It is also generally agreed among historians that at least part of the early migrations from Asia were on land via Beringia (during periods of intensification of the ice ages, ice lowered the sea level transforming the Bering Strait into a land bridge called Beringia). Migration may have also been by water. With this combination of travel by land and water, it is thought that people reached the southern tip of South America by at least 11 000 B.C. Canada's high Arctic was believed to be the last region populated after about 2 000 B.C. as most of North America was ice-covered which prevented earlier settlement.

These first Asian immigrants were probably nomadic big-game hunters who used the land bridge to cross into North America. They were following roaming herds of mammoth, bison, and musk oxen.

Most Canadian history books begin with European exploration, around five to six hundred years ago. Considerable emphasis is placed on two "founding" groups, the French and the English. However, the first Canadians, the Aboriginal peoples, have been in Canada for thousands of years longer. They came when the continent was uninhabited by humans. And although they may have descended from other parts of the world, Canada's Aboriginal have adapted to their environments and evolved into their own unique peoples with distinct physical and cultural characteristics.