A Story of the Planet Venus

Appendix 7

Coming To The Americas - Long Before Columbus

 Contents

Introduction                                                                                                   

Pre-13,000 YA (Years Ago)                                                                           

Describing the Layout of the Land                                                            

First Entry into North America                                                                    

At 13,000 YA                                                                                                   

   - The Quick Freeze                                                                                    

   - The Flood                                                                                                 

   - Mississippi River Drainage                                                                    

   - Survivors  ??                                                                                            

Travel by Water                                                                                            

Between 13,000 YA & 10,000 YA.  The Younger Dryas Period                  

After 10,000 YA                                                                                              

End of Beringia Crossing                                                                            

Post-Glacial Sea Level Rise                                                                        

Possible Route from Alaska to the Prairies                                              

And in Closing                                                                                              

Introduction

 While working on the various parts of this Venus Story, the author had to keep reminding himself that there were people involved in those events; real live persons, some of whom could have been our long ago ancestors. They saw those images in the skies. They suffered the floods, the destructions, the fires, the cold weather and the times of hunger. He tried to visualise what was going on, and to understand what options they might have had available to them.

 His more-recent personal family lines appear to have "Come to the Americas" from Europe and the United Kingdom. They came in sailing ships and very likely some had a tough time with sickness, disease, storms and uncertainties before they arrived at a safe port in the new land.

 Very early members of the families of many others made their way from Asia via the Beringia land connection thousands of years earlier. For them, it was not a trip. It was a matter of moving with your family and friends to a better location where game had not been over-hunted. This would occur over many generations. Other attractions may have been newly emerging grasses with lots of seeds, making gathering of them worthwhile. Did a family member discover an area where there were good-tasting roots, and no one else had found them? The author doubts that these people considered themselves to be migrating. They were simply "living". At times a group might collectively have considered that some area belonged to it.

 When these people arrived in the Americas is currently being rethought. The earlier belief was perhaps about 22,000 to 17,000 YA (Years Ago) based on the belief that the Ice Ages were centred at today's North Pole. As shown in this Venus Story, that assumption is incorrect. The Beringia "land bridge" and today's Alaska were not covered with snow and ice!        Those locations were then at a more southerly latitude. The 'choke-point' in the route taken by the migrants may have been in the path that the MacKenzie River took from the Canadian prairies to the Arctic Ocean. It might have experienced "snow closures" in the winter, if in fact it was restricted at all !

A published summary and a pair of recent papers(1),(2),(3) report that Chiquihuite Cave in north-western Mexico has human artifacts (stone tools) similar to those of the Clovis, Western Stemmed and Beringian cultures that date to 33,000 - 31,000 YA (cal BP). These finds strongly suggests that migration into North America was not impeded by the Ice Age glaciers. In fact, it may have begun well before those dates, thereby allowing settlement in western to south-eastern North America, and south into Central and South America.

The catastrophe inflicted upon the Earth by the Venus Comet encounter of 13,000 YA put an abrupt stop to the first period of migration. The peoples and animals living on that "bridge" at that time, were very likely drowned, or isolated and starved, leaving the area a "No Man's Land". The people then inhabiting much of central North America, their forebears having arrived earlier, appear to also have been devastated by the flooding associated with the catastrophe. We are left with a paucity of evidence of their prior existence. Those whose peoples had settled east of the Appalachian Mountains, and others in the western mountains, seem to have escaped the worst of the devastation. This Venus Story and its Appendices examines the details.

 The Beringia land bridge remained "unavailable for use" immediately after the sea receded. The salt of the seawater had to be washed out of the soil to allow the regeneration of vegetation. Repopulation by animals would have followed and encouraged people to venture into that area again. The animals and people would have been living in what we now call northeast Asia at the time of that catastrophe. It would be a matter of their descendants spreading into "new" areas to the then North of them (today’s East). They would extend across Beringia and today's Alaska to the MacKenzie River in the Yukon, Canada. From there they went up that river, possibly around or over the tongues of glaciers, and into today's plains of North America. The climate and weather would have been distinctly colder than before the catastrophe, but still livable and warming.

 As mentioned before, this was not a planned migration to a "new land". They were simply hunter - gatherers exploring adjacent lands for food and water resources. Flooding due to sea level rise marked the final closure of Beringia about 8000 YA, and ended the passage of the people. This essay tries to understand what the "experiences" of those ancestors were like.

 Pre-13,000 YA

 We begin the story 24,098 Years BP (Before Present which is defined as 1950 CE), the time of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) of the most-recent Ice Age. The reader will note that BP and YA are equivalent. This age is derived from the NOAA  GISP2 data(4) (Greenland Ice Sampling Program by U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency). It is the date of the latest, lowest- ice-freezing temperature shown in the ice at the top of the glaciers in a period of sustained cold.

 This was the time when our climate, then at its coldest temperatures, began to show signs of some warming after 90,000 years of progressively and then sustained colder temperatures since the previous peak warm temperature(5). During that 90,000 years, our species, Homo Sapiens, left Africa and invaded Europe and Asia. The Neanderthal Culture on the other hand, having existed before our species came on the scene, disappeared about 35,000 YA. At that LGM date, glacier ice started to melt, and so doing would create rivers and cause the sea level to slowly rise.

 The world, however, had significant differences from what we know today. The North Pole, around which the Earth rotates, was then located in southern Greenland, at  650 30' N, 510 W by today's co-ordinates(6). As a result, climates including temperatures, winds, and rainfall were different in most places than we have today. Types of vegetation and animal life, and their distribution, would be different too. We will examine the idea of a "land bridge" between Asia and Alaska as a pathway that allowed animals and humans to come to North America.

