How were the Native American polities organized around the year 1500 on the territory of the current USA & Canada?
16d 8h ago by sopuli.xyz/u/flamingo_pinyata in askhistorians
Taking advantage of the lax rules to ask a very broad question, maybe too broad. Feel free to answer with your area of expertise, whether geographically or temporally.
Basically before the European conquest various states, groups, cities, federations, whatever existed in North America.
Unlike Aztecs and Maya which are very present in the popular culture, very little is talked about their northern neighbors. I would like to get a better view of what the political system on the continent looked like at the time.
The date is rough - anything goes that we have the data on.
Funny enough, that itself is a very contentious question, in part because around that period a massive collapse of North American civilizations occurred. Whether this was because of European disease, or before European disease spread is also a contentious question.
The Mississippian Culture might interest you.
Non-historian here:
Because the west was settled later there are many tribes that maintained some level of cultural continuity. They would probably be your best source / starting point.