Indians of the Americas

Indians

of the

Americas

J H Ellison

Copyright © 2015 J H Ellison

All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

Prelude

Chapter 1 Migration Origins

Chapter 2 Paleo-Indian [30,000-10,000 BC]

Archaic Stage 8000-2000 BC

Mississippi Mound Builders

Chapter 3 Ancient Cliff Dwellers and Puebloans

Mogollon 250 BC- 1450 AD

Hohokam [300 BC-1450 AD]

Tohono O'odham

Chapter 4 Plains Indians

Chapter 5 Indian Conflicts

Chapter 6 Post-Plains Indians

Chapter 7 Red Cloud's War 1866-1868

Chapter 8 Battle of the Little Bighorn

Chapter 9 Nez Perce War

Chapter 10 Bannock War

Wounded Knee Massacre

Crazy Snake Uprising

Chapter 11 MesoAmerica

Olmec

Maya

Zapotec

Teotihuacan

Toltec

Chapter 12 Aztec

Tenochtitlan

Spanish Arrival

Chapter 13 Inca Empire

Sources

Prelude

To better understand migration of humans, it is important to understand our earth and how it might affect migration. Theory is that at one time all land masses were united—Pangaea. Due to movement of tectonic plates, in the earth's mantle, this land mass over centuries drifted apart, trapping animals, birds, humans and vegetation located on the surface. And continues to do so.

Earth is divided into layers, the Crust; Upper and Lower Mantel; Upper and Lower Core. It is believed the earth's crust ranges from three to six miles under the ocean crust and from twenty to thirty miles under the continental crust. The top of the crust is what we can see—mountains, streams, oceans, and all that comes into view.

Beneath that are the layers of upper mantle. The top mantel layer is called the Lithosphere. It's the thin outermost layer most similar to the crust. Beneath that is a portion of the upper mantel known as the Asthenosphere. It is part of the broken up pieces of the Lithosphere that float on a softer mantel. They are referred to as tectonic plates. All layers below the Crust, to a depth of 416 miles is known as the upper mantel.

That portion of the mantel between the upper mantel and the core is referred to as the Lower Mantel. Through seismic tests, scientist believe the earth's mantle, upper and lower, to be about 1,802 miles deep. That is the upper beginning of the earth's core, and the earth has a lower center core below that.

There's no present day way to measure that area due to intense heat. Estimates on the earth's core heat ranges from 9,000 to 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit. It is believed that the earth's core ranges 1,794 miles, upper core where temperature range from 5,800 to 9,400 degrees, to 3,960 miles, lower core where temperatures range between 7,600 to 13,000 degrees.

Chris Marone, Professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State College, describes the earth's inner-core as having, Enough heat emanating to heat 200 cups of piping hot coffee per hour for each of earth's 6.2 billion inhabitants. Marone describes the inner core to be About the size of our moon and has a density of essentially steel.

He goes on to say, Most of the heat is stored in the mantel, and there are four sources that keep it hot. First, there's the heat left over from when gravity first condensed a planet from the cloud of hot gases and particles in pre-earth space. Second, gravitational heat. Third, decaying radioactive isotopes like Potassium 40, Uranium 238 and 235, and Thorium. Fourth, latent heat as the earth cools. This heat arises from the core's expanding as the earth cools. Before the earth cools and becomes a dead planet, the sun will likely evolve into a red-giant star and engulf earth.

Scientist have found 435 miles down, in the upper mantel, a blue rock formation called Ringwoodite which holds within its makeup reservoir water three times the amount of volume of all oceans, possibly explaining why the oceans we know have stayed the same size for millions of years.

Our earth can be considered like a huge egg, with shell of the egg being our earth's crust. Another means of describing the upper mantel of earth is to consider a pot of boiling soup. Heat from below causes the Asthenosphere to boil and bubble. Weak spots in the earth's crust give rise to volcano’s erupting and the liquid magma from the mantel to surface. It also causes small movements in plate tectonics, from zero to four inches per year.

Earth wobbles like a top with a cooling and heating cycle estimated to be about 26,000 years each. When the earth is tilted one way, away from the sun's direct heat, the earth cools. When tilted the other way it is warmer. These cycles are influenced by greenhouse gases. More gases and the earth becomes warm and tropical, encouraging growth of plants and animals. Without these gases, earth would go through an ice age.

The scientific community basically believe that the diminished greenhouse gases, and the ensuing ice age, killed off many animals, humans and vegetation. Stone Age hunters played a part in this part of evolution, killing off mastodons and giant sloths for food, those that had survived the creeping ice flow by moving south. By killing off herds of giant animals and other herbivores, methane gases had diminished.

