American Phases is a Art & Clothing company that pays respect to those who come to these great lands to celebrate their culture and highlight what makes this a great nation.

Phase One, “First Nation,” coming soon!

We encourage local artists to contact us, especially those of Native descent, to collaborate on portraits.

The phases

Pre-Columbian & Indigenous Eras.

  1. 30,000 BCE–15,000 BCE

    Indigenous Peoples / First Nations.

    Arrival: Earliest human stewards arriving via land-bridge routes (Beringia) and Pacific coastal waterways.

    Context: Established sovereign nations, urban centers (e.g., Cahokia), and agricultural systems thousands of years prior to transatlantic contact.

  2. c. 700 CE–1200 CE

    Polynesian Navigators.

    Arrival: Transoceanic Pacific sea voyages.

    Context: Non-Western transoceanic contact evidenced by shared agricultural crops (e.g., sweet potato), linguistic traits, and genetic markers between Pacific Islanders and South/Meso-American coastlines.

  3. c. 1000 CE

    Norse / Scandinavian Explorers.

    Arrival: L'Anse aux Meadows (Newfoundland).

    Context: Early Northern European trans-Atlantic voyages establishing short-lived seasonal settlements.

  4. c. 1310 CE–1312 CE

    Malian / West African Voyagers.

    Arrival: Atlantic ocean expeditions documented in West African oral tradition (Emperor Abu Bakr II of Mali).

    Context: Non-Eurocentric accounts of West African maritime navigation across the Atlantic ocean prior to European.

1500s–1700s

Early Colonial Era.

  1. 1565

    Spanish Settlers (Southern European).

    Arrival: St. Augustine (Florida), expanding across the Southwest and Caribbean.

    Context: Established the first continuous European presence.

  2. 1607

    English / British (Northern/Western European).

    Arrival: Jamestown (Virginia) and later Plymouth (1620).

    Context: Established political, legal, and linguistic frameworks across the Eastern seaboard.

  3. 1619

    West & Central Africans (Forced Migration / African Diaspora).

    Arrival: Jamestown, Virginia, continuing through the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

    Context: Unwilling arrival under systems of enslavement. Provided the labor, agricultural expertise, and infrastructure foundational to early American development.

  4. 1620s–1700s

    Dutch, French, German, & Scotch-Irish Settlers.

    Arrival: New Amsterdam (Dutch), Mississippi Valley/Canada (French), and Pennsylvania (German).

    Context: Agricultural settlement and trade networks expanding inland across Indigenous territories.

1840s–1880s

Mid-to-Late 19th Century.

  1. 1840s–1850s

    Irish Settlers.

    Arrival: Mass migration fleeing the Irish Potato Famine.

    Context: Provided urban industrial labor in Northeastern cities.

  2. 1848

    Mexican / Indigenous-Mestizo Peoples (Incorporation & Border Movement).

    Arrival/Incorporation: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848).

    Context: Rather than traditional immigration, tens of thousands of Indigenous-Mestizo residents were incorporated as the U.S. border shifted southward over their homeland ("The border crossed us").

  3. 1849–1880s

    Chinese Migrants.

    Arrival: California Gold Rush and Transcontinental Railroad labor.

    Context: Built critical West Coast infrastructure before facing targeted exclusion under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

  4. 1860s–1880s

    Scandinavians (Swedes, Norwegians, Danes).

    Arrival: Upper Midwest settlement under the Homestead Act of 1862.

1880s–1920s

Turn of the 20th Century.

  1. 1880s–1920s

    Southern Europeans (Italians, Greeks).

    Arrival: Industrial urban centers in the Northeast and Midwest.

  2. 1880s–1920s

    Eastern Europeans & Ashkenazi Jewish Communities.

    Arrival: Fleeing economic hardship and religious persecution (pogroms) in Eastern Europe.

  3. 1880s–1930s

    Japanese, Filipino, Korean, & South Asian Migrants.

    Arrival: Agricultural labor in Hawaii and the West Coast.

    Context: Expanded Pacific rim connection prior to national origin restrictions.

Post-1965 to Present

Modern Era.

The passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 removed national origin quotas that had favored Western Europe, shifting global movement patterns:

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart–Celler Act)

Signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on October 3, 1965, at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, the Act ended the national-origins quota system that had governed U.S. immigration since the 1920s. In its place it created a preference system built on family reunification and needed skills, with annual limits of 170,000 visas for the Eastern Hemisphere and, beginning in 1968, 120,000 for the Western Hemisphere.

  1. 1960s–Present

    Central & South American / Caribbean Peoples.

    Hemispheric movement across Latin America, including Mexico, Central America, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and South America.

  2. 1960s–Present

    South, East, and Southeast Asians.

    Migration from India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Korea, China, and Hmong communities via professional recruitment, family reunification, and refugee programs.

  3. 1970s–Present

    Sub-Saharan Africans & Afro-Caribbeans.

    Voluntary global migration from African nations (e.g., Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana) and Caribbean nations (e.g., Jamaica, Haiti).