How the First Americans came to America

We know (or think we do) how man came to the Americas and settled here long before any Vikings or Englishmen. But how did we come to think of it? After all, the idea of a giant land/ice bridge existing randomly and having tribes of people follow bison over it, then having the bridge close off behind them is slightly fantastic when you first look at it. So, what made us think what we think now, and what did we think of originally?

The second that Columbus found out that the people he met were, in fact, not from the East Indies, speculation begun about their true origin. At first, it was even theorized that they weren’t even human, because they weren’t mentioned in the Bible at all. Luckily, the Pope of the time officially stated that they were in fact human and came from the fabled couple of Adam and Eve. But that raised the question of where did these random humans actually come from?

Of course, there were (and still are) tons of theories. Some were still biblical, arguing that they could be one of the lost “Tribes of Israel”, or they were placed there by the devil himself to change the ways of decent Christian folk. It was also said they could be migrants of the Trojans, Romans, Ethiopians, English, Danes, Greeks, Phoenicians, Egyptians, French, Welsh, or even the one of the lost civilizations such as Atlantis.

However, some of the more scientific minds began reaching the right result. Arguing that by the Indians simply had migrated from Asia to America by ship, the semi-factually sound idea began catching enthusiasm as more and more people began agreeing that it was an after ice-age migration by boat. It got to the point where anyone who thought otherwise was shunned by all who were in the idea’s community, because the scientific evidence obviously agrees with them, not the outliers. And they were right; no real evidence had come up saying that they were wrong. Until it did. So, what was this grand piece of evidence that gave us the idea we have today? Well, it started with some lost cows.

 George McJunkin, a New Mexico cowboy, isn’t a common name when the archaeology of America is discussed. But we’ve got him to thank, because without him and some cattle, we may still be thinking that the Indians came over by boat. In 1926, some cows had managed to wander off, and he was riding a horse down a (arroyo) when he spotted some bones 20 under the top of the cliff face.  Of course, he abandoned the quest for the cattle for the moment and took a closer look at these bleached bones.

Luckily, he was sharp-eyed and he recognized that the bones were similar to cattle bones, but huge. He also found some arrow points mixed in when he dug a bit with his knife. After managing to find the cows and getting them back to the ranch, he talked about his weird discovery with neighbors and friends, and somehow word got to J.D. Figgins, a director at the Colorado Museum of Natural History.  Figgins got his hands on some of the bones, and recognized them as bison, and a type of bison that was only alive during the first ice-age. However, the bones were mixed in with arrowheads, and by the prevailing theory that man came after the ice-ages, that should be impossible.

But the find was proved to be true. And with that, the theory that man came after the ice-ages began to slowly tumble down. Small evidence that somewhat contradicted the main theory but had been swept under the rug came back up. Archaeologists who were afraid of being drummed out of the community began talking about their own findings now that a huge find had been found against the main theory.

And we began discovering the real way that the Native Americans managed to make it here, by land bridge.  An otherwise fantastic theory replaced the sensible “by boats” theory, due to the sudden extreme amount of evidence. And at the time of this writing, no seriously proven evidence has been brought up against the current prevailing theory.