And now:Sonja Keohane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
For any with an interest here is the original article about the
recent investigation of ancient bones. This is a fairly long piece from
the LA Times. Interesting, according to almost any of these anthro types,
for tens of thousands of years any time any human "showed up" on this
continent it was empty. The fact that there are any people who might have
originated here is never even mentioned much less discussed. Pretty damned
insulting to FN people, imo. An excerpt below:
<http://www.latimes.com/CNS_DAYS/990411/t0000326481.html>
The new discovery is likely to be controversial in part because many
scientists say
that the old skeletons found in the past few years around the Western
United States do
not resemble modern Native Americans. Detailed examinations of the skulls
reveal
slender faces, narrower brain cavities, high foreheads and slightly
protruding chins
that are more typical of Caucasoid peoples.
Some of them bear striking resemblance to a very ancient race called the
Ainu, a
maritime people who were forerunners of Polynesians and long ago occupied Japan
and China, Owsley said.
In contrast, Native American people and their ancestors have features common to
Eskimos and people of northern Asia, including round, flatter faces and
pronounced
cheekbones, Owsley said.
Many Native American groups strongly object to the theory that others got here
first. In some cases, including one major one in the Northwest, tribes have
successfully invoked the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation
Act to force researchers to return old skeletons for reburial before they
can be tested.
Paul Varela, executive director of the Chumash Interpretive Center in Thousand
Oaks, said oral traditions passed down through generations of Central Coast
Indians
confirm that they were the first inhabitants of California.
"If you ask a Chumash person, they will tell you they have been here forever.
We've always been here," Varela said.
In part to resolve such questions, UC Davis anthropologist David Glenn Smith
said he hopes to begin DNA testing by summer on bones from 18 very old North
American skeletons, including the Arlington Springs woman. The testing would go
far in determining the ancestry and closest living relatives of America's first
inhabitants.
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