I have often wondered as to how the people in North and South America actually got to those 2 continents?

Previous to European colonialism the major migrations to North and South America occurred from North-Central Asia during the last major ice age when the bearing straight became a land bridge. This ice age period was between 10,000 – 12,000 years ago and it was this migration that eventually radiated to fill the Americas to become the dominant genealogical expression of the Native American tribes. Some argue (purely because of ethnocentrism) that the Clovis technology that was the major stone tool technology in the Americas came from Europe and show it’s similarity to a French stone culture that dates back to around 14,000 years ago. These same “scientists” if I can call them that, search the eastern seaboard with great zeal looking for signs of Clovis technology to prove their non-point. The reason why I call this a non-point is because the empirical evidence that is available, that being the Y-DNA/mt-DNA evidence clearly demonstrates that the 10,000 – 12,000 year ago migration DID come form North-Central Asia. Here are some links that clearly show the spread of Y-DNA and mt-DNA around the world and into the Americas: http://jewsandjoes.com/images/FTDNA-Migration-Map.... http://www.argusbio.com/tools_docs/human_mtdna_mig... If the migration of the Clovis technology from West Europe were true then the American Y-DNA/mt-DNA haplogroups should show at least a little of the Western European haplogroup’s influence, yet none of the Western European’s predominantly R1B haplogroup is represented anywhere in the pre colonial American natives. The 10,000 – 12,000 year ago migration, however, was not the first. There have been a few archaeological sites that predate the 12,000 year ago beginning of the major migration from Asia or else are differential enough that have offered some clues as to there being multiple migrations into the Americas. One such site was that of Kennewick man who’s facial reconstruction offered a look at a man who looked distinctively Caucasian http://files.blog-city.com/files/A05/141484/p/f/ke... http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/first/images/kennewic... thus this initially fueled the fire of Early European migration supporters. The best hypothesis so far is that Kennewick Man is actually a relative of the Ainu people of northern Japan who are an ethnic group with Caucasian-like features much like those of Kennewick. Many sites that have fueled these debates, plus the questionable origins of Clovis technology are shown on this map: http://www.laputanlogic.com/images/2003/11/10-Y326... The evidence is not enough to predict whether all of these pre 12,000 migrations (and their ancestors like Kennewick Man) are all bearing straight migrations, or if some of the south American sites could even have been migrations from the South Pacific (Oceania). What is clear from the genealogical evidence, however, is that as the major migration of 10,000 – 12,000 years ago spread across the Americas, is that they did a wholesale replacement of the previous migratory populations because the Y-DNA and mt-DNA is quite purely that of this migration and not similar to either that of the Ainu, nor any other South Pacific or Asian groups that may have been a part of these earlier migrations. The original dates of these earlier migrations coming to the Americas is not fully know but it is suggested to be somewhere in the vicinity of 15,000 – 18,000 years ago, although sometimes you can see some obscure figures in the 35,000 – 50,000 years thrown into the discussion. I personally do not find the 35,000 – 50,000 year ago range credible because that type of time frame would not be consistent with the spread of archaeological evidence radiating through Asia and down into Oceania.

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Hey Ed, are we at this again? In regard to the infamous "X" mt-DNA haplogroup. On the Y-DNA flow chart that I submitted earlier, X closely corresponds with the Q-Q3 Y-DNA haplogroup, which depicts this haplogroup as splitting in Asia with it's end points being split between Eastern Europe, and in the Americas. The mt-DNA digram that I submitted earlier did not show "X" ver well, here is another mt-DNA flow chart that speculates that the X haplogroup migrated straight from Eastern Europe to the Americas via Asia and the Bering Strait land bridge: http://worldfamilies.net/migration_map_wfn.gif Given the time constraints and the final locations of this Q-Q3 and X haplogroups I prefer to acknowledge that genes do not have to have originated from where they are most prominent in the modern population and that a mid Asian split is a more plausible cause of this modern distribution. None-the-less, given the far Eastern European frequency of the "X" and "U" haplogroups, this occurrence in the Americas adds absolutely no support to a migration for Western Europe, as X and U are NOT prevalent in Western Europe. Here is a really great link for Y-DNA frequency: http://www.dna-worldwide.com/Ancestral-Origin-Y-SN... If you scroll down to the big map you can put your mouse pointer over the haplogroup letters and get a pretty good idea for how these haplogroups spread. Hover over "U" and you can see that this is the haplogroup which, like X is in the Yanomamo as specified by ed, the rest of the frequencies around the globe of this "U" haplogroup very clearly have remnants through Asia that point to this being the most likely route. For the case of "Western European" migration, hover your mouse over "R" now. While this haplogroup is quite prevalent in W. Europe, it also is spread clear across Asia and has high frequencies in India and New Zealand as well. So, while looking promising at first for supporting a "Western European" migration, this haplogroup could actually be interpreted in any of three ways. 1) Followed the Bearing Strait land bridge like "U" and "X" did. 2) Migrated from Western Europe or 3) a migration to the Americas from Oceania. The Oceanic migration is heavily scoffed at due to this meaning that early man had either better boats then we previously assumed, or else some rudimentary rafts were blown way off course and the passengers somehow survived such a trip across the South Pacific? Two other genes that support a Oceanic hypothesis would be "K" and "P", the second of which also arrived into the Americas and it's only other location in the modern populations is in Oceania. Being that this is Y-DNA this would only require a small number of stranded men to float on the currents to the Americas where they integrated with the societies that were already present from the Asiatic migratory route via the bearing strait and does not require a full scale "colonialism". Given that these oceanic communities have their men fish from small outrigger crafts in the modern era that are easily constructed, it does not seem so impossible that a storm could have blown a few fishing expeditions out into the open ocean and that these fishermen could have survived off of rain water and fish for the duration of their journey over the remainder of the Southern Pacific before they integrated with the people already in the Americas. Anyways, here is some more food for thought, but the bulk and possibly all of the migration to the Americas was through the Bearing strait and I have yet to see any convincing evidence towards a Western European migration to this point (Yes I saw the Discovery show as well) and this hypothesis is really not yet supported by the archaeological nor genealogical evidence at hand. In fact, to me, the genealogical evidence is stronger for an Oceanic migration, although to make this trip with very rudimentary rafts/dugout outriggers seems like a very daunting trip to say the least!

