October 14, 2026 (Wednesday)

Registration opens 12-5.

October 15, 2026 (Thursday)   

8:30-9:00             Welcome and Introduction

Session 1. Genetic Evidence of the First Americans

9:00-9:30            Understanding the Peopling of the Americas from Ancient Genomics-Eske Willerslev

9:30-10:00          Correlating the Genetic History of Dogs and People Following Their Arrival into the Americas-Greger Larson

Session 2. Late Pleistocene Archaeology of Beringia

10:00-10:30        Back to the Source: Exploring Northeast Asia for the Origins of the First Americans-Ted Goebel

10:30-11:00        The Shég’ Xdaltth’í’ Site in Central Alaska and Its Contribution to the Peopling of Beringia-Kelly Graf

11:00-11:30         Beringian Archaeology, Genetics, and Northeast Asian - North American Connections-Ben A. Potter

11:30-12:00        Late Upper Paleolithic Archaeology of Coastal Northeast Asia and its Relation to the Late Pleistocene Peopling of the American: An Update-Masami Izuho

12:00-12:30        Speaker discussion and Q&A

12:30-2:00           Lunch

Session 3.  Routes and Process of Human Dispersal South of the Ice Sheets

2:00-2:30              Viability and Timing of Pre-Last Glacial Maximum and Deglacial Connections Between Beringia and Continental North America Through the Ice Free Corridor-Duane Froese, Peter D. Heintzman, Scott Cocker, Christopher N. Jass, John W. Ives, Sophie Norris, Alberto Reyes, Robin Woywitka, Joseph Young and Beth Shapiro

2:30-3:00              The Mythical Corridor—Rapidly Shifting Perspectives-John W. Ives, Todd J. Kristensen, Robin Woywitka, Gabriel Yanicki, and Dale Fisher

3:00-3:30              Initial Coastal Migration into The Americas: What We Know and Need to Know-Todd J. Braje and Jon M. Erlandson

3:30-4:00              Archaeological and Paleo-environmental Insights into the Post-Glacial Emergence of Land, Sea, Biota and People on the Pacific Coast of Canada-Duncan McLaren, Bryn Letham, Christopher Hebda, Lindsay Worden, Angela Dyck and Daryl Fedje

 4:00-4:30              Speaker Discussion and Q&A

Poster Session 1

4:30-7:00             Poster Presentations, Meet Speakers, Mix and Mingle

October 16, 2026 (Friday)

 7:50-8:00              Announcements

Session 4.  Late Pleistocene Occupation of the Americas

8:00-8:30              Exploring Site Function and Patterns in the Upper Paleolithic of North America: A Case Study from the Gault Site-Thomas J. Williams and Nancy Velchoff

8:30-9:00             Synthesizing the Evidence and Implication of the First Peopling of South America-Tom D. Dillehay

9:00-9:30              Cooper's Ferry/Nipéhe: A Keystone Pre-Clovis Site in North America-Loren G. Davis

9:30-10:00           The Page-Ladson Site, Florida, and the Contributions of Submerged Landscapes Archaeology to First Americans Research-Jessi J. Halligan, Morgan F. Smith, Neil N. Puckett, Adam M. Burke, Nicholas K. Bentley, and Trevor H. Gittelhough

10:00-10:30         Late Pleistocene Human Occupations of the Paisley Caves-Dennis L. Jenkins

10:30-11:00         The Late Pleistocene Peopling of North America—Converging Geological, Archaeological, and Genetic Evidence-Michael R. Waters

11:00-11:30        Speaker Discussion and Q&A

11:30-1:00           Lunch

Session 5. Clovis, Western Stemmed, and Fishtail Traditions of the Americas and Megafauna Extinction

1:00-1:30              Current Assessments of the Clovis Complex and its Role in the Peopling of the Americas-Heather L. Smith and Ashley M. Medlin

1:30-2:00              Domestic Spaces at the La Prele Site, Converse County, Wyoming-Todd A. Surovell, Madeline E. Mackie, Spencer R. Pelton, Matthew J. O’Brien, Paul Sanders, and Robert L. Kelly

2:00-2:30              Recent Late Pleistocence Geoarcheological Investigations in Northwest Mexico-Guadalupe Sanchez Miranda

2:30-3:00              The What, Where, and When of the Western Stemmed Tradition-Richard L. Rosencrance, Geoffrey M. Smith, and Katelyn N. McDonough

3:00-3:30              Echoes of the First Americans: The Significance of Fell Points in the Peopling of the New World-Hugo G. Nami

3:30-4:00              Timing, Causes, and Ecological Consequences of Pleistocene Mammal and Bird Extinctions in North America: A Regional Analysis-Emily Lindsey, John Southon & Michael Waters

4:00-4:30              Speaker Discussion and Q&A

Poster Session 2

4:30-7:00            Poster Presentations, Meet Speakers, Mix and Mingle

October 17, 2026 (Saturday)

7:50-8:00              Announcements

Session 6. Terminal Pleistocene Archaeology of the Americas

8:00-8:30         A Post-Clovis Profusion: The Spatiotemporal Distribution of Stemmed Projectile Points in Western North America-Edward J. Knell, Geoffrey M. Smith, Jon M. Erlandson, Jackson C. Mueller, and Matthew E. Hill, Jr.

8:30-9:00         The Post-Clovis Younger Dryas Record of the Eastern Woodlands-Thomas A. Jennings and Ashley M. Smallwood

9:00-9:30         Peopling Central America: Stone Tool Technologies, Site Distributions, and New Understandings of the Earliest Occupants of the New World Neotropics-Jon C. Lohse, Mike McBride, Sébastien Perrot-Minnot and Victoria C. Pagano

9:30-10:00       Early Peopling in Northwestern South America: a Review of the Present State of the Discussion-Francisco Javier Aceituno

10:00-10:30     How Old Could be a New World? Brazilian Archaeological Perspectives for Early Peopling of Americas-Lucas Bueno and Adriana Dias

10:30-11:00     The Peopling of Western South America: Evidence from Andean and Pacific Corridors-Kurt Rademaker

11:00-11:30     The Andean Corridor West of Southern South America: Weighing the Timing and Characteristics of the Late Pleistocene Occupation-César Méndez

11:30-12:00     Speaker Discussion and Q&A

12:00-1:30       Lunch

Session 7. Frontiers and Moving Forward

1:30-2:00         What We Know and Still Don’t Know About the Peopling of the Americas-David Meltzer

2:00-2:30         The Peopling of the Americas: Current Understanding and Future Directions-David G. Anderson, Thaddeus G. Bissett, J. Christopher Gillam, Eric C. Kansa, Sarah Whitcher Kansa, D. Shane Miller, Ashley M. Smallwood, Joshua J. Wells, and Stephen J. Yerka

2:30-3:00         The Peopling of South America 2026: There is No Silver Bullet-Gustavo G. Politis

3:00-3:30         Peopling of the Western Hemisphere in the 2020s:  The State of the Art & Its Future-Bonnie L. Pitblado

3:30-4:00         The Exploration of the Americas: Between the Expected and the Unexpected-Luis Alberto Borrero

4:00-4:30         Close

Closing Gathering

4:30-6:30         Closing celebration, Meet Speakers, Mix and Mingle