Archaic
The retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet at about 10,000 years ago signaled the onset of warmer climate in the Midwest. The retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet at about 10,000 years ago signaled the onset of warmer climate in the Midwest. Early Archaic peoples were, for the most part, mobile hunter and gatherers like their Paleoindian predecessors.
Technological innovations such as grinding stones and large food storage pits are indicative of longer-term occupations of resource-rich locations. By the end of the Archaic period, these and other innovations may have even fostered establishment of permanent settlements near backwater lakes and streams.