Native Peoples of North America Textbook Chapter 1 In 1491…

Chapter IN 1491 The Apache Genesis Story In tbe beginning tbe was covered water , and all living were below in tbe underworld people could talk , tbe animals could talk , tbe trees could talk , and tbe rocks could talk . It was dark in tbe underworld , and eagle plumes were used for . and animals tbat go about day wanted more but tbe bear , and tbe darkness . After a long argument agreed to play tbe game , and tbe day animals won would be , but tbe animals won it would always be dark . Ybe game began . Ybe magpie and tbe quail , love tbe and bave eyes , until could see tbe button tbe wood stick tbat served as a . told tbe people tbe button was , and in round , won . Ybe morning star came out and tbe black bear ran and bid in tbe darkness . played again , and won . It grew in tbe east and tbe brown bear ran and bid in a dark place . played a time , and won . in tbe east and tbe mountain lion slunk away into tbe darkness . played a time , and again tbe people won . Ybe sun came up in tbe east , and it was day , tbe owl away and bid Even it was now , tbe people still didn see because were underground . But tbe sun was to look a bole and discover tbat was . He told tbe people . And all wanted to go up . built four mounds to tbe upper world In tbe east tbe soil and 24

Peoples North Chapter planted it all kinds of fruits and berries tbat were colored black . In tbe up mound and planted all kinds of fruits tbat were blue . In tbe west built a mound tbat planted yellow fruits . In tbe planted tbe mound fruits of variegated colors . Ybe mounds grew into mountains and tbe blossomed , fruited , and produced ripened berries . One day two girls climbed up to pick berries and to tie in . Suddenly tbe mountains . Ybe mountains stopped growing tops were still a long way from tbe upper world So tbe people tried laying crosswise to make a ladder , but broke under . Ybe people made a second ladder of larger , but again were too weak . made a ladder of eagle , but even would not bear . a came and bis born , and also contributed . Ybe were strong and , and tbe people were able to climb up tbe bole to tbe surface of tbe . But tbe of bent tbe , bave been curved ever since Now tbe people fastened tbe sun and moon spider so tbat could not get away , and sent up into tbe sky to give . And since water covered tbe , four storms went to roll tbe waters away . Ybe black storm blew to tbe east and rolled up tbe waters into tbe eastern ocean . Ybe blue storm blew to tbe and rolled up tbe waters in tbat direction . Ybe yellow storm rolled up tbe waters in tbe west , and tbe varicolored storm went to tbe and rolled up tbe waters . So tbe tempests formed tbe four oceans in tbe east , tbe , tbe west , and tbe . Having rolled up tbe waters , tbe storms returned to tbe people were waiting , grouped around tbe of tbe bole . Ybe went out , tbe ground was still soft , and bis legs sank in tbe black mud and bave been black ever since . sent tbe Tornado to bring bim back , because it wasn time . Ybe badger went out , but be too sank in tbe mud and got black legs , and Tornado called bim back . tbe beaver went out , walking tbe mud and swimming tbe water , and at once began to build a dam to save tbe water still remaining in tbe pools . be did not return , Tornado found bim and asked be bad not come back . 25

Peoples North Chapter Because I wanted to save tbe water for tbe people to drink , said tbe beaver . Good , said Tornado , and went back . Again tbe people waited , until at last send out tbe gray crow to see tbe time bad come . Ybe crow found tbe dry , and many dead frogs , and reptiles lying on tbe ground He began picking out eyes and did not return until Tornado was sent after bim . Ybe people were very angry found be bad been eating carrion , and bis color to black . But now tbe was all dry except for tbe four oceans and tbe lake in tbe center , tbe beaver bad dammed up tbe waters . All tbe people came up . traveled east until arrived at tbe ocean turned around until came again to tbe ocean went west to tbe ocean , and turned . And as went , tribe stopped it wanted to . But continued to circle around tbe bole bad come up from tbe underworld times went around it , tbe Ruler became displeased and asked want to stop . said , In tbe middle . So be led to a place very near and left , and near tbe Indians , made . Collected by James Mooney in the 18905 ( and Ortiz ) The ( Creation Story Long , long ago , tbe was deep tbe water . was a great darkness because no sun or moon or stars . Ybe only creatures living in dark world were water animals as tbe beaver , muskrat , duck , and loon . Far above tbe was tbe Land Happy Spirits , tbe Great Spirit dwelled In tbe center upper realm was a giant apple tree roots tbat sank deep into tbe ground . 26