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Chapter 1

Migration Origins

A point that many in the scientific community believe is that Native Americans are of Eurasia descent. Eurasia covers a vast amount of land, from the east coast of Europe, facing the Pacific Ocean to the west coast of Europe, facing the Atlantic Ocean.

Centuries of warfare and inner-racial marriages in which women were used to cement alliances among nations was a common practice. Children of these arrangements might have facial features that were both European and Asia-attic—Eurasians. Marriages between different racial nationalities has been going on for centuries; still going on today.

There are many famous Eurasians. A great many are famous actors/actress such as: Yul Brynner, Boris Karloff, Merle Oberon and many more, such as Vladimir Lenin, Ibrahim of Johor [Malaysia].

The new world, Americas, has experienced many migrations over the centuries. According to the New World migration model, migrations from Eurasia to the Americas took place around 13,500 years ago, across the Bering Strait land bridge. This occurred when seas were lowered about 200 feet, due to the ice age. Theory is that large numbers of Stone Age humans, hunters of herbivores, followed animals such as wooly Mammoths, mastodons, giant sloths and other lesser animals for survival food. The over-hunting and ice contributed to extinction of wooly mammoths and giant sloths.

These animals lived off of vegetation, ahead of the creeping ice flow. This was based on Clovis First tools, stone tools, found at Clovis, New Mexico. The discovery of the Kennewick man, a light skinned individual, along the banks of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington in 1996, an almost completely intact skeleton, was carbon dated to between 6,900 to 7,000 years BC.

The finding of the Anzick boy in Montana in 2014, at a 12,600-year-old burial site, showed genetic connections to Native Americans, giving some credence to the land bridge.

Theory of the Bering Strait land bridge being the only source of migration to the Americas is being questioned today by many in the scientific world. It's being noted that the Clovis tools, that of a hunter, is similar to those made by Cro-Magnon culture which dominated present day France and Spain in about 21,000 to 17,000 years ago.

Then, there are many who believe that some people migrating to the Americas came by crude boats. Some from northwestern Europe; some from Africa, the Olmec. Some sailing from Middle East Asia—who skirted the Aleutian Island chain and down the west coast of Alaska to the American west coast. Some sailing from the east coast of Australia to the tip of South America and some from the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. These are yet unproven archeological theories. Legends of several Native American tribes relate their ancestors crossed the big waters.

The Clovis First theory is being questioned because Native American facial features are not Mongolian. Only the Eskimos are similar to that of a Mongolian. Depending where the Eskimos theoretically left middle Asia, that might explain the facial characteristics—a mix of Chinese and Mongolian. Most of the Native Americans have features more similar to that of a European or that of Middle East.

The most detailed information on possible migration from Eurasia is the theory put forth by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [Mormons]. Eurasia to the Americas is put out as their Book of Mormon. Some claim the book as fiction; others, by historical research, exploratory expeditions and archeology excavation evidence, claim it's true. Since it is a more detailed account of the possible origin of Native American. A closer look is warranted, and looked into.

The book tells of a Jewish family, Lehi and his wife Sariah with their four sons and two daughters, fleeing Jerusalem before its capture by the Babylonians in 600 BC, during the reign of the King Zedekiah [See Bible 2 Kings chapter 24:7].

Zoram, a servant of Laban, joins them. Laban is the father of Leah and Rachael, wives of Jacob, and grandnephew of Abraham. The book also states that Ishmael, from the wondering tribe of Ishmaelites [Arabs], his five daughters and two sons accompanied Lehi. Ishmael's daughters became wives to Lehi's sons. Facial feature of such a union would be more similar to those of Native Americans.

The Ishmael mention in the Book of Mormon is not the Ishmael, son of Abraham and his second wife, Hagar. That Ishmael was born in 1911 BC., married an Egyptian princess and had twelve sons and one daughter. The Ishmael mentioned in the Book of Mormon is a descendant of Ishmael, son of Abraham and Hagar. The Ishmael mentioned in the Book of Mormon and Lehi would be distant cousins, both descending from Abraham. This Ishmael is mentioned as being old in 600 BC. Ishmael is translated to mean God has harkened.

Scholars following the descriptions found in the Book of Mormon have found archeological evidence that appear to give some credibility to the book. Archeological excavations are presently being done in what is believed to be Nahom, in the Book of Mormon, near present day Nehem in Yemen near the mountains by the Red Sea.

