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THE FAR NORTH AND CANADA A.D. 1201 to 1300
Runic inscriptions left by Norse explorers about A.D. 1300 have been found near Upernavik far up in Baffin Bay on the western Greenland coast. In addition, recent excavations in an old Thule Arctic Culture settlement still farther north, beyond the tip of Greenland on the Canadian Island of Skraeling, have revealed links of chain-mail, iron boat rivets, parts of barrel bottoms, pieces of oak (not native to that part of Canada) and European-style knife blades and spear points. All of this would indicate that the Viking Norse explored much farther north in America than previously believed, although at the moment one cannot say with certainty that these Norse artifacts were not carried north by Thule contacts made farther south.

The southern Greenland settlements were still very much Catholic and a crisis arose because of the absence of grain for bread and grapes for the sacraments. The local parish asked Rome for permission to substitute meat and beer, but Pope Gregorius personally insisted that at least bread be used.

No special information concerning the Inuit of the far northern climes and the Indian populations of central and western Canada during this 13th century has been located, and we assume that life continued in much the same fashion as noted previously.

A.D. 1301 to 1400
The Thule Inuit were exceptional arctic hunters, using a variety of harpoon heads of different shapes and sizes, depending upon the immediate game available. The harpoon heads were very similar to those found in the Bering Strait area, suggesting a direct connection.

By this time the Norsemen on the southwest coast of Greenland had founded some 280 farms, 2 Episcopal residences, some monasteries and 17 churches, maintaining contacts with Iceland by open boats and being taxed by the Vatican in Rome. It is of interest that the route from Norway or Great Britain, via the Shetlands, Faeroes, Iceland, Greenland and Baffin Island to Labrador and continental America has no ocean gap wider than the length of Lake Michigan. In 1362 the Norwegian king, Magnus Ericson, sent an expedition west to look for some of his people of a previous voyage who had failed to reach their Greenland destination. It is possible that the would-be rescuers entered what would later be Hudson's Bay



THE UNITED STATES A.D. 1201 to 1300

The Missouri River Valley Indians continued to farm in the Dakotas and the Mississippian Culture persevered with great ceremonial centers at Cahokia, Moundville and Etowah. The latter was a large site in Georgia, dating from 1200 to 1700, which was a fortified farming village with three temple mounds and carved stone figures of men, some of which were 15 to 30 feet in height. The figures were portrayed in the sitting position, suggesting a Mexican influence. The largest of the mounds there was 70 feet high with 380 square feet of base and probably containing 4,000,000 cubic feet of earth.

The Mesa Verda cliff dwellers began construction of a great masonry temple, sun oriented and containing kivas three walls thick. Recently, excavations in the Montezuma Valley near Cortez, Colorado, have indicated tremendous pueblo type buildings and kivas on level ground. Dr. Arthur Rohn has identified 103 kivas at Yellowjacket and more than 80 at Mud Springs. It may be that the real center of the Mesa Verde culture was not on the mesa, but in this valley where conditions were better for agriculture. All of these complexes reached their peaks in this 13th century, but by 1300 the entire region was abandoned for good. Some of the Anasazi moved south to confront the Mogollons in the mountains, some simply went north and joined their relatives who were the ancestors of present day Hopis and some went eastward across the continental divide to the Rio Grande, where they developed the final phase of their culture from south of Albuquerque to Taos - the modern Pueblo Indians. The movement included the Sinaguas, who went to the Verde River Valley and built clusters of masonry houses along the cliff sides of the high mesas, there. The reasons for the rather sudden dispersion of these people are still a mystery. Tree ring studies indicate severe drought between 1260 and 1300 and it is possible that crops withered and the inhabitants had to move to eat. Farther to the southwest most authorities would agree that the Hohokam Classic period continued deep in the Arizona desert, building up to a peak of activity in the next century.

A.D. 1301 to 1400
There is an ancient church at Newport, Rhode Island, which Professor Fell says was built in this 14th century by Norsemen. He quotes the writings of an Italian explorer, Giovanni de Verrazana, who sailed in 1524 northward from Florida to Labrador to the effect that while sailing along the Narragansett coast he was astonished to see a tall, stone-built "Norman villa". On going ashore he found friendly, civilized Indians, some with fair skins, but they could remember nothing of how the stone structure had been built. This "Norma villa" was undoubtedly the Round Tower of Newport, in which some claim that Norse runes have been inscribed. Others deny entirely the antiquity of this building.