Peoples North Chapter One day tbe Great Spirit pulled tbe tree up from its roots , creating a great pit in tbe ground Great Spirit called to bis , lived in tbe Upper . He commanded ber to look into tbe pit . young woman did as was told and peered tbe bole . In tbe distance , saw tbe Lower covered water and clouds . Great Spirit spoke to bis , telling ber to go down into tbe world of darkness . He tenderly picked ber up and dropped ber into tbe bole . woman , would be called Sky , creatures ber fall , began to slowly downward As Sky continued ber descent , tbe water animals looked up . Far upon saw a great tbat was Sky . animals were initially afraid of tbe emanating from ber . In dove deep tbe water . animals eventually conquered and came back up to tbe surface . Now were concerned about tbe woman , and would to ber tbe water . beaver told tbe tbat must a dry place for ber to rest upon . beaver plunged deep tbe water in of . He was unsuccessful . After a time , bis dead body surfaced to tbe top of tbe water . loon was tbe next creature to try to some . He too was unsuccessful . Many tried , but animal . At last , tbe muskrat said be would try . bis dead body to tbe top , bis little claws were . opened bis claws and found a little bit of . water animals summoned a great turtle and patted tbe upon its back . At once tbe turtle grew and grew , as did tbe amount of . became America , a great island During all time , Sky continued ber gentle . leader of tbe swans grew concerned as Sky grew imminent . He a of swans tbat upward and allowed Sky to rest upon back . great care placed ber upon tbe newly formed . 27

Peoples North Chapter Soon after ber arrival Sky gave to twins . born became known as tbe Good Spirit . Ybe twin caused bis so pain tbat died during bis . He was to be known as tbe Evil Spirit . Ybe Good Spirit took bis bead and bung it in tbe sky and it became tbe sun . Ybe Good Spirit also tbe stars and moon from bis body . He buried tbe remaining parts of Sky under tbe . living may always from tbe it . tbe Good Spirit provided , tbe Evil Spirit created tbe darkness . Ybe Good Spirit created many , but time bis would attempt to undo bis good work . Ybe Good Spirit made tbe tall and beautiful trees , including tbe pines and . Ybe Evil Spirit , to be contrary , stunted some tress or put and knots in trunks . trees be covered in or poisoned fruit . Ybe Good Spirit made bear and deer . Ybe Evil Spirit made poisonous animals as lizards and serpents to destroy tbe animals created bis . tbe Good Spirit made springs and streams of pure crystal water , tbe Evil Spirit poisoned some and placed snakes in . Ybe Good Spirit made beautiful rivers . Ybe Evil Spirit rocks and dirt into tbe rivers creating swift and dangerous currents . tbe Good Spirit made bis wicked attempted to destroy . After tbe Good Spirit completed tbe , be created man out of red clay . Placing man upon tbe , tbe Good Spirit instructed tbe man about bow be live . Ybe Evil Spirit made a monkey out foam . Upon completion of bis work , tbe Good Spirit bestowed a protecting spirit upon all of bis creations . done , be called bis and told bim be must cease making trouble . Ybe Evil Spirit 28

Native Peoples North America Chapter Good Spirit became enraged at bir . He bir evil twin to combat . winner would be tbe ruler world For tbe apple tree . battle raged for many . Good Spirit , overcoming evil . Good took as ruler and to a dark cave under . In cave tbe Evil Spirit wax to remain . Keller George , Wolf Clan , from the storytelling of his maternal . In 1491 how many people were living in the Americas , how did they get here , how long had they been here , and what had they accomplished ?

When most of us who now live in the United States and Canada learn about the history of our homeland , material starts with Christopher Columbus landing on islands in the Caribbean in 1492 . Little attention is given to the thousands of years before his arrival , to the people who had been living here and their accomplishments . Further , when information it given , it is generally a historical or archaeological list of first this happened , then that , with little attention to the cultural diversity of the peoples who lived on what many Native peoples call Turtle Island . Columbus and his men were probably not the Europeans ( or Asians or Africans ) to come to the North American continent , but they did come with the intention to stay , and stay they , and many others following them , early Europeans encountered people as diverse and advanced as they themselves of us living in the century are often unaware of the linguistic and cultural diversity of the peoples who inhabited ( and continue to inhabit ) what we now call North America , how they got here or how long they ve been here . This chapter will examine those questions , looking first at the population and cultural diversity of the First Peoples of North America previous to 1492 . 29

Peoples North Chapter How many were there ?

