Talk:Models of migration to the New World/Archive 1

Archive 1

Archive 2

Pacific Coastal model

This page, especially the Pacific Coastal model section needs an award. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.107.222.42 (talk • contribs) 11 November 2005

On the contrary, although much of the information is very good (and thankfully mostly non-biased) I find the exclusion of three influential, and eye-opening authors to be very disturbing. The first author being, James W. Loewen for his book "Lies My Teacher Told Me" the reason I believe this book should be used as a source is due to the fact that it reveals may of the gifts Natives gave to the white people, such as a basis for the constitution, leaps and bounds in medicine, and over half of the food crops used today. Second, is Vine Deloria Jr.'s book "Red Earth, White Lies" for his blasting apart of the Bearing Straight theory. I think that many of the arguement he uses should be, even if only in passing, be mentioned. Third is Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" as it offers a brutaly truthful account of the many interactions Natives had with whites. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.220.17.187 (talk • contribs) 3 April 2006

The first and third books should not be mentioned in this article unless they provide information about models of migration to the new world. This article isn't about native americans' interactions with whites. The second book you mention might be useful, though. -kotra (talk) 21:21, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

This is sort of a reply to the first paragraph/sentence in the previous section, but partly a query to see who else has heard of recent research concerning ice age sea levels in the Pacific Northwest? This article hints at some of that, and is well-researched at a level I hadn't seen before; what I've seen is largely in the popular press locally, which occasionally carries archaeological/geological history articles, including the ice age coastal plain and the search for archaeological sites at the -100m elevation (100m below current shoreline...or was it 300m?). While at Bella Bella the coastal plain may have been just as described, a narrow strip between ice and sea, to the north and south of it the Johnstone Strait, Queen Charlotte Strait, Hecate Strait and Dixon Entrance were largely above water, as was also more of the west coast of what is now Vancouver Island (and then was likely part of the mainland, but I can't say for sure because of the potential depth of Johnstone Strait and other channels now separating it from the continent, which I'm not familiar enough with to know their soundings). Likewise the Georgia Strait and much of Puget Sound, other than the deep channels. The obverse of the coastal-migration thesis as I've seen it described is that there was no interglacial corridor, none proven anyway, i.e. as contiguous, and the lower coastal plain makes a whole lot more sense for easier migration (especially considering the climatic differences between an ocean-side route and an inland route, which then as now would have been profound).Skookum1 22:45, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

Conclusion?

The Conclusion section is really noncommittal and adds nothing to the article. Also, it makes this article look like a college freshman's research paper (which it may well be). Actually, the parenthetical citations don't lead to references at the bottom. This is definitely someone's cut and pasted research paper. I'm deleting the conclusion. Can someone else track down the references? Antelopotamus 23:54, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Contradiction?

Recent evidence from molecular genetics suggests that the entire Amerindian population of the Americas may be derived from an effective founding population that could have been as small as 80 (Source: Hey, 2005).

and from Bering land bridge:

Recent studies have indicated that of the people migrating across this land bridge during that time period, only 70 left their genetic print in modern descendents, a minute effective founder population— easily misread as though implying that only 70 people crossed to North America.

Doesn't look like a contradiction to me. Tzepish 22:21, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Hans-Joachim Zillmer?

Zillmer isn't generally taken seriously by scholars. The equivalent German Wikipedia article states: "Seine Theorie wird von Wissenschaftlern nicht akzeptiert." I think it's fine to cover him, but his "contributions" should be put into perspective. The German article breaks it down thus:
-Common theories (land bridge, coastal route)
-Other scientific theories (via Europe, Oceania)
-Other theories (Celts, Biblical, Book of Mormon, etc)
Zillmer is listed in the last category.
Twalls 18:17, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Trans-Pacific and Coastal Migrations

I have long wondered why the theory of maritime and coastal migrations have been resisted so adamantly by many academics.

Academic inertia: once a doctrine is established, no matter on how thin a set of evidence, it can take generations to dislodge.Skookum1 19:10, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Seacoasts have, on the whole, always provided far more reliable and easily collected sources of high-protein foods than inland routes. The first humans travelling along coastlines would have found ample supplies of shell fish and slow moving large marine animals which would have required little in the way of technology to gather. The ready availability of such foods was much greater in ancient times before they were exhausted by increasing human populations. There would originally have been little or no need for sophisticated fishing equipment such as hooks or nets.

