--- title: Native Americans Came to America in One Single Migratory Wave description: And much more recently than originally thought. canonical: https://time.com/3964634/native-american-origin-theory/ author: Tanya Basu article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-21T20:01:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:23.791Z article:section: Science og:title: What We Learned About Native American Migration Isn't True og:description: They came later than we originally thought—and in one single migratory wave. og:url: https://time.com/3964634/native-american-origin-theory/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7f2196db0e860aef/69885bcfcd1bbaf1ed6fc5cb/native-american-bering-land-bridge-theory-two-new.jpg?branch=production&width=511&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 511 og:image:height: 287 og:image:alt: native-american-bering-land-bridge-theory-two-new og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What We Learned About Native American Migration Isn't True twitter:description: They came later than we originally thought—and in one single migratory wave. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7f2196db0e860aef/69885bcfcd1bbaf1ed6fc5cb/native-american-bering-land-bridge-theory-two-new.jpg?branch=production&width=511&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # There's a New Theory About Native Americans' Origins > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: U.S. To Pay Navajo Tribe $554M For Mismanaging Resources [Watch (HLS stream): U.S. To Pay Navajo Tribe $554M For Mismanaging Resources](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/o1HmrGei.m3u8) (1:35)  _Published 2014-09-25. The U.S. has agreed to pay the Navajo Nation more than half a billion dollars for mismanaging reservation resources and leaving the largest Native American tribe in the country at incredible disadvantages for decades._  by [Tanya Basu](https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/)  ## Tanya Basu Jul 21, 2015 8:01 PM UTC  An Eskimo harpoons a whale in the Bering Sea off Alaskan shores. An Eskimo harpoons a whale in the Bering Sea off Alaskan shores. Chlaus Lotscher / Getty Images  by [Tanya Basu](https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/)  ## Tanya Basu Jul 21, 2015 8:01 PM UTC New research is turning a centuries-old hypothesis about Native Americans’ origins on its head. A team of geneticists and anthropologists published an [article](http://www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aab3884) in _Science_ on Tuesday that traces Native Americans to a single group that settled in what’s now America far later than what scientists previously thought. The researchers looked at sequenced DNA from bones as well as the sequenced genomes of Native American volunteers with heritage from not only the Americas but also Siberia and Oceania, says according to Rasmus Nielsen, a computational geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley, and one of the authors of the study. The researchers contacted people whose heritage indicated they were of Amerindian or Athanbascan—the two ethnic derivations of Native Americans—descent. Specifically, they looked at their mitochondrial DNA (mDNA), which is passed from mother to child. What they found fundamentally changes what scientists previously thought. The team found that Native Americans most likely had a common Siberian origin, contradicting theories that an earlier migration from Europe occurred. The timeline Rasmus and his colleagues propose goes something like this: About 23,000 years ago, a single group splintered off from an East Asian population. The group, hailing from northeast Asia, crossed the Bering Land Bridge between northeast Asia and Alaska, eventually making their way to the rest of the Americas. About 13,000 years ago—much more recent than previous theories—Native Americans started to split into different groups, creating the genetic and cultural diversity that exists today. “We can refute that people moved into Alaska 35,000 years ago,” Rasmus says. “They came much more recently, and it all happened relatively fast.” Rasmus’ team’s theory contradicts another line of thought, which points to two different populations coming from Siberia, settling in the Americas more than 15,000 years ago. David Reich, a senior author of a different [_Nature_ paper](http://www.nature.com/articles/nature14895.epdf?referrer%5Faccess%5Ftoken=c9xi-IfFCf0CllaxEsomfNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0N6yB-nEyCdRoL51ykMO5E91orKw8mXMzuxoORJJBQhEvoqKKuhIyt2mWT8jgl-Dt5g6OdsmXBSN-%5FVbnyk5MSj6bMM8pTM54JQ%5FaDiue7n-02Qv8okTWx3sMTAqnR3CUTIKTC94SCfsa6pHL1oAwR-cHatBVTS8I6rUyFPnqHnLp4hwoxLxSptr7z%5FPOgG-9Zfboxao6JqpRvc0eL4MovS&tracking%5Freferrer=www.nytimes.com) detailing the competing theory and a professor at Harvard, [told the New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/science/tracing-routes-to-america-through-ancient-dna.html?