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There are different theories out there. Some believe Native Americans are descended from early Asians who arrived during the last ice age, when the sea level was low enough that there was a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska. The ancient Siberians, a race related to the Mongolians, Chinese, Koreans, etc. crossed this land bridge into Alaska. Over the centuries, they migrated south to completely cover the continents of North and South America.

Another theory has it that Native Americans came by boat across the Pacific, not in a single journey but rather island hopping, populating one island after another. Hawaii, for example, is already halfway from Asia to North America. The development and existence of Polynesian society is also a proof-of-concept.

The Inuit are believed to have crossed more recently, across an ice bridge spanning the Bering Strait. The Inuit are originally from Siberia and resemble modern Chinese. Their people have spread out from Siberia to Alaska, Northern Canada and Greenland.

Native Americans, however, are consider to be cousins of Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, etc., but are still categorized under the same race as them as Mongoloids. Native Americans have closer resemblance to Pacific Islanders than they do with East Asians, whereas Inuit resemble East Asians.

Note: There is a great deal of evidence that supports these theories, including DNA analysis indicating Native Americans are more closely related to those descended from East Asia. Even today, Native Americans are classified as Mongoloids along with their East/Southeast Asian cousins.

Most of the oral traditions of Native Americans claim they came into being at or near their homelands, though there are vague hints of these theories being true even in oral tradition. A coastal tribe living in the Alaskan panhandle claims they are descendents from their ancestors who continually coast-hopped south (setting up new settlements along the coast and moving by following the coast by canoe). Looking at the map, there really isn't all that far north you can go without hitting the Bering Strait, where the land bridge would have blocked access at the time. It is possible they crossed the bridge this way, and their stories have, in the 10,000 or so years since, lost the minor detail of where the sun set in relation to the coastline at each settlement (and compasses are a relatively modern invention). However, scientifically speaking, cultural traditions regarding origins are generally unreliable, unless you'd prefer to believe there are over a million deities and several hundred (at least) have produced their own slight variation of humanity throughout the world.

Many people are unaware that the Siberia to Alaska Migration happened after there were already Indigenous peoples in what is now known as the Americas.

Archaeological evidence from an old village shows there was a pre-existing culture that was vastly different from the new comers. In the archaeological dig the layers show that over time the cultures eventually blended into the culture that existed when the European colonists came. This is a very small group that has only a part of only one mtDNA marker in common with the Siberian reindeer herder tribe. To say that all of Indigenous Peoples in the Americas have this marker is absolutely and unequivocally incorrect.

It is now a popular yet incorrect belief among the general population of the "western world" that Indigenous Americans are nothing more than Asians living in north and south America. This could not be more incorrect.

The bottom line of it all is that Indigenous Peoples of the Americas are unique races of human beings that are not Indigenous to any other place in the world.

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11y ago

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I believe from what I have read and studied that the first North Americans came over on the land bridge before the continental drifts took place. I believe they were nomadic tribes originating from Mongolia or northern Asia. I believe from what I have read and studied that the first North Americans came over on the land bridge before the continental drifts took place. I believe they were nomadic tribes originating from Mongolia or northern Asia.

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16y ago
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They migrated over land bridges now underwater hundreds of thousands of years ago from Russia and east Asia. As they migrated, they left settlements which became the tribes behind indigenous culture through North and South America.

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10y ago
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Many people believe that the Bering Strait was much smaller, shallower, or even non-existant when the Natives crossed into the American continent from Asia, making a kind of land bridge. If you type "Inuits" into Google images, you can see that many Inuits (or Eskimos) have Asian features, which supports this idea.

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13y ago
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Q: How did the first native Americans arrive in America?
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