blackfoot-valley

70,000 or even 100,000. American archeology is now in a period of turmoil trying to sort it all out. While there is controversy aplenty, evidence of even 20,000 years back prompted a prominent archeologist, Michael Collins, to state (for the Dec. 2000 National Geographic): “We are in the theoretical chaos that follows the collapse of a long-held theory.” Two respected reseachers, anthropologist Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian Institution and archeologist Bill Bradley have recently suggested an early Atlantic Ocean route as well, based on similarities between finely chipped spear points in southwestern Europe (Solutrean types that died out 19,000 years ago) and those found in North America. (Clovis points in the Southwest dated some 13,000 years ago.) They hypothesize that 18,000 to 24,000 years ago a sea-hunting people followed along the edge of the then- continuous Atlantic ice pack, which during colder periods extended as far south as the Atlantic coast of France and Spain. Even more recently, Emory University’s Douglas Wallace, a pioneer in the new field of gene research, identified a genetic strain found only in the Ojibwa and other tribes living in the Great Lakes region that are not found in any other American Indian groups or in Asia. Wallace said, as quoted in U.S. News & World Report of Jan. 29, 2001, “We just don’t know how it got there, but its clearly related to the European population.” This does not carry any implications of race, since genetic characteristics thought of as racial can change in shorter periods of time than those being considered here, as hu- mans mingle and move. What findings like these do point toward is that early “uncivilized” peo- ple may have been much more adept at crossing large bodies of water than has long been assumed. Still another line of research hypothesizes an ad- ditional migration from Asia farther south than the established Bering route, from the China / Japan region following the Pacific shores and along the edge of the American ice sheet, using boats. Also, though controversial, it is not out of the question that a number of true transoceanic voyages may have taken place. Wherever the truth may lie, it is known that hunter-gatherer ancestors of present American Indians hunted big game and small with stone-tipped spears and arrows at the edge of the ice sheets. It is generally accepted that they helped bring about the extinction of native American camels and horses and huge long-horned bison, as well as really big and dangerous game such as mammoths and mastodons. Hunters would also have had to contend with 45