Photo: First Americans Arrived Recently, Settled Pacific Coast, DNA Study Says

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Chumash Indian descendants retrace the paths of their ancestors, paddling from the California mainland to the Channel Islands in a re-creation of an ancient tomol, or traditional canoe.

A new study suggests that the Chumash, and other Native American groups that live on the Pacific coast, may be descendants of the first migrants who came to the Americas from Asia some 15,000 years ago.

Photograph courtesy Channel Islands NMS/NOAA

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