"Leads me to infer that prehistoric east asians from Manchurian China followed the grazing cattle and sheep & goat herds across the Behring strait- land mass to Alaska."

Well, NO! As the Native Americans had no cattle or sheep or goats until the arrival of the Spanish! And it would've been Siberia not Manchuria that these Asian people came from! But as for your other theories, you are probably correct! Scientific evidence is kinda on the iffy side, but the prevailing theories is just what you are asking, that the Native Americans did migrate to the "New World" by way of the Bering Strait Land Bridge, and it is just logical that some would have had boats, too, i.e. like Eskimos and Inuit with kayaks. BTW! Thor's expeditions did create much debate! And then you must think of Easter Island, and the "Long Ears" and "Big Noses" as described by the people there! Mixture of Polynesians and Native Americans, most likely! But it's all theory, except for the Clovis Point type of stone knapping found throughout North America! This technology was of a higher thought process than most stone points. So, yes, Asians did migrate to the Americas!

You have lots of good answers - some very long, - so I will keep mine short and to the point.

Archaeology has studied this very question for a long time. there is solid evidenced for the Bering Land Bridge - connecting Alaska and Siberia across the Bering Straight - at the time of the last Ice Age. Worldwide more water was held in ice sheets, resulting in lower sea levels. do not think of the Land Bridge as a narrow piece of land - it was probably 2-3000 miles wide. People followed migrating herds of caribou, mammoth etc - not domesticated animals.

Linguistic and DNA evidence suggest that there were three major migrations over several thousand years, the most recent group heading to the north - ancestors of the Inuit.

Recent theories suggest some folks may have come from Europe as well, but the evidence for these has not stood up to testing yet - that may change in the future?

Finally - while Hyerdahl's experiments have shown that Trans-oceanic travel may have been possible - it does not prove it happened. You also have to keep in mind that he kept going because he knew what was waiting on the other side. Ancient sea-farers were less likely to keep sailing into the unkown for so long.

Physical evidence points to a migration across the Bering Land bridge during the last Ice Age for the population of the Americas. The genetic evidence strongly supports this idea, showing evidence that two such migrations could have occurred.

Some lesser supported theories and fragmented bodies of evidence point to other methods of population. None of these theories really have the weight to supplant the Beringia migration hypothesis, but many of them could be true simultaneously. Maybe some people did sail across the Pacific. But let's not get overenthusiastic. Thor Heyerdahl's trip across the ocean only proved that it was theoretically possible for people to have done that, not that they really did it.

Your inference about Beringia is a good one, but anthropologists beat you to the punch. What's really contested nowadays are the dates. Exactly when did this (these) migration(s) occur? Really good physical evidence only gets us as far back as 13,000 years ago at the max. Genetic evidence says maybe 18,000 at the earliest. More contested sites, that may not have the greatest evidence quality (or other issues), like Monte Verde, push the earliest migrations back much, much earlier. We just need to keep working on this.

It's called platechtonics and millions of years ago there was one land area called Gowandaland. Yes, Asians migrated across the Bering sea when there was a land bridge about 10-12Ka. They migrated down Canada, west coast America (Paleoindians), Mexico, Central America into South America. That is why there are similarities in facial features (gracile) with Asians and Indian's.

It is pretty well established that people walked here during two fairly recent periods of land connection between what is now Russia and Alaska. The path of ancient man sites that have been discovered is sufficient to support that view.

