The Paleo-Indian period is the earliest period of human occupation in the Americas, beginning approximately 15,000 years ago. During this period, nomadic hunter-gatherers adapted to a variety of environments and hunted large game animals such as mammoths, mastodons, and giant sl
Paleo-Indians were the first peoples who entered and subsequently inhabited the Americas towards the end of the Late Pleistocene period. The word comes from the prefix paleo-, taken from the Ancient Greek adjective: παλαιός, romanized: palaiós, lit. 'old; ancient', and "Indian", which has been historically used to refer to Indigenous peoples of the Americas. The term Paleo-Indian applies specifically to the lithic period in the Western Hemisphere and is distinct from the term Paleolithic.