This post will describe the history of human movement in the Americas from about 13000 BCE – and perhaps 20000 BCE – until the time of European colonization. There were at least five passages to the Americas from Asia: the Monte Verde, Amerind, or Clovis passage of about 13000 BCE, the “Zuni” passage of unknown time, the “Algonquin” passage of about 7600 BCE, the Na-Dene (Athabaska, etc.) passage of 8000-4000 BCE, and the Inuit passage of about 1000 CE.
The Monte Verde / Clovis Migration
The Monte Verde passage went directly to Monte Verde, Chile. Due to the distances involved, the passage must have been by raft. Most likely the rafts hugged the shore, stopping for fresh water and food along the way. But there is no archeological or linguistic evidence of long stops along the way or migrations from the stops. Given that the original passage probably only had sufficient people for one successful settlement, it also would not have been practical to send off migration parties. The passage passed up many desirable locations and continued to the south of Chile, probably due to the inquisitive nature of the group, wishing to see the entire continental coastal expanse.
The Monte Verde passage was most likely from northeast Asia with some female members from Taiwan or southeast China. At least some of the members of the passage party, the Taiwanese women, spoke proto-Ch'orti', the root language of all Amerind languages, although in most cases too much time has passed to make the trace back to proto-Ch'orti'.
After a few generations, the population grew and migrating parties went to northern Venezuela and to central Colombia. Somewhat later other migrations went to northern Chile, the interior of Brazil, the far south of Chile, and northern Peru. [Click to enlarge map.]
At least two migrations went from South America –most likely Chile – to North America before 9000 BCE. The Chumash were probably the first going north by sail raft along the coast to settle in the Channel Islands of southern California. The Chumash spoke proto-Ch'orti' when they migrated, with their name in Ch'orti', chu’ max, meaning "breasts in the hollow," an archaic description of the Channel Islands, breast-islands in the hollow of the ocean. The Chumash migrated north sometime between 12200 and 11800 BCE.
The second migration north likely first went south around the tip of Argentina, then counter-clockwise around South America. The party either explored the Amazon or were already familiar with it, based on later place names. They continued to the Caribbean islands, following them, most likely, to the coast of Florida until reaching the mouth of the Mississippi River. They followed the Mississippi to the Missouri, until present-day South Dakota. Dakota is tak k'ot tah in Ch'orti' or "arrive to the dry forest" (Black Hills). This migration was the Clovis people, also known as the Lakota or Siouxian ancestors, as well as a few other Native nations. This migration happened in about 11600 to 11200 BCE.
There may have been other migrations from South America to North America between 11000 and 9000 BCE, resulting in the Salishan (British Colombia and Washington) and the Pomo people (California). Alternately the Pomo may be related to the Chumash.
Likely the only migration from South America to Central America or Mexico took place in about 8680 BCE, when four rafts landed in El Salvador, soon encountering the Xibalba. The Maya culture was developing on Isla Tigre, Honduras, but a crisis led to two splinter groups heading south and east, the Chibcha and Miskito, in about 8300 BCE. By 8200 BCE the Maya moved to live in four locations in El Salvador.
Between 7700 BCE and 7600 BCE several related migrations took place from El Salvador to North America. The first of these was the Ohlone and Miwok to the San Francisco Bay region. The second were the Iroquois and the Missouri to northeast Canada to prepare conditions and protect the Algonquin. The third was the Algonquin, a group of elite Maya that also included an Asian migration group. At some later time two small groups of the Algonquin sailed to California.
The next migration was the Otomi-Zapotec move from coastal El Salvador to the highlands of Puebla, Mexico, in about 7000 BCE. Their homes were being wiped out from the rising ocean.
After stability among the Maya from 7000 - 2400 BCE, major upheaval rocked the Maya world from 2400-1700 BCE, with successive waves of forced migrations from El Salvador due to the pellagra crisis. This resulted in the Huasteca, Totonac, Yucatec, and Ulua migrating up along the Atlantic Coast. And the Quiche, Purepecha, Olmeca, Xinca, Kanjobal, and the Mam migrating up along the Pacific Coast. The Olmeca soon crossed over to the opposite Gulf Coast.
In addition, smaller splinter groups broke off from these migrations, most likely due to recurring pellagra, resulting in groups in southern California, the Rio Grande area, and the Gulf Coast, including the Choctaw and Alabama.
A later migration of Nawat speakers from the central Mexico region to northern Mexico and the US Southwest, likely refugees from either Toltec or Aztec repression, took place between 1000 and 1500 CE. This includes all Uto-Aztec speakers, including the Shoshone and Hopi.
