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Migration of the First Nations. 40,000 BCE-1000 CE. More Questions than Answers. When did the first migrants come? Constantly changing theories: 8-40,000 BCE. (or earlier?) Why did they migrate to America? Following Mammoth Migrations, maybe. Where did they come from?
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Migration of the First Nations 40,000 BCE-1000 CE
More Questions than Answers • When did the first migrants come? Constantly changing theories: 8-40,000 BCE. (or earlier?) • Why did they migrate to America? Following Mammoth Migrations, maybe. • Where did they come from? Asia probably, Siberia of Pacific Islands, Europe (Solutrean) maybe. • How did they get here? Probably walked, maybe sailed. • What explains the diversity of cultures? Cultural evolution, diversity of origins?
Previously the Dominant Theory:On the Trail of the Wooly Mammoth?
"It's one of the biggest crap deposits known." Coprolites mark the trail of the Wooly Mammoth from Siberia to Alaska and down the corridors Native Americans would follow all the way to the Southwest United States and on down to South America,
DNA Analysis One Recent DNA analysis of Native Americans, Asians, Africans and Europeans found little overlap among the genetic markers.
Clovis Points The stone tools at Buttermilk Creek were dated using an optical technique called luminescence dating, which uses changes in luminescence levels in quartz or feldspar as a clock to pinpoint the time that objects were buried in sediment. "We found Buttermilk Creek to be about 15,500 years ago – a few thousand years before Clovis," said Steven Forman of the University of Illinois, who is a co-author on the paper. He added that it was the first identification of pre-Clovis stone tool technology in North America. http://www.nps.gov/bela/historyculture/other-migration-theories.htm Clovis points were discovered near Clovis, Arizona and dated to approximately 23-14,000 years ago. There is a claim that similar points can be found in Europe some 30,000 years ago among the Solutrean Culture.
Origins of First Migrations Proliferate • A somewhat more widely accepted maritime theory looks to modern cultural anthropology and linguistics, claiming a striking resemblance between the cultures of Australia, Southeast Asia, and South America. Support for this idea is found partially in the discovery of a 9,500 year old skeleton in Washington State. Dubbed the "Kennewick Man," the skeleton bears a strong physical resemblance to the Japanese Ainu people, suggesting that a pan-Pacific journey via boat might have brought other first Americans to our shores. • More Recent Findings: Monte Verde, Chile, Sites in Brazil. • The Pyramids of Caraval, Peru – perhaps, 2750 BCE (4770 years ago?) • As research and dating methods improve, more credible conclusions can be derived from the evidence we now have. Sites all around the country, including the Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania, Page-Ladsen flake tools in Florida, and coprolites from Paisley Cave in Oregon now provide more promising indications that the earliest Americans dispersed throughout the continent at least 14,500 years ago. Currently, the oldest claim for human settlement in the Americas lies at the Topper Site in South Carolina, dating back to about 15,000 years ago, but research continues to try to uncover how people got there and from where they came.
Vikings of the Sunrise? • Sione Ake Mokofisi • Kathryn A. Klar , linguist, UCB • Terry L. Jones, archeologist, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo • Evidence: Linguistic similarities, sweet potatoes (400-700CE), Polynesian artifacts found in Chumash digs (400-500CE), Inca Masonry on Rapa Nui
Native American Crops From the earliest Native Civilizations to the 19th Century and up to the present, Native Americans depended on Corn, Squash and Beans (called The Three Sisters) as the staples of their diets. The hybridization of crops illustrates an advanced state of agricultural skills. Teosinte to Hybrid to Maize One of The Three Sisters
The Mound Builders These people lived in sedentary villages and built monumental architecture in the form of huge earthen mounds They constructed some 2,000 of them between Wisconsin & Florida Between 300-500 have been found in the Ohio Valley alone Some of the Earliest Moundbuilders come from the Adena Culture, followed by Hopewell Culture and finally Late Mississippian (ie. Cahokian Culture).
Pee Dee MoundPee Dee People a Variant of the Adena Culture Mound-building began about 2000 BCE The Adena, Hopewell and Mississippian Moundbuilders Pee Dee Mound in North Carolina Did the Ihina (little people) Live in Mounds?
Moundville, Alabama: 1000-1400 The Second Largest Pyramid between Cahokia and Tenochtitlan.
Native American Stockaded Town The Pequot Town near Mystic, Connecticut Provided a Template for Western Forts During Westward Expansion Across the Great Plains West of the Mississippi River Two Centuries Later in the 1800s.
First Nations Currency (Wampum) This wampum belt is an example of the importance of trade between far-flung cultures. Tribes needed a system of exchanging disparate or perishable goods not easily traded through the barter system based on an indigenous value exchange system. The answer was a currency.
Cahokia, Collinsville Illinois: 700-1400 Population 20-30,000
Mississippi Mound Culture in 1000 B.C. Artist’s Rendition