Directions: Use the map, reading and video below to answer the following questions:
- How do scientists learn about these early people?
- Where do most scientists believe that the first Americans came from, how did they get here, and why did they come?
- What challenges did these early people face, and how were they able to overcome them?
Migration of the First Americans
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Learning About the First Americans: Let's get some historical perspective: The American Civil War ended about 150 years ago, the Declaration of Independence was signed about 240 years ago, and Christopher Columbus "discovered" America about 520 years ago. That might all seem like a long time ago, but American History goes back to at least 12,000 years, to when the first Americans made their way to the North and South American continents. These early people left very few written records, so researchers study other items like bones and artifacts they left behind, kind of like detectives studying clues .
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We are still learning more about who the first Americans were and where they came from, but it is widely believed that many of them migrated on foot from Siberia, in Asia, to present-day Alaska. Today, a strip of ocean called the Bering Strait separates Alaska and Asia. But there was a time when a land bridge connected them.
Across a Land Bridge: About 30,000 years ago, the most recent Ice Age began. As temperatures fell, much of Earth was covered by glaciers, sheets of ice up to a mile thick. With water locked up in the glaciers, the level of the oceans dropped 200 feet. This exposed a wide bridge of land between Asia and North America that scientists call Beringia (bear-IN-jee-uh). Over thousands of years, the Siberian nomads (people who move place to place in search of resources) made their way across the bridge to populate North and South America. The harsh conditions of the landscape presented these people with many challenges, like finding resources, staying safe from predators and adapting to the environment. |
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