New scientific evidence continues to support the idea that America was primarily colonized by seafarers, who hugged the coast of Asia, then Beringia, and then the Pacific Northwest coast: foraging the coast or nearby coastal islands, which were often free of ice and likely filled with the same plants we see here, and seals, and salmon.
For years, it was assumed on a bed of circumstancial evidence that the Americas were populated by a land route along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains. Now, it is becoming more likely that both continents were populated by Pacific seafarers, paddling these coasts.
Because the ice age sea level was much lower, yesterday’s coastlines now sit underneath murky waters; archaeological evidence of these first Americans will likely never truly be uncovered.
With so much of Oregon’s prehistory either underwater or unaccounted for, I realize shovels and huckleberry picking won’t get us very far.
I am one of those people who prefers to figure things out on my own. I blow things up, I stumble along, and eventually, maybe, I figure it out.
But not this time. My errors can only be portals to so much discovery. Learning about Oregon's old Native history will require some outside help.
Pistol Creek flows into the Pacific in Southern Oregon