 Describing the Layout of the Land

Let's begin by constructing a revised map of that area as it might have looked back then. We include the previous location of the North Pole. We show Asia connected to Alaska by a land mass which included portions of the continental shelf between them that are now flooded. A portion of that shelf had been exposed for most of 100,000 years and was fertile land that would have supported vegetation, wildlife and their hunters. It extended about 1000-1500km from the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

 The reader must visualise the effect of that earlier North Pole position. Traveling from Asia to Alaska and up the Yukon River to the MacKenzie River was essentially moving northward toward the then Pole. You travelled from warmer climates to colder ones close to the glaciers. Today's Northeast Asia was about Latitude 400 N, to western Alaska on the Yukon River about Latitude 470 N, to Latitude 550 N at the MacKenzie River in the Yukon where the ice was met. Today the closest points of dry land between Asia and Alaska are 100km apart. From the base of the Asian neck of land leading to Beringia, to the MacKenzie River is a distance of 2000km.

It was not a pathway, although access to the now Canadian plains seems to have existed.

 Sea level in that 100,000 year ago period, had been 125m below today's sea level. All that "lost" water was frozen into the ice age glaciers. By 13k YA, after 11,000 years of slow global warming, sea level is thought to have risen perhaps 25m to approximately 100m below today's level. Beringia was 4500-6000 km south of the North Pole of that time. In comparison, the Canada - US border of the 49th parallel is 4500km south of today's pole, and the state-line north of North Carolina to Oklahoma in the United States, is about 6000km south, giving an idea of the latitude of Beringia.

 Possible calendar indications suggest that the Earth circled closer to the Sun than it does today making it warmer than it presently is(7). This would indicate a possible climate in Beringia like the south half of the United States today. The Alaska end would be the colder end. We can assume that there would be grass-land and trees supporting people and animals. Life there would be quite feasible for hunter-gatherers and herders. As the sea level slowly rose, those by the shore would have gradually pulled back. The slow narrowing of Beringia would go unnoticed.

 Adjusting our map co-ordinates of longitude and latitude to accommodate the position of the earlier pole, we derive the following approximate old co-ordinates:

                                                                 _____Before 13k YA                        Current details_____

Eastern Asia closest to Alaska                     380 N (520 N from old pole)    670 N (230 from N. Pole)

Yukon River at Fort Yukon, Alaska  440 30' N (450 30' N from old pole)  670 N (230 from N. Pole)

Mackenzie River at Norman Wells, Yukon   600 N (300 N from old pole)    650 N (250 from N. Pole)

These values indicate that:

- The Eastern Asia location was closer to the equator than the North Pole. Its sunlight would be analogous to the latitude of today's San Francisco, CA or St. Louis, MO or Richmond, VA.

- Fort Yukon was midway between the Pole and the equator, and would have sunshine equivalent to the latitude of northern Oregon, or St. Paul, MN or the border between Quebec, Canada and Vermont, USA.

-  Norman Wells, even though it would have been the closest of these three locations to the ice age glaciers, received the amount of sunlight similar in today's climate to a spot at the border of British Columbia with the Yukon and the North West Territories, about 600km south.

-  In essence, during that last Ice Age Period, all three of these locations would have been warmer than today, two of them quite a bit warmer.

-  Supporting these ideas are the facts that ice markings have not been found in north Asia, and are also missing from all of Alaska and for much of the Yukon Territory except in the mountains. This lack of Ice Age evidence becomes understandable when one takes into account the likely extent of ice age coverage prior to the movement of the Earth's crust in 11,053 BCE (13k YA).

 First Entry into North America

Research in today's northwestern North America(8) claims to show that the first migration from Asia via the Beringia land bridge occurred between 17,500 and 14,600 YA(9). Reference 7 in the Waters publication, is an Abstract that says "They show that ancestral Native Americans (NAs) diverged from Siberians and East Asians ~23k YA and that a split within that ancestral lineage between later NAs and Ancient Beringians (ABs) occurred ~21k YA ago. Subsequently, NAs diverged into northern NA (NNA) and southern NA (SNA) branches ~15.5k YA ago." 

 The author of the current work stresses that the dates of those splits and branches above were determined from DNA work. They cannot be assumed to have happened at the locations where the samples were discovered. The ancestral Native Americans (NAs) likely moved after the splits leaving their bones further along their paths.

 The DNA work on pre-10,000 YA materials, mentioned in the abstract, was on only six (6) samples, undoubtedly reflecting the difficulty in finding readable DNA that old or older. Their diagrammatic map of the split between NNA and SNA lines suggests a location inland from Vancouver, BC. Subsequent text fails to discuss or indicate where the NNA genetic line later appears. The SNA line is found in the western USA, and southward through Central America and throughout South America. Discussion on its southern spread constitutes the balance of the Abstract. The views of the author of this Venus Comet paper regarding the NNA line are presented below in the Section entitled Survivors ?

 Genetic data and archaeological evidence to support the idea that there has been a human population in the Americas before about 17,500 YA, is discussed on page 3 above. The evidence, limited as it is, supports the idea that there were successful human populations in multiple sites in North America and South America from 33,000 YA to 14,000 YA. A recent paper, describing testing at the Cerutti Mastodon site near San Diego, CA, USA(10), claims human butchering with rocks about 130,000 years ago. Additionally, genetic analyzes in recent years have allowed scientists to trace a coherent but complex history of the first peoples that entered, explored and settled in the Americas.

 Researcher Waters5  writes (His reference 7)  "These studies have shown that the ancestors of all contemporary indigenous peoples descended from only five maternal lineages and two parental lineages. The lineages show that the foundational population came from Asia and experienced a serious genetic bottleneck. A small number of people with limited genetic diversity, gave rise to all the indigenous peoples who occupied the continent before the arrival of Europeans”.

