ABSTRACT
The story of migrations in the Americas has quite naturally tended to be told separately from the occupation of the Old World. Evidence of linguistic classification provides a way to minimize this separation, and to emphasize the parallels and the direct connections of American migrations with those of the Old World. The archaeological remains of early humans in the Americas have been sparse so far, indicating that populations were either late to arrive or slow to grow. A close second in linguistic unity is the Amerind languages, which expanded without interruption to occupy all of South America and most of North America. The Na-Dene group of North America, in contrast, clearly arrived in North America after the Amerind-speakers, and found its advance into the continent limited by the established populations. The story of migrations in the Americas has quite naturally tended to be told separately from the occupation of the Old World.
