Bering Land Bridge National Preserve is perched upon the northern most reaches of the Seward Peninsula in Northwest Alaska.  It is by all accounts, one of the most remote and isolated wilderness areas on the face of the Earth and one of the least visited of the National Park units in the nation. 

Despite all of this, it could be argued that the meaning and the purpose behind the Preserve’s establishment represents one of the most important notions with regard to America’s identity and its myriad of present-day cultures.

As the Preserve’s namesake suggests, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve not only commemorates a physical remnant of what once was the Bering Land Bridge but it also preserves the culture, history, and the lifestyle of the humans that crossed the land bridge thousands of years ago; the people who would ultimately populate the North and South American continents and become the “first Americans.”

Over the last half-century, archaeologists concurred more or less that those “first Americans” indeed did migrate over to North America from Asia more than fourteen to twenty thousand years ago via an overland route across the Bering Land Bridge. 

The evidence for this long-held theory spawned from the discovery of spear points that were found near Clovis, New Mexico.  Based on what was thought to have been solid carbon dating of these spear points to over 13,500 years ago, these findings were considered among many archaeological circles to be direct proof of this near twenty thousand year-old overland migration (Parfit, pp. 48).

However, the present discourse surrounding the story of the “first Americans” has come into a new light in very recent years; one the likes of which will no doubt challenge long held theories and replace them with shockingly new and exciting ones.

With these new theories, the question regarding the story of the “first Americans” needs to be asked again: i.e., if those proverbial “first Americans” didn’t populate the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge, who were they, where did they come from and when, and how did they get here?

One archaeological discovery which took place relatively recently in 1997, had a panel of blue-ribbon archaeologists visiting the site of Monte Verde in Chile.  The panel was unanimous in their opinion that the archaeological materials they found dated to around 14,500 years ago (Parfit, pp. 48).  This effectively shattered the initial theory of the Clovis people being the first actual group of humans to settle in the new world. 

The Monte Verde discovery holds that humans not only came to the Americas more than 1,000 years earlier than once thought but that they also were able to settle as far south as Chile in South America.  Many archaeologists however, have expressed strong dissent with the findings at Monte Verde and needless to say, the true story of the “first Americans” remains a hotly contested issue.

Nonetheless, the Monte Verde findings bring up some interesting questions.  Namely this: if humans settled in the Americas much earlier than previously thought and at such a southerly location as Chile, is it possible that these humans may have come to the new world via a different route?

One radical theory posited by Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian and archeologist Bruce Bradley claims that it is possible that the first Americans didn’t cross the Bering Land Bridge at all and didn’t travel by foot but by boat, across the Atlantic. 

Though the evidence for this theory is meager, Stanford and Bradley argue that the artifacts that were developed by an earlier and still more ancient European culture; the Solutrean, bares an uncanny resemblance to that of the Clovis tools found in the United States.  All in all, this very well could suggest that humans may have entered America from the east via a route that has been dubbed the Atlantic Maritime route (Parfit, pp. 61).

Still another theory of an alternate route for the “first Americans” delves into the area of modern day cultural studies.  Many in the field of modern cultural anthropology and linguistics claim that there exists a striking resemblance between the cultures of Australia, Southeast Asia, and South America.  This ultimately suggests that perhaps a pan-Pacific journey brought the “first Americans” to our shores. 

Supporting this theory is the “Kennewick Man”; skeletal remains of a 9,500 year old individual who was found as far North as Washington State.  Some physical anthropologists argue that “Kennewick Man’s” remains bear striking resemblance to the facial features of modern Ainu peoples of Japan.  This ultimately lends some credence to the case of a pan-Pacific journey to the Americas (Parfit, pp. 65).  

Anyway you look at it, the search for the “first Americans” represents a puzzle that as of yet is no where near being solved.  The present discourse regarding the hunt for the “first Americans” will always be subject to interpretation and there aren’t necessarily any right or wrong answers.  Ironically then, uncertainty appears to be the only certain factor in this hunt.