Any hint that ancient Europeans settled in North America at about the same time as modern Native Americans cannot be countenanced either by Native American tribes or white liberals. For Native Americans, it is a deep insult to their culture to claim that their origins were anywhere else but North America. They reject any migration theories for religious reasons.
The controversy over Kennewick Man shows the lengths that some Native Americans will go to “protect” their culture. A skeleton found in Washington bore some markers of being caucasian. A huge controversy erupted as some Native Americans fought to keep science from unlocking the secrets of the skeleton. After more than a decade of legal wrangling, scientists were allowed to examine the priceless find and the skeleton gave up its secrets. The remains are more closely related to modern Native Americans than to any other living population.
There is also a modern-day political reason for rejecting any hint that Native Americans came from somewhere else.
So what happened to these older, primitive societies — the Clovis people and others who were clearly present in North and Central America before modern Native Americans? They no doubt had what they considered “their land” to hunt and forage. Who stole it from them and wiped them out?
It’s not a simple question because there are so many holes in our knowledge of early North Americans. There may have been tribal conflicts, and there may have been tribal marriages. The DNA record is silent about land claims, but is that really the point?
What happened to Native Americans when European settlers arrived was as tragic as what happened to the Celtic people when the Slavs and Huns invaded Celtic lands just 800 years before the arrival in North America of Columbus. If anything, the Huns were even more brutal than Europeans were to Native North and South Americans. They also massacred entire villages. They also brought disease and pestilence.
The controversy over Kennewick Man shows the lengths that some Native Americans will go to “protect” their culture. A skeleton found in Washington bore some markers of being caucasian. A huge controversy erupted as some Native Americans fought to keep science from unlocking the secrets of the skeleton. After more than a decade of legal wrangling, scientists were allowed to examine the priceless find and the skeleton gave up its secrets. The remains are more closely related to modern Native Americans than to any other living population.
There is also a modern-day political reason for rejecting any hint that Native Americans came from somewhere else.
So what happened to these older, primitive societies — the Clovis people and others who were clearly present in North and Central America before modern Native Americans? They no doubt had what they considered “their land” to hunt and forage. Who stole it from them and wiped them out?
It’s not a simple question because there are so many holes in our knowledge of early North Americans. There may have been tribal conflicts, and there may have been tribal marriages. The DNA record is silent about land claims, but is that really the point?
What happened to Native Americans when European settlers arrived was as tragic as what happened to the Celtic people when the Slavs and Huns invaded Celtic lands just 800 years before the arrival in North America of Columbus. If anything, the Huns were even more brutal than Europeans were to Native North and South Americans. They also massacred entire villages. They also brought disease and pestilence.
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