It's not even ancient times: the fecundity of the Pacific Northwest Coast was extreme in the not-too-distant past; whether it was rich clam, oyster and seaweed beds or rich fishing, sealing and hunting, the fish and game populations in that region, and in the adjoining plateau, were extremely high; one bit of conventional lore from the late 1800s talks about the Fraser having been so full of salmon you could walk across on their backs. In Burrard Inlet, today's Vancouver harbour, there were enough whales to support a small commercial whaling operation, and the inlet was so rich in sardines that they were fished exclusively for their conversion to lubricating oil to run the inlet's three large sawmills.Skookum1 19:10, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

This can be observed even in modern times. When I first moved to Cape York Peninsula (Australia) in the mid 1980s it was easy in many places to gather enough oysters for a sumptuous meal by just scrambling among the rocks at low tide, and fish and ocean crayfish were available to anyone who was skilled in the use of a simple hand harpoon. This has changed now, of course, and it is difficult for younger people to believe how plentiful and easily available such resources were just a few years ago.

I visited Rhode Island a few years ago, and my host there told me that in the days of the Puritans, hog-sized lobsters covered the beaches of the sound. The Puritans, not knowing what a great food source they were, fed them to their pigs and used them for fertilizer and, of course, to find big lobsters today you have to get 'em deep.Skookum1 19:10, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Similarly, there is a common assumption that sophisticated boats and advanced seafaring skills were needed for long ocean voyages. This is simply not so – they were simply not necessary, especially if one considers that many trans-oceanic voyages were, and are, accidental rather than planned, and the "ability to successfully exploit marine resources" needed little skill or technology when those resources were abundant. While no one would argue that having advanced seafaring skills (and watercraft) would be a definite advantage, they are not necessary. Prevailing winds and currents, combined with a measure of good luck have quite frequently allowed very simple small craft to successfully carry people many thousands of kilometres over oceans in recent times.

I remember the argument about whether it was possible for people to cross the North Pacific in ancient times reaching heated levels amongst anthropologists while I was attending university in Vancouver in the early 1960s when a small rowboat with two Japanese fishermen was washed up on the west coast of Vancouver Island (to the astonishment of many who had said it was impossible). I also read an account years ago of two men who were said to have rowed across the North Atlantic in a small open rowboat.

It was either colonial governor James Douglas or his successor Frederick Seymour who negotiated the release of three Japanese fishermen from the Kyuquot Nuu-chah-nulth (early 1860s), who had enslaved them after they were shipwrecked in that area. The "negotiations" were probably a purchase, and the Japanese were returned to Japan under the auspices of the British, who hoped to use them to open doors to that still-closed country, as it was at the time. There are also numerous legends on the West Coast, from the Chinookans at the mouth of the Columbia northwards, dealing with vessels that came off the sea and the fate of their inhabitants; in the Chinookan case it was a copper-armoured vessel whose inhabitant was killed, only to be realized post facto all the things he might have taught them, and so the dismantled ship's coppers were traded to commemorate the unnecessary killing; the copper-armoured vessel sounds an awful lot like Korean armoured vessels from about 800 years ago, btw...Skookum1 19:10, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

The rough seas and great distances between early inhabited Asia and uninhabited North America were not as great a barrier as one might first imagine. The powerful Japanese current sweeps directly from Asia across to the west coast of North America and the abundance of fish and sea mammals would have enticed people to take chances.

The Japan Current, otherwise known as the Kuroshio (black river), is an "express route" across the Pacific, and infamous in the Japanese marine tradition for carrying sailors far out to sea if they make the mistake of entering it; and of ships disappearing who followed it....Skookum1 19:10, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Craft such as dugout canoes (which, I contend, along with rafts, were not beyond the capabilities of early humans to construct) have made successful voyages from British Columbia to Hawai'i and back, and were commonly used to travel between Australia and New Guinea and further until recent times. Moreover, simple small boats, especially watertight boats such as kayaks, have a great advantage over larger boats in the North Pacific - they are able to skim over the tops of the giant waves thus avoiding being smashed or capsized which was a constant threat to larger wooden vessels. I know this well, having spent a full year in the North Pacific on an 80 foot wooden-hulled fishing boat specifically designed for Alaskan waters but which was in constant danger of capsizing and sinking if we lost power even momentarily, or if, through carelessness or exhaustion, we approached a large wave at the wrong angle.

Farley Mowat's description of knarr, the vessel most commonly used by the Norse for open-ocean voyages (not longships), mentions that it was designed to ride swells, not combat them; and as a result they were highly stable even on heavy seas, as they were small and sturdy enough to just get tossed around (a longship, by comparison, would twist and break). Point is Mowat explained that bigger vessels are a rougher ride; the smaller you are, the more it's just like a log floating on the water, instead of something that can break or capsize....Skookum1 19:10, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

I was told by Aleut elders (although I have never been able to find written evidence of this) that in the "old days" they used to regularly set out in flotillas of up to a hundred or more one-man kayaks and travel, making use of the prevailing winds and currents, as a group, to the northern Japanese islands where they traded (what I don't know and, in my youth, neglected to ask) with the Ainu there before returning home when the winds changed direction.

