== Oprindelig opdagelse ==
Det antages, at Amerika var det sidste kontinent (bortset fra [[Antarktis]]), der blev kolonialiseret af mennesker.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pauketat |first=Timothy R. |title=The Oxford Handbook of North American Archaeology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yf8j0b7gLvUC&pg=PA86|year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-538011-8|page=86}}</ref> De første mennesker på [[kontinent]]et kom fra [[Sibirien]], da faldende vandstand i verdenshavene mellem 50.000 og 17.000 år siden muliggjorde vandring fra Sibirien til den nordøstlige del af Nordamerika i det område, der i dag udgør [[Alaska]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cambridgedna.com/genealogy-dna-ancient-migrations-slideshow.php?view=step7 |title=An mtDNA view of the peopling of the world by Homo sapiens |publisher=Cambridge DNA Services |year=2007 |access-date=1. juni 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511091253/https://www.cambridgedna.com/genealogy-dna-ancient-migrations-slideshow.php?view=step7 |archive-date=11. maj 2011 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref><ref name=Goebel>{{cite journal  | title=The Late Pleistocene Dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas  | url=http://www.centerfirstamericans.com/cfsa-publications/Science2008.pdf  | year=2008  |doi=10.1126/science.1153569  | access-date=5. februar 2010  | pmid=18339930  | volume=319  | issue=5869  | journal=Science  | pages=1497–502  |vauthors=Goebel T, Waters MR, O'Rourke DH | bibcode=2008Sci...319.1497G  }}
</ref> I forbindelse med senere klimaforandringer kunne menneskene senere sprede sig ind i det nuværende Canada og længere sydpå.<ref>{{cite news|title=Pause Is Seen in a Continent's Peopling|work=New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/science/linguistic-study-sheds-new-light-on-peopling-of-north-america.html?ref=science|date=13. marts 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Pielou|first=E. C. |author-link=E. C. Pielou|title=After the Ice Age: The Return of Life to Glaciated North America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MO4QFKshlVcC&pg=PP1|year=2008|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-66809-3}}</ref>
Historie Videnskab Humaniora