Who Were the First Americans? The Original Settlers of America!

Would you believe it if I tell you that the Native Americans that we know today are actually not the first indigenous peoples of America? That the contemporary Native Americans that we encounter in the modern world are a combination of various lineages that are believed to have mutated in this extraordinary bridge during the Ice Age? Join us in this video as we unravel the mysteries and mind-boggling questions about the first settlers of America. But before we get to know who the first settlers were, let us first explore how the very first humans inhabited the lands of America. In doing so, it is important for you to remember that even before Christopher Columbus arrived in the Bahamas in 1492, the New World had already been flourishing with ancient Native Americans who share a rich and unique culture. How they entered the continent is what we will be exploring first. Among the two leading theories or hypotheses about the settlement of the first Native Americans at the time of the last glacial maximum, the theory that an ancient land bridge between what is now known as Siberia and Alaska served as the ancient people's route to the New World is the most widely known theory, the Bering Land Bridge Theory. During the last glacial maximum at about 36,000 to 12,000 years ago, indigenous peoples of America traveled through the Bering Land Bridge connecting Asia and North America. While most parts were covered in thick ice sheets, the dry air masses in certain regions of the landmass brought little snowfalls and the lowering of sea levels created an ice-free region where the early people are believed to have lived in isolation for thousands of years. The wide array of biomarkers of Pleistocene humans, fauna, flora, pollen, charcoal, and fire-related chemical markers in the sediment cores of two volcanic lakes in Bering Land Bridge National Preserve serve as physical evidence of these hypotheses. According to the Beringian standstill model, early people known as ancient Beringians lived in isolation on the East Beringian Arctic during the last glacial maximum. The isolated population underwent genetic divergence and accumulated mutations in their DNA. This explains that while both Native Americans are believed to have originated from ancient populations in Northeastern Asia, the genetic isolation and environmental pressures during their stay in the Bering Land Bridge led to the accumulation of unique genetic variations among Asians and Native Americans. Just recently in 2013, a skeleton of the six-week-old infant was unearthed at the Upward Sun River Archaeological Site in Tanana River Valley in Alaska. USR1, as referred to by scientists, is the oldest human remains ever found in Alaska. Interestingly, the genetic characteristics of the infant is closely related to Native Americans, but is still distantly related to them, suggesting that it may have come from the earliest or most original Native American group. Continuing the journey of the migrants who have lived in isolation in the Bering Land, when the glaciers started to melt and the sea level started rising, it covered up the ancient land bridge. The land between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets widened, creating an ice-free corridor where the ancient people could pass through. Archaeologists say that as people from the Bering Land Bridge moved towards the continent, they started to split their bands and started to move south and eventually inhabit the new world. These early inhabitants, who are believed to be the first Native American group that arrived 13,000 years ago, are known as the Clovis people or the Paleo-Indians. The Clovis culture, named after the town of Clovis in New Mexico, where the very first evidence of the culture was found, is a nomadic or hunter-gatherer, Paleolithic group in North America. They are known for creating specific tools out of stone, bone or ivory such as scrapers, drills, blades and fluted spear points called Clovis points. Typical Clovis points are leaf-shaped, with parallel or slightly convex sides and a concave base. They range from 1.5 to 5 inches in length and are relatively heavy. The carefully carved flaking along the blades shows how much the Clovis people spend time perfecting the tool. It is also important to note that humans were not the only living beings on the Bering land, as they were also accompanied by megafauna that went extinct thousands of years ago. And so these spear points have been used by the Clovis to hunt these megafauna. Mammoths, mastodons, huge bison, horses, camels, large ground sloths and giant short-faced bears were believed to have been hunted by the early people in America. Archaeologists found preserved bones of megafauna with stone tools in their ribcage that were probably used for killing and butchering the megafauna. In recent years, forensic scientists have also applied an immunological blood residue analysis to identify animal blood proteins preserved within these ancient stone tools. Aside from hunting, the Clovis also use these spear points as offerings in burial ceremonies. It is evident in some spear points, like this artifact number 142, that are very much in a perfect condition that experts suspect that it was never once used for hunting. This burial ceremony has been proven true by the remains of what is believed to be a Paleo-Indian male infant called Anzik I that was found in south-central Montana, United States, in 1968. The 115 stone tools and antlers dusted with red ochre that were found beside the remains suggest that an honorary burial was practiced in the Clovis culture. However, the Clovis culture disappeared just as quickly as they arrived. Because of the following cold climate period that returned much of the continent to glacial conditions and caused a decline in large animal populations and a less mobile society, it was replaced by several more localized regional societies, including the Folsom culture, a culture that is also characterized by their usage of spear points that have a slightly different feature compared to the Clovis points. The spear points are shorter and exhibit longer flutes and different pressure flaking patterns. More recent discoveries found ancient villages and campsites in coastal areas of North and South America that are more than 14,000 years old, older than what was being claimed in the arrival of humans using the Bering land bridge. This coastal migration hypothesis predated and greatly challenged the traditional narrative of human migration to the Americas. It suggests that ancient peoples of America may have used watercraft, like primitive boats or rafts, to navigate along the coastlines of North and South America. This hypothesis argues that the ice-free corridor claimed to be the gateway from the Bering land to the Americas might not have really occurred, or if it really did, it would have provided a conducive living environment for humans. Traveling by sea using primitive boats might not have been impossible for the early people of the Americas, as evidence says that seafaring in the Pacific Rim regions already existed even before human occupations flourished inland. Archaeological sites along the Pacific coast of the Americas like Monte Verde in Chile and sites in Oregon and California yielded evidence of early human occupation dating back over 14,000 years. Artifacts and structures which predate those that were found in Clovis culture were unearthed in these coastlines, suggesting that there have been human occupations. These coastal populations developed a mixed maritime, nearshore and terrestrial adaptation that involved the use of boats, shellfish hooks for deep water fishing and a stemmed point and macroblade core technology. This hypothesis is further supported by the kelp highway theory, which suggests that kelp forest ecosystems, which can trace nearly the entire route along the Pacific Rim, could have supported seafaring peoples. These kelp forests support not only their namesake algae, which can be an excellent source of nutrients itself, but fishes, marine mammals, sea urchins, sea stars, crustaceans and mollusks. This means that the seafarers had an abundant source of food that may have helped them in traveling the coastlines of North America going to the southern parts. You may also agree with other theories which claim that there have been multiple migrations of the earliest American that occurred at the same time during the end of the last ice age. The possibility of a dual migration is also being considered by experts and archaeologists in order to trace the early settlers in the Americas. Whichever theory gains the most support, what's important is that these Native Americans have greatly shaped the new world that we have today. Click our next video so you can find out more about the establishment of colonies and the birth of America.