America is a land of immigrants. Everyone in the United States can trace their origins to another land. Even Native Americans aren’t true natives of the continent. To be fair recent research suggests their ancestors arrived in western Alaska as early as 32,000 years ago. Newcomers continued to arrive for another 7,000 years or so before they were cut-off from the rest of Eurasia. It took another 10,000 for the glaciers to retreat enough to open a coastal route into the interior of North America. Genetic analysis points to roughly 5,000 individuals following the initial coastal path. It only took them a few hundred years to reach the southern tip of South America. National Geographic’s website features an animated set of maps illustrating the migration of the first Americans. Besides being pretty cool, it’s also the primary source for most of the above information.
While it’s true we’re all immigrants in the Western Hemisphere, Native Americans have been here far longer. After 15,000 years they’ve earned the ‘native’ moniker. No other immigrants managed to establish a permanent foothold in the Western Hemisphere until the Europeans in the early 16th century. The Vikings did create settlements in Greenland and Newfoundland. The L’Anse aux Meadows site in Newfoundland probably supported around 100 people for a generation or two. The more extensive settlements in Greenland may have reached as many as 10,000. They lasted more than 400 years, but were eventually abandoned in the mid-15th century.
Jump forward to the present and North America remains one of the prime destinations for people from around the globe.
Today’s map
Courtesy of Slate.com the map illustrates the most common country of origin for immigrants in each of the 50 states.
Over the last two weeks this blog has covered both Native Americans and alternative history. If you’re interested in either of those topics consider looking into my Young Adult fantasy series Misaligned. Not to give too much away, but the entire series centers on an alternative history driven by higher-dimensional physics. Book 2, Misaligned: The Silver Scepter, draws the early Native American cultures of upstate New York into the story.
As always thanks for reading.
Armen
