Anyone got some informational sources on early north america?

[WarKitty]

Long story short - I'm thinking of doing some fun stuff in a WoD game with time. Big trouble is I just cannot seem to find much history on north america. Everything I'm turning up starts at the time of European contact. I can't even figure out freaking search terms. I've got lots of info on the Incans and Mayans and such, but, well, wrong area.

I'm working in the delaware region. The basic idea is I want to do a sort of time-overlap ghost thing, where the players will run into various spirits from different times, and the different spirits create sort of bubbles of their own time.

[Tarlek Flamehai]

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...4.02a00160/pdf

Search terms for google should be "pre columbian" and whatever you are interested in.

[Jeff the Green]

History's going to be difficult as technically Delaware history starts in 1609 when Spanish and Portuguese sailors explored the coasts. The Lenape and Nanticoke peoples (the main groups living in Delaware at the time of European invasion) had complex cultures, but no writing and little oral history that's identifiable as such instead of myth exists.

Culture, though, can be managed by studying those two peoples.

[aspekt]

History's going to be difficult as technically Delaware history starts in 1609 when Spanish and Portuguese sailors explored the coasts. The Lenape and Nanticoke peoples (the main groups living in Delaware at the time of European invasion) had complex cultures, but no writing and little oral history that's identifiable as such instead of myth exists.

Culture, though, can be managed by studying those two peoples.

Your best bet is probably going to be archaeological texts and articles on native or aboriginal peoples of north america.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Indigenous_peoples_of_North_America

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Indigenous_peoples_of_North_America

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=J_jCVOS-NsqlNojZgeAK&url=http://library.usask.ca/howto/files/Call_Numbers_for_Native_Studies.pdf&ved=0CB8QFjAA& usg=AFQjCNGkIyqpF9NFk6ATl4gbhNZ3-_ZVew&sig2=YXeAzNWABtUhd-xHJsJpKw

[redwizard007]

You could always cheat. How many of your players know the regions of pre-colonial tribes? Groups like the iroquois or (Haudenosaunee) have a pretty well detailed culture and history and were just slightly to the north and west. You could probably borrow shamelessly or steal outright without getting called on it.

My google fu turns up the following...

Algonquian peoples (I think this is who you want)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquian_peoples

Iroquois (for filler and alternate possibilities)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois

[WarKitty]

Your best bet is probably going to be archaeological texts and articles on native or aboriginal peoples of north america.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porta..._North_America

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categ..._North_America

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...BtUhd-xHJsJpKw

Unfortunately I've found that simply looking for north american history tends to turn up the wrong bits of north america. I have found much about the natives of mexico and the american southwest, but almost nothing along the atlantic seaboard that pre-dates european contact.

You could always cheat. How many of your players know the regions of pre-colonial tribes? Groups like the iroquois or (Haudenosaunee) have a pretty well detailed culture and history and were just slightly to the north and west. You could probably borrow shamelessly or steal outright without getting called on it.

My google fu turns up the following...

Algonquian peoples (I think this is who you want)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquian_peoples

Iroquois (for filler and alternate possibilities)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois

Yeah, I'm kind of a stickler for accuracy as best as I can. I actually like putting in ridiculous detail even if none of the players will know the difference.

[aspekt]

But the Portal link has a series of useful pieces of info such as a color coded map of North America indicating the general region various tribes inhabited. With those names you could begin looking more specifically.

As well as links to info on these tribes of Atlantic Canada:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categ...tlantic_Canada


As well as links to various archaeological pages of info:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categ..._North_America

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...North_America)

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class...f_the_Americas

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categ...tern_Woodlands

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categ...tern_Woodlands

These are all good places to start. They will at the very least acquaint you with the terms you will need in order to begin researching the kind of detail you state that you want.

I'm really not sure that there is a single text or website that will lay the entire archaeological history of the Northeastern Atlantic Coast out for you.

[WarKitty]

I've actually looked at the specific tribes that were in the area that I want. And there's just...nothing that I can find prior to European contact. So you go through the portal to the area I want and find, say, Nanticoke. And the article is:

The Nanticoke people may have originated in Labrador, Canada and migrated through the Great Lake region and the Ohio Valley to the east, along with the Shawnee and Lenape peoples.[1]

In 1608, the Nanticoke came into European contact, with the arrival of British captain John Smith.

Lenape, same thing, the history section starts with European contact, and I can find nothing prior.

The closest earlier culture I could find was the Hopewell, but that doesn't seem to have gone far enough southeast for my region.

That's the thing - I can't find anything on those tribes that's earlier than European contact, and I can't really seem to find anything before those tribes that's in the Delaware valley.

[aspekt]

I've actually looked at the specific tribes that were in the area that I want. And there's just...nothing that I can find prior to European contact. So you go through the portal to the area I want and find, say, Nanticoke. And the article is:



Lenape, same thing, the history section starts with European contact, and I can find nothing prior.

The closest earlier culture I could find was the Hopewell, but that doesn't seem to have gone far enough southeast for my region.

That's the thing - I can't find anything on those tribes that's earlier than European contact, and I can't really seem to find anything before those tribes that's in the Delaware valley.

That is just the strangest thing. I follow some archaeology pages I'll see what I can dig up. But it sounds disheartening.

In a very sad way it makes sense. A tribal people still in the Stone Age in many ways with no written language are invaded by high tech plague bearing aliens. What would be left?

Also, do you happen to have access to a university library? I know many have online subscriptions to JSTOR which should get you access to loads of data.

Here's about all I could find. I concede there is a real dearth of information. The first book listed appears to be regularly referenced.


The Lenape: archaeology, history, and ethnography.


A bibliography but little else.
http://www.lenapeindian.com/lenape_books.htm

Picture Rocks
https://books.google.com/books?id=yIQfxjbeZ50C&printsec=frontcover&output=h tml_text


Various related articles.
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?rlz=1Y3YOJM_enUS613US613&espv=1&biw=360&bi h=615&um=1&ie=UTF-8&lr&q=related:sj9M2cihEdkmnM:scholar.google.com/