It is generally accepted that the 

first inhabitants of North America migrated from Siberia by way of

the Bering land bridge and arrived at least 12,000 years ago; however, some evidence suggests an
even earlier date of arrival.[37][38][39] The Clovis culture, which appeared around 11,000 BC, is believed
to represent the first wave of human settlement of the Americas. [40][41] This was likely the first of three
major waves of migration into North America; later waves brought the ancestors of present-
day Athabaskans, Aleuts, and Eskimos.[42]
Over time, indigenous cultures in North America grew increasingly sophisticated, and some, such as
the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture in the southeast, developed
advanced agriculture, architecture, and complex societies.[43] The city-state of Cahokia is the largest,
most complex pre-Columbian archaeological site in the modern-day United States.[44] In the Four
Corners region, Ancestral Puebloan culture developed from centuries of agricultural
experimentation.[45] The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North
American native language groups. Historically, the peoples were prominent along the Atlantic Coast
and into the interior along the Saint Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes. This grouping
consists of the peoples who speak Algonquian languages.[46] Before Europeans came into contact,
most Algonquian settlements lived by hunting and fishing, although quite a few supplemented their
diet by cultivating corn, beans and squash (the "Three Sisters"). The Ojibwe cultivated wild rice.
[47]
 The Haudenosaunee of the Iroquois, located in the southern Great Lakes region, was established
at some point between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. [48]
Estimating the native population of North America during European contact is difficult. [49][50] Douglas
H. Ubelaker of the Smithsonian Institution estimated a population of 93,000 in the South Atlantic
states and a population of 473,000 in the Gulf states,[51] but most academics regard this figure as too
low.[49] Anthropologist Henry F. Dobyns believed the populations were much higher, suggesting
around 1.1 million along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, 2.2 million people living
between Florida and Massachusetts, 5.2 million in the Mississippi Valley and tributaries, and around
700,000 people in the Florida peninsula.