<<

FIRST NATIVE AMERICANS ACCORDING TO SCIENCE

Yuma Indians 1858 San Francisco Bay Indians 1816 San Diegueno Indians 1858 College of the Canyons • ANTH 210 • Indians of California Angela R. Kirwin, M.A. • February 2015

1 TOPICS

• Scientific Method (for research projects) • Geologic/Climate Timeline • 5 Pre-Columbian Archeological Time Periods • Who were the first Native Americans? 1. Berengia Land Route – Clovis People 2. Atlantic Route – Salutreans 3. Coastal Route – Maritime Peoples from E. Asia • 4 Migration Waves • Physical traits of the first Native Americans

2 SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC METHOD Scientific Method:

1. Research Question (RQ) 2. Literature Review

3. Hypothesis (H1 or H0) 4. Research (Observation or Experiment) 5. Analysis 6. Conclusion

3 SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS

• Empirical Data: Facts based on evidence that can be observed

• Hypothesis: A provisional answer (or prediction)

• Theory: A hypothesis that has been repeatedly tested by scientists who have been unable to disprove it

• Bias: Researcher errors based on insuffcient data, personal perspective, skills of the researcher, research questions

4 NUMBERING CALENDAR YEARS

B.C.E. “Before ” = B.C. C.E. “Common Era” = A.D. A.D. or AD “Anno Domini” (Year of Our Lord) B.C. or BC “Before Christ” BP “Before Present” • kya: “thousand years ago” “million years ago” • mya: Pope Gregory XIII introduced Gregorian Calendar in 1582 Examples: : 2.588 mya to 11.7 kya = 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago Holocene: 11.7kya to Present = 11,700 years a go to the Present 8,000 B.C.E = 8,000 B.C. = 10,000 years ago/10,000 BP

5 GEOLOGIC/CLIMATE TIMELINE

Holocene

• Pleistocene (“Ice Age”): 2.588 mya to 11.7 kya – Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) : 26,000-19,000 BP – Younger Dryas Period: 12,800-11,500 BP (10,800-9,500 BC or BCE) Period of severe arctic cold and global drought • Holocene: 11.7kya to Present

6 GEOLOGIC/CLIMATE TIMELINE

Many prehistoric Native American coastal settlements are submerged under water now.

Sea Level is more than 20 meters (65.6 feet) higher now than at the beginning of the Holocene 11,700 BP

7 “ICE AGE” GLACIER CHANGES IN

Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) “Ice Free Corridor” in in Berengia 26kya to 18kya circa 13kya

8 FIRST NATIVE AMERICANS

• Paleo Indians (aka: “Paleoindians” or “Paleoamericans”) • Paleo-Indian Period (aka: “ Stage”) • 5 Pre-Columbian Time Periods:

9 THREE THEORIES ABOUT WHO WERE THE FIRST NATIVE AMERICANS

1. Berengia Land Route – Clovis People – 13kya

2. Atlantic Route – – 13kya

3. Coastal Route – Maritime East Asians – 16-14kya

10 BERENGIA LAND ROUTE – “CLOVIS PEOPLE” 13,000 years ago

• “Clovis”: points found in extinct giant remains in Clovis, in 1930s • Mobile big game hunters • Archeological complex: Distinctive thin bifacial and large fluted spear points common in North America • Berengia Land Bridge - “Ice Free Corridor”

11 BERENGIA LAND ROUTE – “CLOVIS PEOPLE” 13,000 years ago

• Archeological culture (“culture complex”) was called “

• Distinctive thin bifacial and large fluted spear points common in North America

12 ATLANTIC ROUTE – “SALUTREANS”

13,000 years ago

• Walked across glacial ice from France to North America during Ice Age • Named for culture of lithic spear points found in Spain and France 18,000 BP to 15,000 BP • “Salutrean Hyposthesis” by Dennis Standford and Bruce Bradley (1998)

13 ATLANTIC ROUTE – “SALUTREANS”

13,000 years ago • Solutrean Culture: Clovis spear points look similar to Solutrean spear points from Spain and France • 2,000 years after oldest Solutrean spear points found in Europe L • Older Pre-Clovis lithics discovered since: , VA, Meadowcroft, PA, etc. L

14 COASTAL ROUTE – “MARITIME EAST ASIANS”

16,000 – 15,000 years ago • First Native Americans were Paleo Indians who came to the Americas by boat • Ancient ancestors of Ainu of Japan and Polynesians from skeletal evidence, DNA and tool cultures

15 COASTAL ROUTE – Arlington Springs, Santa Rosa Island 13,000 years ago

• 13,000 years ago – Human femur found at Arlington Springs on Santa Rosa Island • Earliest human remains found on West Coast of North America • Island location proves Pre-Clovis Paleo-Indians used boats • Extinct species of mammoth found at site • Phil Orr (1959)

16 COASTAL ROUTE – Anzik Site, Montana 13,000 years ago

• 13,000 years ago – Skeleton of “Anzik Boy” 6-8 year old found in Western Montana. • DNA extracted from skeleton similar to DNA from “Naia” found in Yucatan, Mexico • Clovis culture stone tools • Intentional burial in old with also infant bones and stone artifacts covered in red ochre • Discovered by construction workers (1969)

17 COASTAL ROUTE – , Chile 14,000 years ago

• 14,000 years ago – Discovery of settlement in Monte Verde, Southern Coastal Chile • Pre-Clovis tools, etc. • A small permanent settlement of 20 to 30 people living in a dozen along a small creek • Not big game hunters • Pre-dates Clovis by about 1,000 years • Ate an extinct species of llama, shellfish, plant foods and nuts • Tom Dillehay team (1997)

