At first, the rugged mountainous and forested realms of the great expanse of the North American Continent stood empty - the only indigenous game were the occupants and, in nearly all the continent, not so much as one human. With the continent largely unoccupied, even by Indians, there was sufficient resources and facilitated the dispersal of those early arrivers.
 
And arrive they did, but not until around 2,000 BC to around 200AD. That’s when Asiatic humans crossed Beringia (the Bering Land Bridge), walking from Asia to, first, Alaska, and then continuing into the North American continent. Humans were latecomers to this magnificent landmass so widely separated from other continents by vast oceans except near Earth's poles. Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the Indonesian Archipelago, and Australia had no access.
 
The Adena People, later called the Hopewell People, began to traverse the area subsisting on hunting, gathering and later, trading. Only the Incas, Mayans and Aztecs had farming experience till then. The many land pyramids and mounds found in the U.S. may have been an import from these southern Indians, although a recent discovery in Louisiana attributes this to local populations. Regardless, it does appear that some of the Incas, Mayans and Aztecs technology did make it northward.
 
There is a college just 15 miles east of my town that goes by the name the Southwestern Moundbuilders, in reference to these early populations that built many of the mounds in the area. Many of these mounds are found throughout the central U.S. and are still visible today.
 
With so much land available the Indians began to disperse throughout the continent. One of the earliest indigenous Indian Nations that were identifiable was the Canadian and Northeastern and North Central tribes of the Algonquian. The remaining groups began to prosper and expand in size due to the inexhaustible resources of the land. There was adequate game, shelter, wood, fish, furs, pelts, berries, nuts, the flora… Their populations expanded rapidly and the proliferation spread these Indians into the Eastern U.S. and North Central forests of Canada.
 
In these early days their came a story about an old Huron prophet called Deganawidah, who in a vision, saw the need to confederate. He saw the need to stop the killing caused by the Iroquoian infighting. In this vision, allegedly, he saw a white man, even though they had never seen one before. He realized the skin color as being white and took it as an ominous omen for his people.
 
This may or may not have been the cause for the formation of the League of Iroquois Nations, which united the Seneca, Oneida, Mohawk, Cayugu, and Onondaga Nations. Tuscarora later coordinated these nations as a single unit. Was this confederation due to what Historians (and some legends) refer to as the first visitor being Henry Wadsworth? It’s impossible to prove or disprove. Regardless, serious guerrilla warfare between Indian Nations had been occurring for some time. The Crow, the Mohawk, and many other Indians were considered the best guerrilla fighters in the world. The Spanish, the French, and the British would soon find this out.

Did this league result from the threat of the white man or to prevent rival tribal nations from making alliances with other nations to fight against another? When those from the “East” came, it was perceived by many Indian Nations, sovereign nations within their own right, as another sovereign nation invading their own. It was not in their best interests, no matter what the new “explorers” would say. The Indians would later learn that lie would follow after lie. And treaties were made to be broken. The first domino was set in motion - one of an irreversible, irresistible force, against an almost, immovable object.
 
Indian prosperity leads to a proliferation of the Nations. This proliferation, with the threat from within and more likely, from without, would make by necessity, one powerful confederation - a confederation that would forever change the Indian Nations and the face of the North American Continent. For many of these nations, it was the early beginning…of the end.

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