Informant38

Scott Malcomson The Color Of Bones :
"The problem is that most human groupings, including races, are highly subjective. Looking for objective scientific answers to subjective human questions -- like what a Native American is or the meaning of ancestry -- can distort both science and humans. Tribes already depend on anthropologists and historians in order to secure federal recognition. The Kennewick Man case raises the prospect of their needing to depend in the future on geneticists or perhaps craniometrists. For a federal judge to be sifting through the current science in order to reach a 'final' answer to the question, What does indigenous mean? seems rather curious and arbitrary. But then the Kennewick Man story has been curious, and not a little arbitrary"
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"Everything was water except a very small piece of ground. On this were the eagle and the coyote. Then the turtle swam to them. They sent it to dive for the earth at the bottom of the water. The turtle barely succeeded in reaching the bottom and touching it with its foot. When it came up again, all the earth seemed washed out. Coyote looked closely at its nails. At last he found a grain of earth. Then he and the eagle took this and laid it down. From it they made the earth as large as it is. From the earth they also made six men and six women. They sent these out in pairs in different directions and the people separated. After a time the eagle sent the coyote to see what the people were doing. Coyote came back and said: "They are doing something bad. They are eating the earth. One side is already gone." The eagle said: " That is bad. Let us make something for them to eat. Let us send the dove to find something." The dove went out. It found a single grain of meal. The eagle and coyote put this down on the ground. Then the earth became covered with seeds and fruit. Now they told the people to eat these. When the seeds were dry and ripe the people gathered them. Then the people increased and spread all over. But the water is still under the world."

�Native American History, Pre-European Period
Chuck Smith
{extensive readable academic anthropology, quote from Yaudanchi creation story}
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Who Was First? Untangling America's Prehistoric Roots
links to Luzia� Spirit Cave Man� Buhl Woman � Kennewick Man � Prince of Wales Island Man
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"...inside, Dillehay found five chewed quid made of boldo leaves, which contain both an analgesic and a mild hallucinogen. Boldo was clearly prized: the nearest supply lay more than 100 miles north, so either someone made a long trek or arranged trades..."
�The First Americans, Sharon Begley and Andrew Murr
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Monte Verde, Chile site
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"Then came discovery of an ancient settlement in Monte Verde, Chile, that suggests Paleo Indians traveled by boat along western coastlines of North and South America, rather than by land, and long before Clovis."
� Meadowcroft still ignites controversy over settlers
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Portugese language archeology blog
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originating push:
New Scientist: "Skull measurements on the remains of an isolated group of people who lived at the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California has stirred up the debate on the identity of the first Americans once again."