Paleolithic Era.

Based on archeological evidence, students of Indian culture have drawn some limited conclusions about the origins of Native American government. During the Paleolithic or Paleo-Indian period, the era of Indian social development before 8000 B.C., Indian peoples lived a nomadic lifestyle that centered around the hunting of large game. Paleolithic Indians lived and hunted in very small groups and roamed over a widespread geographical area. Their political structure was, of necessity, limited and informal. In the earliest Native American societies the family was the primary social unit. Occasionally kinship groups or extended families joined together into bands, autonomous social and political units that lived, subsisted, and survived on their own. Bands were essentially egalitarian, meaning that most or all adult members participated in the process of making decisions for the group. Generally an adult male informally led the band...