LibGuides: G6: The New World: Migration

Migration Theories

The Earliest Americans
While civilizations were developing in Africa, Asia, and Europe, they were also emerging in the Americas.

How Early Humans First Reached the Americas: 3 Theories
Did humans first set foot in the Americas after walking—or sailing or paddling by sea?
Kelp Highway Hypothesis
Most scientists now reject the idea that the first Americans came by land
Beringia facts for kids
The Bering land bridge joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia at times during the Pleistocene ice ages.

Landbridge Theory
Groups of people migrated to North
America for tens of thousands of years.

Migration Theories
collection from the National Park Service
Kennewick Man
A Long, Complicated Battle Over 9,000-Year-Old Bones Is Finally Over

Ancestry of first Americans revealed by a boy's genome
The genes of a boy who died 12,600 years ago show that all indigenous people in the Americas seem to be descended from the same group of ancestors

Vikings in North America

Here's what we really know.
Viking sagas of transatlantic journeys have thrilled people for centuries. Historians are sorting fact from fiction—from accounts of clashes with the First Nations to where the Norse really settled.
The Norse in Newfoundland
L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland is the only authenticated Norse settlement in North America,

The First Female Viking Explorer in Vinland
From legendary shieldmaidens to other trailblazers of socially progressive gender politics, the Nordic world has a long history of extraordinary women.
Vikinss in America
The first encounter between Europeans and Native Americans did not go well for either side...
Leif Eriksson
Norse explorers led by Leif Erikson and his siblings were deliberately pointing their longboats at the fertile western land.

Viking Settlements: Iceland, Greenland and Vinland
The Vikings: A Memorable Visit to America
The Icelandic house of what is likely the first European-American baby has scholars rethinking the Norse sagas
Finding Vinland, the Vikings who beat Columbus to America
Once shrouded in myth, evidence is now mounting that Vinland was a real place.

Viking Colonies in the Americas

The Vinland Map: (Just because Ms. Hurd thinks it's super interesting)

So I went down a (short!) YouTube rabbit hole on this one! Here are the two I thought the most interesting, plus a fun site where you get to be the detective.

Interactive Exhibit: The Vinland Map
Look at the evidence and you decide: Medieval or Modern?

Graphic History

Mixed Evidence on Human Occupation of the Americas

New techniques have shown that people reached the New World far earlier than the long-standing estimate of 13,000 years ago, but scientists still debate exactly when humans arrived on the continent—and how. Source: The Scientist

Map of Gene Flow In and Out of Beringia

Colors of the arrows correspond to approximate timing of the events and are decoded in the colored time bar. The initial peopling of Beringia (the region depicted in light yellow) was followed by a standstill after which the ancestors of the Native Americans spread swiftly all over the New World