The following is according to Past Worlds: Atlas of Archaeology published by Harper Collins, c.1997 Borders Group, Inc., as well as the January/Febuary 1999 issue of Archaeology: "Celebrating the Human Past" magazine; pages 60-61.... unless otherwise stated.

How the Americas was populated is a very perplexing mystery. The current theory is that the Americas were populated by Asian tribes crossing the ice bridge during or soon after the last Ice Age. The first site which is universally agreed upon by all archaeologist is called Clovis, in New Mexico USA.  It is dated to around 11,500 BP. This is good because it gives evidence to a human crossing of the Alaska-Siberia bridge during a 12,000 - 14,000 BP warm period of the Ice Age. Before and after this time, the bridge would be closed due to the glaciers.

Ok, here are some of the problems between this theory and the physical evidence:

 1. Sites in Missouri, Idaho, and Oregon are reliably dated to between 14,000 and 13,000 BP. (p 70)

      2. A arrow point used to kill a giant tortoise at Little Salt Spring shows people had arrived in Florida by 12,000 BP. (p. 70)

      3. These sites tell us that the crossing into the Americas at about 14,000 BP.  However, the Medowcroft rock shelter in Pennsylvania, stone artifacts have been dated to 16,000 BP. In order for colonization to happen by this date, deep within the Ice Age, they would have to have crossed at a brief warm point in the weather at 19,000 BP.

NEW 4. A new report from the Washington Post April 5, 2000, says that extensive evidence has been found at a place 45 miles south of Richmond, Virginia, USA, which gives large support to a pre-Clovis established culture in the Americas, dated between 15,000 - 17,000 BP. An intresting note of evidence at the site is that of Southern Pine charcoal. This tells us that at the time of human occupation, the climate was cooler than it is now where maples and warmer trees now grow. This could indicate that the glaciers were still well-advanced at the time of settlement and not in a recessive warm phase.

       5. Stone artifacts from Fell's Cave in Patagonia in the southernmost tip of South America show that people had reached there by 12,000 BP.

       6. Sites in Peru, Argentina, and Columbia all contain artifacts dating from about 14,000 BP.

       7. The Monte Verde settlement in Chile...south of Peru, Argentina, and Columbia...show that hunter gathers had intimate knowledge of the coast, forest, and mountain resources by 13,000 BP. And here is a quote from the book, (p70) "Such successful adjustment could not have been achieved by the first  wave of colonists as they spread into the region, and implies that the area had been inhabited for some time prior to this date of the site." There is also some question about five stone points and a stone hearth dated to 33,000 BP at Monte Verde.

      8. However, at the rock shelter in Pedra Furada - northeast Brazil - radiocarbon dating places charcoal taken from its hearths have dated human occupation at 32,000 BP.

In Archaeology magazine on page 60, they make this comment about Monte Verde and the dating problems in general,
"Though only a 1000 years older than Clovis, Monte Verde is so far from the Bering Strait that the ancestors of the Monte Verdeans must have crossed from Siberia well before 12,500 B.P. [before present] in order for their decendants to make it there on time. The ice-free corridor between the Canadian glaciers traces a route along the edge of Rocky Mountains that would have been closed from about 20,000 to 13,000 B.P. Even after the glaciers withdrew, meltwater drainages and lakes, harsh climates, and low biomass would have made the route difficult, if not impassable. Most fossils of vertebrates on the corridor, on which the migrating human foragers must have depended at least in part, do not predate 11,300 B.P."

Another possibility is that the migrants could have used boats to sail down along the shoreline of the western coastline. The magazine addresses this issue and points out that the glaciers would have plunged all the way into the ocean, making any landings all but impossible. Even if there would have been safe havens to land, the climate created by the ice sheets would have prevented much of any vegetation for food.
Most importantly of all, is that there is no evidence of the technology needed to build sea-worthy ships in North America until after 6000 B.P.

The online Journal: Nature suggests that through research on the skulls of modern "Native Americans" and ancient skull fossils, and language tracing, that the original Americans came in many waves of people from different parts of Asia, as seen in this National Geographic article. The scientists found that genetically, the first Americans came to the area around 25,000 to 30,000 years ago. Tracing the languages led the date of around 30,000 BP. However, as seen elsewhere on this page, established human settlements were in South America by 32,000 BP making any sort of crossing of the Bering around the 40,000 BP mark. And as stated below, there were no known occupations of Siberia/Asia at this time. ***NEW*** New evidence found suggests that there was a Siberian population dating to the 30,000 BP timeframe, which brings it closer to being in line with the dates of Pan-American sites.

Here is the quote of the conclusion of the author of this book on page 70:
          "To have reached South America by 32,000 years ago, people might have       entered North America between 45,000 and 40,000 years ago. However, there is no known occupation of Siberia at this time and such early dates also require reappraisal of dental and linguistic evidence, which suggests colonization c.20,000 BC. There is, as yet, no trace of human activity in North America before 15,000 BC. There is still much to be discovered about the peopling of the Americas."

In other words, science tells us as fact that the Americas were populated by a crossing of migrating people from Siberia through North America and finally to South America at 12,000 BP, but the physical evidence shows that  the settlements of Americas actually began in South America! Opposite of an ice bridge crossing...as well as 20,000 years beforehand.  Also, about the apparent date of the crossing at 40,000 BP....Siberia was not even populated at this time, so no one was there to even cross over if they could. Where did these American people come from?

I think the magazine sums it up best when it says, The search for answers continues." page 61.
 

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