How did Native Americans get to America in the first place?

[LadyCrosstalk]

If we hold that Adam and Eve started out in ancient Mesopotamia and then humanity spread out from there... how did Native Americans and other people in the "western" continent get all the way over there? I mean, it was hard enough for people after "ancient times" get a boat over there without dying on the way. How did they even get there???

Unless we can accept the Pangea theory that all the continents were one big continent and that continental drift is a real thing (which I don't think would contradict Creationism at all).

But I'm just curious as to how they got there...

The human genome project has cleared up a lot of mysteries like that. They can actually trace the movements of ancient peoples through the genetic lines. They know that there was less water in the Bering Sea at one point and that Siberians traveled across the Bering Straight into N. America. The Inuit and the Siberians are very similar genetically but then so are we all--with just minor variations. Interestingly, all humans can trace their ancestry back to "mitochondrial Eve".

 

[Open Heart]

If we hold that Adam and Eve started out in ancient Mesopotamia and then humanity spread out from there... how did Native Americans and other people in the "western" continent get all the way over there? I mean, it was hard enough for people after "ancient times" get a boat over there without dying on the way. How did they even get there???

Unless we can accept the Pangea theory that all the continents were one big continent and that continental drift is a real thing (which I don't think would contradict Creationism at all).

The first modern humans, such as Y-chromosome Adam and Mitochondria Eve, came from Africa.

Although some Native Americans arrived from Polynesia and Europe by boat, MOST came from Asia, most likely the Mongolian area, back at the end of the last ice age, across the Bering Land Bridge. The first ones arrived about 20,000 years ago when there were still woolly mammoths and saber tooth tigers in America.

The Bering Straight is the narrow area where Siberia and Alaska almost tough, and there is a little string of islands between them. During the ice age, so much water was stuck being snow and ice, that the sea level significantly lowered, and those islands became a pathway linking Siberia and Alaska so that people could walk across.

 

[GingerBeer]

how did Native Americans and other people in the "western" continent get all the way over there?

They walked. The bering strait was dry land back when they took their stroll into Alaska.

 

[makeajoyfulnoise100]

"The Genisis Record" by Henry M. Morris is a good place to start.

 

[Colter]

If we hold that Adam and Eve started out in ancient Mesopotamia and then humanity spread out from there... how did Native Americans and other people in the "western" continent get all the way over there? I mean, it was hard enough for people after "ancient times" get a boat over there without dying on the way. How did they even get there???

Unless we can accept the Pangea theory that all the continents were one big continent and that continental drift is a real thing (which I don't think would contradict Creationism at all).

But I'm just curious as to how they got there...

They came over the land bridge. The creation story in Genesis was the creation of Hebrew holy men to provide a comprehensive tradition for the then scattered Israelites. Its heavily slanted towards Jewish culture and their religion.

 

[joshua 1 9]

If we hold that Adam and Eve started out in ancient Mesopotamia and then humanity spread out from there... how did Native Americans and other people in the "western" continent get all the way over there?

Most likely they walked. Coming out of Africa we find 3 artifacts, sewing needles, fishing nets and fishing hooks. This took place around 40,000 years ago. Even though progress was fairly gradual taking two and three generations for each progressive step to take place. They had dug out canoes. They could use a stone age axe and hollow out a log to use for a canoe to go down steam. If they wanted to go up stream they had to be more progressed and they would make a canoe out of animal skins.

Adam and Eve lived around 6,000 years ago. This was the beginning of civilization, farming, herding and so on. For me a day equals 1,000 years. So the age or era we live in began around 12,900 years ago when an ice age come to an end. The glaciers were melting and the ocean level was rising.

 

[Sammy-San]

If we hold that Adam and Eve started out in ancient Mesopotamia and then humanity spread out from there... how did Native Americans and other people in the "western" continent get all the way over there? I mean, it was hard enough for people after "ancient times" get a boat over there without dying on the way. How did they even get there???

Unless we can accept the Pangea theory that all the continents were one big continent and that continental drift is a real thing (which I don't think would contradict Creationism at all).

But I'm just curious as to how they got there...

Why do they look different from oriental people? Were they a related race that lived there and moved?

 

[Halbhh]

Why do they look different from oriental people? Were they a related race that lived there and moved?

Both believers and nonbelievers that learn more about variations among people, both groups accept that all humans are descended from 2 individuals -- Mitochondrial Eve, and Y-chromosomal Adam. (and of course even young-Earthers also believe this, in their more simplified way)

These 2 individuals are the single individuals who are the common ancestors of all living humans -- no person on Earth anywhere fails to have them as their ancestor.

But that doesn't ever lead to a situation where all skin color has to be the same, features perfectly alike, etc.

