First Peoples of the Americas and Their

¶ … First Peoples of the Americas and Their Times of Arrival According to Geologists and Meteorologists

One of the earliest known inhabitants of the New World, or the Americas, which eventually became the United States of America, are said to be the Indians that originated from Asia. Studies have shown that the first people of America came during the end of the Ice Age. These first inhabitants came by way of a land bridge that connects Siberia and Alaska "at the Arctic Ocean" (Kane and Keeton 1995). Called the Bering land bridge, this bridge surfaced after the sheets of ice that completely covered the Arctic Ocean had melted as a result of the end of Ice Age. This land bridge carried the first known inhabitants of America, and they carried with them stone tools that are characteristics of the Paleolithic Period (Stone Age). The Ice Age was also called the Pleistocene Epoch, and the inhabitants of America during this time period are called the PaleoIndians (Microsoft Encarta 2002). Because of the dominant existence of these particular group of settlers in early America, this period was also popularly known as the PaleoIndian Era, and many archaeologists and geologists had found evidence that support and describe the kind of people (their physical traits and built) and their culture of the PaleoIndian Era. The main focus of this paper will be the establishment of the thesis that the first known inhabitants of America were the PaleoIndians of the Ice Age time period. This thesis will be supported by studies and secondary sources that support this claim. In addition to the geological evidences found, brief information of the kind of life and culture of the PaleoIndians will be discussed.

There have been debates over the time when the first inhabitants came to the Americas. Many scholars contend the fact that there can be no inhabitants prior to the end of the Ice Age because America is not passable during that time because of the large bodies of water surrounding it, and the sheets of ice that covered it as a result of the Ice Age. However, as the Ice Age neared its end, a land bridge connecting Siberia (of the Asian continent) to Alaska (of the Northern American continent), called the Bering land bridge, was said to be the means by which the PaleoIndians had reached the Americas. The end of the Ice Age was 70,000 years ago, but many scholars say that the PaleoIndians had come to America only about 10-28,000 years ago, which is in contrast to an earlier study that they arrived 50-40,000 years ago (Kane and Keeton 1995).

The existence of the PaleoIndians was supported by evidence found in various states of the country. Although there were scarce evidence of a human skeleton that will reveal the kind of human who lived during the PaleoIndian Era, the presence and discovery of hunting tools and artifacts made it possible for researchers to establish what kind of people and culture had lived during these time period (end of Ice Age resulting to the PaleoIndian Era), and if PaleoIndians have existed at all. 12-14,000 years ago, a radical change in the environment, a warmer climate, made it possible for the PaleoIndians "to have a clearer path to America" (Kane and Keeton 1995). Because of the humid weather and wet climate that accompanied the warm atmosphere, it became impossible for many artifacts of the PaleoIndian Era to survive and be preserved because of the acidity of the soil. However, there is one important piece of evidence that have been found in numerous parts of America that supports the theory that PaleoIndians had inhabited America during the Ice Age.

The Clovis point is the most important piece of tool that was first found in Siberia, and several pieces of the same kind of tool was found in U.S. states such as New Mexico, Montana, and Colorado (Rose 1997). The tool was discovered after geologists had studied the layering of soil, a part of a study that might help lead to the discovery of an important artifact or preserved fossil resulting to evidence about the first inhabitants of America. The Clovis point was a crudely shaped hunting tool made of stone, and I often referred to as a 'spearpoint.' This tool became the key to the discovery of various information about the culture of the PaleoIndians. One of the conclusions reached upon by the scholars is that the PaleoIndians depended greatly on hunting as their primary source of food and clothing. During this time, it was said that the now extinct wooly mammoth existed during the PaleoIndian Era (under the Ice Age), and constant hunting of the inhabitants to these mammoths for food resulted to its extinction. PaleoIndians did not only use these mammoths for food (which can give them a "rich supply of protein and fat" needed during that time period because of the cold weather of Ice Age) and as a source of clothing (the wooly mammoth's skin can be good protectors against the cold climate). Aside from wooly mammoths, they also thrived on various wild animals that are existent during that time period. The physical traits of the PaleoIndians closely resembles those of the Asians, and this is evidenced through a fossil found that helped determine from where and what time period they came from (determined through the development o the human being's bone structure) and with the help of radiocarbon dating (Microsoft Encarta 2002).