Stunning footprints push back human arrival in Americas by thousands of years

For this week’s current event assignment, I had the opportunity to read a very interesting article that I had heard my dad and one of my teachers mention recently. I read the article “Stunning Footprints Push Back Human Arrival in Americas by Thousands of Years” by Maya Wei-Haas from National Geographic. The main idea that was conveyed in this article was that recently, human footprints were found in a national park in New Mexico that changes the estimate of when humans first set foot in the Americas. This was very interesting to read about because there’s already an ongoing debate between historians as to when humans first set foot in America, and this is further evidence to either settle the debate or probably even give it more depth, which the author touched on a little bit: “Exactly when humans populated the Americas has been fiercely debated for nearly a century, and until recently, many scientists maintained this momentous first occurred no earlier than 13,000 years ago.” (Wei-Haas) Originally, when prints were found in this park, it was a government trapper who found footprints of what scientists believe to be a giant sloth. Interestingly enough, the trapper thought that the prints were actually proof that Bigfoot exists. But this was in the 1930s, and science has come a long way since then. The author also went on to mention that some footprints were only visible to the trained eye of professionals when on an excavation, researchers who can see the slight difference in coloring on the ground, in the sand. The prints that sometimes disappear due to high winds and the process of erosion have been given the name of “ghost tracks”. This is not only because they fade over time so easily, but also because they are the prints of ancestors. One of the men that visited the spot said “‘[It] just gives us goosebumps,’” (Wei-Haas) because of the feeling that people had been standing right where they are, tens of thousands of years ago. After mentioning these subtopics in great depth, a sure strength of the author, the article wraps up by bringing new ideas to the table about the arrival of early humans, and how archaeologists are looking at history. For example, in one of the very last paragraphs of the article, it says, “‘More importantly, it actually requires us to think about how we do archaeology,’ Davis says, ‘because no one is looking at 22,000-year-old deposits.’” (Wei-Haas). The Davis that they mention is Loren Davis, an archaeologist at Oregon State University. This was a fantastic way to end the article, in my opinion, because it presents ways on how to improve the findings or push the reader’s thinking even further. 

This article connects to society in multiple ways, the most prominent being that it changes the way that people are looking at the arrival of humans to the Americas! This whole topic has been controversial to scientists for a while now, because they couldn’t agree on a range of arrival centuries, and it turns out that almost everyone was wrong! It was way earlier than anyone had thought! Once we understand more about humans in the past, and study their behaviors and how we’ve evolved, we can start to come up with more ideas about humans now and even in the future. We can do more research just like this to find out new information and probably even make some educated guesses about the future, which get more accurate with new information. All in all, the only way that we can start learning more about the future and the present is if we look closer at our past, and this article is a step in the right direction. 

The article “Stunning Footprints Push Back Human Arrival in Americas by Thousands of Years” was a great read, and the author was very talented and well-spoken. Some of her strengths include writing with an engaging voice, grabbing the reader’s attention from the second paragraph, where, when describing the footprints, says “But this is no tourist trap.” (Wei-Haas). Her words set a tone for the article that is inviting and appealing. Unfortunately, the author was a rather slow writer, and the result was a long article. If it wasn’t for her intriguing tone, readers would probably click out of the passage and read something else. “Stunning Footprints Push Back Human Arrival in Americas by Thousands of Years” is not a quick, light read by any means. National Geographic’s website called it a “14 min read”, and I agree. If you are someone looking for a short news article just to keep you updated on what’s going on in the world, I would not suggest this article. That being said, others may not be looking for an article like that. Some people, such as scientists or even archaeology fanatics would probably read this article no matter it’s length, because it is about a topic that thoroughly interests them. If Maya Wei-Haas wanted to make this article more alluring to readers for a faster paced read, she could bring up fewer subtopics. She mentioned a lot of other ideas that weren’t critical to the overarching theme, which added some depth to the article, but not much more value overall.  

Wei-Haas, Maya. “Stunning Footprints Push Back Human Arrival in Americas by Thousands of Years.” History, National Geographic, 24 Sept. 2021, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/fossil-footprints-challenge-theory-when-people-first-arrived-americas.