The Mystery of the First Americans

Written By:
David Walbert

In the second half of the twentieth century, archaeologists agreed that those "first Americans" migrated from Asia across Beringia and into North America between fourteen and twenty thousand years ago. Recently, though, new evidence has come to light that has led some archaeologists to doubt that theory and to suggest new possibilities.

Older Than Clovis

map of Chile

In 1997, a group of prominent archaeologists visited a site at Monte Verde in southern Chile to investigate a startling claim. Remains of an ancient camp had been found there: artifacts made of stone, wood, and bone, part of huts that had been covered with animal hides, and the preserved footprint of a child. The researchers who found them dated them at 12,500 years old -- older than the Clovis cultures whose remains have been found in the western United States. Some remains appeared even older than that. What's more, the artifacts suggested a way of life very different from that of the Clovis culture.



Kennewick Man

In July, 1996, two boaters stumbled across a skull on the banks of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington. An archaeologist determined it to be the skull of a man who lived 9,200 years ago and died at the age of 45 by a projectile wound to the head. More interestingly, the skull of Kennewick Man, as researchers called him, didn't have the features of modern American Indians, or of Paleoindians whose remains have been found in the Americas. He seemed to have European features -- a shocking finding, given existing theories about the origins of the first Americans.

Kennewick Man’s bones

Research on Kennewick Man's remains -- including DNA testing -- was interrupted almost immediately. Northwestern Indian tribes claimed the remains as belonging to one of their ancestors, and federal officials impounded the remains until a legal settlement was reached. Not until in 2004, after years of legal battles, did a federal judge rule that research could proceed.


Great and Small Migrations

Most archaeologists still believe that most, if not all, of the first Americans arrived in a relatively short time period. But the likelihood of one large-scale migration doesn't preclude the possibility of other smaller migrations, and there is still debate about how and when that large-scale migration took place. Here are some of the problems and theories that archaeologists continue to debate.

Massive Extinctions

About 11,000 years ago, the megafauna of North America died out. Their extinction was sudden in geological terms -- they seem to have disappeared in as little as 500 years' time. Humans may have hunted them to extinction, but some archaeologists believe that small numbers of people with primitive stone weapons simply could not have killed off all the megafauna of two continents in so short a time. Another theory is that humans and their dogs brought diseases that infected the continents' megafauna -- a disturbing foreshadowing of the Columbian Exchange. Both theories point to a massive human migration to the Americas about 11,000 years ago. But other research suggests that a swiftly changing climate played a role, and that humans may not be entirely to blame.

Genetic Evidence

DNA testing has shown that modern American Indians are descended from people who lived in East Asia, specifically in Siberia, thousands of years ago. Just how long ago is debated -- some evidence suggests that they left Siberia 30,000 years ago -- but it seems clear that most, if not all, of the first Americans came from Asia.

Coastal Migration

Archaelogists have supposed an ice-free corridor east of the Rocky Mountains through which the Clovis people migrated to the western United States, but geologic evidence suggests that corridor may not have existed -- at least not until 11,000 years ago.


This theory suggests a very different way of life for the first Americans -- instead of hunting megafauna, they would have relied on marine mammals for food. It also raises the question of where the Clovis people came from, how they reached central North America, and how they were related culturally to these coastal inhabitants.

Comparing Early Human Remains



A Continuing Search for Answers
