@Toastie
i really don't know enough about anthropology or history to say anything insightful but there is something mind-boggling to me (white, settler) in an oral history covering multiple tens of thousands of years. it would not surprise me at all if one of the reasons white scientists/anthropologists still hang onto the bering strait theory is being unable to contend with what that really means. like, just rejecting the idea because they can't envision it.
i don't think the white/colonizer frame of mind can handle the concept of being connected to a place for that long- for having a living history that goes that far back, ESPECIALLY for those of us in the americas where we've only been here a hair over 500 years- with most of us only getting here in the past hundred years or so.
(hopefully this is coherent. late-night posting)