Paleo Indians and Native Americans
New Jersey was first settled by Paleo Indians after the Wisconsin Glacier melted. Around 11,000 BC they had settled in southern New Jersey. By 10,500 BC they settled in northern areas. Paleo Indians were hunter gathers. They moved as soon as game became scarce.
Later other Native Americans settled in New Jersey. Around the year 1000, Native American group known as the Lenape, later called Delaware Indians settled in New Jersey. They came from the Mississippi valley. The Lenape were loosely organized groups who migrated seasonally in the beginning. With the advent of the bow and arrow and pottery around the year 1000, extended family groups began to stay in areas longer. They practiced small-scale agriculture (companion planting), such as growing corn and pole beans together and squash. They were hunting and gathering, hunting with bow and arrow, using deadfall traps, and snares. They also gathered nuts in the autumn such as acorns hickory nuts, walnuts, butternuts, beech nuts and chestnuts. The Native Americans and Paleo Indians fished in all rivers and stream using nets and fish hooks and by hand. They also fished in the region surrounding the Delaware River, the lower Hudson River, and western Long Island Sound. Their Algonquian language lends itself to many place names throughout the state.
Read more about this topic: History Of New Jersey
Famous quotes containing the words indians, native and/or americans:
“For one that comes with a pencil to sketch or sing, a thousand come with an axe or rifle. What a coarse and imperfect use Indians and hunters make of nature! No wonder that their race is so soon exterminated.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“If Los Angeles has been called “the capital of crackpots” and “the metropolis of isms,” the native Angeleno can not fairly attribute all of the city’s idiosyncrasies to the newcomer—at least not so long as he consults the crystal ball for guidance in his business dealings and his wife goes shopping downtown in beach pajamas.”
—For the State of California, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The gap between ideals and actualities, between dreams and achievements, the gap that can spur strong men to increased exertions, but can break the spirit of others—this gap is the most conspicuous, continuous land mark in American history. It is conspicuous and continuous not because Americans achieve little, but because they dream grandly. The gap is a standing reproach to Americans; but it marks them off as a special and singularly admirable community among the world’s peoples.”
—George F. Will (b. 1941)