Dear Fellow Teachers,

Early American History seems distant and disjointed to many students. Most know that Columbus sailed in 1492 and that Pilgrims landed in 1620, but not much in between. During that time European explorers, who called North America "Florida," canvassed this land and reported on many places we live at today. Native lifestyles were sketched and described. Their documents, the oldest histories we have of America, have been neglected due to one bias or another for centuries.

Your place, however, has an incredible post-Columbus pre-Pilgrim history, written on land first trod by animals, then Indians, then European and African settlers. Each had his or her reasons for living at your place; a place, most likely, near an ocean or a river. In fact, most American places share a common heritage: people have lived at the same places in America for a very long time.

Who these people were and what they did on your place might surprise you. They were different from one another and different from us, but they all did similar things. Many lived in houses with fireplaces, planted gardens and traveled the same roads and rivers that we do. Most were family oriented, with neighbors, friends and extended family nearby. They worked, competed, played games, traded news and goods, worshipped and dined together at festive times.

America's land, your place included, has not changed much in thousands of years. The object of this report is to point out similarities in the histories of various American places from the time its natives were sighted by Europeans. Hernando de Soto's Chroniclers were the first to write for years across thousands of miles in today's America. Indexed by state, their writings and place names appear here.

The fastest way to navigate these Pages is to read the few sequential Briefs (bold Links on each lead to the next), then, if you choose, the various documents that are linked to them for detail. Modern and Original 1500's French and English drawings supplement these documents.