Genetics of the Monte Verde / Clovis Migration Party
The Asia to Monte Verde migration group appears to have had a mix of genes from south China and from northeast Asia. On the male side, all the males appear to have had Q Y-chromosomes. There are three Y-chromosome haplogroups in the Americas: Q, C, and R. The C Y-chromosome is identified with the NaDene migration and the R Y-chromosome is rare in South America, the destination of the Monte Verde migration. Later, I will discuss the 24,000-year-old remains of the Mal’ta MA-1 Siberian boy whose DNA was recently sequenced. This boy had the R Y-chromosome, yet South American indigenous share much of the DNA of the Mal’ta boy. One possible explanation is that the Mal’ta party split into two (or more groups). One group, in which all the males had the Q Y-chromosome, went east to the coastal area of northeast Asia. A second group, in which the males had the R Y-chromosome, and possibly Q too, went west to the Caucasus. Later, I believe, some of their descendants became part of the Algonquin passage, explaining the concentrated presence of the R Y-chromosome in the Great Lakes region. The Q Y-chromosome is common in northeast Asia, including coastal areas, but found very little south of north China. This is a likely indicator that the Monte Verde migrating party, or at least the men, originated from northeast Asia.
On the female side of the Monte Verde migration, the situation is also complicated. There are five mtDNA haplogroups in the Americas. (MtDNA is passed from female to female.) The X-haplogroup definitely belonged to a different migration, as it is barely present in South America. Of the remaining four, the C-haplogroup is least common in South America, indicating that it may belong to a different migration. Haplogroups A, B, and D are found throughout South American indigenous groups and were likely part of the Monte Verde migration. Haplogroups A and D are found in the same area of Asia as the Q Y-chromosome, however the B haplogroup isn’t. Instead B haplogroup is found in South China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and Polynesia.
Earlier I had found that the Ch’orti’ language has roots in Taiwan. This leads to the following speculative scenario. Most of the Monte Verde migration formed somewhere on the coast of northeast Asia – either north China, Korea, or eastern Russia. For some reason they wanted more women in the party and traveled to Taiwan to negotiate for Taiwanese aboriginal women to make the passage. These women joined and came to be dominant linguistically and soon proto-Ch’orti’ became the language of the Monte Verde settlement. The Taiwanese women joining the northeast Asia migrating party would be the explanation of how the mtDNA B haplogroup made its way to the Americas.
The Zuni Passage
The Zuni passage could have been very early, by 20000 BCE or even earlier, and may have accounted for the very early Topper, Meadowcraft, and other eastern Northamerican sites. The Maya, in their naming protocol, called four groups "foreigners": the Xibalba hunters at Corinto cave, El Salvador, the Zuni, the Paleo Eskimos, and a group in Surinam that disappeared sometime before 8000 BCE. It is possible that most or all four of these groups were remnants of the Zuni passage. Most likely, ancestors of the Xibalba account for the remains at Tulum, Mexico, and in central Mexico.
The Zuni have a dental structure that most closely resembles the Ainu of Japan, but that is different than all other indigenous in the Americas. It is clear that they are a different passage from Asia. The Zuni language is a language isolate. Due to intermarriage between the Xibalba and the Olmeca, there may be some language similarities between Zuni and Olmeca-related groups, like the Lenca, Xinca, and Purepecha. Zuni women predominantly belong to the B mtDNA haplogroup, which is likely to have a south China origin. However, that may have been due to intermarriage with neighboring groups, such as the Acoma, a member of the Keresan language group. Instead, the Zuni passage may have carried females with the C mtDNA haplogroup, with A mtDNA also possible.
Based on the language of the Maya, the Zuni, Xibalba, and the Paleo Eskimo shared one characteristic - being fierce warriors. The battles of the Maya with the Xibalba are chronicled in the Popol Vuh. The famous Chichimeca warriors of northern Mexico were likely deployed to keep the Zuni at bay. And the Maya sent warriors like the Missouri up to the Hudson Bay area to protect other Maya-related indigenous groups from the Paleo Eskimos.
The Algonquin Passage
The Algonquin passage took place most likely from the Caucasus region directly to the Great Lakes region, where a group of Maya joined the Eurasian group to found the Algonquin. This took place in about 7600 BCE. The Algonquin passage was responsible for bringing the mtDNA X haplogroup (female) and the Y-chromosome R haplogroup (male) to the Americas. I will write more about this passage soon.
The Na-Dene Passage
The Na-Dene passage took place probably from Siberia to Alaska sometime betwen 8000 and 4000 BCE, according to genetics. The main group of the passage settled in Alaska and northwest Canada. Smaller groups moved to present-day northern California. The Na-Dene passage group is responsible for the C Y-Chromosome haplogroup in the Americas and possibly the C mtDNA haplogroup.