        Studies of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) “... indicate that the original population from which the first Americans derived, had been isolated from Asian lineages very likely in eastern Beringia before moving south.” After a stay in Beringia, “a small group split off from that isolated population, traveled south of the ice sheets that covered most of Canada and their descendants explored and populated the Americas,” he continued.

 The author of this Venus Story believes that people of various heritages lived in the area of the world we now call Asia. Beringia is the name we give to the land, now submerged beneath the waters of the Bering Strait, between eastern Asia and Alaska. At the LGM, it was dry land, separating the Pacific and Arctic Oceans. People living in that area were likely hunter-gatherers with no fixed location called "home". Others may have been herders with some livestock on which they relied for food. We can assume that grasslands and forests existed.

 As the climate began to warm, the most southerly positioned ice (in pre-13k YA terms) would show the start of melting first. The glacier tongue up against the Rocky Mountains, would be one of those positions in our area of interest. Melt water would accumulate between the ice and the mountains and then find its way downhill to the Arctic Ocean. Today we call that water course, the Mackenzie River(11). It appears to be a major "old" river, currently separating the Yukon and the Northwest Territories in Canada, that neatly fits that description.

 People and groups would meet and link up. In the process, perhaps they formed new groups with mixed genes. This was not a trip but their existence, a place where people lived their whole lives. Nobody was "going" anywhere.  All would be effectively "fenced in" from going further East by the coastal bounds of Asia, Beringia and Alaska, and the ice of the glaciers in Canada.

 In Alaska, the Yukon River valley would remain open and livable, likely with seasonal changes. With that old North Pole position, the Yukon was essentially a southward-running river, channeling melt water away. Its latest delta is apparent today on the south shore of Norton Sound (630 N, 1640 W) extending southward to Scammon Bay. Its discharge, based on sea bottom bathymetry, appears to have flowed southwesterly across Beringia around today's St. Matthew Island and into the Pacific Ocean.

Unless there were events that caused changes, that population had likely been static for thousands of years with the only movement being within their area or back into Asia. The passage of time, while not likely a concern to them, would be measured in thousands of years and many multiples of generations. Alaska was NOT thought of as a pathway to the Americas. It was at the limit of useable living space in the frigid North of that time.

 If you followed the Yukon and other rivers "north", eventually you met the face of the Ice Age glacier blocking your path. It may have been tight against the Rocky Mountains on your right and extended into the Arctic Ocean on your left ..... and had done so for many thousands of years. No apparent route over or around it was evident. You would not find a food supply on it for animals or for people. Hunting and gathering on the glacier would not be a way to feed yourself. The author doubts that these people knew what was beyond the ice. Evidence of animal life in the Americas predating the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) about 24,000 YA, has been identified, but humanoid evidence has not been apparent except for reference10 above.

 The people of Beringia/Alaska began to extend their known territory to their north (eastwards in terms of today) as warming began after the LGM. They likely followed the Yukon River upstream5. When its course veered out of mountains on their right (east in those days), they continued north on smaller river valleys that took them to the Mackenzie River. Following that major river upstream (eastward) would be the obvious route as going downstream stopped you shortly at the Arctic Ocean. Staying with the river valleys would provide a pathway plus grasslands for hunting and for their animals. Their "advance" along that route would be limited by how quickly the vegetation recovered after the ice melted, prompting the recovery of animal life. Following the Mackenzie River and the mountain front to their east, while perhaps 1000 years elapsed during which the glaciers shrank back, would see them getting into wide open prairie country.

 The author used Google Earth to assess the possible routing. His notes are completely speculative and are provided at the end of this Appendix. See Possible Route from Alaska to the Prairies.

 The author wondered if the people had any idea of what lay ahead. It would be a trip into an unknown, new land. Their driving force or the attraction/motivation would be food and an easier life. If one adventurous person returned from a lengthy sortie up ahead and reported grass-lands, his stories would spread like wildfire. Would it would be lush prairie grasses for your animals versus trampled down scrawny vegetation? Perhaps large animals to hunt (Bison?) versus chasing rabbits and foxes. Did they hunt the Woolly Mammoth along the Yukon River?

 In the 11,000 years, of the period from the LGM (24k YA) to the date of the catastrophe (13k YA), people began expanding to their northward, from Alaska, Beringia and quite possibly from Asia into North America. It would not be a concept of going to a new land far away. On an individual basis it more likely was the attraction of good areas beyond you, that were not fully occupied by others. Hunting would be better because the land had not been "hunted out". In your lifetime, you might move 100km. Some researchers speak of the migration as in the time period of 20,000 to 13,000 YA. While being a reasonable estimate of dates, the author did not find any evidence in their work to support that larger period. These people likely spread to all parts of North America and southward into Central and South America.

 Evaluation of the findings in the Paisley Caves, OR, USA provided a date of 12,200 YA by radiocarbon dating.(12) This is equivalent to 14,040 YA (IntCal09), and fits the above estimated period for the first migration to the Americas. It predates the 13k YA catastrophe.

 At 13,000 YA

 As mentioned above, Earth's North Pole was in a different place than today.  Between that time and ours, the Earth was involved in a major catastrophe that altered the orientation of the crust of the Earth. This happened in 11,053 BCE (13k YA). The position of the physical North Pole which had been at today's  650 30' N, 510 W shifted to its present position in four steps over 6000 years, rotating the surface of the Earth in the process. Exposure to the Sun changed and therefore the climate changed in various ways all over the Earth.

