Native People of the Americas Archives

Prior to the arrival of Columbus in 1492, a vibrant patchwork of neolithic native people blanketed North and South America. Highly adapted to their local terrain, they cultivated new world crops that are still staples in our modern world including corn, potatos, squash, tomatoes and peppers. Their history stretches back as far as 16,000 years, including advanced and large societies with equally large cities.

Dazzling Frogs in Costa Rica
When I was in Costa Rica for a bird photography tour recently with Tropical Birding, I had an opportunity to visit Frog’s Heaven, a place that specializes in catching wild frogs for photography. The frogs are subsequently released back into the environment. These tiny frogs are getting harder to find, even in the optimized environments […]
Pre-Columbian Jade and Pottery in Costa Rica
Throughout the 2nd millennium BCE there existed in Costa Rica small, disperse villages, non-nomadic agricultural communities that used ceramic bowls and utensils, and tools made from wood, bone and stone for agricultural tasks and food preparation. The oldest of these agricultural village communities (2000–500 BCE) has been found in the province of Guanacaste. More recent […]
Paleoindians and Stone Tools in Ancient Costa Rica
Since I am visiting Costa Rica for a bird photography tour, I thought I would write a post on the pre-Colombian cultures of this area. Costa Rica appeared to be a dynamic, fluctuating frontier zone between two major spheres of pre-Columbian cultural influence: Mesoamerica (central Mexico through El Salvador) and northern South America, primarily Colombia. […]
Birdwatching Around Denver Colorado in the Winter
Since I visited Denver recently to visit my mother, I decided to indulge in a bit of winter birding to get her out of the house. Although many people like to look for birds in the summer, when the weather is nice, winter allows you a unique opportunity to actually see the birds without the […]
Big Termite Mounds in Botswana with Facts and Photos
Across the forests and prairies of Asia, and vast savannahs of Africa, live secret societies of tiny termite architects. They are masters of construction, their sophisticated green-energy designs perfectly adapted to their often hot and arid surroundings. Most homeowners are aware of the destructive power of an army of termites but the fungus termites of […]

#soliloquy-container-15644{opacity:1}#soliloquy-container-15644 li > .soliloquy-caption{display:none}#soliloquy-container-15644 li:first-child > .soliloquy-caption{display:block} Dazzling Frogs in Costa Rica