First Civilizations of North America

Chapter 1 – Who Were the First Americans?

http://courses.csusm.edu/hist337as/hb/h37hbfra.htm

http://employees.oneonta.edu/walkerr/North%20America/Pre-Clovis2.ppt

The Earliest Americans

Who were the earliest Americans? • We know that at some time in the past no people lived in North or We know that at some time in the past no people lived in North or

South America. South America.

• We have been taught that big game hunters crossed the Bering We have been taught that big game hunters crossed the Bering Land Bridge and spread out across the continents. Land Bridge and spread out across the continents.

• But is this simple scenario the whole story? But is this simple scenario the whole story?

• Evidence from scientific fields (archaeology, physical anthropology, Evidence from scientific fields (archaeology, physical anthropology, paleontology, climatology, and geology) suggests more complex paleontology, climatology, and geology) suggests more complex events that reach back in time, long before the land bridge. events that reach back in time, long before the land bridge.

• To date, the oldest archeology sites are found in South America To date, the oldest archeology sites are found in South America rather than North America. And so far, the oldest sites found in the rather than North America. And so far, the oldest sites found in the United States are in the southeast.United States are in the southeast.

• How do we interpret intriguing and often conflicting hints about the How do we interpret intriguing and often conflicting hints about the past?past?

Friends of America’s Friends of America’s Past( A non-profit organization dedicated to advancing and promoting

the rights of scientists and the public to learn about America’s past)

Pre 1492…

• Until recently, most anthropologists have accepted the hypothesis…

• The ancestors of the indigenous peoples of the Americas must have come from Asia by way of Beringia, the now-sunken link between Alaska and Siberia.

• Beringia becomes dry ground during ice ages, when global cooling locks sea water into ice and sea level drops. The most recent ice age hit its last peak about 12,000 years ago.

      

• Beringia hypothesis and the argument that big-game hunters using Clovis points were the original people of the Americas, presumably having unknowingly followed their prey from Siberia into an unpopulated western hemisphere.

• Stone points of the distinctive Clovis design were made for about five hundred years, apparently, beginning 12,000 years or more in the past.

• Clovis stone points were first found about seventy years ago associated with mammoth bones near Clovis, New Mexico. The people who made them are called Paleoindians by anthropologists.

Evidence for an earlier arrival?

• Original hypothesis…original inhabitants here for just 4,000 years…

• New hypothesis… Clovis points were persuasive evidence for an earlier date…maybe 40,000 years ago?!?!

North American SitesNorth American Sites• Meadowcroft Rockshelter, PA (16-19.5 kya).Meadowcroft Rockshelter, PA (16-19.5 kya).

• Wilson Butte Cave, Idaho (14.5 kya)Wilson Butte Cave, Idaho (14.5 kya)

• Cactus Hill, VA (17 kya)Cactus Hill, VA (17 kya)

• Bluefish Caves, Alaska (24.8 kya)Bluefish Caves, Alaska (24.8 kya)

• Topper, SC (16-15 kya)Topper, SC (16-15 kya)

• Little Salt Spring (13.4 kya)Little Salt Spring (13.4 kya)

Monte Verde, Chile

• Broader agreement about another site, called Monte Verde, that seems to show that people with a well-developed culture were living in what is now southern Chile no later than 12,500 years ago.

• Archeologists have found well-made tools of bone, tusk, and stone, and evidence of a medicine hut and substantial timber-framed structures covered with hides.

Monte Verde, ChileMonte Verde, Chile

Monte Verde, ChileMonte Verde, Chile

New Theories…• Some anthropologists

now hypothesize…• Ancestors of indigenous

Americans were not a few hunters wandering eastward across Beringia …

• But rather diverse groups of people who traveled by boat as well as on foot and came in many waves by many routes over many centuries.

Support for the argument that at least two distinctly different groups lived in one region of North America at about the same time…

• State of Washington, 1996• Anthropologists identified the

bones as those of a man they described as proto-caucasian… “Kennewick Man.”

• Very different from the bones of later Indian people.

• Same region and period…• Suggest a common origin with

the proto-Caucasian Ainus ( “I knew”), the indigenous people of Japan.

Archeologist Jim Chatters and Kennewick Man reproductions, and Newsweek cover

United States Department of the Interior

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE1849 C St. NW

Washington, D.C. 20240

MemorandumMemorandum

Memorandum

To: Assistant Secretary, Fish and Wildlife Parks

Through: Director,

/s/Jackie Lowey for Robert G. Stanton

From: Departmental Consulting Archeologist

/s/Francis McManamon

Subject: Determination that the Kennewick Human Skeletal remains are “Native American” for the Purposes of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)

First Federal Decision

Native Science:

Nez Perce, Umatilla, Yakama, and Colville Tribes are united in their request to bury the remains of Kennewick Man, whom they believe may be one of their ancestors.

Western Science:

Eight scientists wish to use the remains of Kennewick Man to conduct research.

2002 Court Decision:

No reburial for Kennewick Man. The U.S. Magistrate agreed with the scientists. Some Kennewick body parts would be ground up for DNA testing, including some at the Univ. of AZ.

OCTOBER 2002 AP BULLITEN

Second Decision – a Federal Court