Download Migration through Contact

Migration of the First
Nations
40,000 BCE-1000 CE
More Questions than Answers
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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 coauthor on the paper. He added that
it was the first identification of preClovis 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
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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?
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Sione Ake Mokofisi
Kathryn A. Klar , linguist, UCB
Terry L. Jones, archeologist, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
Evidence: Linguistic similarities, sweet potatoes (400700CE), 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 Mound
Pee 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.
Mississippian Marble Statues
Mississippian
Inhabitant
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 farflung 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
Mandan Village
Visions
Women Mandan/Sioux Performing Buffalo Dance
Mississippi Mound Culture in 1000 B.C.
Artist’s Rendition
Pueblo Bonito
Mesa Verde
Haida
Raven
AZTECS
Tenochtitlan
The Inca empire
Macchu Picchu
First Contact: 1000? -1492