It is to estimate populations in the century in most parts of the world . Most people lived in small societies everyone knew everyone else , their families , and their was little reason to do a population count of how many people , how many women , men , and children , people over or under a certain age , and their occupations . This is the type of census now done in the United States and Canada every 10 years . A census shows not only the number of people in a society , but also how that society changes over time . Such a census is an important source of data for governments and for future historians and anthropologists . In the past , empires such as Rome in Europe , and the Aztec in ( present day Mexico and Central American ) conducted , largely for tax or tribute purposes , but most societies had no reason to do so . So how do we go about estimating population numbers from so long ago ?

One way is to examine documents left by the Europeans ( Spanish , French , English , Dutch , Russians , and many more ) who came to the are a number of problems with this method . First , not everyone kept records . Among the French , for example , while religious missionaries kept population counts ( largely to show how many people they had converted ) the voyagers who came for animal skins to trade in Europe did not . Further , Europeans based their population estimates on people they encountered there is no way to estimate how many people they didnt meet . Which leads to another issue various Native peoples were encountered by Europeans at different times . The Caribbean peoples ( the peoples ( Maya and Aztecs ) and the many South American peoples were probably not the first indigenous peoples to encounter the Europeans . Perhaps surprising to many and Canadians , the first Native Americans to encounter Europeans were not the peoples of the Caribbean , but the peoples of the Arctic and . Archaeological evidence indicates the Norse established villages in and years ago . For whatever reasons , these sites were abandoned by 15 00 , and it is questionable these Norse sites had much impact on the Native peoples . 30

Peoples North Chapter What is more intriguing , however , is the incidence of Native peoples from the area who somehow made it to Europe . There is historical evidence to show that Native peoples and artifacts were found in Europe , particularly in Ireland and the northern coast of Scotland . In the case of the artifacts , it seems they were found in the bodies of seals and other marine life . Perhaps the currents of the Gulf Stream and storms brought what were possibly peoples to the coast of Ireland . In Lonely , the historian Jean notes that a man and woman were tied to wrecks that came ashore near , Ireland and that another described as red and strange and not African , came ashore on the coast of Spain in a craft that appeared to be a tree . further suggests in Mariner Man , that Columbus may well have known about these incidents and assumed the people were from ( China ) In the ( not long after Columbus display of people he had captured in the Caribbean ) an Eskimo man and woman captured at sea were put on exhibition in various European cities . Christopher Columbus came in contact with the peoples of the Caribbean , among them the , and . Later , Spanish conquerors such as Cortez conquered the peoples of ( Mexico and Central America ) such as the Maya and Aztecs . The contact continued to peoples living along the eastern seaboard , to the southwestern part of the United States , then the western coast of North America , and the peoples of the interior part of North last to be encountered by Europeans . However , Native peoples did not have to have direct contact with Europeans to be affected by them . One of the most devastating of these or disease . The peoples of the Americas had no immunity to the diseases brought by Europeans . The populations of the Americas had been largely isolated from Europe , Africa , and Asia for thousands of years . In that time , many diseases evolved in the Old World . Diseases like smallpox , the plague , and even diseases that are now commonplace , such as measles , mumps , and chicken pox . Over time , the Europeans who survived these diseases , and their children , developed immunities to them . Despite surviving , they were still carriers of the disease , and they carried it to the Native peoples had no immunity 31

