Chapter Review: When Did the First People Arrive in America?

Unsolved Mysteries of American History, by Paul Aaron, Barnes and Noble Books, New York, 1997.
This book starts with a chapter on the origin of the Native Americans.  It proposed that the majority of them came across the Bering Strait, when it was a land bridge at the end of an ice age in about 12,000 B.C.  However there are others how have evidence of earlier inhabitants.  There are also those who contend that some of the Native Americans are of Hebrew or Middle Eastern origin.  Some even contend they were survivors of Atlantis.  I think in the end, accepting all theories as a partial explanation for the arrival of the Native Americans is a good bet.  Of course theories of native Americans coming from the lost tribes predates Joseph Smith.  The Book of Mormon explains the arrival of a group to America, although likely only a small group compared to those already here.  If you ask Native Americans themselves, they will tell you many stories of how they arrived as well.