They were hunter-gathers who lived in extended family groups, probably consisting of grandparents, aunts, uncles, parents and children. They were a nomadic people who followed the animal migrations. Small campsites have been found by archeologists in natural shelters such as caves or rock overhangs. The Paleo-Indians gathered plants and other foodstuffs, but their survival depended on the big game.
As the glaciers melted the area left behind was tundra, scrubby plants and grasses dwarfed by long winters and permafrost. Large game animals such as mammoth, mastodon, bison, giant ground sloth, and musk ox lived on the tundra.
Evidence has been found of large mastodon butchering sites in southeast Wisconsin. A nearly complete mastodon skeleton was found in southwest Wisconsin, near the town of Boaz in Richland County.
The bones found in Southeast Wisconsin were in Kenosha County. Testing has put an age of 12,310 years on the mammoth bones butchered by humans, making this one of the three oldest sites that shows evidence of human existence in North America. Another of the three oldest is also in Kenosha county. These sites put humans here about 800 years earlier than sites in the western United States.
The Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse have studied some of the tools and spear points from this period. Some of these are unique stone spear tips called a "fluted point." A quarry called Silver Mound, located in Jackson County, Wisconsin, is one of the locations for obtaining the stone for the "fluted point."
The most common hunting tool during this time was a wooden lance with sharp stone head, made by painstakingly chipping pieces from flint rock. They made other stone and bone tools such as scrapers, knives, choppers and perhaps needles.
