To quote James Stockdale in the 1992 Vice Presidential Debate, "Who am I?  Why am I here?"  While it's usually not put so bluntly, it's a question that many people ponder for a variety of reasons.  Last year, archaeologists in Oregon published reports for exciting and unusual evidence that provides an answer to when humans first arrived in North America.  Some people may say the scientists' story is "full of crap", to which the scientists would eagerly agree. 

Through DNA testing, archaeologists have confirmed that they found human feces in an Oregon cave and that carbon-dating shows the deposit was made approximately 14,000 years ago.  Most experts agree that this is over 1,500 years earlier than the previous oldest evidence for humans in North America.

To me, that doesn't seem so very long ago -- especially considering that dinosaurs roamed the earth millions of years ago.  To help put this in perspective, I've traced certain branches of my family tree back about 400 years; Jesus lived 2,000 years ago; and the Great Flood is estimated to have occurred about 4,300 years ago.  I guess in hindsight, it's a good thing that a small group left the Middle East and headed for Alaska.  Because if they had stayed where they were, they'd have drowned in the flood.

For what it's worth, experts have speculated that as few as 30 people are responsible for populating both North and South America.  While some have theories of a Greenland route, the more common belief is that they waited on the banks of Russia for the hyenas to leave the area near the Bering Sea.  When the coast was clear, they scurried over to Alaska and ran south to Oregon where it was warmer.  When they had imbibed all the cafe lattes they could tolerate, they eventually spread throughout North America and down the Pacific coast through California into Mexico and South America.  (Why would they ever leave sunny California?)

How would things have been different if the sea had remained too high to cross for the first settlers?  There would have been no "Indians" to greet guests such as Columbus, Ponce de Leon, and de Soto.  Would this have led to faster or slower settlement of the New World?  On one hand it was only with the help of Native Americans that the Europeans were able to survive the tough conditions.  However, there was a certain amount of fear and hesitation among the first colonists that led them to stay close to their village and not venture out into the scavengers' territory.

How would the land have been different when the first colonists arrived?  How would our world be different today?  It's well known that many of our major roads and interstates follow original Indian trails which would not have existed without Native Americans.  It is thought that the earliest Native Americans may have been responsible for killing the last of the mastodons.  What if they had still been roaming the countryside when the Pilgrims were trying to celebrate their first Thanksgiving?  Yep, things could be very different.