Day 1 - October 14, 2026 (Wednesday)

Registration opens 12-5.

Day 2 - October 15, 2026 (Thursday)   

8:30-9:00             Welcome and Introduction

Session 1. Genetic Evidence of the First Americans

9:00-9:30       What we know about the archaeology and genetics of the peopling of the Americas -Eske Willerslev, J. Víctor Moreno-Mayar and David J. Meltzer

9:30-10:00        Correlating the genetic history of dogs and people following their arrival into the Americas-Lachie Scarsbrook

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            From saddle to corridor: How deglaciation of coalescent ice sheets contributed to sea level rise and the opening of the ice-free corridor-Jorie Clark

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 Human Migration into the Americas: The Known And The Unknown-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

Day 3 - October 16, 2026 (Friday)

 7:50-8:00              Announcements

Session 4.  Late Pleistocene Occupation of the Americas

8:00-8:30         Buried treasure: hidden footprint archives in the American Southwest-Matthew Bennett, Sally Reynolds and David Bustos

8:30-9:00            Legacies of the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Transition in South America-Tom D. Dillehay

9:00-9:30              Cooper's Ferry/Nipéhe: A Keystone Late 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              The Last Clovis Frontier: Understanding the Late Pleistocene human occupation in Northwest Mexico-Guadalupe Sanchez, Ismael Sánchez-Morales, Kayla B. Worthey, Ramón Guzmán, and Vance T. Holliday

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 L. Lindsey, Gregory B. P. Davies, Regan E. Dunn, Robert Feranec, Benjamin T. Fuller, Advait M. Jukar, Melissa I. Pardi, Christina M. Ryder, John R. Southon, Catalina P. Tomé, Michael R. Waters

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

Poster Session 2

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

Day 4 - October 17, 2026 (Saturday)

7:50-8:00              Announcements

Session 6. Terminal Pleistocene Archaeology of the Americas

8:00-8:30         The Spatiotemporal Distribution of Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene Stemmed Points across Western North America-Edward J. Knell, Matthew E. Hill, Jr., Richard L. Rosencrance, Erik Otárolla-Castillo, Jackson C. Mueller, and Jon M. Erlandson

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 and Anthropogenesis in Northwestern South America (Colombia): A Review-Francisco Javier Aceituno

10:00-10:30     Brazilian archaeological perspectives for the early peopling of the Americas-Lucas Bueno, Adriana Dias, Antoine Lourdeau, and Andrei Isnardis

10:30-11:00     Clocking the Terminal Pleistocene Peopling of the Andes-Kurt Rademaker

11:00-11:30    The Bottleneck in the Andean/Pacific Corridor of Southwest South America Shaped the Late Pleistocene Occupation of North Central Chile-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 still don’t know about the archaeology and genetics
of the peopling of the Americas - David J. Meltzer, J. Víctor Moreno-Mayar and Eske Willerslev

2:00-2:30         The Peopling of the Americas: Current Understanding and Future Directions-David G. Anderson, D. Shane Miller, Thaddeus G. Bissett, J. Christopher Gillam, Eric C. Kansa, Sarah Whitcher Kansa, 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        Mountains Matter, Why Peopling Models Need a Third Dimension-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