think of a big, beautiful, empty land with mountains, 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 travelled south and became the native americans of north america and the maya, axtecs, inca and other prople of central and south america. the inuit (eskimos)came to cannada and the arctica. the inuit (eskimos) came to central and the arctic the same way. but there are only a few of thes peoples in ameica today.