Editing Pre-Columbian era (section)

==Peopling of the Americas==
{{main|Peopling of the Americas|Paleo-Indians}}
[[File:Peopling of America through Beringia.png|thumb|Approximate location of the [[Peopling of the Americas|ice-free corridor]] and specific [[Paleo-Indians|Paleoindian]] sites, according to the [[Clovis theory]]]]
Asian nomadic [[Paleo-Indians]] are thought to have entered the [[Americas]] via the [[Bering Land Bridge]] (Beringia), now the [[Bering Strait]], and possibly along the coast. Genetic evidence found in [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous peoples]]' maternally inherited [[mitochondrial DNA]] (mtDNA) supports the theory of multiple genetic populations migrating from Asia.<ref name="Stinnesbeck et al. 2017">{{Cite journal |last1=Stinnesbeck |first1=Wolfgang |last2=Becker |first2=Julia |last3=Hering |first3=Fabio |last4=Frey |first4=Eberhard |last5=González |first5=Arturo González |last6=Fohlmeister |first6=Jens |last7=Stinnesbeck |first7=Sarah |last8=Frank |first8=Norbert |last9=Terrazas Mata |first9=Alejandro |last10=Benavente |first10=Martha Elena |last11=Avilés Olguín |first11=Jerónimo |last12=Aceves Núñez |first12=Eugenio |last13=Zell |first13=Patrick |last14=Deininger |first14=Michael |date=30 August 2017 |title=The earliest settlers of Mesoamerica date back to the late Pleistocene |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=12 |issue=8 |pages=e0183345 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0183345 |doi-access=free |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=5576649 |pmid=28854194|bibcode=2017PLoSO..1283345S }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cyberwest.com/cw09/v9scwst1.html |title=Study confirms Bering land bridge flooded later than previously believed |work=Cyberwest |date=31 July 1996}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/bering.htm |title=Bering Land Bridge National Preserve |publisher=National Park System}}</ref> After crossing the land bridge, they moved southward along the Pacific coast<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fladmark|first=K. R.|date=January 1979|title=Routes: Alternate Migration Corridors for Early Man in North America|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0002731600079774/type/journal_article|journal=American Antiquity|language=en|volume=44|issue=1|pages=55–69|doi=10.2307/279189|jstor=279189|s2cid=162243347|issn=0002-7316}}</ref> and through an interior ice-free corridor.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Meltzer |first=David J.|title=First peoples in a new world: colonizing ice age America|date=2009|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-94315-5|location=Berkeley|oclc=609850106}}</ref> Throughout millennia, [[Paleo-Indians]] spread throughout the rest of North and South America.

Exactly when the first people migrated into the Americas is the subject of much debate.<ref name="Stinnesbeck et al. 2017" /> One of the earliest identifiable cultures was the [[Clovis culture]], with sites dating from some 13,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dillehay |first=Tom D. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LdrBUR6jtIYC&pg=PT2 |title=A Companion to Latin American History |date=21 March 2011 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4443-9164-0 |editor-last=Holloway |editor-first=Thomas H. |chapter=Early Population Flows In the Western Hemisphere}}</ref> However, older sites dating back to 20,000 years ago have been claimed. Some [[Indigenous Amerindian genetics|genetic]] studies estimate the colonization of the Americas dates from between 40,000 and 13,000 years ago.<ref name="SpencerWells2">{{cite book |first1=Spencer |last1=Wells |first2=Mark |last2=Read |title=The Journey of Man – A Genetic Odyssey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WAsKm-_zu5sC&pg=PA138 |publisher=Random House |isbn=0-8129-7146-9 |year=2002 |pages=138–140}}</ref> The chronology of migration models is currently divided into two general approaches. The first is the ''short chronology theory'' with the first movement beyond [[Alaska]] into the [[New World|Americas]] occurring no earlier than 14,000–17,000 years ago, followed by successive waves of immigrants.<ref>{{cite news |first=Stefan |last=Lovgren |title=Americas Settled 15,000 Years Ago, Study Says |work=National Geographic News |date=13 March 2008 |url=https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080313-first-americans.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080314172308/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080313-first-americans.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 March 2008}}</ref><ref name="dnaa">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://encarta.msn.com/text_701509129___0/First_Americans.html |title=First Americans |encyclopedia=Encarta Online Encyclopedia |publisher=Microsoft |first=David J. |last=Meltzer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091021004428/http://encarta.msn.com/text_701509129___0/First_Americans.html |archive-date=21 October 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.11.013 |last1=Fagundes |first1=Nelson J. R. |first2=Ricardo |last2=Kanitz |first3=Roberta |last3=Eckert |first4=Ana C. S. |last4=Valls |first5=Mauricio R. |last5=Bogo |first6=Francisco M. |last6=Salzano |first7=David Glenn |last7=Smith |first8=Wilson A. |last8=Silva |first9=Marco A. |last9=Zago |first10=Andrea K. |last10=Ribeiro-dos-Santos |first11=Sidney E. B. |last11=Santos |first12=Maria Luiza |last12=Petzl-Erler |first13=Sandro L. |last13=Bonatto |display-authors=3 |title=Mitochondrial Population Genomics Supports a Single Pre-Clovis Origin with a Coastal Route for the Peopling of the Americas |journal=[[American Journal of Human Genetics]] |volume=82 |issue=3 |year=2008 |pages=583–592 |pmid=18313026 |pmc=2427228}}</ref><ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite encyclopedia |editor-first=Paul Robert |editor-last=Magocsi |title=Beginnings to 1500 C.E. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples |publisher=Multicultural History Society of Ontario |date=1999 |isbn=978-0-8020-2938-6 |url=http://www.multiculturalcanada.ca/Encyclopedia/A-Z/p4/1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101206163225/http://multiculturalcanada.ca/Encyclopedia/A-Z/p4/1 |archive-date=6 December 2010}}</ref> The second belief is the ''long chronology theory'', which proposes that the first group of people entered the hemisphere at a much earlier date, possibly 30,000–40,000 years ago or earlier.<ref name="national">{{cite web |title=Atlas of the Human Journey |url=https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html?era=e003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501094643/https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html?era=e003 |archive-date=1 May 2011 |work=National Geographic}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Marder|first=William|title=Indians in the Americas: The Untold Story|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Obgdz8auwkMC&pg=PA11|year=2005|publisher=Book Tree|isbn=978-1-58509-104-1|page=11}}</ref><ref name="kind">{{cite web |url=http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/ |title=Journey of mankind |work=BradShaw Foundation}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia | first=Vaughn M. Jr. |last=Bryant |title=Pre-Clovis |editor-last=Gibbon |editor-first=Guy E. |encyclopedia=Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_0u2y_SVnmoC&pg=PA682 |year=1998 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-8153-0725-9 |pages=682–683}}</ref>

Artifacts have been found in both North and South America which have been [[carbon dating|dated]] to 14,000 years ago,<ref>{{cite news |last=Wilford |first=John Noble |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/science/04fossil.html |title=Evidence Supports Earlier Date for People in North America |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=4 April 2008}}</ref> and accordingly humans have been proposed to have reached [[Cape Horn]] at the southern tip of South America by this time. In that case, the [[Inuit]] would have arrived separately and at a much later date, probably no more than 2,000 years ago, moving across the ice from [[Siberia]] into Alaska.