ALTERNATE TIMING HYPOTHESIS
The timing of the arrival of Algonquin speaking people in America has another complex hypothesis, which is described below
The very Ancient Norse (before 1200 BC) may have been in America and returned to Europe after a wide spread environments disaster drove them from America.
Copper was being mined in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan from 5000 BC to 1200 BC, when the mining stopped, apparently from a severe environmental disaster, perhaps a rain of meteorites. Some of the existing evidence, i.e. burials, stone engravings, copper celts, and Norse style furnaces of the Copper mining peoples appears to indicate very ancient Norse people.
The copper hauling route may have been down the Mississippi. When the environmental disaster struck eastern America, some of the very ancient Norse may have moved west of the Mississippi to survive on the buffalo herds. Those tribes may have formed a northern tribe, who later were merged with the Cree, the Blackfeet, and the Arapahos in the southern plains west of the Mississippi. Another group of very ancient Norse, who tried to stay in place on the Ohio River valley, may have eventually become the Sioux.
A great many ships of the copper people may have appeared as the Sea Peoples in the Mediterranean about 1200 BC. The Egyptians recorded, in stone, the success of their defense against the invasion by the Sea Peoples. The ancestors of the Hebrews, the Semites, were traders on land. They merged with the Sea Peoples, also traders, at the shores in Lebanon to develop the Phoenician culture. The Phoenicians and the very ancient Norse shared two scripts, Tifinac and Ogmi, before the scripts separated into the alphabet (Phoenician) and runes (Norse).
About the same time, the Algonquin speaking people near the Gulf of Mexico may have chosen to sail through the gulf, cross over Central America, build new ships, and sail north up the coast. Both the Algonquin speaking Wiyot and Yurok tribes occupy territory more consistent with a water arrival than with crossing the Sierras.
The above events correspond to "a date 3000+ years ago for the protolanguage" and are consistent with the archaeological and known historical evidence.
After the 1200 BC environmental disaster, the ancient Norse (Sea Peoples) may have returned to the Copper fields via the Great Lakes, the Ohio River, and the Mississippi. The archaeological evidence is that the Phoenicians returned to the Ohio River valley about this time to develop the Adena culture. Their language may have modified the very ancient Norse language in the Ohio Valley. [One modern Algonquin says that the Sioux, who were in Ohio, have a language very much like old Algonquin.]
After the fall of Carthage (Phoenician) about 200 BC, the ships at sea may have sought safer harbors in Ireland, western England, Scotland (collectively called Abans) and the Scandinavian countries. The ancient Norse had already returned to America. Four rune stones in the Arkansas River valley provide evidence that the Norse were there shortly before 400 AD. The script of the Hopewell phase in the Ohio River Valley (200 BC to 400 AD) provides evidence of Hebrew presence. The Ohio archaeological evidence favors Scandinavian skeletons and artifacts. The evidence may describe Hebrew refugees carried on Scandinavian Ships.
About 535, the explosion of Krakotoa darkened the earth for eighteen months about. The ancient Norse sailing era may have ended, but the survivors were probably continued to live on American land. The Menominee and Cheyenne, who moved west, may have been part of these survivors. Another group of Norse may have become the various eastern Great Lakes Algonquins: Sauk, Fox, Kickapoo, Mascouten, Miami, Peoria and Illinois. The Norse/Hebrew elite in the Ohio River Valley may not have been in place long enough to significantly alter the common language we now call Sioux. There is physical and oral historical evidence that the "Giants" were defeated.
Then about 800 the Vikings (Old Norse) drove the Albans and Picts from Scotland and Ireland to Iceland, Greenland, and America. The Albans may have become the Cree. (The old roman word for the Albans was "Quii." meaning "resistance.") Picts may have become the Ojibwa. ("Ojibwa" has morphed from a Norse word meaning, "Greatest.") The Cree and the Ojibwa may have spoken a version of the Old Norse language, but the their words may have merged with the very ancient and ancient versions as the Cree and Ojibwa spread westward.
Then about 1000 the Vikings (Old Norse) returned to America, becoming the south coast Algonquins in Virginia and North Carolina and also the northeast Algonquins: MicMac Massachusetts, Abenaki, Maine, Wapanaog, and others.
In 1340 and following, the Leni Lenape (Delaware), Shawnee, Mahigans, Conoy, and Nanticokes migrated from Norse Greenland. They entered America via Hudson Bay, the Great Lakes and Michigan. Then they moved eastward to the Atlantic shores. These last movements are recorded in oral and pictorial history.
The above hypothesis explains how "the Eastern Great Lakes languages appear to have gotten further east and circled back." The Lenape, Shawnee, and others actually came from the north and went to the east. The same migrations explains how "the Eastern languages appear to have split into two groups, one of which came down the coast" (the early Old Norse), "while the other cut straight east and through the middle of the first to occupy the lower Hudson Valley, the Delaware Valley, and New Jersey" (The later Old Norse, the Lenape, Shawnee and others.)
The Frozen Trail timing is based on artifacts, biological, cultural, historical, linguistic evidence. This hypothesis needs to be refined considering all of the available evidence and using thoughtful analysis.
