Figure 1.--Archeologists for decades accepted the Clovis First theory as to how Native Americans peopled the continent. That theory has now been questioned by both areological finds and DNA evidence. This photograph depicts a Chemehuevi Indian boy from Arizona. The portrait was taken by Edward Sheriff Curtis in 1907. Edward Sheriff Curtis is regarded as perhaps the most celebrated photographer of Native American people and culture. Over a 30 year period, he created a scholarly and artistic body of work that would document the ceremonies, beliefs, customs, daily life, and leadersof more than 80 Native American tribes. His monumental North American Indian project contained a set of 20 volumes of ethnographic text illustrated with 2,200 high quality images and is considered the most significant record of Native American peoples and traditions.

The Native American people are primarily descended from Siberian hunters that crossed the Bearing Straits about 15,000 years ago. They were nomadic hunter-gatherers migrated to the American continent over a Bearing Sea land-ice bridge. Archeologists once almost unanimously dated this crossing at about 13,500 years ago. Today there is mounting evidence that the crossing occurred much earlier and in a series of waves. There is also some evidence of European lineages among some Native American peoples. After crossing the Bearing Sea ice bridge, the Native American people moved south and east until populating the entire Western Hemsphere as far south as Tierra de Fuego in South America. Some archeologists believe that the migrants moved south along the coast of Alaska through an ice free coastal corridor. Other archeologists challege this theory. There is no real doubt that Asiatic migrations took place. Some evidence suggests that the migration south involved people that moved by sea as well as by land. These mariners did not have large raft, but could have made short hops in small craft from island to island as they moved south. There is little archeological evidence for this, but most of their settlements would today be underwater. [Koppel] The new evidence includes DNA studies and raised many questions about the prevuiosly accepted Clovis First theory. This has complicated Native American anthropolgical studies. We now know that migration continued well after development of indignous socities in both North and South America. This means that migrations took place well after civilizations for which we have archeolgical evidence. This had confused early anthrpologists who assumed that the migrations preceeded the early cultures which they found such as the Clovis Point people. The stone tools found at Clovis, New Mexico are believed to date to about 9000 BC. The Clovis Point people were once thought to be the earlist American culture. Other cultures have sence been found much further south in South America. [Koppel]

Human African Origins

Native Americans like all humans are of African discent. For years archeologists have been wrestling with bones and artifacts to trace humnman origins. Linguistic studies have also provided useful information. The modern science of DNA has revolutionized the study of pre-history. There is general agreement that modern man originated in Africa about ??? years ago. Modern DNA studies have in recent years provided increasdingly accurate accounts of the migrations and genentic relationships of different peoples. From Africa man gradually peopled the other continents. Man spread fatest east along the coast of south Asia, reaching Australia about ??? years ago. Man did not spread directly north to Europe or even through Turkey into the Balkans. Rather DNA studies suggest that man spread from Africa into Central Asia. Most humans, howver, have descended from Africans who migrated into Central Asia foloowing game onto the vast Central Asian grasslands. Here men divided. This divergence occurred about 40,000 years ago. Those that moved east becanme Europeans. Those that moved east became Chinese and others moving south became Indians (South Asians). A smaller group moved northeast into the harsh, forbidding reaches of modern Siberia. It is from this group that native American peoples have descended.

Siberian Settlement

There has been some discussion among archologists as to when human settlement began in the Artic regions of Siberia. This dating is of interest because these are the people who eventually made the Bearing Sea crossing to the Americas. Archeologists had believed that human settlement in the upper reaches of the Siberian Arctic began about 15,000 years ago. [Science] Russian researchers reported in 2004 that Siberian settlement may have occurred much earlier, around 30,000-35,000 years ago. The researchers found evidence of human settlement along the Yana River. This was an interesting discovery so far north because the climate was colder at the time. One especially interesting find was a spear foreshaft made from rhinocerous ivory has a remarable resemblance to similar shafts made by the Clovis people in North America. [Science] The possibility is the Yana River people may gave been involved in the Bearing Sea Crossing to North America.

Native Americans Origns

The Native American people are primarily descended from Siberian hunters that crossed the Bearing Straits about 13,000-15,000 years ago. Archeologists for some time have been convinced that Natve Americans are of Asiatic origins that migrated from Siberia. Modern DNA studies have confirmed this. While this is the primary origins of the great bulk of the Native American populations. The overall picture, however, may not be quite that simple. There may have been limited contact with other peoples. There has been speculation of other origins, including contacts with ancient Egyptians, Polynesians, and even exterestrials. DNA researchers have also found rare traces of European lineages. One group studied in detail has been the Ojibwa people of the Great Lakes. The DNA studies showing a rare European lneage seem definitive. Scientists estimate that Ice Age Europeans arrived in North America about 15,000 years ago. This would have been about the same time that Siberian nomadic hunters reached North Ametrica. Just how these Europeans arrived in North America is not known and is a subject of considerable debate. Some authors point to the Stone Age Solutriansin what is modern France and Spain. They note similarities with Clovis technology. Others believe that these were rare European lineages among the Asian people that crossed the Bering Sea land bridge. I do not know if DNA studies have found any trace of Polynesian ancestry among South Americans. We know Poynesians reaches as far east as Easter Islannd. We do not know if they ever reached the South American mainland.