There is little accurate history of the North American Indians at this time but probably the tribal differentiation had about reached the point which was to be glimpsed by the Europeans in the last of the next century. Recent excavations at the ancient village of Crow Creek in South Dakota have revealed some 500 skeletons of men, women and children of the Coalescent Culture, apparently massacred by other Indians. The lack of females in the 12 to 19 year old bracket and the absence of very young children probably indicates that this group was taken captive. The skeletons showed evidence of multiple diseases and injuries, with a total of some 1137 incidents of abnormality identified. Bone cancer was virtually non-existent and arthritis was rare, but the bones did show evidence of infection, vitamin and protein deficiencies. No one knows why this massacre occurred among these usually placid, farmer peoples nor why their culture seemed to disappear entirely about A.D. 1400. Perhaps occasional or chronic malnutrition was a factor; perhaps the Missouri flood plain and terraces became over-populated; or perhaps an extended drought could have tipped the balance.

Recent research regarding a Mississippian Culture group called the "Dallas Society" of eastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia has yielded much information about the life-styles of southeastern Indians of this and the next century. Three types of villages have been found, the largest probably originally containing 1,000 or more people, were located at key locations in the Tennessee River drainage and had multiple earthen mounds, fortifications and wattle-and-daub single room houses. The flat-topped earthen mounds served as substructures for civic or religious buildings. Intermediate-sized villages and small hamlets were located near fertile alluvial soils necessary for cultivation of corn, beans, squash and sunflowers. This agricultural diet was supplemented by deer and fish and wild plant foods, chiefly various nuts.

Excavations on Key Marco on the Gulf coast of Florida indicate that Indians living there between A.D. 1000 and 1500 lived in thatch houses built on stilts and used spear-throwers and swords armed with sharks’ teeth. They lived by hunting, fishing and gathering of shell-fish. They had some elaborate, wooden sculptures, which included animals, heads of deer, birds, etc. along with rush and bark matting, basketry and untempered pottery.

In the southwest United States, the Hohokam people built their most enduring monument, the four-story Casa Grande on the Gila River, about A.D. 1350. This was probably an elite residence, perhaps a storehouse and observatory. There were observation holes which could be used to identify the summer and winter solstices. It seems likely that their society had become very stratified, with high chiefs and lowly peasants. The transplanted Anasazi flourished in their new area in central New Mexico. By A.D. 1330 Arroyo Hondo Pueblo near Sante Fe had 1,500 people and similar pueblos developed all along the Rio Grande. Rooms, one on top of the other up to three stories, were carved into the cliff, and then other rooms of mud mortar and stone were built in front of these. The roof beams were supported by sockets carved into the cliff. Rock art and painted murals were common. An ingenious method of maintaining moisture in the field involved the spreading of gravel to reduce evaporation. Thousands of acres were so treated and these fields produce lusher plant growth even today. Agricultural products were augmented by the raising of turkeys and trading with eastern tribes brought buffalo meat. The original pueblo people, however, from this time on were pretty well replaced by descendants of the invading Athapascan-speaking tribes such as the Apache, San Carlos, Tonto, Mescalero and the Navajo.

Magna Charta While technically not an "American Document" it's importance in influencing the shape and context of our founding documents  requires its being included here. Enacted in June, 1215.

Social Strife May Have Exiled Ancient Indians UNTIL very recently, the most perplexing mystery of Southwestern archeology -- what caused the collapse of the ancient empire of the Anasazi -- seemed all but solved. Careful scrutiny of tree-ring records seemed to establish that in the late 1200's a prolonged dry spell called the Great Drought drove these people, the ancestors of today's pueblo Indians, to abandon their magnificent stone villages at Mesa Verde and elsewhere on the Colorado Plateau, never to return again.

The Athapaskan (Apache & Navajo) 1400 A. D. (or Earlier) to Present. Athapaskan speaking peoples – ancestors of the Navajos and the Apaches – began filtering from the north and west into the deserts and southern prairies of North America some five to possibly 10 or more centuries ago, at some point during the fluorescence of the Puebloan peoples.

Still working on it. . .

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