Anthropologist, historians and scientist have done extensive work in an attempt to uncover the mystery of Native American origin. These groups have developed many theories based on remains that have been discovered. However, Native American peoples do not embrace the different theories that their ancestors migrated to America. Instead, Native American people believe that they were divinely created in America and that they have always been here.
One Migration theory is A Pacific Crossing Theory, which maintains that Aboriginal Australians and South Pacific Islander peoples traveled across the Pacific Ocean in boats to the west coast of South America. This theory was supported by a campsite found in Monte Verde, Chile that dated back 14,700 years. The campsite suggests humans were present in South America thousands of years before Native Americans were believed to have crossed the Bering Land Bridge. The 11,500-year-old remains of a woman found in Brazil, who resembles Aboriginal Australians more than Indians of South America (Borg), also supported the Pacific Crossing Theory.
Another migration theory debated in the scientific world is that Africans once migrated in boats across the Atlantic Ocean. This theory gained popularity in the 1970s when a skull of a woman dating 13,500 years old was found in Mina Gerais, Brazil. The skull had physical characteristics of African descent (Dixon).
The most widely accept migration theory is the Bering Strait theory. Scientist have long thought that the first people in the Americas came from the Artic region of Siberia across a land bridge, that is now under the Bering sea, during the Ice Age, between 12,000 and 60,000 years ago. As water became locked up in the polar ice caps, sea levels dropped as much as 300 feet. The Bering Sea between Siberia and Alaska is no more than 180 feet deep and...