https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/08/first-people-americas-came-sea-ancient-tools-unearthed-idaho-river-suggest
Time to rewrite history books.
Contrary to what we believed until a few days ago, humans have just been proven to have come to North America at least a millennia BEFORE a corridor opened through the Canadian ice – the tail end of the last ice age. You know, the whole Bering Strait migration.
They came before that, presumably by boats. An easy journey because the Pacific currents go west to east, and the Columbia River provided a convenient off-ramp into the Idaho site from the Pacific.
…probably many small migrations over millennia including Ainu from Japan (tools found in Idaho are similar – and see Kennewick Man), Asiatics from surrounding areas (including Siberia per DNA analyses), and possibly Polynesians.
A lot of migrations (maybe) but as often is the case with humanity apparently only a very narrow genetic stock… hmmm.. needs to be worked out. Though keep in mind there was a mass extinction event about 12K years ago (including megafauna) which might have permanently wiped out a lot of settlers’ bloodlines.
But at least we know they were here far longer than previously thought.
