It was originally theorized that the earliest settlers of North American were young adults and their families migrating from Asia, who crossed over Beringia, a land southwest of Alaska, and migrated to North America twelve thousand years ago in search of wooly mammoths to feed and clothe their families. However, current beliefs dictate that the earliest settlers may have come to North America well before the suggested twelve thousand years ago and were not from Asia but Europe. The discovery of a 9,000-year-old skeleton, dubbed the Kennewick man, sparked controversy after reconstruction tests revealed that he bared a resemblance to a European rather than a Paleo-Indian hunter. This was quite significant discovery considering that Europeans were not thought to inhabit the Americas to a much later date. …show more content…
Also, we now know without a shadow of a doubt that “the greatest flow of people migrated to North America between 20,000 and 10,000 B.C.E. As they settled the land, they adapted their lifestyle according to the climate of the land that they inhabited. As a result, some settlers hunted and fished, while others developed and cultivated sustainable agriculture.
During the Archaic era, 2,500-10,000 years ago, agriculture eventually became the primary food source for the early settlers. Thus allowing them to live a more sedentary lifestyle; which in turn allowed for exponential population growth among the tribes due to the elimination of the harsh demands of having to hunt for