Peoples North Chapter to these diseases and many died from the exposure . Probably far more Native peoples died from disease than in warfare with Europeans . Europeans may have contracted diseases , such as a form of syphilis , from Native peoples as well , but the diseases passed onto the Europeans did not seem to have had the same devastating impact . This population lost due to disease further complicates estimating how many people lived in the Americas before the significant European contact that followed in the wake of Columbus arrival . Native peoples had extensive trade routes throughout Turtle Island . People met , traded goods , and often formed marriage alliances . As a result , trade goods often spread the European diseases before a specific society ever encountered a European , and well before the population size could be estimated . Starting in the nineteenth century , archaeology and the examination of burials and the material remains of a society became a tool in helping to estimate Native populations before European contact . However , many early archaeologists didn just examine burials for population estimates . In numerous instances , Native American skeletons were exhumed from burial sites and sent to various museums in the United States , Canada , and Europe for examination and storage . Often the data accompanying these remains were inadequate , so that now it is to determine where a skeleton and other artifacts came from . Therefore , they are not very useful in determining population size . It must be clear by now that trying to estimate a population from more than 500 years ago can be very . Estimates for North America at that time have ranged from million to million . In 1976 , geographer William ( 1992 ) used a combination of techniques and data to arrive at what he called a consensus count of million people in the Americas in 1491 ( with a margin of error of 20 , suggests population could have ranged between 43 to 65 million ) He divides the population into million for North America , million for Mexico , million in Central America , million in the Caribbean , million in the Andes , and in the lowlands of South America . The largest populations with the societies of the Aztecs and Maya in Mexico , and the Inca in Peru . further estimates that the First Peoples of the Americas suffered a death toll of 89 , striking their numbers from 53 million to million by the sixteenth century , as 32

Peoples North Chapter a result of disease , warfare , and the experience of slavery ( Some populations , like the Maya , would not attain their population levels until the twentieth century . Some never have , some have become extinct . It is no wonder Native Americans refer to their experiences at the hands of European invaders as genocide . Why then , from the very beginning of European settlement were the Americas described as vast , empty spaces ready to be occupied by Europeans who were feeling population pressures in their home countries ?

Both European governments , like the Spanish , French and British , and private companies with royal charters , like the Virginia Bay Colony , encouraged landless people to move and settle in the New World , where land and resources were plentiful . In part , this policy was based on relieving population pressure and civil unrest in Europe , and partly on the need to have people to harvest the resources of the Americas . Following the wake of the , it is estimated , removed 40 billion of gold and silver from and South came looking for gold , and instead found lumber , fish , animal skins , and a variety of foods not known in Europe , Asia , or Africa ( In the long run , these resources proved to be more valuable than the gold and silver that were soon depleted . In his books Indian Giver and Native , anthropologist Jack examines how Native Americans enriched the world through their contributions of food and medicines . estimates 70 to 75 of the worlds food and medicines come from the Americas and were unknown in the Old World previous to the . and Canadians usually think of tobacco , a plant used by Native Americans for religious and medical purposes , as an example of an indigenous American crop . Early colonial farmers like John , the husband of Pocahontas , had to hybridize the native tobacco to suit the tastes of European smokers . More crucial were crops such as corn , beans , squash , tomatoes , potatoes , chili peppers , and chocolate . Not only did Native Americans develop and grow these important crops , they developed various varieties to adapt to various environmental they grew over 30 varieties of corn some varieties adapted for drought , pests , and the shorter growing seasons of the Northeast . Early conquerors of the Southwest noted the rainbow colors drying on the roofs ofthe . 33

Peoples of North Chapter In the nineteenth century , when Americans were working to distinguish themselves from their European kin as they established communities across the continent , they developed the concept of Manifest Destiny . This concept held that it was the destiny of Americans to occupy , settle , and civilize North America . This idea is depicted in the painting American Progress by John Cast in which a woman holds a book leading the way west for American settlers , driving the indigenous ( Native Americans ) people away into the darkness . Inherent within the understanding of Manifest Destiny was the belief that the Americas were vast nearly empty lands , not an area that was home to up to 53 million people . This myth that the Americas were nearly empty lands until Europeans got here is one that continues in the minds of today . But Turtle Island , like Europe , was home to vast array of people who harvested resources , raised families , ran their communities , traded , and sometimes fought with , other communities . Spirit Frontier ! 1872 34 ! if .

Peoples North Chapter Where do your people come from ?

When Christopher Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage to the Caribbean , he brought with him people , animals , plants , and other artifacts he had found during his travels . A journey in a small , crowded ship was no doubt very for the Caribbean natives who were unused to ocean travel . In Spain ( indeed in all of Europe ) their arrival caused quite an upheaval in the way Europeans viewed the world . At this time Europeans held that the earth was about years old ( based on the calculation of generations in the Bible ) and that the world and everything in it was the same now as it was at the time of creation . So how could Europeans account for very different animals , plants , and people that did not fit into this very ordered view of the world ?

The question of who the Native peoples of Turtle Island were and where they came from is one that various people have tried to answer since 1492 . In the there were arguments about whether these indigenous peoples were even human or had souls . The Dominican priest de Las , in 1542 , established ( at least for the Catholic Church ) that Indians were human and had souls , that they were not a separate creation or created by the devil . But if that was so , how did they come to be in the Americas , separated from the rest of the world ?