In Jack London's To Build A Fire, a collection of short stories, there are two or three tales which deal with natives from northern BC/Yukon making the journey tribe-to-tribe all the way to Siberia/Kamchatka and back. Marius Barbeau, in his Totem Poles compilation (admittedly out-of-date nowadays) says that some of the clans of the northern Tlinkit and Haida were still arriving from beyond the Aleutians in relatively recent memory, i.e. the last few hundred years.Skookum1 19:10, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Regarding some of the advantages and difficulties faced by peoples migrating along coasts - I should briefly mention the stories told to me by Tlingit people from Yakutat. They claimed that they had settled there after travelling overland from the upper Copper River to the coast and then along the coast to the region of Yakutat where they were forced to stop because the glacier at that time came all the way out to the sea and, being originally from inland areas up the Copper River, they did not at that time, know how to make boats. So, they made their home at Yakutat - a place with abundant seafoods, berries, and game animals. In fact, so abundant were the sources of food they were able to gather and preserve enough in just a few months to last them all year. Unlike most hunting-gathering societies, they were able to make large permanent settlements - there was no need for a nomadic existence - there was plenty of food at hand and it was easy to preserve enough salmon, fish oils and berries to last through the winter. If, for any reason winter stocks ran low, some foods such as shellfish and halibut could be got at any season.

The legendary record throughout the region has a surprising number of references to ice-age conditions, or the aftermath of the ice age. I could start listing them but they're very many and all different in context/explanation; the Bella Bella example cited in the main article is a case-in-point, however; also see Chinook wind and look for the native legend on that page.Skookum1 19:10, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

I, for one, believe that coastal migrations and trans-oceanic voyages were far more common and important in the history of early human migrations than is usually assumed.

I would love to hear from anyone else with more information or just an interest in such matters. John Hill 22:58, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

I'm not an expert, just interested and perhaps too willing to look at apocryphal evidence such as the legendary/oral traditions. But like you I do wonder why it is that academia takes to long to revise its doctrines, even though they were established with much scantier information than the revised theories now circulating.Skookum1 19:10, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

John, your points are both excellent and interesting. I'd like to find out more about this copper boat legend! Twalls 22:59, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Dear Twalls: I am glad you found the points I made of interest - but I am a bit puzzled about the mention of a "copper boat". I did mention that the Tlingit people say they originally came from Copper River - but not in a copper boat. They did, however, gather "native copper" and fashion it into big plaques that were often painted and given away at potlatches. I will also post this note on your Talk page. John Hill 00:04, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, John, I should have clarified - I meant Skookum1's mention of the Chinookan legend of a visit by a copper-armored boat. If some kind of written reference can be found for this, this would be prime material for the Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact page. Thanks! Twalls 01:02, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

The story of the origin of coppers varies from people to people and community to community up and down the Northwest Coast; the particular version I heard may not be citable, i.e. published, as it was on a short-lived web page in the early days of the on-line Chinook Jargon community, which attracted a number of people of actual Chinook ancestry (including the Grand Ronde community where the Jargon is still spoken in a creolized form, the Tshinuk-wawa); the page in question was posted ba 16 year old who shall remain nameless, as he got into a lot of hot water for posting the lore that he did, apparently. Stories are owned in the Northwest, remember. It may not have been the story of the copper-hulled boat that he felt it safer to take the site down for (as I recall it was his mother who posted a note to our listserve about why she'd had him take it down - they were getting threats). But it may be in another collection, or not, I wouldn't know as I'm not familiar with the Chinook as a people (just the Jargon, as it was known here, i.e. in BC). I can't say much more than I already have; but I remember the story of the boat's captain being killed, despite his generosity, and the boat dismantled, and in the doing of this the people realized the importance of the man they had killed, and vested the copper plaques with value to honour him. And when I read this, it "clicked" with a stout Korean-made armoured vessel from the 1100s or so (or later?); covered in copper plates, somehow made salt/brine-resistant. And as elsewhere, the Kuroshio runs in a fast, straight stream eastwards across the North Pacific, hitting the North American Coast smack-dab on the mouth of the Columbia, where this is supposed to have happened (near Astoria as I remember). Skookum1 07:07, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

There are other stories I remember hearing, but can't say exactly for which group, although probably the Kwakiutl because I've read Chiefly Feasts, which includes a compendium of their lore; but I've read lots, so it could have been in anything; coppers are not part of the Interior culture, though. In coastal cultures, coppers had complex names and could be broken and re-named and distributed, or perhaps destroyed during a potlatch as a sign of chiefly power/waste/generosity; some writers I remember suggested they were nearly currency, and were traded and invested with material value as well as inherited and invested legacy, or whatever intangible it is in them that the native view on them would actually be (my own description is as an outsider, so necessarily wrong...). There's only a few extant, I think, other than those still in private (i.e. native) hands, by inheritance and custom, rather than purchase, as they're supposed to be. Worth a mint to a museum or collector, though...if I remember any other copper stories I'll come back with them.Skookum1 07:07, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Did they have to immigrate?

