Migration of the First Migration of the First NationsNations

40,000 BCE-1000 CE40,000 BCE-1000 CE

More Questions than AnswersMore Questions than Answers When did the first migrants come?When did the first migrants come?

Constantly changing theories: 8-40,000 BCE. (or earlier?)Constantly changing theories: 8-40,000 BCE. (or earlier?)

Why did they migrate to America?Why did they migrate to America?Following Mammoth Migrations, maybe.Following Mammoth Migrations, maybe.

Where did they come from?Where did they come from?Asia probably, Siberia of Pacific Islands, Asia probably, Siberia of Pacific Islands, Europe (Solutrean) maybe.Europe (Solutrean) maybe.

How did they get here? How did they get here? Probably walked, maybe sailed.Probably walked, maybe sailed.

What explains the diversity of cultures?What explains the diversity of cultures?Cultural evolution, diversity of origins?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

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.

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.

Origins of First Migrations ProliferateOrigins 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?Vikings of the Sunrise? Sione Ake MokofisiSione Ake Mokofisi Kathryn A. Klar , linguist, UCBKathryn A. Klar , linguist, UCB Terry L. Jones, archeologist, Cal Poly, San Luis ObispoTerry L. Jones, archeologist, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo Evidence: Linguistic similarities, sweet potatoes (400-Evidence: Linguistic similarities, sweet potatoes (400-

700CE), Polynesian artifacts found in Chumash digs 700CE), Polynesian artifacts found in Chumash digs (400-500CE), Inca Masonry on Rapa Nui(400-500CE), Inca Masonry on Rapa Nui

Native American Crops

Teosinte to Hybrid to Maize

One of The Three Sisters

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.

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 BCEThe 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 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

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