 The changing of the location of that Pole to its present position, was the major event that launched this story of the Venus Comet. See "The Venus Story" and its supporting Appendices for details. This Appendix 7 - Coming to the Americas - Long Before Columbus deals with the people caught up in that event, before, during and after. They are the "heroes" in the story.

 The Quick-Freeze

Mammoth bones are found in river banks in Siberia and in Alaska. A few complete bodies have been found buried in the silty muck during gold explorations in Alaska, still frozen solid and having never begun to decompose. One had pristine yellow buttercup flowers in its mouth, and had died before chewing them. These finds "beg an answer" to the question,

"How do you quick-freeze a completely intact mammoth?"

 As discussed in the Venus Comet Story, this would not have been done by a huge wave of seawater, but more likely a down-draft of air that allowed the icy vacuum of space to envelop the creature. It would be suffocated and quick-frozen. All it's warmth was quickly drawn from it. Burial likely took placed as the Earth convulsed.

 The Flood

Research by this author indicates that world-wide Flooding was part of that catastrophe of 13k YA(13). Movement from Asia into Alaska, and further into North America, would cease for possibly the next 2000 years. In addition, the author believes that both human and animal life forms were obliterated in most of today's central and western North America, east of the Appalachian mountains. They died by drowning and starvation. Although evidence did not survive, the author considers that the waters of the Flood surged over the so-called Beringia Bridge. The people and animals living there were either drowned or were isolated and starved to death.

 He also thinks that the Flood likely inundated parts of western Alaska, based on the flooding effects noted on the Great Plains and central North America. The suffocated and quick-frozen animals mentioned earlier must have been above the high-water mark of the Flood. Visualising such flooding is admittedly mind-boggling but consistent with the disappearance of people and animals from that area plus the water-shaped landscape. The huge delta of the ancient Yukon River extending from Norton Sound south to Nelson Island attests to a very sizeable and sudden runoff of water from inland Alaska. Snow and ice melting would be too slow to create that pattern. There is no similar terra-forming on the Siberian Peninsula.

 The author suspects that the Earth experienced its first end-for-end polar axis flip as the gravitational attraction of the Venus Comet drew up the oceans into a huge tidal wave of water. As the Earth rotated, this "tide" would appear to move around around the planet with an apparent East to West path. Lower elevation lands, perhaps as high as 1000m above the then sea level, would be flooded severely. Prior to the Flood, sea level is thought to have been 90 - 100m below current sea level. This suggests that a wall of water rose up from either or both of the Arctic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean, and washed over the Beringia land bridge. Huge tsunamis coming out of those oceans would mount rapidly as they ran onto the Bering Strait shelf between the two continents. That a substantial runoff is evidenced by the large Yukon River delta in Alaska but not in Siberia, further suggests that those large waves in this part of the world, were moving from northwest to southeast on today's maps.

 Sea water soaking would destroy the plant life, and destroy the food chain in that area. In addition, the melting of some of the ice on the land, would cause a permanent increase in sea level by some amount. The graph used later (see entry End of the Beringia Crossing below) provides details. [Adjust date scale by lowering by 1.5k years as discussed in text.]

 Wrangell Island and some other smaller islands, have been found to contain the remains of mammoth bones and tusks imbedded in its sand. It is as if the bodies of multitudes of those creatures had been washed ashore at some time. Dating of these remains by others, is given as "no more than 4000 BCE", older research results being deemed faulty or "impossible", but without any supporting material. They declare that the animals lived there until that time. No mention has been found of any other species of animal or of humans at those sites. No discussion is given on where the foliage and grasses and fresh water consumed by those large creatures, during their isolation, came from.

 The Flood is suspected to have entered North America by two routes: 

    1. Up the Mackenzie River from the Arctic Ocean where it would have been hemmed-in by the Rocky Mountains on one side and the glacier face on the other, creating a canal-like passage. Waters surging over the ice-age glaciers in today's northern Canada, or through the mountain barriers along the Pacific Ocean coast, are thought to have been minimal or non-existent.

     2.  Water would flood northward from the Gulf of Mexico, spreading widely across the central part of the continent between the western mountains and the Appalachian mountains in the East. Creatures in its path would be washed away, drowning everything and everybody in its salty expanse. No memories have been found of a forewarning. Neither are there human memories of people successfully gathering food or hunting animals for a long time, or even just simply existing.

 The initial flooding, followed quickly by the massive run-off, would be spectacular. A depth of sea water of only 1 metre along with strong currents and muddy bottoms, could be expected to drown most creatures including people. Survivors, including those who managed to get to land above the water, would soon starve. Fresh water would be in short supply, and perhaps they were now in a colder climate, wet and with little to wear.

 The Mississippi River in the United States, has huge tributaries, namely the Ohio, the Tennessee, the Missouri, the Arkansas and the southern Red River. Today, they meander in the broad river valleys cut at that time. The Mississippi's path from Indiana southward apparently followed the ancient joint between the east and west "halves" of North America, ie. the St. Lawrence River valley, and the south-running Wabash River/Madrid Fault system. Ice is thought to have blocked drainage via Hudson Bay and the St Lawrence River. The mud and soil that was transported by these rivers, was deposited as it met the sea in the Gulf of Mexico. The huge, spreading Mississippi River delta is found beginning perhaps as far north as today's Natchez, MS. In the gulf, it is very extensive below sea level far south of the visible portion.

 Some of the Flood was diverted westward sending great currents of water cutting rocky paths through the west coast mountains. These we know as the Columbia, Fraser, and Snake Rivers, and the destroyed area as the Scablands. Contrary to the opinions of most scholars, this author suspects that the Grand Canyon of the Colorado was largely carved at this time. It filled in the north end of the Gulf of California with its "bits and pieces" leaving the Salton Sea isolated.