The site is based on an early map produced by Carsten Niebuhr as the result of a scientific expedition sent out by King Fredrick V of Denmark. The map notes a village called Nehhm in the Jawf Valley in Yemen. Nahom is where some archeologist believe Ishmael was buried. Alters and mummies in the area have been carbon-dated to be around 600 BC.

From this trail, possibly the old frankincense route, it goes to the coastal village of Khor Rori in Oman. Khor Rori is located in a fertile coastal valley. Photos of the area show green valleys, flowing clear streams fed by springs and mountains close by, a shocking contrast to the Arabian Desert.

Another more promising site is Kohr Kharfot in Wadi Sayq, in the Dhofar coastal area, as the possible site of Book of Mormon's Bountiful, in an internet article by Warren Aston, explorer. It's a remote fertile valley with varying elevations, plenty of timber type trees, wild fruit trees, plenty of clean water and wild honey bees. Mountains in the area have metal ore. The coastal portion has easy access to the Arabia Sea.

According to the Book of Mormon, Nephi, Lehi's son, was instructed by God in the building of a ship. This is not unusual – God instructed Noah [Bible] on how to build the ark. Lehi's boat was to be different from that built at the time.

The Book of Mormon seems to indicate that it was from Wadi Sayq area the ship Nephi built and launched for the promised land—the Americas.

The theory expressed in the Book of Mormon is contested by several scholars but BYU scholars have shown through archeological digs evidence that the Book of Mormon should be taken seriously. However, more research needs to be done.

Those debunking the Book of Mormon and those supporting the Book of Mormon's sea travel route is a vast manner of speculation. An article titled Lehi in the Pacific is an elaborate account of Lehi's voyage—all pure fiction, according to the author. It indicates the intensity that some use to debunk the book. The answer to that question, is the book story real or fictional, can only be answered by archeological proofs. Much work needs to be done in that field of archeology.

For lack of definitive proof, could a group of people migrate from the Arabian Peninsula to the Americas in a boat in 600 BC? If so, what would be their possible route, since it isn't mentioned in the Book of Mormon? How could they survive a trip of around 11,500 or more miles? Since sailing ships travel at about 5 knots, that would be a journey of about 5-6 months. No mention is made of stopping at any islands.

Going back to Lehi and his family fleeing Jerusalem, what would they more likely take with them? Since tents are mentioned, they probably took tents. Due to their size they would probably use camels. They would have taken some change of clothing, possibly a flock of goats [not mentioned] for food, milk and butter. Goats do well on poor vegetation, better than sheep. Goats need water every two days while sheep need it daily.

Although goats and camels aren't mentioned in the book, it tells of traveling first three days to the valley of Lemuel [near Shazer]; then four days to [Nahom], eating raw meat. The Arabian Desert doesn't have much wild game or fuel for cooking, and there are now 18 people to feed. It's reasonable to assume they herded their food supplies [goats]. Their heavy tents and tent poles, clothing and possibly people, at least the women, were probably carried on the backs of camels. Since Lehi was apparently wealthy, having left gold, silver and precious things behind. It's likely the whole caravan were mounted on camels.

Tents in those days were made of woven long camel hair and vegetable fibers to construct the fabric for their long tents. These long tents were held up by poles fastened by guy ropes. The sides of which can be rolled up for ventilation during hot days and let down for cool desert nights.

The tent fabric tends to swell when rained on and becomes water-tight. The inside of the tent usually has a woven panel or curtain known as a ma'nd or sitting place. One section is for men [mag'ad or sitting place], and the other for women and cooking [mahamara or place for women]. Carpets formed a floor and cushions were used for seats.

Food would be in the form of meat, milk and dairy produce, from their animals. Goat skins would be tanned and made into water-bags, similar to those used by the nomadic Bedouin tribes—desert travelers. Tanned goat skins, dipped in water before being filled, will keep water cool by slow evaporating sweating.

A camel can carry up to 600 pounds of cargo, go eight days without water and travel up to 100 miles in a day. They can survive on what would seem impossible vegetation. They store food in their hump and survive off the fat. The camel is ideal for desert travel. Their long eyelashes shade their eyes from the sun and keeps out sand. They can close their nostrils to keep out sand.

Lehi and the men in his party would wear a white tunic, loose-fitting cloak and head-cloth. Women wore dark cloaks and head-cloths to protect them from the sun. The head-cloth [kufiyya] can be unwound enough to place across the face, leaving only slit’s by which to see. This protects the face from the sun's rays and to keep out sand or dust.

