BERINGIA
In 2012 my wife, Susie, and I took three of our grandchildren on a field trip to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. Following a trek through the spectacular gem and mineral display, and a wander through Dinosaur Hall, our (then) 14-year-old step grandson Ethan requested a visit to the American Indian exhibit. Upon arriving we encountered a large map of Native Americans; Ethan pointed to the Oneida Tribe in central New York state, one of six nations comprising the Iroquois people; he mentioned his mother was 25 percent Oneida. That would make him part Native American. My curiosity led me to probe a little deeper into the ancestry of Native Americans – where did they come from?
Oneida Nation Pow-Wow
The science of geology, anthropology, archaeology, biology, and genetics contribute a treasure trove of information toward our understanding into the origin of Indians in the Americas. Science provides answers to questions like ‘how long have Indians lived in the Americas?’, or, ‘where did they come from and who were their ancestors?’
Naia
I recently watched a fascinating documentary by NOVA titled “First Face of America”. National Geographic published a parallel story “Ice Age Predator Alongside Oldest Human in America.” The ‘star’ of the story is a girl, estimated to be 15-16 years-old, discovered in a deep flooded cavern on the Yucatan Peninsula of Central America. More precisely, a skull and complete skeleton of Naia, estimated to have lived 13,000 years ago, was discovered in a 90-foot-deep flooded pit called Hoyo Negro (black hole). Scientists determined Naia was a representative of the Clovis (Indian) culture, considered by many to be the first humans to set foot in the United States 13,500 years-ago.
Naia before removed from Hoyo Negro cave
Anzick-1
Anzick-1 is the name given to the burial remains of a Paleo-Indian male infant found near Wilsall, Montana in 1968. Surrounding Anzick’s burial site were numerous stone and bone tools along with hundreds of arrowheads, blades and bifaces (determined to be of the Clovis Culture). Some of the tools and antlers were dusted with red ocher, suggesting an honorary or ritual or religious burial. Anzick-1 became the first ancient Native American genome to be fully sequenced. He was determined to belong to the Clovis Culture and to have lived between 12,707 – 12,556 years B.P.
Claimed to be the ancestor of all tribes of Indians from North, Central, and South America, Anzick-1 was reburied on June 28, 2014 in the Shields River Valley in an intertribal ceremony. Incredible advances in genetics have made it possible to trace the ancestry of today’s Native Americans back to the roots of their paleo-ancestors. Nearly all Native Americans contain one or both of two very specific genes, Y-haplogroup Q-L54 (xM3) and/or mDNA D4h3a, the same DNA found in Anzick-1. These DNA-tracers match a very select people-group from Siberia; the story from Siberia to the Americas is a fascinating one.
Beringia
Beringia was a territory that existed between Siberia and Alaska from 32,000 years ago to 11,000 years ago. It was a “land bridge” of 620,000 square miles connecting Asia to North America. It was during this time-span that the last (Wisconsin) glacial epoch consumed so much water in the form of ice, that sea levels dropped 400 feet worldwide. The Bering Strait became dry land, Florida doubled in landmass, and England joined with Europe (English Channel dried up).
DNA analysis has identified a people-group who lived in Siberia 24,000 years ago, the Mal’ta-Buret culture (MA-1). As the ice age deepened, glaciers consumed ever increasing grazing land in Siberia; at the same time, the Bering Sea dried up and became a land bridge to North America (Alaska). The newly exposed territory, Beringia, became a fertile steppe-grassland for grazing. As animals migrated toward lusher pastures, they were closely followed by MA-1 hunters. Peoples from Japan, China, and Mongolia also made their way into Beringia, joining the Mal’ta culture. As the Ice Age deepened and continental glaciers thousands of feet thick advanced, routes through Canada were closed, with a possible exception of the Pacific coastline. The various people groups occupying Beringia intermixed for a period of 4200 to 5000 years in what has been called the “Beringian Standstill”. Like an incubator, the Beringian Standstill produced a new people group with its own unique DNA markers.
Then, around 18,500 years ago B.P. the climate began to warm, creating an ice-free corridor along the Alaska-Pacific shore. Shortly thereafter, 15,000 to 14,000 B.P., the western Cordilleran and eastern Laurentide ice sheets had retreated enough to open the Yukon passage connecting Alaska to the Americas. Archaeological sites throughout North, Central, and South America testify to a massive influx of people from Beringia. By 11,000 years ago sufficient glacial ice had melted to re-flood the Bering Strait. Just before that occurred, another people group, the Yupiks, entered Alaska; these are related to today’s Eskimos and genetically different from Beringians and Native Americans.
Likely all races and cultures of the Stone Age made weapons and utensils from hard, sharp, flint-like rock, or from animal bones. The size and shape of their arrows often reflected the game they hunted. For example, if you were hunting mammoth, you would attach a sharp, foot-long arrowhead onto a long spear, verses perhaps a two-inch skinny arrow when hunting small game. Interestingly, arrowheads found in caves in Beringia differ markedly from those discovered in the Americas. The first location in the U.S where these distinctive arrows were excavated was the Clovis-site in New Mexico. Thus, the first Native Americans were dubbed the “Clovis Culture”. Anzick-1, the infant boy discovered in Montana surrounded by hundreds of Clovis-point arrows, is considered the founding ancestor of the Clovis culture and related to all Native Americans genetically.
Clovis Arrowheads Found at Anzick-1 Burial Site
I wonder what thoughts were running through Christopher Columbus’s mind when he first encountered the Taino Indians upon reaching the Bahamas?
“… these natives’ sort of look like human beings, but not like any I’ve ever seen before
…. they’re mostly naked; I wonder if they’re at all embarrassed
…. and their language is really strange
…. how did they get here before me? … are they friendly or bellicose?
…. are they related to our ancestors Adam and Eve? Did God create them too?
…. do you suppose God directed my path here on a mission to reach them?”
Reader, knowing that God is inclined to reach out to all those created in his image, where do you think Beringians and Native Americans might fit into his plan?