There are also historic accounts of there being Japanese who had survived shipwreck among the tribes of the Northwest coast at the time of European contact.

So people got here in a number of ways. The archeologic evidence is that most walked. When new groups arrived with diverged language and customs, they often displaced people who had already been here. The people who were on the move tended to stay ahead of arriving people who were meaner and more violent. They kept walking South.

We know they came from Asia because of the shape of their teeth as well as other markers. The tooth shape phenotype is sufficient evidence.

You can look most of this up in Scientific American magazine. When I worked as an archaeologist in the '60s to support my habit of going to school, there were just a few "old man" sites known. Now there are hundreds. The time is still under debate. It will probably end up being 35,000 years as a point of first large scale entry of people. To your question the time is relatively unimportant.

The interesting thing in your question is, that people are still coming. Migration to new places and new opportunity is still going on. A lot of Asians are still coming to the Americas. Now they come by ship and illegally disembark in South or Central America. It is a lot of people. There are communities to assist these newcomers to integrate. There is a sort of slavery system from which the new illegals have to earn freedom and legal status.

I live Winters in Guatemala. There are large networks for integrating Korean, Chinese and Philippine workers. These migrating Asians will work for less than Guatemalans.

It ain't over 'till its over and it ain't over yet.

There is pretty good evidence that the entire land mass of the Americas was settled by Asians crossing the Bering land bridge. Therefore physical similarities between native Americans and Asians would not be unusually

As to how they got to their various locations, that took a long long long time with some groups settling in various areas and others continuing to migrate.

The religioniosts theory that the wealthy ones went by airplane and the less wealthy ones went by bus, doesn't seem to hold up to close examination.

Once upon a time there was a place called the Garden of Eden. This place was Mesopotamia (the middle east). Adam's son, Cain, was punished to walk the earth forever when he killed his brother Abel in biblical writing. However, this tale may translate into the early human journey from Africa(where humans originate) to the different parts of the world. Early humans migrated from Africa, through southeast Asia to Australia. Others went through the northern part of Asia and crossed the Bering Strait that seperates Russia and Alaska. At the time, millions of years ago this strait was a land bridge which allowed humans to walk across this 50 mile distance. Then, they were able to spread out through North America and South America to form their tribes...

I understand that the asians crossed over the land bridge around 8,000 years ago and eventyually migrated throughout North and South America. Also around 17,000 years Europeans from somewhere around France probably came across the Atlantic across the edge of the ice, probably hunting seals and living like Eskimos. This has been evidenced by the spearheads found in the Eastern U.S. which pre-date the Asians. Apparently they have done DNA tests which support that the European descended and Asian descended people mixed and created Native Americans.

I find the settlement of the Americas intriguing & we know at least "most" of these settlers came from Asia in the different migrations that settled the continents.

MtDNA analysis of Native Americans suggest 4 migrations to Americas. One from Asia to the northern part of North America, one from China, one from the Pacific Islands (western US & South America) and most puzzling one from Eurasia about 20,000 yrs ago.

Haplogroup X is found only in Native Americans & ME or Europeans... analysis indicates the 2 versions split almost 20,000 yrs ago, ruling out recent introgression of these European genes. The hypothesis on how this group got to the Americas suggests they followed the Atlantic Ice pack in small boats to the shores of Eastern North America. This haplogroup is found near the Greatlakes of North America & strangely, among the Yanomamo of South America.

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DNA, unlike the study of artifacts & fossiles, leaves very little to subjective analysis as it is based totally upon Science & Math. I enjoy reading berickf's posts because he, being an anthropoligist, deals totally with artifacts & cultures. However, mt Haplogroup X is found only among North Africans, Iranians, Western Europeans, Native Americans & "possibly" one group of Euroasians we are currently testing. What ever the outcome, they "appear" to have settled mainly on the Eastern shores of the Americas. Japan has absolutely no DNA corresponding to mt haplogroup X.

Chuckle, I have to give him a thumbs up for presenting a rational arguement.

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Until we start spending more money doing digs under the ocean, we are not likely to uncover enough evidence to put these questions to rest. The "land bridge" was likely to have been 1000Km or more accross. Since early hunter gatherers tended to migrate along the costal areas, most of the evidence we are seeking is burried along some ancient coast under 60 to 100 meters of water. Still, to me, evidence suggests haplogroup X were sea faring because they left almost no evidence of their migration accross thousands of miles of land. Surely they'd have left some trace of a (DNA) trail from the US to Eastern Brazil if they migrated by land.

Monte Verde is a real head scratcher for the Bering Strait proponents... if the dating is correct it throws a wrench (spanner to you Brits) in the works.

They walked out of Asia. As more came the earlier arrivals kept walking south. The genetic characters are so similar there is no need to do dna testing. The most convincing phenotype is the front teeth. Asians and Amerinds have the same shovel shaped front teeth.