后冰河时期，古印第安人从欧亚大陆出发，摸索着横跨白令海峡的大陆桥迁徙来到新的大陆，成为这片美洲大陆上最早的主人。当欧洲探险家在世界上宣示着发现新大陆的“新闻”的时候，古印第安人已然在此繁衍生息了数万年之久。
附带文稿：
Itis not definitively known how or when Native Americans first settled theAmericas and the present-day United States. The prevailing theory proposes thatpeople from Eurasia followed game across Beringia, a land bridge that connectedSiberia to present-day Alaska during the Ice Age, and then spread southwardthroughout the Americas. This migration may have begun as early as 30,000 yearsago and continued through to about 10,000 years ago, when the land bridgebecame submerged by the rising sea level caused by the melting glaciers. Theseearly inhabitants, called Paleo-Indians, soon diversified into hundreds ofculturally distinct nations and tribes.
Thispre-Columbian era incorporates all periods in the history of the Americasbefore the appearance of European influences on the American continents,spanning from the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period toEuropean colonization during the early modern period. While the termtechnically refers to the era before Christopher Columbus' voyage in 1492, inpractice the term usually includes the history of American indigenous culturesuntil they were conquered or significantly influenced by Europeans, even ifthis happened decades or centuries after Columbus's initial landing.
（摘自英文维基百科，美国历史词条）
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