The more accurate version of the story is also more interesting than the simplified version.

It says: scientists found the genome of an 11,500-year-old infant in Alaska, and discovered that she belonged to a branch of the Native American founding lineage that had diverged from the ancestors of other Native Americans approximately 20,000 years ago — before the southward expansion that would eventually populate most of the hemisphere.

This branch — the Ancient Beringians — had maintained its distinct genetic character for thousands of years and eventually became absorbed into or replaced by the populations that expanded into the region from the south.

And this finding revealed that the founding of the Americas was more complex, the early diversity of the founding population more substantial, and the ancient history of Native Americans richer and more intricate than the models of the twentieth century had imagined.