Desert travelers normally use existing trails, if known, such as the frankincense route. These trails led to water sources, between long stretches of waterless desert.

By the Book of Mormon, Lehi possibly took only the barest necessities. This is indicated by his sons returning to Jerusalem to get the metal plates of his tribe's history, willing to give up all the families' wealth of gold, silver and precious things. Giving up such wealth caused anger from the two older brothers [Laman and Lemuel] towards the two younger ones [Nephi and Sam].

The final number of people in Lehi's group, on their journey from Jerusalem, was probably 18. Sons married daughters. According to the Book of Mormon, they stayed for a spell at a place called Nahom, where Ishmael died, being old, and was buried there. The book states they were 8 years in the wilderness and children were born. Part of that time was spent in a place they called Bountiful, in present day Oman. An expedition by Warren Aston indicates that a sight in Wadi Sayq fits the description mentioned in the Book of Mormon.

The book states that Nephi was instructed by God on how to build the ship they would need. Again, this isn't unusual, if you accept the bible and God's instruction to Noah.

No mention is made as to the design of the boat, only that it wasn't like those then built by man. Phoenician ships and Egyptian Dhows existed at that time. Could the difference have been that Nephi's boat was narrower and swifter under sail? It's mention that they went down into the ship when they set out to sea. This would indicate the ship had two decks.

This meant a fairly large ship. It was probably built on an inclined log skid, blocked from sliding into the inlet sea by wooden blocks. Once built, the ship could easily be launched by knocking out the blocks and let gravity do its job.

In the book it's stated that Nephi's older brothers were angry at such a daunting task. It would be like today when someone declared they were going to build a rocket to travel to the moon.

The book states that Nephi found iron ore in nearby mountains and used animal skins for bellows—a crude forge to work iron ore. A common thing in those days. Although low grade coal is found to be in that area, it's not clear whether he used it or from charcoal he made from trees. It does state he used flint to start a fire. Essentially he had his own small blacksmith heat necessary to smelter ore and build tools.

Tools he probably made was an ax, adze, wooden mallet hammer and wedges, woodworking chisels of various sizes, double-handed forward knife cutter for fine trimming and maybe a bow-drill. With the tools the group set out to build the ship. The men would have worked at gathering and working the heavy timbers, under the instruction of Nephi. Here it again indicates they probably used camels to skid the heavy logs.

Tree trunks could be split into planks by use of ax and Wedges. These could be made smoother and shaped by use of the forward cutting double-handed knife cutter. These planks could be further smoothed by using sand from the seas inlet banks, using wooden blocks. Sprinkling sand on the planks and using a block of wood to iron-out the sand will make the plank smoother. The adze and woodcutting chisels would be used to shape and do fine cuttings.

After the hull was set, there's no indication as to how the planks were attached. On the Egyptian Dhow a clinker-nail is used, nails driven through overlapping planks [like shingling a house roof] and bent down on the inside to hold.

The women would probably weave the sailcloth, similar to that of the tent. Or, possible a tent might be sacrificed for making a sail. Women and older children would spend time collecting fruits and seeds. Women would probably braid strips of animal skins into ropes, leather bags for carrying seeds and dry items. Women would probably tan goats hide or other animal skins into leather water-bags. All of this would take a great deal of time.

How long their stay in Bountiful is not indicated. For the eight men to build such a ship, described as a work of beauty, and also supply the group with meat from wild game, would probably take over a year or more. It must have been a long period of time because children were born, the two mentioned are the young sons of Lehi, Jacob and Joseph.

After the ship was finished, it was customary for it to be launched and taken for open sea trial, to be sure the ship caulking didn't leak. Nephi and his male crew, non-sailors, would need to learn how to sail such a ship. Once the sea trials ended, the men would load large rocks into the hold of the ship to act as ballast. Next would come their food and water. Final loading would be the people and their belongings.

The Book of Mormon states that much fruits, meat from the wilderness and honey was taken aboard the ship, also seeds. Nothing is mentioned about water or their animals. This indicates that if they took goats, camels and seeds into their journey into the wilderness, the animals now no longer exist. It might be they became containers for holding drinking water, or bags for holding the fruit, honey and seed. All would be placed in the ship's hold.

No mention is made about what the fruits, seeds and meat consisted of. If the place called Bountiful is located in Wadi Sayq, Oman, there could be a wide variety of fruits based on the differing elevations and climatic conditions it creates. The hot arid areas is suitable for palms that grow figs. Above this area in more fertile ground,