<p>The Oregon Coast, pictured here, may have been a byway for the first Americans as they followed the nutrient-rich coast southward on foot and by boat, says the new book, <i>Atlas of a Lost World</i>. </p>

The Oregon Coast, pictured here, may have been a byway for the first Americans as they followed the nutrient-rich coast southward on foot and by boat, says the new book, Atlas of a Lost World.

Photograph by Ty Milford, Aurora

When, How Did the First Americans Arrive? It’s Complicated.

The first Americans weren't one group of people; they arrived at different times, and likely by different methods.

How did human beings first come to North America? Across the Bering Strait, on foot? Down the “kelp highway” by boat? Across the Atlantic via the polar ice cap? And when did they reach here? 10,000 years ago? 40,000? Or were they always here, as the Navajo and other Native American tribes believe? In his new book, Atlas Of A Lost World, author Craig Childs sets off to test these different theories on the ground, traveling from Alaska to Chile, Canada to Florida. What he finds, despite the best efforts of archaeologists and the latest technology, still remains in many ways a mystery.

Speaking from his home in Colorado, he explains why many Native Americans

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