%5Fr=0) that their results were “surprising”: “We have overwhelming evidence of two founding populations in the Americas,” he said. Reich’s group divides the migration groups into two: one is the First Americans, and another they identify as Population Y, which “carried ancestry more closely related to indigenous Australians, New Guineans and Andaman Islanders than to any present-day Eurasians or Native Americans.” Despite their differences, both groups agree on the notion that Native Americans can trace their ancestry to Eurasian migrants with Australasian ancestry. Rasmus emphasizes that their team’s new findings don’t close the case. But as simple as the finding seems to be, Rasmus says it is truly astonishing. “The original hypothesis isn’t true,” he says. “All Native Americans are descendants of one migration wave.” ### Native American Life, 90 Years After 'Official Citizenship'  An Oglala Lakota man horseback rides on family land on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in S.D., Nov. 5, 2012. Aaron Huey—National Geographic Society/Corbis  Tourists in specially designed vehicles enjoy the view on a tour of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park in southeastern Utah, May 16, 2014. Robert Alexander—Getty Images  The ruins of a once-popular stop on historic Route 66, the Santo Domingo Indian Trading Post, awaits restoration, Santo Domingo Pueblo, N.M., Aug. 2012. Robert Alexander—Getty Images  A painting of a Native American chief wearing a Plains Indian headdress adorns the abandoned Big Chief gas station on the Zia Pueblo in northern New Mexico, Dec. 2012. Robert Alexander—Getty Images  Sharon Brokeshoulder and her daughter Audrey Brokeshoulder, contestants in the Native American Clothing Contest at Santa Fe Indian Market, pose for photos in Santa Fe, N.M. on August 22, 2011. Robert Alexander—Getty Images  Kaylon Wood, 15, waits for a tribal ceremony to begin as he was taking part in a Pow Wow at the Sac and Fox Nation annual event in Stroud, Okla. on July 30, 2012. Michael S. Williamson—The Washington Post/Getty Images  The Rosebud Reservation has casinos as a source of income for the tribe, it does not benefit from the Keystone Pipeline because the pipeline company found it too difficult to reach an agreement with the tribe, Rosebud, S.D., July 30, 2012. Michael S. Williamson—The Washington Post/Getty Images  Tribal police officer Jacob Gadowaltz leads a drug search of a vehicle on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in New Town, N.D., Aug. 2, 2013. Alexandra Hootnick—Zuma Press  Officer Jesse Hernandez talks to a prisoner in the Pascua Yaqui tribal jail in the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation, Ariz. on March 18, 2014. Jahi Chikwendiu—The Washington Post/Getty Images  This eagle had been euthanized and the body will not be sent out with an order. All useable parts of the eagle bodies from wherever they fall are kept so Native American religious practitioners have the requisite eagle feathers, talons, etc. for their ceremonies in Colo., Aug. 21, 2009. Joe Amon—Denver Post/Getty Images  The grounds of the Casino Del Sol Hotel, hinting of an oasis, overlooks the poverty stricken residential part of the tribal land on the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation, Ariz., March 18, 2014 Jahi Chikwendiu—The Washington Post/Getty Images  Overview of the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation, Ariz., March 20, 2014. Jahi Chikwendiu—The Washington Post/Getty Images  Kids play in the street on the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation, Ariz. on March 18, 2014. Jahi Chikwendiu—The Washington Post/Getty Images  Kevin True Blood, 35, of Porcupine, S.D., shoots off his pistol in celebration of the Wounded Knee Liberation Anniversary on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Feb. 27, 2014. Chris Huber—AP  Residents from Pine Ridge Reservation, S.D., in various states of inebriation outside a store located immediately across the border in Whiteclay, Neb., Feb. 17, 2012. Nicole Bengiveno—The New York Times/Redux  John Parsons holds a traditional lacrosse stick at the Onondaga Nation. Living uneasily among Americans, many Iroquois still believe they're fighting for their own identity, Onondaga Nation, N.Y., July 19, 2010. Heather Ainsworth—AP  A Lakota Honoring Ceremony is held for Johnson Holy Rock, foreground, at an annual treaty council meeting held on the Pine Ridge reservation in Pine Ridge, S.D., Feb. 18, 2012. Nicole Bengiveno—The New York Times/Redux  Autumn Two Bulls, who has taken her children to Whiteclay to witness the scene of intoxicated people loitering along the street, and explained to the children that those on the streets were teachers of what not to do, with one of her three children on the Pine Ridge reservation in S.D., Feb. 19, 2012. Nicole Bengiveno—The New York Times/Redux  A young boy plays on a swing set in a park on the Hualapai Indian Reservation in Peach Springs, Ariz., Feb. 28, 2012. Robert Galbraith—Reuters  Children play in the yard of a home on the Hualapai Indian Reservation in Peach Springs, Ariz., Feb. 28, 2012. Robert Galbraith—Reuters  Students eat breakfast at Mahnomen Elementary School in Mahnomen, Minn., Sept. 26, 2013. Dan Koeck—Reuters  A member of the Hualapai Tribe listens during a gathering at the Hualapai Tribal Forestry Department on the Hualapai Indian Reservation in Peach Springs, Ariz., Feb. 28, 2012. Robert Galbraith—Reuters  A U.S. flag with an image of an American Indian horse rider flies next to a roadside jewellery stand on the Navajo Reservation, by a remote section of the Grand Canyon near Little Colorado River, Ariz., June 23, 2013. 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