First Americans

Stefan Milo is a Youtuber who for years has been researching human origins and making interesting videos about that subject matter.  Here he's broaching the topic of early First Americans and the timing of their proposed entry into the Western United States.

There is evidence of human footprints in New Mexico and Southern California that vastly predate the time periods that Stefan is talking about, but nothing about the story of human incursion into the Americas is definite, firm, or yet proven.  Probably there have been multiple streams of human migrations onto this continent over the millennia, as weather and climatic conditions allowed. It wouldn't surprise me if the date of origin of human habitation on these land masses eventually ends up being much earlier than is presently hypothesized.

That being said, let's let Stefan make his own points.  Two things in particular interested me regarding this video.  First, it originates at a site along the Salmon River in Idaho, specifically Cooper's Ferry.  That's not far SE from my neck of the woods, so somewhat immediate to me.

Secondly, the Western Stemmed spearpoint, which apparently predates Clovis points in America by two or three thousand years, were being made quite similarly about the same time (roughly 16,000 years ago) on the northern, indigenous island of Hokkaido, now a part of Japan.  Hoddaido was populated by the Ainu people until about 500 years ago, when the Japanese made inroads onto the southern tip of the island.  It's a rough, mountainous (and volcanic), forested landscape much akin to the Pacific NW.  

The fact that the Ainu were making arrowheads almost exactly similar to the Western Stemmed points at about the same time, 16,000 years ago, suggests a point of cultural connection between these Asiatic peoples and the early settlers of Northwestern North America.

There is also some interesting and tantalizing oral history of the Nez Perce tribe that pertains and which Stefan thankfully includes in this video.  After all, these are the very people we are presumably speaking of in studies like these -- best to listen to what they have to say on the matter.