Sometime between 1000 and 1500 CE, two NaDene groups migrated from British Colombia to the Arizona / New Mexico area: the Apache and the Navajo. The Maya encouraged the two groups to make the move to protect new refugee populations - the Hopi and Pima - from the Zuni. Apache is ap pach' che' in Ch'orti' or "handle swinging crusher" in English. The Navajo were perhaps more reluctant to make the move. Navajo is nahp ha' ho in Ch'orti' or "forget about desirable rivers."
The Inuit Passage
The Inuit made the passage from the Russian arctic region to the Alaskan and Canadian arctic in about 1000 CE. They wiped out remnants of the Paleo Eskimo in their area, similar to what the Missouri did along the Hudson Bay and the Vikings did in Greenland.
Aligning the Genetics with the Proposed Migrations
The DNA of the remains of a boy at Mal'ta, Siberia, dated to 24,000 years ago, have been sequenced. The Mal'ta DNA are considered to be Eurasian and account for 14 to 38% of the DNA in indigenous in the Americas. According to Eske Willerslev, a leading Danish geneticist who led the efforts to sequence the Mal’ta DNA, all indigenous American groups so far tested have about equal amounts of Mal'ta DNA. Considering that there were five migrations, this gives the impression that the Mal'ta group was perhaps the only group of humans in that part of the Asia at that time.
More recently, the 12,600 year-old remains of a two-year-old boy at the Anzick ranch north of Livingston, Montana, USA, were genetically sequenced. The remains are 2,400 years younger than the first Amerind settlement at Monte Verde, Chile, and at least 1,900 years younger than sites in northern Venezuela and central Colombia. This boy and his counterparts could have descended from the people of the early South American sites, but not vice versa. The DNA of the Montana boy is shared with the DNA of 80 percent of indigenous Americans from South, Central, or North America, according to Eske Willerslev. The boy was buried with Clovis-style tools, indicating that his family was part of the Clovis culture.
There are obvious links between the Anzick ranch burial site and the Monte Verde culture of southern Chile. The Montana boy was buried with red ocher (iron oxide) paint poured over his remains. The only known source of red ocher paint at that time was the Taltal, Chile, mine. Second, the name of the town near Anzick ranch, Wilsall, is translatable and meaningful in proto-Ch'orti', the same language used to name place names in early sites in Chile, Venezuela, and Colombia. Wilsall or wil sal means "flying wall" in proto-Ch'orti', describing the buffalo driven over cliffs in the area by early indigenous. The ranch owners have identified one cliff on the ranch as a place where this was done.
Dozens of other place names in the upper Great Plains are also translatable in proto-Ch'orti'. This indicates it was extremely unlikely that the Clovis ancestors were the result of a hypothetical group of the Monte Verde-Clovis passage that stopped in North America, while the others proceeded on to Monte Verde. If that were the case, the language in the upper Great Plains would likely have diverged from proto-Ch'orti'. Thus, I conclude that the Clovis people are the result of a migration by raft/canoe from Chile directly to the upper Great Plains. Since words that are culturally important to the Lakota are translatable in proto-Ch'orti', such as Dakota, Lakota, Yankton, and Oglala, I further conclude that the Lakota are among the descendants of the Clovis and are the ones living where the Clovis people first arrived to North America.
Unlike the Mal’ta DNA, the Anzick ranch DNA contains a Q Y-chromosome - Q L54*(xM3) to be precise, per Morten Rasmussen, colleague of Willerslev. This fits the Anzick ranch (Clovis) DNA in the mainstream of predominantly Q haplogroups (Y chromosome) in South America and Central America. In North America, C3, Q, and R are all common. The Q M242 Y-haplogroup strain is common in the Americas and the most widespread throughout the world. This shows some evidence that persons with that genetic marker are among the most exploring of all genetic groups.
The genes of the Malta MA-1 Siberian boy match Native genes throughout the Americas (i.e. Monte Verde-related) between 14 and 38 percent. The Malta boy genes are Eurasian – they match modern European genes but not east Asian genes. This means that if the Mal’ta group split in two, the entirety of the group that went east to northeast Asia migrated to the Americas.
Conclusion
This post proposes at least five passages from Asia to the Americas, with the first likely the Zuni passage, as early as 20000 BCE, and the last, the Inuit, only about 1000 years ago. The largest and most important of the passages was the Monte Verde or Clovis passage of about 13000 BCE. This passage went directly to the south of Chile and led to 60% to 75% of all indigenous in the Americas. Early North American groups, like the Chumash and the Clovis people, migrated by boat from southern Chile to North America. The language and genetic markers of the Monte Verde passage show that it was complex, with men (and maybe some women) from northeast Asia and women from Taiwan or southeast China.
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