Over 12,000 years ago, in one of the greatest triumphs of prehistory, humans colonized North America. This title tells the scientific story of the first Americans: where they came from, when they arrived, and how they met the challenges of moving across the vast, unknown landscapes of Ice Age North America.

Preface Acknowledgments 1. Overture On Dates and Dating 2. The Landscape of Colonization: Glaciers, Climates, and Environments of Ice Age North America The Younger Dryas: It Came from Outer Space? 3. From Paleoliths to Paleoindians A Mammoth Fraud in Science 4. The Pre-Clovis Controversy and Its Resolution A Visit to Monte Verde 5. Non-archaeological Answers to Archaeological Questions And Then There Was Kennewick 6. American Origins: The Search for Consensus Looking for Clovis in All the Wrong Places 7. What Do You Do When No One’s Been There Before? 8. Clovis Adaptations and Pleistocene Extinctions Is Overkill Dead? 9. Settling In: Late Paleoindians and the Waning Ice Age Back to Folsom 10. When Past and Present Collide Further Reading Notes References Index Plates

"Meltzer's compelling account of the data and the debates takes readers behind the scenes of the often contentious arguments that have redirected the scientific pursuit of the first Americans."—Tom D. Dillehay, author of The Settlement of the Americas"In remarkably comprehensive and lucid fashion, Meltzer synthesizes the complex and commonly conflicting evidence for the earliest human presence in the Americas and provides an honestly told lesson about the workings of scientific thought."—David Hurst Thomas, author of Skull Wars"A natural storyteller, David Meltzer gives us a vivid picture of both the colonizing bands of humans who moved into the Americas and the researchers who followed their footsteps from Alaska to Chile. This is an insider's account, told with a keen eye and sense of humor, as if Meltzer were there when discoveries were made and when disputes were aired—as, indeed, he often was."—Ann Gibbons, author of The First Human: The Race to Discover our Earliest Ancestors"The settling of the Americas has been a first-rate scientific puzzle since Columbus stumbled across the peoples of the Caribbean. David Meltzer is its ideal chronicler: a major participant in the research that is unlocking the mystery and a fine writer with a wry humor. Thank goodness there aren't too many scientists like him—science journalists like me would be out of business."—Charles C. Mann, author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus