Origin of First Americans
Most recent answer: 10/22/2007
Q:
Where did the first Americans come from?
- Bolivia (age 10)
Mongolia, Finland
- Bolivia (age 10)
Mongolia, Finland
A:
Dear Bolivia-
You’re not asking experts here, just people who keep up with reading some science journals. Anyway, here’s what I’ve read.
This question is not fully settled. Most of the evidence indicates that the early settlers came over from Asia. Most of the current Native Americans seem most closely related to some groups from northern Asia, in Siberia. It now seems possible that the first wave were more closely related to some South Asians. All would have come over via the Siberia-Alaska route. Occasionally some arguments are made that some of the early tools resembled ones from Europe, so you can find some speculation that some Europeans may also have come over. However, there’s no obvious path they would have followed, and no solid evidence that this actually happened.
mike w
You’re not asking experts here, just people who keep up with reading some science journals. Anyway, here’s what I’ve read.
This question is not fully settled. Most of the evidence indicates that the early settlers came over from Asia. Most of the current Native Americans seem most closely related to some groups from northern Asia, in Siberia. It now seems possible that the first wave were more closely related to some South Asians. All would have come over via the Siberia-Alaska route. Occasionally some arguments are made that some of the early tools resembled ones from Europe, so you can find some speculation that some Europeans may also have come over. However, there’s no obvious path they would have followed, and no solid evidence that this actually happened.
mike w
(published on 10/22/2007)