Dear Facearmy,
You hoped to discuss the ancient history of the Tigris/Euphrates area, and recently you began a discussion of the origins of North American aboriginal peoples. You wondered if they might have originated in China. You also wereinterested in the Five Nations as sources of the foudations of the United States of America. I can tell you that it is true. The beliefs and imagerydid come from the united Native nations. I will write more about it in a later post.
I would like use a quotation to prove the origins of the Amerindians of the Americas. It is from a well researched, recent book, "Stolen Continents", by Ronald Wright. Subtitled: "The "New World" Through Indian Eyes," it is A Penguin book, published in 1993.
So that you will believe that the writer is deeply informed on the subject, and is believable, I will share something about him, and about how this book was received by other people who are well informed on the subject.
The author has written previous books about native peoples, which were greeted by choruses of praise from around the world. His works have been published in six languages. Wright was born in England and educated at Cambridge University. He now lives in Ontario, Canada.
The Globe and Mail, Canada's National Newspaper said about the book:"For five centuries, the Indians of the Americas have doggedly recorded the shocking story of their subjugation by whites. Now Ronald Wright has woven their voices into a compelling narrative."
Other prominent writers from important and highly respected publications such as: The Independent, (London), the Canadian Forum, Law Times, The Calgary Herald, Michael Ignatieff, The Gazette (Montreal), the Sunday Telegraph (London), have all spoken unusually highly of this book. The Independent's author, Ian Morris, said "Wright marshalls his eyewitnesses -- Aztec and Maya, Inca, Cherokee and Iroquois -- with great skill and compassion.... He is an historical philosopher with a profound understanding of other cultures." The (Montreal) Gazette's Dan David said "A thoroughly documented polemical work of great persuasive force."
So now for the quotation:
"Another minefield surrounds the origins of America's peoples. Many American Indians believe that they were created in America, that, in the words of the eighteenth-century Iroquois, they "came out of this ground." Archaeology and genetics suggest that their remote ancestors peopled America from Asia via a Bering land bridge that existed between 15,000 and 35,000 years ago (long before the growth of civilization anywhere on earth). The same lines of inquiry, taken further back, indicate that all human beings came from Africa.
[It used to be believed that humans originated in the Tigris/Euphrates valley. Recent discoveries point to Africa as the originating place of humans of all races. - Mary]
There need be no conflict between sacred tradition and scientific evidence. The traditions are philosophically true. Native Americans have been here since time immemorial; their languages, cultures, and civilizations developed here. They are American in a way that no others can be. Even if we supposed that their ancestors arrived "only" 15,000 years ago (the archaeological minimum), they have been here thirty times longer than anyone else. If we call that time a month, Columbus came yesterday.
Finally, a word on crackpot ideas that the American Indians and their achievements hail from Egypt, Phoenicia, the lost tribes of Israel, medieval Welsh princes, Irish monks, Atlantis, or outer space. Such "theories" are a measure of Europeans' inability to accept Native Americans for who they are. The implication behind them all is often subtly racist: that Amerindians could not have done what they did without help.
There may indeed have been odd contacts between the hemispheres from time to time, but these were neither culturally nor genetically significant. No New World artifact has been shown to have an Old World prototype, or vice versa. And Native American's terrible vulnerability to Old World disease is proof enough of long isolation. So is the uniqueness of plant and animal kingdoms: not even rats or cockroaches--good sailors both -- had reached America before Columbus." Author's note XI/XII
So, Facearmy, for me this settles the origins of all the Amerindians of theAmericas. Although they originally came from your Asian part of the worldat least 15,000 years ago, there was no civilization there yet for them to bring with them. They developed their own civilizations here.
*********I would like to respond to your mention of the ancient history of the areanow called Iraq in another post.
Thanks for raising interesting topics, :-)
Mary