Because each individual person carries inside them genes enough to have a wide variety of different looking offspring, but more -- their own descendents, given enough time, could (over long time) eventually lead to descendents that are of a significantly different skin color (eventually), if the skin color was a big advantage in some particular climate somewhere on Earth. Not sure how many generations that takes, but the pressure from the environment -- like either very little sunshine, or a big overabundance of sunshine -- has to be strong and powerful, killing those not better suited relatively young, like by age 25 or 30, for instance. But skin color can act more quickly yet! If the people can't hunt in the sunshine due to sunburn, then their tribe will have food shortage compared to the nearby tribe of darker skin color. In a northern climate in contrast, with too little sunshine, those without light skin cannot flourish due to lack of Vitamin D, and are at a big disadvantage if they have no source of Vitamin D. It won't take long for the skin color that is a big advantage to populate all the region. Just a relatively few generations even, I bet less than 400 or 800 years.

 

[joshua 1 9]

Why do they look different from oriental people?

By Oriental you must mean why do they look different from the Chinese people. Mostly because of inbreeding. 90% of the Chinese are from the Han family. They are descended from the Emperor in Beijing and the Mongolian Genghis Khan.

 

[Radrook]

First time I saw it in Moana, I thought he is speaking in Native American! Very good song and movie btw.

Do you know how many tribal languages the native Americans speak which are mutually unintelligible?

Indigenous languages of the Americas - Wikipedia

 

[dannheim]

It was once thought that they both crossed over the land bride that is now submerged beneath the Bering Strait which separates Alaska from Russia and arrived from the islands in the Pacific Ocean. Now the land bridge idea, according to the article I just read, has been totally discarded.

BTW
A curious fact is that Native Americans in the north claim to have originated in the south and traveled northward and never mention ever crossing a land bridge into Alaska and making their way south.
How Did First Americans Get Here?

Well that just killed my long standing belief that they were a mixture of Chinese and Russian heritage....

 

[Papias]

Well that just killed my long standing belief that they were a mixture of Chinese and Russian heritage....

No, your long standing belief is still correct. The fact that there were many different waves, some primarily by sea down the coast from the bering strait, doesn't change the overall story. The idea of Austrialian aborigenies or Africans is simply wrong, as many different lines of evidence show that Native Americans came from Northeast Asia (China/Russia as you state). The main wave was around 13,000 years ago, but plenty were after that and there may have been some before that too.

Here are just a few of the confirmations of that:
1. DNA - Native DNA matches Asian DNA
2. Tooth structure - Native Americans has a distinct tooth structure seen in other Asians
3. Language - linguists have long noticed that Native American languages are in the family of Asian languages.

There is more, but even just the DNA is pretty clear.

In Christ-

Papias

 

[ViaCrucis]

Why do they look different from oriental people? Were they a related race that lived there and moved?

Race is an artificial social construct. Shared features among closely related populations indicate closely related populations and little else; even things such as skin color is ultimately a very superficial difference among human beings. Genetic evidence points to a close link between Eastern Siberian populations and Native American populations, the actual appearance of people within a population group is rather superficial.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[gordonhooker]

United Airlines

 

[Radrook]

Via Alaska, Oceania and Europe.

 

[joshua 1 9]

I mean, it was hard enough for people after "ancient times" get a boat over there without dying on the way. How did they even get there???

A boat could have just been a dug out canoe made from a log. Or a crude raft with an animal skin for a sail. They could follow the current or the wind. It would be difficult to go back against the current or the wind. That requires more skill. The American Indians could dig out a canoe with stone tools in four or five hours if they go down stream. If they go up stream then they had to make a canoe out of animal skins and that took longer.

The very first artifacts were a sowing needle, fishing hook and fishing nets. As man came up out of Africa he needed to be able to make clothing to stay warm. Also he needed food to eat and as long as they stayed close to the water then they could always eat fish. If they stayed close to a river then they had fish and they could hunt the animals that came to the river for water to drink.

America was covered with glacier so the early Americans would have had to travel by boat, close to the shore. Here in America the main grain was corn. In the middle east mainly they ate wheat or rye. In the far east rice was the main grain.

People often did not travel far in their generation, maybe a few hundred miles. But generation after generations they would slowly make their way along to where they could find land with food to sustain them.

 

[JackRT]

People often did not travel far in their generation, maybe a few hundred miles. But generation after generations they would slowly make their way along to where they could find land with food to sustain them.

Even progressing at the rate of only ten miles per year mankind could have gone from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego in 1000 years. Archaeology indicates that this is pretty much what happened. It is also interesting to note that in this same time period all the megafauna of the Americas became extinct.

 

[joshua 1 9]

Even progressing at the rate of only ten miles per year mankind could have gone from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego in 1000 years. Archaeology indicates that this is pretty much what happened. It is also interesting to note that in this same time period all the megafauna of the Americas became extinct.

There was a major extinction 12,900 years ago.

"Nanodiamond" Find Supports Comet Extinction Theory