Indigenous peoples’ connections to their homelands are not simply matters of historical preference or cultural attachment; they are also the basis for legal rights, treaty obligations, and the recognition of sovereignty that has been the subject of centuries of political struggle.

The recognition that Indigenous peoples have occupied North America for at least 14,000 years — and probably significantly longer, given the evidence from Bluefish Caves and other sites — establishes the deep antiquity of that occupation in a way that scientific evidence can support.

This does not mean that archaeological science is the arbiter of Indigenous rights or identity; Indigenous communities’ relationships to their homelands do not depend on scientific validation.

But the scientific record of deep Indigenous antiquity can be an important element in broader arguments about the legitimate place of Indigenous peoples in their ancestral territories.