9000 BC		First people arrive in North American Southwest, most likely from Asia via the Bering Land Bridge, a thousand-mile-wide strip of land connecting Alaska and Siberia during the Ice Age. People live a nomadic lifestyle, hunting animals and gathering plants for food.
8000 BC		Ice Age ends, Archaic Period begins. The wooly mammoth and many other species become extinct. People adapt by hunting smaller animals. Importance of wild plants increases.
6500 BC		Plant domestication begins in tropical Mesoamerica, first squash, then maize and beans.
3500 BC		Maize diffuses to central Mexico and from there northward to other areas of the North American Southwest.
1600 BC		People throughout the North American Southwest are cultivating maize. They begin making pottery and settling down in permanent villages to tend crops.
1000 BC		Complex societies begin to appear in Mesoamerica.
200 BC		People across the North American Southwest are living in permanent settlements, cultivating maize, beans, and squash.
0		Christian calendar begins
AD 200		Complex societies begin to form in the North American Southwest, north of Mesoamerica.
AD 1000		Trade increases within North American Southwest, extending south to Mesoamerica.
AD 1250		Drought forces mass migrations within the North American Southwest. About the same time, Navajo and Apache ancestors arrive from the north.
AD 1492		Europeans arrive in the Americas.
AD 1521		Spanish and Tlaxcalan forces defeat Aztecs at Tenochtitlán (today Mexico City), ushering in the Spanish Colonial Period in Mexico.
AD 1540		Coronado Expedition explores the North American Southwest, traveling as far as Kansas. Fails to find fabled cities of gold.
AD 1560		Spanish mining towns are established from Mexico City north to Chihuahua.
AD 1598		Juan de Oñate Expedition begins Spanish settlement of New Mexico.
AD 1700		Indian resistance is crushed as Spanish build a network of mines, haciendas, ranches, forts, and towns. New forms of culture emerge in North American Southwest out of extensive cultural exchange and intermarriage among Indians, Europeans, and Africans.
AD 1821		Spanish Colonial Period ends. Mexico gains independence from Spain.
AD 1848		Annexation of the northern half of the North American Southwest is completed by United States, including Texas, New Mexico, Arizona. Large numbers of Anglo-Americans flow into the region, introducing new cultural practices.
AD 1900		Handwoven textile production declines as commercially produced cloth becomes widely available.
AD 1950		Demand for handwoven textiles increases throughout the North American Southwest, as tourists and collectors begin to recognize their value as works of art.
AD 2002		Cultural diversity thrives in the North American Southwest, now home to people from around the world. Spanish and English are the dominant languages, but many Indian societies maintain their distinct cultures, languages, and identities.