Together, they tell the most important story in American prehistory: that the first Americans were here, they were diverse, they were human, and the people who came after them — all the people, all the nations, all the hundreds of distinct communities of the Americas — are their descendants and their inheritors.

The story of who was first is also the story of who is here now.

And that story is still being written, one genome at a time.

The Deep Structure Of The Founding Population

When researchers describe the founding population of the Americas, they are using language that can mislead if not unpacked carefully.

The phrase implies a single, discrete group — a band of people who crossed from Asia at a specific moment and who can be identified as the source of all subsequent Native American populations.

The reality that the genomic evidence reveals is considerably more complex.