Here’s a little fun fact for you, when the various Native American groups crossed Beringia, bows and arrows weren’t really a widely known thing. Sure they were somewhat around, but not in the areas of Siberia the majority of the Amarinds and Na-Dene were coming from. As a result, though such technology swiftly spread across the Old World over the preceding centuries, it remained unknown in the New World for a much longer time than most people would guess if you asked them out on the street. Instead, the hunter gatherers of the New World largely relied on spears and altatls, which are pretty much just a stick carved into a type of lever so you can throw a spear extra far and hard. Bows and arrows didn’t appear in the New World until the arrival of the Aleut-Inuit people around 3,000 BCE, and after that they just kind of remained an Arctic thing for awhile. Nobody really has any idea why, but it did not spread south into what is today the western United States until around 200 CE and the eastern U.S. in 500 CE. As with most technological innovations, it of course royally screwed things up.
With the exception of the coastal regions, most of the western area of what became the United States is not all that choice of a place to live, being mostly mountains and deserts with a few fairly hospitable places scattered here and there. Food was scarce, meaning that groups had to be smaller and more scattered, you know, what with the constant danger of starving to death and all. Even when groups in such areas wanted to interact with each other, to trade for example, it was a real pain in the ass given that easily navigable rivers were few and far between, meaning people had to walk their asses to get anywhere. The Great Plains were little better. Yes, they did have giant roaming herds of buffalo, but if you think killing a buffalo with a spear while on foot is easy, then you probably have never actually seen a buffalo in person and/or are an idiot.
In comparison, the area of the eastern U.S. is a veritable paradise of woodlands filled to the brim with things to hunt and forage, meaning the region could support larger populations in closer proximity to each other. In addition, the entire region is crisscrossed by easily navigable river systems, the largest being the Mississippi River basin, making it relatively easy to get around via canoe. This ease of travel and people living in relatively close proximity resulted in the rapid spread of ideas and a dynamic patchwork of cultures intertwining and absorbing each other. This pattern was accelerated starting in 1,000 BCE as many of the groups began to develop the cultivation of crops, first by changing the environment to encourage the growth of forgeable plants, eventually leading to the planting of pumpkins, squash, sunflower, and goosefoot. Though not productive enough to act as a primary food source, these crops did allow for more permanent settlements to be built, which in turn led to the development of larger regional cultures, with groups of tribes sharing common religious beliefs, artisanal and building techniques, tribal hierarchies, language, and other such things. These groups in turn began to trade with each other, creating networks that linked the entire area from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes.
The introduction of the bow and arrow in 500 CE changed everything. The primary game in the woodlands were deer, for which the bow and arrow proved much more adept at killing compared to the more traditional spears and altatls. As a result, meat became a larger part of most groups’ diet, but it also became harder to secure game as over hunting in many areas became an issue. Larger settlements broke apart into more scattered smaller settlements, who not only competed for hunting grounds, but also conducted raids on each other when local supplies of food proved insufficient. Wooden palisades were built around many settlements to protect them. Less trustful of their neighbors, many tribes began to trade less with each other, collapsing the flow of goods and ideas, further isolating each group, leading them to develop much more unique cultures.
For the next several hundred years, the entirety of the woodlands was basically a chaotic mess, with hundreds of tribes competing with their neighbors, forming and breaking alliances, laying claim to hunting grounds, and at times migrating en masse to find areas with less hostile competition. However, while the introduction of the bow and arrow proved to be the catalyst of mass social disruption, the introduction of a new innovation would not only re-stabilize the region, but lead to the development of the largest and most significant Native American culture north of the massive cities of Mesoamerica.
