First Americans: Siberia to the Great Plains | Beringia Land Bridge, Last Glacial Maximum

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This video follows the first Americans from Siberia, discussing the Yana RHS site in Siberia. First Americans crossed Beringia (the land bridge) connecting Asia and North America.

Bluefish Caves in Yukon has dates going back to 24,000 years ago, but Dawson and Old Crow might have human-caused mammoth fractures from over 40,000 years ago.

The conventional story has the Ice-Free Corridor opening through Canada about 12,000 years ago, followed by the Clovis culture. However, sites from the Great Plains exist during the Last Glacial Maximum about 19,000 years ago at La Sena, Nebraska and Lovewell, Kansas.

How did the First Americans get to lower North America before the most recent corridor opening at 12,000 years ago? If we go before the Last Glacial Maximum, to about 26,000 years ago, the corridor opens.

Beringians could then cross Canada over land or follow the coast by sea. Boat technology, as evidenced by ancient Australia crossings, has pushed boat technology deep into prehistory.

An earlier entry into America before not after the Last Glacial Maximum accounts for early sites in North America. Thus, the Clovis culture at 12,000 years ago is not the beginning, but the midpoint of American history.

A short film by Jeffrey Meyer