Natives have inhabited the land now known as the United States for 12,000 to 15,000 years, long before Europeans 'discovered' North America. These 'Native Americans' spread across the continent, developing different tribes, languages, and customs. Most hunted for food; some grew crops; and others fished, all dependent upon the land on which they lived.

 

By the time European explorers found this 'New World,' the Native population had grown to around 10 million in what would become the United States. While the Spanish searched for riches and sought to convert Native peoples, France looked for wealth through trade. Meanwhile, the English focused primarily on territorial expansion, and with European diseases decimating Native populations, white settlers continued to push west.

 

Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, wars, broken treaties, and disease forced many Native peoples from their land. Supreme Court cases in the early 1800's provided the federal government with a legal precedent for the creation of reservations and the forced removal of Native tribes from the land they had lived on for thousands of years.