This map from Wikipedia shows how much of North America drains via the Mississippi River.

 Survivors ??

Little evidence remained on-site that the land west of the Appalachians had been occupied at that time. Earlier intentional burials of people and tools, and incidental burials of animals, have been found. It appears that some of the people that came to that area, continued southward and likely began populating Central and South America. They seem to have survived the 13k YA catastrophe. (Water's paper, ref 5 above) The Clovis culture appraisal is seemingly based solely on lithic relics in the southern United States, plus evidence in Belize, Brazil and Chile. Their genetics died out in those areas about 9000 YA.

Field research(14) in the mountains of northwestern United States has discovered human-crafted artifacts and remains of bison that have been dated to 10,000 YA (8050 BCE). Accepting that dating, suggests that some of the earlier movement of people (pre-11,053 BCE) who remained in that area, survived as a result of living at an altitude higher than the Flood waters. With the destruction of wildlife and habitat at lower elevations, they would be forced to remain at the higher elevations. The mention of 3000m elevation as the place of the artifacts, does not imply that the waters rose that high. It was the location of a successful hunt.

 Definite evidence of survivors is apparent in North America east of the Appalachian Mountains along the east coast. Some research places their entrance into North America as among the earliest people, about 30k to 14k YA, predating the Flood. They appear to have been distinct from the well-known Clovis culture, and some others who lived in Central and South America before the Flood.(15) Those dates appear to be not well-documented.

 Traces of a mention of the catastrophe may be detected in their ancient lore. These native people(16) appear to have been protected from the surge of the Flood by the Appalachian mountains.(17) They are known today as Wabinaki, Anshinaabeg, Iroquois, Lenape, Sioux, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Blackfoot, Passamaquoddy, Seminole, and Muskogee, to name some of today's tribes. ALL consider their homelands to be east of those Mountains. They know that some of their ancestors later moved westerly to occupy sparsely settled lands(18). In the process they met the next waves of migration from Asia via the reopened Beringia, possibly not until 8000 - 9000 YA. Identifying the earliest days of the later-arriving native peoples has not been successful, nor the meetings with the older group. There is no agreement as to whether either group had horses. It must be noted that the much later "forced resettlement" of their peoples by invading Europeans is still strong in their memories.

 The Hopi people of Arizona, USA claim that they came north from South America. (see Appendix 2  -  Serpent & Dragon Lore under North America)

 An underwater structure 40m deep in Lake Huron on the Alpena, MI - Amberley, Ont. ridge, consists of large stones arranged to confine and trap animals (Caribou?). Other rocks at that site would hide hunters. Stone artifacts and chips found there are consistent with tool repairs. The site was dated to about 9000 YA(19). The hunters could have been descendants of either those who passed through Beringia after the 13k YA catastrophe, or those who came before that date and sheltered East of the Appalachian mountains. The latter are known to have explored and settled in the mid-continent after 13k YA. The level of today’s Lake Huron and Lake Michigan likely relates to progressive natural damming at Sarnia, Ont. and possibly at Chicago, IL.

 Travel by Water

Totally separate from the above migrants crossing Beringia, were those who came by sea-going canoes. They likely had those skills well developed before leaving Asia, and would be unlikely to require as much time as those on land, to travel to their ultimately final destinations. Their food came from the sea. They would follow the south coastline of Beringia, and then the continental coastline. Their story is in Appendix 2  -  Serpent & Dragon Lore under North American, Nuxalk people.

 Contrary to some researchers' views, I consider that these people settled along the Pacific coast rather than go inland. They were an old "sea oriented" culture and had a secure source of food from the sea. They would have retained their sea-going culture. If they ventured inland to become a "land-oriented" culture, they would have been required to abandon their old culture and to learn to be land animal hunters. They would be immediately faced with living in cold, snowy and icy mountains. What interaction, if any, they had with the inland people, is unknown.

 The only dating information for these people found by the author, seems to indicate that they  were at Bella Coola, BC prior to the 13k YA event of the Venus Comet. The fact that their account of that history survived(20) and has no mention of the Flood overwhelming the land and people, is very interesting. It suggests that their coastline was not damaged to a major degree, by the flood tsunami. This view is consistent with the author's determination that these Venus Comet events moved across our planet in an East to West manner. Given the pre-13k YA location of the North Pole as 250 south of its present position, then the Comet would have crossed today's British Columbia coastline on a south-east to north-west path. The location of those people would be quite sheltered as the Comet was moving offshore and away from them.

 Their statement that the Venus Comet caused the mountains to drop in height indicates that perhaps in the tectonic plate movements, the sea floor and mountains moved apart and sank. The momentum of a flood rushing toward or from the shore, would be dissipated to some degree in the ocean trench that was created.

 The author searched for mentions of other sea-going or coastal cultures north and south of the Nuxalk and their allied peoples, but without success. Even today there are no parallel cultures to their culture. Their language is considered an "isolate"(21). Possible explanations besides the lack of memories, could include that no other groups made or survived that voyage; major floods from the interior wiped out settlements at river mouths; the tsunami did come ashore further south; or they were killed by later on-shore settlers or disease.

 Between 13,000 YA & 10,000 YA.  The Younger Dryas Period

 This period of time began immediately after the 13k YA catastrophe. After Earth disengaged from the Venus Comet, it was flung outwards from the Sun. Its pole of rotation appears to have been "flipped" end for end early in that event. By 10,755 BCE (12,705 YA) the Earth was settled in an orbit that is thought to have been much further from the Sun and colder than we are now. See Appendix 1 - Dated Events.

