Video:
The First Americans

The eBook
First Americans

Mapping Skills:
Western Hemisphere

The video shown in class is from the History Channel. This episode of In Search of History explores the current debates centered on the origins of the indigenous peoples of North and South America. Long established as the premier theory, scientists believed that Native Americans arrived in North America via a bridge of ice in the Bering Straits. But dramatic new evidence suggests that this theory may be inaccurate. The new theory is best described as the Multiple Paths Theory of the populating of the Americas.

How did the first Americans come to the continents? The First Americans follows scientists in their quest to answer this question. The First Americans eBook is designed to be used in concert with this video and the class discussions to present the absolute latest findings in this exciting study of the very first Americans.

Vocabulary

• Paleolithic
• advocate
• ambiguity
• anomaly
• ardent
• bizarre
• cadre
• consensus
• contaminate
• curator
• discern
• excavations
• feasible
• geological

• habitation
• hypothesize
• increments
• indigenous
• indisputable
• intrepid
• meticulous
• nomads
• perennial
• rigorous
• sediment
• skepticism
• speculation
• viability

1. Scientists have different theories to explain how the first Americans arrived in their new home. What is a theory? How do scientists use theories? How are theories different than proven facts? What is the role of a hypothesis in theory?
2. Christopher Columbus named Native Americans “Indians.” Why?
3. The discovery of the existence of Native Americans by Europeans posed a challenge to the accepted history of the Bible. How did scholars try to rectify these differences?
4. White Europeans confiscated Native American lands after they came to the Americas. How did they justify their actions?
5. Discuss the importance of the bones and artifacts discovered at Folsom, New Mexico.
6. What is radio carbon dating? How do scientists use this method to substantiate or disprove theories?
7. What has been the accepted theory of migration of Native Americans for over fifty years? What new ideas and discoveries are challenging this theory?
8. What are hominids?
9. Discuss the controversy of the Meadowcroft excavation site.
10. How do linguists try to decipher the mystery of the origins of the first Americans?

Extended Activities

1. Imagine that you are a reporter for a scientific journal. Write an article for your journal that tells of the discoveries at Folsom, New Mexico.
2. Create a poster that illustrates the Clovis method of making spear heads.