Over the last 500 years there have been a number of highly speculative theories the indigenous peoples of the Americas came from . One was that they are a remnant population from the Lost Continent of Atlantis . Another theory was that American Indians were the descendants of western societies ( Egyptian , Greek , Irish , or Welsh ) sailors who were blown by storms to the Americas ( were there women on these ships ?

Another theory speculates that Native Americans were the descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel , though no explanation is given to how these tribes traveled from the deserts of the Middle East to the Americas . More recently , some speculators like Erich von ( Chariots of the Gods 1968 ) have maintained that Native Americans are the descendants of alien visitors from space who have lost the knowledge of their ancestors . 35

Peoples of North Chapter These theories are often based on the premise that Native Americans were not capable of building the monumental architecture and art found through out the Americas . But those who encountered Native peoples early in the conquest of the Americas had no such thoughts . Cortez , the Spanish conquistador who attacked , conquered , and destroyed much of , the capital city of the Aztecs , was convinced the Aztecs had built the city . Cortez marveled at gardens and public baths , which were so large that he said Rome could in one corner . However , he then destroyed much of it . But he didn think men from outer space had built it he knew that Aztecs had . Archaeology has shown us how Native peoples were able to build monuments like those in Mexico Monk Mound of , found not far from the city of Louis found throughout what is now the southwestern part of the United States and mounds found in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys . Like people throughout the world who built monuments , they started of small and learned as they went along . by Monk Mound , a culture , located at tbe site near , Illinois . concrete is modern , it it along tbe approximate of tbe original wooden . 36

Peoples Chapter exam . Harm Dam . ea . Drawing Serpent sites in by George Hamilton Davis , 1836 From the to to day , amateur archaeologists and anthropologists wondered about the Native Americans they encountered and the artifacts they found . Thomas Jefferson , for example , had an extensive collection of Native artifacts he found in Virginia . The poet William Cullen Bryant wrote the poem The Prairies , in which he postulated that the peoples who had built the monumental architecture found in various parts of the Americas had been killed and supplanted by the more brutish and warlike Indian Americans . This belief about Native Americans was commonly held by well into the twentieth century . 37

Peoples North Chapter The development of archaeology and anthropology as an academic discipline in which people are trained to gather information with a set of protocols ( the systematic collection and recording of data ) started to develop in late nineteenth century . Throughout the twentieth and now century , anthropologists and archaeologists continue to gather data about the Native peoples of the Americas . One of the big questions continues to be Where did they come from ?

The issue of where humans come from , how they developed ( evolved ) is one of the biggest general questions in anthropology and archaeology . The origination of people of a particular geographic area is part of that question . there are two ways of looking at the evolution and migration of and polygenesis . Did humans start the evolutionary process in one geographic area ( monogenesis ) or in two or more ( polygenesis ) Currently the evidence suggests , and most scientists would agree , that human ( Homo sapiens ) evolution started in Africa . For example , while archaeologists continue to find older and older skeletal remains of humans in the Americas , all these remains are fully modern have been no Neanderthals , Homo erectus , Homo , nor any of the other early stages of human evolution found in the Americas . Early populations of humans migrated from Africa to other parts of the world . In the century we may forget that until the 1869 construction of the Canal , a thin strip of land connected Africa to Asia and Europe . So that part of the migration pattern is relatively easy to understand , but how did people ( fully modern humans like us ) get across vast oceans to the Americas ?

Here knowledge of geology is helpful . Unlike the Europeans of Columbus time , we now know the world we live in did not always look like it does now , and it will change in the future as well . The planet Earth has gone through periods of and melting . What is now dry land , may have been an ocean thousands of years ago . Mountains erupt and then wear down . Earth is an landscape . Changes in land , geology , and topography made it possible even necessary for early humans to migrate out of Africa . 38

Peoples of North America Chapter One of the oldest theories about how humans came to the Americas is based on geological evidence that suggests Alaska was connected to present day Siberia by a land bridge . This phenomenon is called the Bering Land Bridge ( for the Bering Strait , which it crosses ) or . Maturation of the New Work ! founders DI during the In the glacial thousands of 330 Bering Land Bridge . The Bering Land Bridge was in existence at several different periods in the last years ( before present ) years and years . It was over 100 miles wide at its widest point and would have been crossable for hundreds of years before it was covered up in water and then appeared again 39