 After an 1170 year period of slight warming, Earth again encountered the Venus Comet in 9585 BCE (11,535 YA), and its ice-freezing temperatures plummeted again. By 9449 BCE (11,399 YA) the Earth had begun warming in earnest, indicating that it had been flung Sun-ward. Those temperatures topped-out in 8114 BCE (10,064 YA)(22). The Earth had gone through 3000 years of cold temperatures and reduced sunlight during which time the Venus Comet retained its 7-year (360 Earth Days per year) elliptical orbit around the Sun.

 The author doubts that the movement of people from east Asia to Alaska and then into the mid-continent of North America restarted very quickly. He has not seen any suggested dates by others. He would favour a 1000 - 2000 year time frame, ie. 10,000 - 9,000 BCE (12,000 - 11,000 YA). The reality that the migration to America did resume, indicates that the second major encounter with the Venus Comet in 9585 BCE (11,600 YA) did not close the Beringia Land Bridge again. By that date, sea-level is estimated as being about 70m below today which would still allow passage across the Land Bridge. How long the movement of the people took to refill that area and the affected areas in Alaska is unknown.

 The following points must be considered:

* Beringia, parts of east Asia, Alaska and much of North America had been salt water soaked and would need salt-free rains to cleanse them. In addition, with the movement of the North Pole, the Beringia bridge moved from 400 North Latitude to 650 North Latitude with a distinct lessening of solar insolation. Reseeding those areas would require a long time for plants to spread widely. That might happen from either or both sides of the Beringia bridge and from high ground in North America. Without naturally reseeding plants, the land would remain desert-like.

* The author expects that by the time that Beringia can support plants, herbivores and carnivores, as well as humans, the rest of the migration route into the prairies is repaired.

* The extent of salt water damage in Alaska and the Yukon is unknown. Higher elevations likely escaped being flooded and may have been centres for naturally reseeding plants and animals. The author has not seen any indication that there were pockets of people in certain locales. If such people survived, they would undoubtedly be looking for any advantage they could find.

* Animals in the food chain, ie. rodents, rabbits, foxes, wolves, lynx, bears and birds, would not spread from unaffected locations until after seed-bearing plants began appearing. Larger animals with larger appetites would be the slowest to grow in numbers. Hunter-gatherer humans would be in this group. Herders would come later. The vast open areas of North America would be devoid of those creatures until seed-bearing plants, particularly grasses, had spread. They likely would have a patch-work re-inhabitation based on original locations of seed plants and possible survivor creatures.

* Unlike the first migration where effectively there was only one land route, now much of the ice had melted back, and alternative ways to go allowed more exploring.

* While people might move on to and across Beringia, and then find their way through Alaska, successful crossing to North America was not accomplished until they left the mountains and entered the plains. To do that, all of the preceding points had to be in place. It was a multistage movement of plants, then animals and finally people. It was "food chain controlled".

* The East Coast including the Appalachian Mountains would be an extensive "restocking" source for plants, animals and also for people in the eastern portion of the continent. Movement of those people westward across the mountains would not occur until the hunting and gathering there was as good or better than back home.

* Initial meetings between those exploring from the east and from the west, would be surprises, as each likely thought they were in unoccupied lands. Did they fight or mate?

* The memories of those coming into western North America were likely limited to their time in Alaska and their passage. Those from the East had memories of recovering from the 13k YA catastrophe ("Turtle Island") and were on the look-out for other survivors, as well as new lands.

* The fact that the North Pole had shifted would be irrelevant to people's thinking within their lifetimes.

After 10,000 YA

 People, in the Second Movement that came to North America, were not identical to those in the First one. However though 2000 years and more had passed between them, they appear to have come from a similar gene pool. As they came out onto the wide prairie, the "world was their's". Like people of the First Movement, they seem to have spread out in all directions to settle and to roam. It was only when those going farthest east, encountered similar people, did they meet their "long lost cousins".

 To this author's mind, the resultant division of people seems to have been that some of the First Movement into North America, had survived because they settled east of the Appalachian Mountains. It also appears that some of the First Movement People who passed through middle and western North America, had survived by continuing south into Central and South America.

 In the southwest USA, some people from Mexico, Central America and South America seem to have come back north later. Some are today's Hopi. Lithics and remains of the people of the Clovis line were found in the southern USA. Genetic work identified them as well in Belize, coastal south Brazil and in Chile. They disappear from that continent about 9,000 years ago, and were replaced by people with a different genetic ancestry.11 They may have been replaced by a portion of the Second Movement People.

 Most of the Second Movement People appear to have settled in North America, west of the Mississippi River. They met and mixed with members of the First Movement between the Appa-lachian Mountains and that River. Descendants of both groups can justifiably claim that they have been in possession of those lands since the beginning of the population of the Americas.

End of the Beringia Crossing

 At some point in time after 13k YA, sea level rose sufficiently that crossing Beringia was no longer possible. This would not be a date in history that would be recorded for posterity. It is of interest in determining when the forebears of the First Nations People of the Americas were finally cut-off from their original homelands.

 Using the graph below(23), the author recognised that the increase in sea level labeled "Meltwater Pulse 1A" begins about 14.5k YA on the graph. From his work with the NOAA Greenland Ice Data, he recognises this to be the 13.0k YA date (11,053 BCE) when the Earth was severely damaged by its encounter with the Venus Comet. The difference in dating, he assigns to the use of a chemical determination of an Oxygen isotope that is empirically associated with a date range. By contrast, the NOAA dates he uses, were derived by counting yearly varves in the ice core; a much more accurate and precise dating procedure.

