Getting the poop on a scientific controversy

[Adrian II]

To set up a viable colony on virgin territory, one would expect a fair degree of organisation and planning. For one, hunting/fishing was invariably a male activity (as much as we can assume from evidence) and therefore lost fishers would tend not to have much opportunity to reproduce - unless humans were already present or they had watched Oprah - which is not what we are discussing.

Prior to the indomitable rise of the Oprahs -- to be precise: from the Bronze Age through the early Middle Ages -- there used to exist a maritime culture on and around the North Sea shores, consisting of fishermen and traders who took their families along in their boats. These were usually small boats, made of wood and/or skins, surprisingly seaworthy and with the capacity to hold up to a dozen or more. Needless to say these were accomplished skippers and so were most adult family members. The fish-laden pack ice of the North serving as their natural bridge, they may have wittingly or unwittingly reached the trans-atlantic shore.
As is widely know already, the same applies, mutatis mutandis, to Pacific seafaring peoples. Thor Heyerdahl even managed to demonstrate this in person. The origin of Oregon man's remnants may well have been a South Pacific, um, poop deck, so to speak.

We have come to accept the role played by chance in natural history, i.e. in plant and animal evolution and migration. Why shouldn't we accept its possible role in prehistoric human migration?

EDIT

The field seems to be in flux anyway.

2nd EDIT

Haplogroups are types of mitochondrial DNA that are specific for certain regions and population types. There are five haplogroups: A, B, C, D and X.

As this article states, the haplo found in Oregon is type A and B, which is found only in Asia, Siberia and American Indians. Thus, the case for Asian/Pacific origin of the Oregon poop seems strong.

However, haplo X is found only in Europe and in certain American Indian tribes: Sioux, Navajo and Ojibway. Finds of prehistoric settlements on the U.S. East coast (such as Cactus Hill in Virginia) are dated to 16.000 BC, which makes them older than the Oregon poop. Most of the finds are Clovis-type, and similar in many ways to European stone age cultures.

BTW since haplo X does not occur in Asia and or Siberia, it must have reached American soil by sea. Maybe the ancestors of the Indians were part-European, or maybe they exterminated the European settlers and took their land.

Go figure