Peoples North Chapter as ocean levels rose and fell . While most of northern North America was covered by glaciers , geological evidence suggest there might been corridors that could have allowed for the migration of people and factors made it possible for not just people , but also plants and animals to migrate back and forth between North America and Asia over long periods of time . It is postulated that humans came east , while early ancestors of the horse ( which was about the size of a fox ) for example , went west to Asia where they continued to migrate and evolve until they were brought back , first by the Spanish and then other Europeans . Until recently the Bering Land Bridge was the most commonly accepted theory about how people came to the Americas . However , new archaeological evidence continues to emerge that suggests other migratory patterns . If you looked at the map of the Bering Land Bridge you may have speculated about another possible route to the Americas down along the coastal areas of western Canada and the United States . Archaeologist Carole has called this the Aboriginal Coast Highway . Unfortunately , archaeological evidence to support this theory in most cases would now be under water , as the coastal area of western North America has shifted . However , some archaeological evidence has been found in caves and other protected areas along the West Coast that supports the theory of possible migration along coastal areas . In the popular media such as the January 2000 issue of Man ! the article The Have Landed speculated that people from Europe , Asia , or Africa might have been coming to the Americas by boat for long periods of time before Columbus appeared . Archaeologists have evidence for Viking settlements in and what is now Labrador in Canada , but for whatever reasons these settlements did not last long . The impact of these Viking settlements on Native peoples was probably negligible . People could also have sailed from Asia on boats . Archaeologists now know people were migrating to and settling in to years ago . Most recently some researchers have speculated that people could have sailed from Africa to the Americas , as the ocean and wind currents are more favorable for western sailing in the Southern Hemisphere than in the Northern . 40

Peoples North Chapter Certainly we dont give our ancestors enough credit . They had the same brains we have . The fact that humans are still here attests to their intelligence and ingenuity . However , just because people could have done something doesnt mean they did . We need archaeological or biological evidence to demonstrate that Africans or Asians sailed to the Americas . And if they did , what impact did they have ?

Further archaeological inquiry will help to either prove or disprove these hypotheses . From the story at the beginning of this section we see that Native American societies have their own beliefs about where they came from , but not all Native American societies have the same beliefs . In 1491 , over 700 languages were spoken in what is now North America . Each one of those languages represents a different society with its own set of customs and beliefs . So there may well have been 700 stories about each society origins . However , these Native stories seem to fall into two categories , and the stories at the beginning of this section illustrate both Emergence from the Underground and Earth Diver stories . In Emergence stories people once lived underground . For various reasons , they embark on a journey that eventually leads them to emerge into the world . Societies that have emergence tales are able to point out where their ancestors emerged from the underground . In Earth Diver stories , people once lived in the above Earth , which was a great body of water with only aquatic animals living in it . For various reasons , a pregnant woman ( Sky Woman ) falls from the water birds see her falling and up to cushion her fall with their wings . They put her on the back of a turtle . An Earth Diver ( often a beaver , otter , or muskrat ) dives to the bottom of the water to bring up a of earth , which Sky Woman takes and spreads over the back ofthe turtle . As she does so , the Earth spreads to become the land the Natives knew . That is why many Native Americans refer to their world as the Island on the Back of the Turtle , or Turtle Island . How Long Ago ?

The United States and Canada are young countries . Perhaps for that reason some or find it very important to be able to establish how long their ancestors have been 41 Peoples North Chapter in their respective countries . People will do extensive research to show when a certain ancestor came to North America and from where , or which ancestors fought in the American Revolution or the War of 1812 . Native Americans tend not to worry too much about these matters their ancestors have always been here . But for many others , and certainly for historians , anthropologists , and archaeologists , the questions of how long people have been here are important ones . As has already been shown , only fully modern human remains are found in the Americas , which means migration would have occurred less than years ago . The availability of the Bering Bridge would have been important for at least some migrations . Geologists believe the land bridge was in existence three times in the last years between and and and and years ago . Consequently , people could have been migrating to the Americas over different routes and at different times . Archaeological and linguistic ( language ) data certainly indicate this . Archaeology has been very important in helping to determine how long people have been in the Americas , but it is far from perfect . Archaeological research done in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries relied on the concept of superposition to determine how old artifacts basically means that the deeper down in the ground an artifact is found , the older it is . A archaeologist would assume that artifacts found inches under the ground are more recent than artifacts found a foot makes sense , except that a number of factors can disturb areas in which artifacts are found . The freezing and thawing of water in lakes and rivers ( where most early settlements are found ) the freezing and thawing of the ground itself earthquakes and the effects of farming , such as all may shift layers of dirt , moving artifacts farther up or down in the ground . In the the use of carbon 14 ( radiocarbon dating ) was developed for dating purposes . In this technique , the amount of carbon 14 , a chemical found in all living things , is measured . When an organism dies , the amount of carbon 14 starts to decay . By measuring the amount of carbon 14 left in the artifact , archaeologists can estimate how old an organic artifact is . 42

