Where were Building Materials developed?

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The Indian peoples of North America had developed mature building techniques suitable to Neolithic cultures long before Europeans established their first settlements on the continent. In the eastern area of America, forests covered most of the land, and building accordingly consisted of gabled, domed, or vaulted frames built up of branches or light trunks and covered with bark, thatch, or wattle and daub. On the prairies the collapsible tent of nomadic tribes was constructed of a conical framework of saplings covered with skins. Permanent structures in the northern areas were circular, framed in substantial timbers, and covered with a thick layer of mud and grass for insulation against the cold and for protection against snow and wind. In the Sierras, where snow was the chief problem, steeply pitched frames of trunks and branches were covered with heavy slabs of wood rudely shaped from trunks split by wind. Variations on these structures, built with larger openings and covered with thatch, appeared in the warmer coastal areas.