VERDICT: TRUE The viral TikTok claim is accurate. The footprints in question are the fossilized human footprints at White Sands National Park, New Mexico — widely described by authoritative primary sources as the oldest known human footprints in North America. The claim's careful wording ("may be the earliest direct evidence") is appropriately hedged and supported by the evidence. **Claim-linked findings:** 1. **Age and "earliest" status confirmed by the U.S. Geological Survey.** The USGS national news release states that human footprints found at White Sands National Park "date to the Last Glacial Maximum, placing humans in North America thousands of years earlier than once thought," with an age range of 21,000 to 23,000 years. It notes this "pushed the known date of human presence in North America back by thousands of years." The USGS also confirms the age was validated by three independent lines of evidence (radiocarbon dating of terrestrial pollen, optically stimulated luminescence, and the original seed dating), making it "highly unlikely that they are all incorrect or biased." (https://www.usgs.gov/news/national-news-release/study-confirms-age-oldest-fossil-human-footprints-north-america) 2. **National Park Service calls them the oldest known human footprints in North America.** The NPS White Sands page states: "The latest research shows that humans have been living in North America and Tularosa Basin for at least 23,000 years. It was previously thought that humans arrived in North America closer to 13,500 – 16,000 years ago." It also describes White Sands as having "the largest collection of fossilized human footprints." (https://www.nps.gov/whsa/learn/nature/fossilized-footprints.htm) 3. **Peer-reviewed study (Science, 2023) documented by USGS Publications Warehouse.** The USGS publication record for the study "Independent age estimates resolve the controversy of ancient human footprints at White Sands" (DOI: 10.1126/science.adh5007) states the footprints "reportedly date to between ~23,000 and 21,000 years ago" and that new calibrated radiocarbon ages of terrestrial pollen plus optically stimulated luminescence ages "reaffirm that humans were present in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum." (https://www.usgs.gov/publications/independent-age-estimates-resolve-controversy-ancient-human-footprints-white-sands) **Caveat / nuance:** The claim is TRUE as stated, but note that "earliest direct evidence of humans in North America" refers specifically to the oldest *footprints* (direct trace evidence), and the 21,000–23,000-year age was initially controversial due to potential carbon-reservoir effects in the original seed dating. That controversy was subsequently resolved by the 2023 Science study using independent dating methods, which confirmed the age. So the "may be" hedge in the original claim is scientifically appropriate and the underlying assertion is well-supported by primary sources.