Paisley Caves in Oregon has produced coprolites — preserved feces — containing human mitochondrial DNA dated to approximately 14,300 calendar years before present: before Clovis, on the Pacific side of the continent.

The genetics of ancient and modern Indigenous peoples show patterns consistent with multiple waves of migration, with the deepest ancestral lineages tracing to northeast Asian populations moving into the Americas during the late Pleistocene.

The Channel Islands, in this evolving picture, are a significant node.

The Arlington Springs individual represents the oldest well-dated human remains from the island context.

But the broader Channel Islands archaeological record extends the story: Daisy Cave on San Miguel Island has produced evidence of human occupation from approximately 11,600 to 8,000 years ago, with shellfish exploitation, fishing, and early shell bead manufacture represented.

Other sites on Santa Rosa Island document human presence from the early Holocene onward, with the record deepening and becoming richer as sea level stabilized and the islands took their modern form.