Is there anybody who believes the Native Americans have always lived here? I think this theory that they migrated is made up by whites to make them not feel as bad for committing genocide on them so they tell themselves the land wasn't even the Indians to begin with.

Anyway I don't believe humanity started with one man and one female. It's possible there could've been simoltaneous primordial soups at different parts of the world. Has any scientist discussed this?

No one takes that idea seriously, as nothing even close to fossil hominids have been found in the Americas. In the late 19th century, there was some speculation to that effect when some early primate fossils were discovered in South America, but these were lower primates from tens of millions of years ago, not early hominids. How they got here is a whole 'nuther debate!

On the other hand, more and more evidence seems to point to humans in the New World having been here much longer than assumed, but that is a question of tens of thousands of years, not millions. My view tends to align with the new evidence, that they were here earlier, but it would be hard to pinpoint when the initial arrivals came. Small groups do not leave many lasting traces, and the coastlines they probably hugged have been underwater for millenia. Twalls 20:01, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Very strong genetic evidence now indicates that all modern humans, Native Americans certainly included, are descended from people who left Africa perhaps 50-70,000 years ago. There are more genetic differences between modern Africans than between Africans and all the non-African populations. Really the idea that different human populations evolved separately is at odds with everything we know about biology and evolution, and it is profoundly racist.

Argentine origin

The scientist Florentino Ameghino proposed that the human originated in the Pampas of Argentina. [1], [2] Dentren | ^Talk 08:50, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

Werner Muller

Why no mention of Werner Muller and his theory of American origins in this article? A reputable archaeologist, Muller argued that migration may have occurred from Amerika to Asia. JStripes 19:03, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

I've heard of Müller, but I'm not so sure he's taken very seriously. If you were willing to write up a short synapsis of his theory as well as a presentation of the evidence he offers, it could certainly be placed in the "Other Theories" category. I can't seem to find much substantive information about his book, _America: The New World or the Old?_. Thanks, Twalls 21:23, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

America BC is Trash

I have a copy of America BC that I got from a yard sale for 10 cents. I got ripped off. The book is garbage. He takes a fact and makes a huge speculatory leap toward some culture or another making a migration to the New World. After that he uncritically accepts any opinion or commentary that agrees with his theory. Finally, he presents completely discredited theories as if they were still viable, and perhaps "suppressed." For example, he presents the Davenport Tablets as if they were never found to be hoaxes. The significance of this book is overstated in the article.

12.205.149.45 09:20, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Whatever you'd like to call it, it is definitely not rigorous scholarship. I tend to think it doesn't belong in the article at all. After all, it deals with pre-Columbian visitors to the Americas, not migration waves. Twalls 18:56, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Hendrik Poinar - where's the "reference"?

From the main article page portion named "Atlantic Coastal model"

"According to McMaster University anthropologist Hendrik Poinar, dental samples from a Beothuk chief yielded positive results for mtDNA Haplogroup X.[14]"

=== so where is this finding and the supportive article that this genetic study took place?

I believe it's Note #14. Poinar has been involved in lots of similar studies, and there may be others that cover this. Twalls 03:05, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Grammar correction

'As new data are discovered' With all due respect, at what point was this even considered to be proper English? Nothing major, just went ahead and made the minor grammatical correction. PlzKthnxBye! Trainrek 15:33, 05 September 2007 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.163.248.240 (talk) 21:28, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

It's quite simple; data is plural. Twalls 05:53, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

New DNA study

Information about a new DNA study. Badagnani (talk) 17:30, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately that news story glosses over the finer points addressed by the study. The UMich Press Release is a bit more detailed, and the study itself is the best source. If anything, its findings boost coastal migration (and it says so). As to its drawbacks, a lot of it is theoretical, and only 29 Amerind populations are sampled (out of what, tens of thousands?). The main finding is genetic continuity over broad geographic regions -- these are indeed likely a result of a single wave or multiple waves from one point of origin. I don't believe this study or many others with similar assumptions addresses the question of whether other, smaller waves were there previously. What of other populations not sampled, and populations long since vanished or vanquished? Also, are the Siberian samples native or reverse migrants? For one, Eskimo-Aleuts are known to have traveled back and forth between NE Asia and the Americas. Thanks for posting. Twalls (talk) 09:12, 30 November 2007 (UTC)