Yes. North America was pretty much a mess.
I find it interesting how many scholars resist the concept that Man was all over Asia, Europe, and Africa...but none of them were smart enough to get to North America until the “land bridge” of the ice age?
Not sure that makes sense anymore?
My Choctaw grandmother would always dispute the land-bridge idea. “We’re not Chinamen!” she’d say.
This article is interesting in that it discusses a different and inventive response to the environment. I’s not surprising that this happens and, of course, people were far more widely dispersed in prehistory than academics maintained.
Another good post by Sunken Civ.