BC’s Tales of the Pacific ǀ Were islanders the first Americans? | Columnists

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BC Cook

A FIERCE debate rages among historians and archaeologists about how North and South America came to be inhabited. We all agree that mankind first populated the Eurasian and African landmasses then spread to Australia and the Americas at a later time. But how and when did that happen? And from what direction did they come? Were the first Native Americans the descendants of Asians? Pacific Islanders? Europeans? And once here, did North Americans migrate to the southern continent or the other way around?

Currently there are four competing theories for how people came to the Americas. There is circumstantial evidence and a certain amount of physical evidence to support all of them. Each carries enormous social and political consequences. Three of them involve water routes and one follows land. Let’s take a look at each of them and then think about why it matters at all.

Route One: The first Americans traveled by sea across the southern Pacific. We know that the ancient Polynesians were excellent seafarers. They displayed skill and courage without equal, crossing thousands of miles of open ocean in small craft, and locating tiny land masses. We know the distant ancestors of Pacific islanders came from Asia and moved in a generally eastern direction across the ocean until most of the island groups were inhabited. Why would they stop there after having come so far? Would they have been intimidated by the distances? Hardly. Everything suggests they viewed the vast sea as something to be overcome, not something to be intimidated by. It is perfectly logical that the islanders kept sailing east until they reached the mainland of the Americas. South America makes more sense because it is more directly in the path of known settlement. The northern Pacific has very few islands to skip across, unlike the southern Pacific which is littered with them. If this is true, then islanders were the first Americans, and they settled the continents from south to north.

Route Two: The first Americans traveled by sea across the northern Pacific. If Asian explorers traveled along a more northern route across the Pacific, it would have had to been along the Aleutian Islands and the coast of Alaska. There is almost nothing between those northern islands and Hawaii, and Hawaii was settled relatively late. Given the technology and the state of seafaring in ancient Asia it is perfectly reasonable to think that a group of Asians (Chinese?) followed the shoreline of Siberia, crossed the ocean until they ran into either the Aleutian Islands or the mainland of Alaska, then followed the coast until they reached more temperate zones. If this is true, then Asians, probably Chinese, were the first Americans, and settled the continents from north to south.

Route Three: The first Americans traveled by land from northern Asia to Alaska. Sea levels rise and fall based on numerous factors, including global temperatures which fluctuate for various reasons. It is possible that sea levels fell to such an extent that land was exposed which connected northern Asia with Alaska. This land bridge, known as “Beringia,” could have provided a way for Asian settlers to simply walk over to America. If this is true, then it plays out much like Route Two. Asians, but not necessarily Chinese, were the first Americans and would have settled the continents from north to south.

Route Four: The first Americans traveled by sea across the northern Atlantic. European explorers, possibly distant relatives of the Celts or Vikings, could have sailed across the North Atlantic and landed along the coast of what is now Canada or the United States. We know the Vikings made it as far as Greenland and certainly landed in Canada. There is physical evidence to confirm this. The question is, did someone do it much earlier? If this is true, then Europeans were the first Americans and they settled the continents from north to south.

BC Cook, PhD, taught history for 30 years and is director and Pacific historian at Sealark Exploration (sealarkexploration.org).

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