nent of Australia. Like the legendary search for the Holy Grail, the
quest to understand the origins of the first Americans has an almost
spiritual quality for the researchers involved. As with many great
undertakings, the knowledge and experience derived in the pursuit
of the goal is frequently more important than the goal itself.

As I drove home under the quiet canopy of the northern lights
I thought about the efforts of the many scientists who sought to
unlock the secrets of the universe. Understanding and experience
derived from the process of scientific inquiry provide knowledge,
which enriches our lives. Resolutions of scientific problems are
goals scientists attempt to achieve through field and laboratory
research, implementing rigorous scientific methods. However, as
seasoned researchers soon learn, every problem solved leads to
additional questions, theories, complexities, experiments, and dis-
coveries. These, in turn, lead to the definition of additional prob-
lems and new discoveries. As long as human inventiveness and
curiosity exist, there will be no ultimate explanation for the infinite
array of phenomena and processes that surround us. But certainly
these scientific endeavors increase our knowledge and enhance the
physical and spiritual quality of our world.

Alaska is one of the best locations in North America to search for
evidence of the first humans to inhabit the North American conti-
nent. Anthropologists favor the concept that early human popula-
tions first reached the New World from Asia via Alaska. Since the
sixteenth century there has been a long tradition of scholarship
leading to contemporary concepts explaining how human groups
colonized the American continents. In 1589 Jesuit priest Joseph de
Acosta published an important work synthesizing and interpreting
his extensive travels during the 16 years he lived in the Americas. His
residence in the New World was closely linked with the early phase
of the expansion of the Spanish Empire in the New World.

Based on logical evaluation of biological and cultural informa-
tion he had amassed, and remaining within the intellectual and
religious parameters of his time, de Acosta defined three hypotheses

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