Bering Sea Crossing

They were nomadic hunter-gatherers who migrated to the American continent over a Bering Sea land-ice bridge. This is an event that archeologists agree about. During the Ice Age sea levels were lowerm much lower. So much water was tied up in the Northern Hemisphere ice cap, that sea levels may have been an incredible 150 meters lower. This created a land bridge over what is now the forbidding Bearing Straits. Prescisely when this crossing took place is a matter ofsome controversy. For years Archeologists based on the Clovis First theory dated the crossing at about 13,500 years ago. This was the time when the glacial ice of the Ice Age was receeding and a ice free-corridor appeared south from Alaska into the Noth American heartland. There is now, however, considerble disagreement among archeologists as to just when these crossings began. how they were made, and how long they continued. Some archeologists now believe that Ice Age people arrived in North America over the Bering Sea land bridge much earlier, perhaps 20,000-30,000 years ago. Preliminary DNA studies suggest that these migrations took place in multiple, perhaps three waves. These estimates are based on recent DNA studies assessing when Asians and Native Americans diverged genetically. Not all researchers working with DNA agree as to the dates involved. Some also suggest that it was about 15,000 years ago. One study suggest that the first crossing was made by extrenmely small groups, perhaps only 10-20 people.

Migration South

Archeologists differ on the process of the miration south. After crossing the Bearing Sea ice bridge, the Native American people moved south and east until populating the entire Western Hemsphere as far south as Tierra de Fuego in South America. This is certainly the case. There is considerable difference, however, as to just how the Siberians nomads after crossing began their journey south. There seems to be two competngtheories, 1) a coastal route and 2) an ice free interior corridor. Some archeologists believe that the migrants moved south along the coast of Alaska through an ice free coastal corridor. Some archeologists report a human presence in coastal Oregon about 12,000 BC. [Jenkins] They could have come along a coastal route or arrived by sea. Other archeologists challege this theory and suggest an ice free corridor east of the Rockey mountains. This route appears to have oened around 11000-10000 BC and led to the high planes of North America. There is no real doubt that Asiatic migrations took place. (Some suggest European or Polynesian migrations, but the archeolgical evidence is virtually nill.) While the Bering Sea crossing is accepted by most all sereious archeologists, the precise timing and process of these migrations is a matter of considerable scientific debate. Some contend that the migrations may have have involved people that moved by sea as well as by land. These mariners did not have large ocean-going rafts, but could have made short hops in small craft from island to island as they moved south. There is little archeological evidence for this, but most of their settlements would today be underwater. [Koppel] However the migration south occurred, one fact is indesutable. The nomadic hunters hit the migrational jackpot. There ancestors eaked out a meager existence in the harsh conditions of northeastern Siberia. Moving south they encountered an uninhabited land of unimaginable richess. It now appears that there were several successive waves of migrations. The now probable successive migrations have complicated Native American anthropolgical studies. We now know that migration continued well after development of indignous socities in both North and South America. This means that migrations took place well after civilizations for which we have archeolgical evidence. This had confused early anthrpologists who assumed that the migrations preceeded the early cultures which they found such as the Clovis Point people. Undoubtedly the increasing sophistication of DNA studies will eventually tell us much more about migratory patterns within the Americas.

Clovis First

The stone tools found at Clovis, New Mexico are believed to date to about 9000-11000 BC. The Clovis Point is esentially a elgantly flutted stone spearhead that was a major technological advance. As late as the 1980s there was a neat, widely accepted theory as to the peoplong of the Americas. The Clovis Point people were thought to be the earlist American culture. For many years this Clovis First theory dominated the anthropological view of the peopleing of the Americas. Anthropolgists theorized that as the Ice Age receeded, a corridor opened for Asian nomads to penetrate into the heart of North America. The disappearance of the mega-fauna of North America at this time seemed to confirm that these nomads armed with Clovis Point weapons were responsible. (the fact that Clovic points appeared, the ice sheets receeded and the mega-fauna disappeared at the samr time about 13,500 years ago seemed to confirm the theory.) Modern anthropological work has brought this theory into question. One problem is that nomadic tribes in Siberia did not have Clovis Point weapons. Some antropologists have noted similar technology in Europe pointing to Ice Age Solutrians. Other arcelogists see a link between Solutrian and Clovis technology in artifacts found at Medow Lark that date to abour 15,000 years ago. DNA studies have found evidence of non-Asian bloodlines. One has to ask, however, how a people with advanced thechnology could have left such a smal genetic imprint. Some anthropolgists believe that the invention of the Clovis Point was the first major technological invention in the Americas. Another complication is that archeological finds in South America suggest human settlement much earlier of the Clovis Point people. Cultures have sence been found in South America that significant pre-date the Clovis people of North America. [Koppel] There have also been earlier discoveries in North America such as along the coast of Oregon. [Jenkins] These discoveries have, however, been questioned and the debates over Clovis First continue. Many archeologists still clining to the Clovis First theory are dubious about reports of much earlier settlement. Further complicating the story, anthropolgists disagree as to weather the spread of Clovis Point technology chroicles the migration of a people or a technology accorss different people. These issues are the subject of enormous debate among archeologists and anthropolgists which will probably take a geneation to resolve.

Sources

Jenkins, Dennis. University of Oregon.

Koppel, Tom. Lost World: Prehostopry--How New Science is Tracing America's Ice Age Mariners (Atria, 2003), 288p.

Science, January 2, 2004.

Created: January 19, 2004
Last updated: 3:15 AM 4/6/2008