The Story of Paleo-Indians on This Week’s State of Greater Western New York Report – December 23, 2021

Here’s something they don’t really teach you in school: The Iroquois – and the Seneca specifically – seem to get all the press, but who was here in Greater Western New York first and why did they come here? Learn all about it on today’s State of Greater Western New York Report.

Jonathan Lothorp, PhD., of the New York State Museum, tackles this in the show’s first segment. He tells us how humans migrated into North America during the Ice Age, He explains theories on how they might have spread into the Greater Western New York region as the glaciers began to recede roughly 13,000 years ago. Finally, he displays examples of artifacts and how they help reveal the stories about these early human inhabitants.

In the second half of the show, Douglas J. Perrelli, PhD. at SUNY at Buffalo’s Department of Anthropology takes a detailed looked at what happened in the Greater Western New York region in the centuries following the initial migration into the area. He highlights a few significant sites where communities began to settle down and what it meant. Finally, he shows actual stone relics found at these sites and describes what they mean.

Both guests displayed maps of the Greater Western New York area to give you a sense of where these earliest peoples first were discovered.

Our guests happily answered questions from the live audience. In fact, these are probably some of the same questions you had. Would you like to be a member of our live audience so you can ask our guests questions? Click here to join the growing number of members who share your feelings on StateOf.GreaterWesternNewYork.com because then we can automatically send you the link to watch our shows live.