Is the controversy that the "Clovis" (who are the genetic ancestors of Native American or indigenous) were not actually the first people in North America?
Did the Clovis conquer or wipe out the pre-Clovis people?
We know that the people behind the Clovis material culture weren't the first people in the Americas. It took decades of work by academics like Tom Dillehay, but that's been the status quo since the 90s.
We don't know what happened to the preclovis groups. It's likely they were absorbed/became ancestral to later groups like those behind Clovis culture rather than erased, but the evidence is too scarce to say anything definitive.
> Is the controversy that the "Clovis" (who are the genetic ancestors of Native American or indigenous) were not actually the first people in North America?
My understanding is that Clovis-first has been considered rejected by the anthropology community since the 90s. Yet it's somehow treated as the dominant viewpoint being challenged in every single popular anthropology article even now in 2024.
Also, Clovis isn't necessarily the genetic ancestor of modern Native Americans. Evidence of Clovis culture is predominantly based on tool type, and material that can infer genetic relationships is almost entirely lacking.
The sequencing of Anzick-1 provides pretty clear (if imperfect) evidence that some Clovis populations were ancestral to a lot of modern indigenous Americans, since it's basal to most South American groups.
No, it's just a widely accepted term for descendents of the people who inhabited the Americas before European colonization. Their (long ago) ancestors are also our long ago ancestors in Africa.
The reason "indigenous" is used is mainly historical, but there aren't any better modern terms. "American Indian" is largely a US term and one a lot of people don't like. "Native American" has similar issues. "First nations" is mainly used by Canadians and doesn't encompass all the groups being discussed. "Indian" works, but "indigenous" has a lot less semantic baggage.
Did the Clovis conquer or wipe out the pre-Clovis people?