Using the date sequences in Appendix 1 - Dated Events, the second encounter of the Venus Comet was in 9585 BCE (11,535 BP). Adding the 1500 years differential in dating between the initial encounter with the Comet and the Meltwater Pulse 1A above suggests looking for the 11,535 BP location at the 13k YA graph date. We see a second meltwater pulse (not named). The sea level was shown to be about 105m below today when the first pulse started and 75m below when the second pulse began. Research of the dating of Beringia(24) discerned two timings of the rise of sea level when there were "pauses" or adjustments in the rate of rise of sea level. Those authors equated the two timings to the beginning and end of the Younger Dryas Period.

 As before, the mantle on the Earth slid and the position of the North Pole relocated to a new location, this time to about 50  further North by today's view. Oceans of the world over-ran large areas of land. Large areas covered with ice-age glaciers shifted to slightly warmer climes and began melting. Areas that moved into colder climes did not accumulate new glaciers.

 Examination of bathymetric data(25) indicates that much of the sea bottom between Siberia and Alaska is 25 to 40m deep. However from the north-west corner of St. Lawrence Island northward through the Bering Strait into the Chukchi Sea, there is a depression that is 40 - 60 metres below today's sea level. Once sea level rose to 50m below current level, passage between Siberia and Alaska would be severely restricted. If the people had no concept of needing to migrate eastward, the author suspects that they might just have decided there was no need to go wading in cold water to get to the other side. They looked elsewhere for their needs and kept their feet dry.

 Applying those limits based on the graph, puts the 60m depth at 10.8k YA. Removal of the 1.5k Year adjustment of the dates on the graph, as before, gives us a corrected date of 9.3k YA (7300 BCE). Similarly the 40m depth on the graph was at 9.7k YA. Removing the 1.5k Year adjustment gives a corrected date of 8.2k YA (6200 BCE). Crossing to Alaska with dry feet seems not to have been likely after 6500 BCE +/- 500 years. Movement to North America essentially ceased.

 Possible Route from Alaska to the Prairies

 As promised above, the author presents his thinking on a possible route from the Bering Strait area to the Canadian prairies, that the people of the First Migration (ca 17,500 - 13,000 YA) may have followed. This is not proven but could have been a possible pathway into the New Land. The people of the Second Migration (11,400 - 6700 YA) may very well have followed this same pathway. He begins by stating his ideas on what the conditions may have been like in the First Migration: how warm it might have been, mountains in the way, food availability. He used the Google Earth application and it's "zoom-in" abilities.

 In the First Migration period, the Earth is thought to have had 290 Earth Days in a year(26) showing that it circled closer to the Sun than now. Combining this with the general warming by the Sun as we moved out of the last Ice Age beginning 24,000 YA, suggests that the area involved in this Appendix 7  would have had a somewhat warmer climate than he earlier had expected.

As mentioned above, the face of the ice age glacier came westward in today's terms, up to the Rocky Mountains and extended into the Arctic Ocean in the vicinity of the mouth and delta of the MacKenzie River. That river followed the face of the glacier into the ocean.

 Human nature being what it is, the people of the First Migration would have followed the easiest pathways as their first choices. They do not have a destination on which they are focused but are looking for better places to live. They move their camp with them. Walking on flat land is easier than climbing through mountain passes. Staying where it is warm is preferred to walking across or through ice and snow. Looking always for an available food source beats going hungry. They would likely accept set-backs and just keep looking as they had few choices.

Limiting himself by the above paragraphs, the author believes that a very possible route existed.

 He invites you to project your mind into that time and place, and follow the trail with him on your copy of Google Earth or an atlas. It begins with the lower Yukon River as the initial pathway.

- That river flowed out of Alaska onto the Beringia plain and being fresh water had an environment conducive to growing grass and plants. These would feed the herbivores of the food chain who in turn fed not only people but predators like foxes and wolves. Mammoths, bison, camels, deer and elk and other large animals existed plus major predators like cave lions and bears.

- The Yukon River flowed from what was then their North (our East today; remember that the Earth's poles shifted later). It was a major river with a wide valley, ideal for exploring and some easy living. Just how crowded with people that area and the land we call Beringia might have been, is unknown.

- In those days the latitude of the river at the Bering Sea plain was 470 N [620 35' N today] and at Fort Yukon, AK was 550 30'  N [660 34' N today]. At that point, the river has emerged from the massive mountains to the east of the migrants (our south today).

- To explore that route through the mountains, would have forced the First Migration people into much higher elevations, possibly snow covered with limited edible plant and animal life, colder temperatures and more difficult walking, all the way to the Prairies.

- The author believes that at the Fort Yukon location, they chose to explore the Upper Mouth River whose upstream is called the Porcupine River. These rivers have reasonably broad, verdant valleys slowly climbing in elevation. Go where the living is easiest.

- They followed the Porcupine to their northward [our eastward today] past today's Rampart House, YK location then at 570 20' N [670 25' N today] and the Old Crow, YK site then at 580 N [670 34' N today]. Beyond there, the river flows from their west [our north today] from its origination on a plain then at 580 45' N [680 15' N today]. From the crest of that plain, waters flow to the Arctic Ocean.

- Looking at this from our comfortable seats 17,500 years later, we perhaps may question why they went so far out of their way. We are considering multiple generations of people making adjustments to where they live and hunt over the course of many centuries. They likely did not have a destination in mind, and besides the path to their North and East [East and South today] was blocked by mountains. I suggest that they likely knew, that although they were walking uphill, that they would eventually go over a crest and begin walking down a valley with a river.

