Who was First to North America?

Genesis 1:28
“Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth…”

The conventional understanding has always been that North America was populated by people who crossed from Asia to Alaska via the Bering Strait and then migrated down the West Coast. Eventually, some of them crossed as far as the eastern coasts of North and South America. Known as the Clovis culture, their descendants produced all the North and South American Indian tribes and nations. The Clovis sites that have been excavated so far have produced distinctive spear points that have become known as Clovis points.

That understanding has now been challenged by finds in Virginia. Signs of human habitation have been found at Cactus Hill, which is 45 miles south of Richmond. Researchers have dated the site to be fifty percent older than any known Clovis excavation. Stone points and blades have been found at Cactus Hill which show wear marks typical of hide scraping and butchering. The points and blades are unlike any known Clovis points. However, they do resemble western European blades and points from the same period. These facts have led some researchers to conclude that the site is evidence that ancient Europeans crossed the Atlantic Ocean to begin a settlement in North America. This was long, long before the time of the Vikings or Columbus.

When God made Adam and Eve, and again, after the Genesis Flood, God commanded human beings to “fill the earth.” More and more we find evidences that early man obeyed this commandment.

Dear Father, help me to be a good steward of all You have given me. Amen.

Author: Paul A. Bartz

Ref: Science News, 4/15/00, p. 244, “Early New World Settlers Rise in East.” Photo: Clovis points from the Rummells-Maske Cache Site, Iowa. Courtesy of BillWhittaker. (CC BY-SA 3.0)