No new thread yet. But, another taste of what I've been working on. North America is going to look pretty different once I'm done with it. Got rid of the placeholders in California and the Eastern US and put the actual tribes there. The northern Hopewell still have placeholder names from the archaeological cultures, but I'm positive most of them are Siouan, I just need to dig into tribal histories so I can assign names. The only one I'm iffy on is the Laurel Complex, AKA the famous copper miners of the Great Lakes. I'm not really convinced they were Siouan but if they weren't, IDK what they were. Preliterate peoples don't leave language records, alas, and if they ever moved elsewhere they appear to have been obliterated by Souians or Algonquians sometime before Europeans showed up.
The butterflies are extensive. The Muskogean tribes report that their origins lie in the far west, near "great mountains". Source differ on when they arrived, even between legends; some (almost certainly false) even claim they fled from Montezuma before the Spaniards came. There are a few web sites out there that try to argue they came all the way from the Maya lands or Nayarit, but they have a distinct crackpot tinge about them that makes me loathe to take them as gospel. OTOH, the Muskogeans are attested to have had chihuahuas, there are a few cultural motifs that they have in common with ancient MesoAmerica, and some modern Muskogee have tested for Mesoamerican DNA, so IMO, they started out somewhere in the Chichimeca lands north of MesoAmerica, where they picked up some cultural traits before moving on. IMO, they probably started showing up in Lousiana around 700-600 BC, around the time Poverty Point culture was replaced with a new, pottery-using culture. OTL, they only seem to have brought pottery... but TTL, the Muskogean groups bringing up the rear of the migration will be in just the right place to pick up maize and beans agriculture from the new Southwestern civilizations that will be getting around a 1000-year head start thanks to mesquite. Net effect? Maize agriculture is introduced to the Eastern US about 700 years early. The map below, in 400 AD, shows the extent of the first maize-based chieftainships. The Muskogeans dawdle in Texas a bit longer than OTL and some end up staying there, so they don't make it as far east, preserving groups like the Timucua. Add in a couple more domestications I have planned (elk, Yaupon Holly Tea) and things should look very, very interesting by the time the Euros show up...
I went in and refined California as well. I'm not 100% happy with it, because there are approximately a zillion native tribes in California, they all moved around extensively, and they were so inconsiderate as to not write anything down. But it should do, especially considering butterflies. The Ozami (TTL O'otham) are given an expansionist boost by their innovation of the canal-maize-mesquite complex and end up taking over the Lower Colorado, instead of the Yuman tribes, who migrate to SoCal instead. When the Salton Basin flood cycle fills the lake, they settle on the new lake shores as well; but when it eventually starts to dry in a few centuries, there is something of a panicked Ozami diaspora into SoCal. This shoves all the native tribes north a bit, and also introduces them to agriculture from the influence of Ozami refugees. I suspect what they get will be a bit spotty, but they will definitely get a strain of maize, mesquite, and maybe beans. The Ozami agriculture package will only really work in the south Central Valley without modifications. Mesquite pods out less frequently in cooler weather, like on California's mountain slopes. So some kind of terrace maize agriculture will likely be adopted. They'll supplement maize with native plants - I have a few candidates.
My candidate process for elk domestication is that with the migration of the mesquite complex Jopi onto the Colorado Plateau, the native tribes like the Yumans, Tanoans, and Zuni are all shoved out of the way a bit. Eventually, they pick up agriculture from the invaders and start building sedentary settlements. OTL, there was a lot of movement following the changing rains, but TTL drought-tolerant mesquite will mitigate that somewhat. With the rise of more permanent areas of occupation, plus a rising population, with a dose of intertribal enmity due to all the migratory shoving about going on, there will be conflicts over who gets to hunt the migrating elk herds, which can range up to a hundred miles between summer and winter territories. Eventually, one tribe gets the bright idea of trying to fence in their own private elk herd, and the rest is (alternate) history... This domestication will takes place in New Mexico around 400 AD, the time of the maps below. Texas is going to be a very interesting place TTL... the crossroads of a continent.
Here are links to the maps, since the images are huge:
Major tribes engaged in extensive agriculture or trade with agricultural peoples
Language groups (text is a bit borked since I don't have the time to reapply all the labels after coloring, but should be legible.)