite houses. Droughts brought instability from the 1100s, and European epidemics later undermined many chiefdoms. They spoke many languages.
Thule culture
Ancestors of the Inuit who developed in coastal Alaska by 1000 CE. Using umiaks, kayaks and sleds, and perhaps following bowhead whales, they spread east across Arctic Canada to Greenland by the 13th century and replaced the Dorset.
Cahokia
The largest urban center north of Mesoamerica, near modern St. Louis, with perhaps 15,000 to 20,000 people around 1100. Monks Mound covers about 6 hectares at its base. The city was abandoned by about 1350.
Monongahela culture
Late Woodland people of western Pennsylvania, western Maryland, eastern Ohio and West Virginia who farmed maize and lived in villages of up to 50 to 100 structures. By 1250 they had moved to the highlands, and they seem to have disappeared during the 1620s or 1630s.
Plaquemine culture
A Mississippian culture variant of the Lower Mississippi valley and an outgrowth of the earlier Coles Creek culture. The Natchez and Taensa were its historic descendants, and its sites include Medora, the type site, as well as Anna, Emerald, Holly Bluff and Winterville.
Pueblo peoples (Hopi, Zuni, Rio Grande)
Town-dwelling farmers of New Mexico and Arizona who speak Tanoan, Keresan, Zuni and Hopi, languages of four families. They drove out the Spanish in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, and some 75,000 Pueblo people live today mostly in New Mexico and Arizona.
Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee)
League of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca, often dated to about 1450, though proposed dates range from 1142 to 1660. The Tuscarora joined around 1722, and the league split during the American Revolution.
Navajo (Diné)
Southern Athabaskan-speaking herders and farmers of the Four Corners who took up sheep and goats from the Spanish. After the Long Walk of 1864 to Bosque Redondo, an 1868 treaty let them return to a reservation now the largest in the United States.
Inuit peoples
Descendants of the Thule who live from Alaska to Greenland and speak Inuit languages of the Eskimo-Aleut family. Whalers, traders and missionaries brought trade and epidemics, and Canada created the Inuit-majority territory of Nunavut in 1999.
Lakota (Teton Sioux)
Siouan-speaking people pushed onto the northern plains in the 1600s who took up horses around 1730 and hunted bison. With the Cheyenne they destroyed Custer's force at Little Bighorn in 1876, and they were confined to reservations by 1877.
Comanche empire (Comancheria)
Horse-mounted Comanche bands that dominated the southern plains, described by some historians as an empire. They raided deep into Mexico into the 1850s, epidemics from the late 1840s cut their numbers, and Quanah Parker's band, the last free Comanches, surrendered in 1875.
Major events
- Hopewell exchange network flourishes. The Hopewell exchange network, with Ohio centers such as the Newark Earthworks, moves obsidian from the Yellowstone area, copper from Lake Superior and shells from the Gulf Coast.
- Cahokia grows into a city. Around 1050 an ordered city grid along the Grand Plaza is laid over earlier settlements and Cahokia's population grows rapidly. Its Monks Mound is the largest pre-Columbian earthwork in the Americas.
- The Great Drought. A drought of over 20 years helps drive the Ancestral Puebloans out of Mesa Verde and the Four Corners by 1300.
- Pueblo Revolt. Led by Popé of Ohkay Owingeh, the Pueblos kill about 400 colonists and drive the Spanish out of New Mexico for twelve years.
- Battle of the Little Bighorn. Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors led by Crazy Horse and Gall, and inspired by Sitting Bull's visions, defeat the US 7th Cavalry in Montana Territory and kill Custer.
- Wounded Knee Massacre. US 7th Cavalry troops trying to disarm Spotted Elk's band of Lakota at Wounded Knee Creek on 29 December kill between 250 and 300 Lakota and wound 51, of whom 47 are women and children. Twenty-five soldiers are also killed.
- Nunavut created. Canada splits the Northwest Territories to create Nunavut, a territory of about 2 million square km with an Inuit majority.
Questions
What is the order of Native American cultures and nations?
By start date: Adena culture, Marksville culture, Hopewell tradition, Mogollon culture, Hohokam, Pacific Northwest peoples, Coles Creek culture, Ancestral Puebloans, Chaco Canyon (Chacoan system), Mississippian culture, Thule culture, Cahokia, Monongahela culture, Plaquemine culture, Pueblo peoples (Hopi, Zuni, Rio Grande), Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee), Navajo (Diné), Inuit peoples, Lakota (Teton Sioux) and Comanche empire (Comancheria).
How many Native American cultures and nations were there?
This timeline shows 20. Other lists count differently, depending on how they treat rival states and periods of division.
Which came first?
Adena culture, c. 500 BCE to 100 CE, is the earliest on this timeline.
Where do these dates come from?
Each row's dates were checked against the sources listed on that row's own page, mostly English Wikipedia articles, which cite the underlying scholarship. Dates that are uncertain are marked c.