Explore more than twelve thousand
years of human history in the Antelope Valley in California's western Mojave
Desert:
The Early Visitors: The Paleo Period
Initial Settlers and the Subsequent Archaic Period
Late Prehistoric Period
The Spanish Arrive
The Gold Rush and the American Push West
Recent and Current Times
References and Links
Over the past twelve to thirteen thousand years, various peoples have lived
or traveled through the Antelope Valley in California's western Mojave Desert.
These people left no written record of their language and culture,
so we rely on the archaeological record to understand how they lived. Because
this is an overview, time frames and period features discussed are broad, general,
and approximate, and they vary from one locality to another.
The western Mojave Desert is part of the Great Basin, a vast region that
covers 400,000 square miles in western North America. It extends
from the
Sierra Nevada Mountain Range to the Rocky Mountains. It encompasses all
of Nevada
and Utah, most of the western half of Colorado, and portions of California,
Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, northern Arizona, and northwestern New Mexico.
Many of the Native Americans who lived and traveled through the Antelope Valley
are related to peoples throughout the Great Basin.
Antelope Valley Native American Peoples
Next >> The Early Visitors
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