The field of first American studies is undergoing significant 
changes. The traditional model that the Americas were only 
peopled once by Clovis big-game hunters from Siberia at the
end of the last Ice Age has seriously been challenged. Most
now believe that the Americas were peopled more than once.
  
    Against this backdrop of controversy, the CSFA and its 
partners convened the Clovis and Beyond Conference in Santa Fe, 
New Mexico, in 1999, and brought many of the major players of 
the field to the conference forum who have a stake in the future 
of America's past.

    New Perspectives on the First Americans contains short and 
concise papers from this conference that focus on the following 
themes: pre-Clovis archaeology, Clovis-era archaeology, 
Paleoamerican paleobiology, new approaches to the study of 
Paleoamericans, Paleoamericans and public policy, and new 
directions for Paleoamerican archaeology.

    Collectively, these papers represent the intellectual ferment
in a field seeking to reconcile itself with changing scientific
developments in an evolving social/political context.

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BRADLEY T. LEPPER is a curator of anthropology at the Ohio 
Historical Society.