Earliest Migration Across Beringia

Paleoindians or Paleo-Americans, '16,500 BCE' were the first peoples who entered, and subsequently inhabited, the Americas. Traditional theories suggest that big-animal hunters crossed the Bering Strait from North Asia into the Americas over a land bridge (Beringia). This bridge existed from 45,000 to 12,000 BCE (47,000–14,000 BCE). Small isolated groups of hunter-gatherers migrated alongside herds of large herbivores far into Alaska. From 16,500 – 13,500 BCE (18,500 – 15,500 BCE), ice-free corridors developed along the Pacific coast and valleys of North America.