Anthropology

that they rose on the continent both North and South. They don't rule out that others may have come across a land bridge at some point. They are very wary of the land bridge proponents because some of that fed into the "it wasn't your land anyway" friction between European and indigenous cultures/historians. Needless to say the more we find out the more we make revisions to what many people were certain about. I imagine it will go both ways.

Using the language method of comparison in this instance is not necessarily an accurate tool. We know from the verbal history and artifacts discovered so far that there were a great many tribes and languages that have gone extinct in the Americas. Also due to wholesale development across the US for the last 300 years going from east to west etc. we no longer can say with certainty how much evidence we have destroyed and paved over. Remember it is only in the last 40 years or so that we even have taken seriously not bulldozing Indian mounds etc. to put up shopping malls etc. For instance there is/was a huge variety in dress, appearance and style of shelters between the various tribes. The indigenous people are right to point out that in order for the "they were Siberians who walked over" to be taken seriously the proponents of that theory have to explain why this wide diversity exists. It would be logical to assume that if the tribes in the Americas all originated from a fairly homogenous group in northern Asia migrating over a land bridge then there would be a similarity in appearance, dress, style of shelter etc. For example if a man knows how to make a stone axe while living in Siberia he will logically bring that knowledge, and axe, with him when he migrates. It would not be logical for a huge variety in making tools, adornments etc. to become the norm. In other words you keep doing what you know works.

That is not to say that different areas with different stone types and trees etc. may not bring about some change for example. But we see a variety even in tribes that were in roughly the same geographical area. So it is a matter for more discovery and hopefully we will go about our archaeology with respect, consultation and openness. You are to be commended for being open and curious and that shows great respect. I have included a link here to a list of extinct tribes in the US. These are just the ones we know at the present time. The extinct ones in Canada, Central America and South America are a whole different list.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Extinct_Native_American_tribes