18 COASTAL ROUTE – Hoyo Negro, Yucatan, Mexico 12-13,000 years ago

• 13,000 years ago – Skeleton of “Naia” found in underwater Hoyo Negro in Yucatan, Mexico • Pre-Clovis tools, etc. • DNA extracted from “Naia” matched DNA from Anzik boy skeleton found in Western Montana • Different tool culture than Clovis • Alberto Nava team (2008)

19 COASTAL ROUTE – Debra L. Friedkin, 15,500 years ago

• 15,500 years ago • Discovery of earliest evidence of human occupation at Debra L. Friedkin site in Buttermilk Creek near Austin, Texas • Permanent Settlement • Hunted small game & foraged for plant foods, etc. • Pre-Clovis tools, etc. • Michael Waters team (2011)

20 COASTAL ROUTE – Paisley , 14,300 years ago

• 14,300 years ago – • in Oregon • Human coprolites (dried human feces found) • Not solely big game hunters • Pre-dates Clovis by nearly 1,000 years • Ate marine foods, bison and plant foods • Dennis Jenkins team (2002)

21 4 WAVES OF MIGRATIONS

1. 32,000 BP – East Asian & Eurasian Migration to West Berengia

2. 25,000 - 15,000 years ago – “Berengian Standstill” in Berengia for about 10,000 years

3. 16,000 – 15,000 BP – Maritime East Asian migration via boats along Pacific Coast

4. 14,000 - 13,000 BP – “Clovis People” Berengian Land Migrations through the “Ice Free Corridor”

22 1st WAVE OF MIGRATION

• 32,000 years ago • East Asian and Eurasion Ancestry • Stayed in West Berengia – DNA of Modern Native Americans: • 2/3 East Asian • 1/3 Eurasian • Lithic cultures same as East Asians

23 2nd WAVE OF MIGRATION

• 25,000 - 15,000 years ago • “Berengian Standstill” • Berengian People stayed in Berengia for 10,000 • Developed genetic and physiological traits unique to Native Americans

24 3rd WAVE OF MIGRATION

• 16,000 - 15,000 years ago • Asian Maritime People who are ancestors of modern Ainu of Japan and Polynesians • Coastal Route • Rapid Expansion though the Americas

25 4th WAVE OF MIGRATION

• 14,000 - 13,000 years ago • Clovis People from Berengia • Berengian “Ice Free Corridor” • Land Route • Reverse Migration back to • Mobile big game hunters 26 THE FIRST NATIVE AMERICANS

• Where: East Asia • Who: Asian Maritime Peoples • When: 16-15,000 years ago • How: Came along the Pacific Coast by boat and expanded rapidly inland throughout N. & S. America

27 WHAT DID THE FIRST NATIVE AMERICANS LOOK LIKE? WHAT DID THEY LOOK LIKE?

Paleo-Indian Traits: • Rugged skull • Wider set eyes • Broader nose • Narrow cranium • Forward face

Males: • Larger • Injuries from violence

Females: • Smaller • Malnutrition • Domestic abuse injuries

28 REFERENCES: Bradley, Bruce, and Dennis Stanford 2”004 The North Atlantic Ice-Edge Corridor: A Possible Palaeolithic Route to the ." World (2004): 459-78. Erlandson, Jon M., Madonna L. Moss, and Matthew Des Lauriers.

2008 Life on the Edge: Early Maritime Cultures of the Pacific Coast of North America." Quarternary Science Reviews (2008): 2232-245. Fraught, Michael K. 2008 Archaeological Roots of Human Diversity in the New World: A Compilation of Accurate and Precise Radiocarbon Ages from Earliest Sites." American Antiquity (2008): 670-98. Heizer, R.F. and Whipple, M.A., Editors 1971 The California Indians: A Source Book, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN: 0-520-02031-6 Hodges, Glenn 2015 “Tracking the First Americans, ” National Geographic Magazine, January, Retrieved from: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/01/first-americans/hodges-text on February 2, 2015 Jackson, Donald, César Méndez, Roxana Seguel, Antonio Maldonado, and Gabriel Vargas 2”007 Initial Occupation of the Pacific Coast of Chile during Late Pleistocene Times." Current Anthropology (2007): 725-31. Madsen, David B. 2004 Entering America: Northeast Asia and before the Last Glacial Maximum. Salt Lake City: University of Mithen, Stephen 2009 "Chapter 14: Peopling the World" The Oxford Handbook of Archaeology. Ed. Barry W. Cunliffe, Chris Gosden, and Rosemary A. Joyce. New York, NY: Oxford UP. Madsen, David B. 2004 Entering America: Northeast Asia and Beringia before the Last Glacial Maximum. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Preston, Douglas 2014 “The Finally Freed to Share His Secrets,” Smithsonian Magazine, September, Retrieved from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ history/kennewick-man-finally-freed-share-his-secrets-180952462/ on February 2, 2015. Saunders, Jeffrey J., Edward B. Daeschler, and John L. Cotter 1”994 Descriptive Analyses and Taphonomical Observations of Culturally-Modified Mammoths Excavated at "The Gravel Pit," near Clovis, New Mexico in 1936." Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia: 1-28. Strauss, Lawrence Guy 2000 Solutrean Settlement of North America? A Review of Reality." American Antiquity: 219-26. Waters, Michael R. et al, "The and the Origins of Clovis at the Debra L. Friedkin Site, Texas," Science 331, no. 6024 (March 25, 2011) 1599-1603

29 THE END

The first Native Americans were seafaring Paleo-Indians who originally came here from East Asia along the Pacific Coast in boats 16,000 years ago

30