First People in the Americas

Apparently, the first people in the Americas didn’t walk here over the Beringia land bridge. For decades, common knowledge said that the first Americans arrived in Alaska about 13,000 years ago. But that narrative is unraveling as radiocarbon dating, DNA analysis, and ancient tool discoveries say they arrived thousands of years earlier, and they came across the water. It appears that the earliest people may have sailed along the Pacific coast, revealing early seafaring ambition.

In 2021, at the White Sands National Park, researchers uncovered fossilized human footprints dating between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago, which makes them thousands of years older than when the Bering land bridge might have been passable. This discovery forced a reconsideration of when humans first arrived on the continent.

In addition, stone tools found in Idaho closely resemble ancient blades from Japan’s Upper Paleolithic period. This suggests that early travelers might have island-hopped to America by small boats. The Pacific Rim was full of resources, such as fish, kelp, and sea life, which could sustain a slow coastal migration.

A genetic study published in 2024 traced indigenous ancestry to several distinct migrations, some possibly predating the Beringian land bridge. Genomic patterns in early American remains and East Asian populations show many separate lineages arrived over thousands of years. This implies that multiple groups used different routes, which dismantles the notion of a single mass migration.

Geological models say that much of Beringia was submerged or glaciated during the Last Ice Age. Even if small areas of land did connect Asia and Alaska, they would have been barren, cold deserts that would be inhospitable to travelers.

Archaeological sites along the Pacific coast reveal human activity that dates back 17,000 years or more. These include sites in British Columbia and southern Chile. Such settlements occurred before inland routes opened. If humans followed a marine corridor, this could explain how they reached both North and South America so quickly after their initial arrival.

At a time when much of northern North America was covered by two enormous ice sheets that blocked any land route from Alaska to the interior, coastlines offered abundant food and mobility.

When the Ice Age ended, the sea levels rose more 120 meters, drowning the coastlines. Countless early camps and villages could now lie underwater along the Pacific shelf. Archaeologists are only beginning to explore such hidden landscapes with sonar and submersible drones.

Indigenous oral traditions told stories of ocean crossings and shoreline living. If taken seriously, these oral traditions reveal an ancestral memory of seafaring that was long ignored by Western scholars.

Humans reach Australia 65,000 years ago. If they could sail open ocean to there, they could certainly make shorter voyages along the North Pacific. Boat-making and navigation became part of human innovation tens of thousands of years earlier.

All this evidence—footprints, tools, genetics, and submerged landscapes—suggests the Americas were peopled earlier and by more complex routes than trudging across an icy bridge. It creates a portrait of maritime travelers who adapted with intelligence and courage. Each new discovery reveals that the first Americans charted their own course across a world still locked in ice.

Darn! I was sure the land bridge was the answer.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/tripideas/new-evidence-shows-america-s-first-people-didn-t-walk-here-after-all/ss-AA1PIGkD?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=690d5eedff2e4e36a861e6a01db38aae&ei=28#image=11