- Theirs was a northerly [our easterly today] downhill walk to the MacKenzie River delta then at 590 N [680 40' N today]. A salt water ocean was to their left so they turned right and followed up that river eastward by their reckoning [our southward]. This got them past the glacier and the Rocky Mountains. They would come out onto the Canadian prairies at today's Ft. Simpson, Northwest Territories location at the then 600 N [610 52' N today]. Their pathway of exploration up the MacKenzie River could have been restrained by the availability of food sources. The open prairies would suggest both edible seeds and plants, plus game to hunt! Descriptions of a new open land likely got passed among them and back down the line. There was a “Go To” place up ahead.

- On this route, mountains are not crossed. A relatively low elevation divide is crossed only on the plain at the head of the Porcupine River. This author certifies that he has NOT walked any part of the route and has no first-hand knowledge of it !

And in Closing

 This Appendix has examined the impact of the Venus Comet on the peopling of the Americas.

 Other authors have begun reporting on possible later migrations with no apparent connections to the Venus Comet. These include Caucasians from France or Iberia to North America, west Africans to Mexico, and Asians to South America. Their "details" are not given here nor have they been examined by this author as they do not relate to the actions of the Venus Comet.

(1) "First Americans may have arrived to the continent 30,000 years ago"  Laura Geggel, Live Science 22 July 2020.

(2) "Evidence of human occupation influence are the last Glacial Maximum"  C.P. Ardelean et al. Pub 22 July 2020

(3) "The timing effect of the latest human arrivals in North America"  L. Becerra-Valdiva et al. Pub 22 July 2020

(4)  Alley, R.B.  2004.  “GISP2 Ice Core Temperature and Accumulation Data.”   IGBP PAGES/World Data Center for Paleoclimatology Data Contribution Series #2004-013. NOAA/NGDC Paleoclimatology Program, Boulder CO, USA

(5)  "An Urgent Signal for the Coming Ice Age"   Peter Harris, Retired Engineer April 2008

(6)  See Venus Story Appendix 1 - Dated Events 11,053 BCE

(7) “Tiahuanaco and the Deluge”, Theory Workshop by Helmut Zettl   Catastrophism and Ancient History, Vol. VI

Part 2     July 1984,  A Journal Of Interdisciplinary Study, Marvin Arnold Luckerman,  Executive Editor.

(8)  "Humans came to the Americas earlier than thought, study shows" pub. July 12th 2019 by Merco Press, South Atlantic News Agency.  Author - Michael R Waters, director of the Center for the Study of Early Americans at the Texas A&M University. 

(9)  Early human dispersals within the Americas (Abstract)   J. Víctor Moreno-Mayar et al, Science  07 Dec 2018: Vol. 362, Issue 6419, eaav2621 DOI: 10.1126/science.aav2621

(10) L. Bordes et al. Raman and optical microscopy of bone micro-residues on cobbles from the Cerutti mastodon site. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Vol. 34, Part B, December 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102656.

(11)  National Geographic "Atlas of the World", revised sixth edition 1992. Sheets 29 & 32

(12) ‘Pre-Clovis occupation of the Americas identified by human faecal biomarkers in coprolites from Paisley Caves, Oregon’ Lisa-Marie Shillito, Helen L. Whelton, John C. Blong, Dennis L. Jenkins, Thomas J. Connolly and Ian D. Bull. Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba6404

(13)  Venus Story  Appendix 3 - Ice Age Puzzle?

(14)  Matt Stirn, "A Race to Rescue Frozen Artifacts" BBC.com   Travel, North America, USA, Nature & Outdoors website, 18 September 2019

(15) "Why Did the Clovis People Mysteriously Vanish?" Becky Little, https://www.history.com/news/clovis-migration-discovery Nov. 9, 2018 by A&E Television Networks. Download Jul. 30, 2019

(16)  See Venus Story  Appendix 2 - Serpent & Dragon Lore - North America Natives

(17)  "Thousands of artifacts are discovered at a 12,500-year-old Native American site in Connecticut that archaeologists say belonged to southern New England’s first inhabitants. Site was discovered  by workers constructing a bridge over the Farmington River in Avon, Connecticut. Archaeologists found a fire pit and a number of posts for housing, and 15,000 artifacts that were mainly tools. The site dates back 12,500 years and was home to southern New England's earliest inhabitants." Article extracted from Hartford, CN, USA Courant by Stacy Liberatore and published in UK Daily mail.com 12 Dec. 2019.

(18)  "Great Lakes Copper and Shared Mortuary Practices on the Atlantic Coast: Implications for Long-Distance Exchange during the Late Archaic"  Matthew C. Sanger et al, American Antiquity © 2019 by the Society for American Archaeology  doi:10.1017/aaq.2019.59

(19) “9,000-year-old complex hunting structures found beneath the Great Lakes”, John O'Shea/Univ. of Michigan, reported in Ancient Origins,  Updated 28 Apr. 2014

(20)  See Venus Story Appendix 2  -  Serpent & Dragon Lore - North American - Nuxalk (Bella Coola)

(21)  Schoonmaker, Peter K.; Von Hagen, Bettina; Wolf, Edward C. (1997). The Rain Forests of Home: Profile of a North American Bioregion. Island Press. ISBN 1-55963-480-4. Pg 257

(22)  See Venus Story  Appendix 1   Dated Events

(23) Wikipedia - Sea Level Rise -  Changes in sea level since the end of the last glacial episode.

(24)  "T. Pico et al. Sea level fingerprinting of the Bering Strait flooding history detects the source of the Younger Dryas climate event", Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aay2935,  Harvard Gazette

(25)  NOAA Bathymetric Data Viewer  noted 2020-01-04

(26) Venus Story  App. 1 - Dates of Events  12,300 BCE  &  App. 4  - Reading the Ice  pg. 4