Two Groups Settled North America?

A recent article in Science magazine describes evidence that North America was colonized by two groups of immigrants, rather than only one, around 13,000 years ago. The discovery of middens (ancient trash piles) on the Channel Islands that contain specific bones, tools, and arrowheads strengthens the theory that one group of hunters migrated from northern Asia across the land bridge that connected it to North America, but that another group from Japan also sailed to the coast, traveling as far south as Tierra del Fuego and moving as far inland as the Pacific Northwest. John Johnson, curator of anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, agrees the discovery backs up the two group theory. “The evidence is extremely interesting and provocative, and I think they made a case,” he said.