think of a big, beautiful, empty land with mountain, forests, lakes, animals, and fish, but no people. This was america 16,000 years ago. Around that time, the first people probably arrived in Alaska from Asia. They traveled south and became the Native American of the north america and the Maya, Aztecs, Inca and other peoples of central and south america. The Inuit (Eskimos) came to Canada and the arctic the same way. but there are only a few of these peoples in america today.