Native Peoples of North America Chapter Using this technique archaeologists were able to estimate the age of a mastodon butchering area to years . Found with the mastodon were very unique projectile points , called Folsom Points . The organic bones of the mastodon supplied the dating information , while a projectile point embedded in one of the bones clearly indicated the animal had at least been butchered , if not killed , by the people who made the Folsom Points . in . A tradition . 43

Peoples North Chapter Me Me a ) is aint . Example blade if old . Problems associated with carbon 14 dating are that it can only be done with organic materials , so projectile points or pottery can not be dated . Another problem is that the testing process destroys a large part of the artifact . Archaeologists and geologists also use argon dating which can be used to determine the age of igneous and volcanic rock . In dating , the radioactive isotope of potassium 40 decays to the gas argon 40 . By comparing the proportion of potassium 40 to argon 40 , the date of rocks can be determined . However , the rocks must be carefully collected , and it can be to determine if any marks or wear on the rocks are the result of human activity or natural erosion . Additionally , the standard deviations for age estimates are very large ( 1989 ) Archaeologists , especially those within the of , have long used biological material such as skeletons , especially skulls , to make hypotheses and draw conclusions about where Native Americans may have originated and possible relationships to other populations . However , skeletal material is very plastic or it is changed , sometimes within a generation , by environmental factors such as diet . So , drawing comparisons between skeletons from one continent to another , or even on the same continent , can be tricky . 44

Peoples North Chapter However , with the ability of biologists to now isolate and study genetic material , a new area of data is available to . In the , Glen of Florida State University conducted excavations at peat bogs at the Site in Florida . The low oxygen levels and neutral of the bog preserved burials that were between to years to earlier research done in extracting DNA from brain tissue ( see Allan Wilson 1977 and 1988 ) was able to extract DNA from the brain tissue of 60 mummies . discovered that the genetic material of the brain tissue from the bog mummies varied very little , even though the bog had been used as a burial site for thousands of years ( Thomas Skull ) Research such as leads other and to study the genetic of Native Americans . At this time , research such as this indicates the indigenous populations of the Americas probably diverged from common genetic ancestors between and years ago . Combined with what we know about geology , this divergence would have occurred after humans came to the Americas . Data such as these helped scientists determine that the genetic differences between Asian and Native Americans populations would have occurred between and years ago ( Thomas ) Another type of research that can be helpful in illustrating the differences between Native American and other world populations and how long ago they occurred is linguistics , the study of languages . Linguists have been studying the relationships between languages for hundreds of years . Typically they analyzed sets of ( common words ) to find language families ( languages that descend from a common proto or mother language ) In this way the American anthropologist Alfred postulated the possibility of seven American Indian languages in the early twentieth century . More recently Joseph of Stanford University hypothesized three language families that he called , Dene , and . He suggests that the and speaking populations had arrived in the Americas more recently than the populations . thinks that the speakers of would be responsible for the Clovis 45

