Hey there! My name is Kaeleigh, and today we're going to learn about the migration
of the First People in the Americas.
The First People in the Americas, sometimes called Native Americans or Indigenous Peoples,
lived in North and South America long before people from European countries
came to settle on the continents. But where did they come from?
Let's take a look at the part of the globe where Alaska, a part of the United States, is closest to
Russia. Today, the two countries are separated by a body of water known as the Bering Sea.
This is a satellite image of the same area. Where the two land masses are closest together,
the body of water is called the Bering Strait. Alaska is to the east, and Russia is to the west.
The narrowest distance between the two land masses is about 55 miles.
Roughly 20,000 years ago, an ice age and lower sea levels caused much of the land to be exposed.
Scientists call this ancient land mass Beringia, or the Bering Land Bridge. This is what they
think a map would have looked like 20,000 years ago. The ocean levels were lower because most
of the ocean's water was stored in glaciers. This left more land exposed than we see today.
The tan areas on this map show where the land formed a natural bridge called a land bridge.
People from Asia were able to travel between the continents of Asia and North America by foot.
Let's look at how the people traveled over the Beringia
Land Bridge. Remember, all of this water was frozen solid,
so they could walk from Russia across the Bering Land Bridge and end up in Alaska. Eventually,
these people and their descendants would make their way down through Canada and into the United
States. Some settled in different places in Canada and the U.S. Others kept traveling down to Mexico.
Some settled here as well, but others kept going through Central America and into South America.
They traveled for thousands of miles on foot. This type of travel, where large numbers of
humans are moving from one region to another, is called migration. People migrate for a variety
of reasons - if they need new food sources, they're fleeing from war, or they need more
natural resources, like wood. Sometimes they just need to find new land and more space.
Anthropologists are scientists who study ancient people and their civilizations.
Anthropologists generally agree that many of the Native tribes that lived in North
and South America came from people who lived in what is now Eastern Russia.
They have studied DNA from tribal people who now live in the U.S., Mexico, and several South
American countries. Their DNA profiles match that of people living in Eastern Russia today.
Another find by archaeologists, scientists who study ancient settlements,
that help them support the theory of migration between Asia and North America
were metal objects made of bronze. These were found in Alaska, but tribes in Alaska at that
time didn't have access to the technology, metals, or knowledge to make these objects.
So, archaeologists think that they traded them with people from Asia.
Similar objects have been found in dig sites in Eastern Asia. Scientists also
use sophisticated techniques to analyze jade artifacts, like the mask in this picture,
to link it to the Asian continent rather than the North American continent where it was found.
Great job learning about Beringia and the Bering Land Bridge! Practice what you've
learned by doing the online games and quizzes, have fun, and remember to always be clever!