Bering Land Bridge Theory

The Bering land bridge theory was proposed by the Jesuit priest Jose de Acosta in the 16th century. He suggested that the Artic and the North American continent were settled by people from Siberia to what is now Alaska over a land bridge that subsequently became submerged as the sea level rose with the end of the last Ice Age. American archeologist Samuel Haven used the land-bridge theory in 1856 as the basis for his hypothesis that humans travelled via a Bering land bridge. This let them travel from Siberia to Alaska and take a land route south through Canada as the Ice Age retreated. Modern hypotheses, none of which have won complete acceptance, have humans appearing in Alaska and the North American continent overland or by boat from 12,000 to 17,000 years ago. Sites in South America have been dated even earlier than that, suggesting that other people may have reached it by a sea route.

Native American Religious Beliefs

Many Native Americans have rejected the Bering land bridge theory because it flies in the face of their religious beliefs, which state that humans first appeared on the North American continent at the beginning of the world and have populated it ever since. Native Americans have also rejected the theory proposed by the Mormon Church that Native Americans were descended from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel, because no evidence of any link has been found between the Hebrew language, rituals and symbols, and those of Native American tribes.

Manifest Destiny

Native Americans have denied the Bering land bridge theory in part because they see it as a tool by which mid-19th century American politicians excused their "land grab" of Native American territories by claiming they had only been settled in America for a few thousand years, after using the land bridge to leave their original home of Siberia. The politicians also stated that it was America's "manifest destiny" to expand westward across the North American continent, bringing democratic ideals to less-enlightened peoples. The supporters of Manifest Destiny saw native Americans as incapable of self-government. Native Americans believe that Manifest Destiny was used as a way to strip them of their lands at a time when immigration and a rising birth rate made it imperative that America have more lands onto which settlers could expand their territory, whether Native Americans were living there already or not.

Genetic Links

Native Americans also have rejected the position of scientists who point to the presence of five genetic haplogroups -- groups of people who have common genes in their DNA -- in Native Americans. The groups are identfied as A, B, C, D and X. The genes of the first four groups are commonly found in East Asia. The genes in haplogroup X were said to be similar to those found in Europeans. But further genetic research has also found limited amounts of the haplogroup in Asia, the Middle East, and even the Gobi desert. These findings have challenged the theory of Ice Age Europeans migrating to North America via an ice pack that stretched across the North Atlantic, known as the Solutrean theory.