Peoples North Chapter projective points found by archaeologists . However , many experts in Native American languages discount ( an expert in African languages ) hypothesis . Attempts to merge theories from archaeology , microbiology , and linguistics to make hypotheses about the origin and time of migrations to the Americas have run into much criticism , largely because the data used by these sciences are so very data from archaeology and geology can be very , as can data from archaeology and microbiology . But including linguistics can be very problematic , as languages can be both conservative ( resistant to change ) and . The rate of language change can be dependent on a number of factors including how many other populations and languages one society encountered , and if that society decided to use language as a means to maintain cultural identity in the wake of encountering other cultures , or to incorporate new words phrases as has often been done in our English language . However biological , archaeological , geographic , and linguistic evidence indicates that the peop es of the Americas have been a unique population for more than years . Peoples from other parts of the world may have found their way to the Americas , but there is no evidence these visitors had any impact on the peoples or the societies already here until the events of 492 . It is interesting that the questions about how long Native Americans have been in the Americas , and what other populations may have them , is such a hot issue of debate , especially in the popular media . In Europe , Germans or Spaniards seldom have to defend how long ago their ancestors arrived in Europe . If asked , they would probably say their ancestors were always in Europe , just as Native Americans would say their ancestors were always in the Americas . However , with the exception of the Basque people , the ancestors of Europeans migrated to Europe as well , many of them in time frames similar to that of the migrations to the Americas . This shows us the mobility of those ancestors and raises questions about why they migrated . It doesnt call into doubt the identity or sovereignty of those peoples . Like questions about how many people were in the Americas in 1491 , the subtext of such questions by about how long ago Native Americans got here can be , Well , they 46

Native Peoples of North America Chapter weren here that long ago . They are immigrants , just like Like the concept of Manifest Destiny this underlying message undermines the validity of Native American claims for sovereignty . More interesting questions than how long have people been in the Americas , and how many were here in 1491 are What did they do once they got here ?

How did those societies organize their kin groups ?

What resources did they have ?

What was their political organization ?

Were the roles of women and men similar or very different ?

What were their religious beliefs ?

What did their expressive culture ( art ) sound like and look like ?

How did those societies survive ( or not ) their encounters with Europeans and ?

What do Native American societies look like today ?

These questions , and many more , will be addressed in the following chapters . Suggested Questions What theories do you have about how humans came to the Americas ?

Are you familiar with the book Chariots of the Gods ?

Have you heard other theories about how other American peoples came to the Americas and what they had ?

Why would aboriginal people be upset by these theories ?

Much of the discussion about the impact or of Europeans , Asians , or possible extraterrestrials on Native American societies focuses on the building of monumental architecture like that found among the in Peru , the and Aztecs in Mexico and Central America , the in the southwestern United States , and mounds in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys . Yet monumental architecture is found everywhere around the world . Why do you think the idea that indigenous Americans did not build monumental architecture persists ?

47 Native Peoples of North America Chapter The Human Genome Project is attempting to gather DNA from people across the world to map genetic differences and similarities . Despite the scientific importance of DNA research , most indigenous Americans are opposed to being part of such a study Why do you think this is so ?

What is genocide ?

In what context have you heard this word before ?

The application of the word genocide to the experiences of the indigenous peoples of the Americas after European contact is controversial . Why do you think this is so ?

Many families have members who are involved in genealogical research . What do you know about the origins and history of your family ?

Why do you think genealogical research is important to some people ?

Why would genealogical research be for people of Native American ancestry ?

Suggested Resources Good references for contact indigenous populations and environments is Pristine Landscape by William , published in Wilderness Debate , edited by and Michael Nelson , and First Americans In Pursuit Greatest Mystery , by with Jake Page . Carole article Invented Traditions and the Ultimate American Origin Myth In the beginning there was an ice corridor , in Settlement of tbe American Continents , edited by Michael Barton , et , is an excellent presentation of recent archeological investigations into alternative indigenous migration 48

Peoples North Chapter routes and dates to the Americas , as well as for Land , by Renee . that appeared in the February 2004 issue of . Investigation of an Earl Florida Cemetery , by Glen , is an excellent presentation of archaeological and biological evidence about a unique Native American burial site . The article How Columbus Sickened the World Why Were Native Americans so Vulnerable to the Diseases European Settlers Brought With Them , by ( New , is a good summary of the consequences of European diseases in the New World . For more information about de las , an accessible article is Prophet and Apostle de las and the Spiritual Conquest of America , in and 1800 edited by . American Indian Population Recovery in tbe Century by Nancy Shoemaker , is a good historical discussion of indigenous population loss and recovery . In addition to the archaeology resources cited in the Introduction , An Introduction , by Brain , is a good presentation of how archaeology is done , with particular reference to North America . If your library has a copy of the pricey American Indian and Literature by William Bright ( English publication by Mouton de , 1984 ) it is an excellent source of information about American Indian languages . Oldest are we ?

do we ?

made European women ?

by del Giorgio , discusses human migrations to Europe and the history of the Basque people . There of a number of websites ( many of them free ) which help people in doing genealogical research about their families . 49