ProfessorWhat
So... . . . what's the new PC preferred name for the Not-So-First Nation people gonna be now??
Mark Hays
There is an error and poor wording at the end of the first paragraph. Modern "humans" (homo sapiens) did not migrate out of Africa 125,000 years ago -- but our ancestors (homo erectus) left Africa at least 1.7 million years ago, and we have found evidence of their migration as far as the Republic of Georgia, China, Java and Indonesia. Homo erectus also used simple coarse paleolithic stone tools and shell tools. So hominids were roaming far and wide well before this discovery in Southern California.
HoppyHopkins
I have always said, "EVERYONE AND HIS DOG, DISCOVERED AMERICA" This just pushes the date of the earliest discoverer back a bit, that is all. Probably the ancestors of Sasquatch and would explain the huge points used by the Clovis people, they were just arrow heads. Even using the most recent estimate of 120,600 years ago, it is conceivable that modern humans made it that early, but they surely would have had to use some sort of boat or canoe to do it. Which is why I like Sasquatch
Brian M
The conclusive evidence was a small scratching on one of the mastodon bones - it was a little Apple symbol.....
Bob
So, what about the dates that are being taught as fact at our schools? I see no problem when theories are presented as theories but when theories are presented as facts, then I have a problem with it.
KarJam
Theories are factual and there is nothing wrong with what is being taught. Scientific theory, until this evidence was found, has been that the earliest proof of human activity dates from approximately 13,000 years ago. It is not stated, nor is it part of the theory of North American settlement by humans, that no humans lived here before then.
Too often the journalists who write about science in the majority of daily papers do not understand, well enough, what they are writing about. Thus, the relatively new misconception of the definition of "theory" - hint: it is not a hypothesis. People need to become educated about the proper definitions of these words and start using them correctly so that, someday, we may stop hearing "Well, it's only a theory."
Robert in Vancouver
So this just re-confirms that native Canadians and Americans are immigrants same as everyone else who lives in North America. We need to stop pretending they were 'always' here and therefore deserve special treatment. They were here first. So what, that means nothing.
Douglas Jack
Hopefully we learn from this 'small' 115,000 year mistake of colonial anthropology & archaeology. 1st Let's finally acknowledge that colonial anthropology has an 'agenda' to support the worldview of oligarch financiers, who control funding as well as a genocidal populace who have colluded in the attempted theft & destruction of 130,000 years of known history. 2nd Let's allow for a much greater margin of error when we propose 'theories' such as Bering Straight & really our whole colonial concept of human history. Louis, Richard, Mary Leakey warned anthropology 50 years ago, not to draw so many conclusions from bones as to so-called: progression, evolution or intelligence. Jane Goodall their protege took this truth much further to frame life as the primary intelligence & any human as holding but an infinitesimal part worthless detached from the whole. If humanity is able to look back beyond the violent thermal nuclear or hydrogen bomb extinction which oligarch owned NATO is driving the world towards, we might appreciate the diverse kinds of brilliance & abundance which love & life provides for us in alignment with nature. Indigene Community focuses upon humanity's long universal worldwide 'indigenous' (Latin 'self-generating') heritage of peace & abundance. Did you know that Sylvalization's (L 'sylva' = 'tree') 3-dimensional indigenous Polyculture Orchards are 100 times or 10,000% more productive of food, materials, energy & water-cycle than 2-D 'agriculture' (L 'ager' = 'field'). Polyculture Orchards photosynthesize 92-98% of solar energy converted into food, materials, energy & water-cycle. Polyculture Orchards (agro-forestry, forest-gardens etc.) is 100 times (10.000%) more productive than 2-D agriculture '(Latin' ager '=' field '). Polyculture creates continental cold drawing warm-moist ocean winds inland where 60% of water transfer is through condensation upon trillions of square kilometres of fractal leaf surface. Rain/snow only accounts for 40% of water transfer. Agriculture photosynthesizes only 2-8% of solar energy with the remaining 90% of solar energy reflected back into the troposphere where It pushes winds from the continent to the sea creating permanent desert. Tree roots descend 10s of meters deep as the canopy into the earth's substrate where they mine minerals, pump water & cultivate deep nutrient colonies. Polyculture orchards retain massive amounts of water in plant bodies & root systems so as to percolate water slowly through the whole living biosphere & provide the backbone for abundance of all species. This climate & biosphere knowledge is just a small part of what indigenous humanity understood & acted in harmony with perhaps for longer than modern colonially indoctrinated humans might imagine. Discover your ancestry apart from the alienation which colonialism has indoctrinated you into. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/design/1-indigenous-welcome-orchard-food-production-efficiencies
Bob
Sorry KarJam about your misconception of the definition of "theory" - hint: it is not a law.
Albert L
Interesting, I have often believed humans made not only the mastodon extinct in America but also the horse. This easily supports that possibility. I hope now the environmentalists will stop trying to remove the horse from public lands as non native species that went extinct on their own.