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Native American Anthropology

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According to leading Archaeologists, Native Americans were on the North American continent for up to fifty thousand years. They were the true first Americans, and they were great explorers, too. They didn't come to this continent all at once. It is thought that these ancient adventuresome people arrived at different times, over several thousands of years. They journeyed from Asia on foot or by boat. Their explorations took them through icy landscapes and along the coastlines. Eventually these earliest American explorers spread out over the entire continent.
What happened to them, and why are there so few remaining?
A study of skulls found in Mexico, near Baja, California, claims that the first Americans migrated from Southeast Asia and the …show more content…
Much of the credit for the European military success in the new world can be handed to the superiority of their weapons, their literary heritage, even the fact they had unique load-bearing mammals, like horses. These factors combined, gave the conquistadors a massive advantage over the sophisticated civilizations of both the Aztec and Incan empires. But weapons alone cannot account for the breathtaking speed with which the indigenous population of the new world were completely wiped …show more content…
But Indian people survived diseases, huge shifts in their cultures, and even the destructive slave trade. North Carolina recognizes eight proud and enduring tribes today: The Eastern Band of Cherokee, Lumbee, Haliwa-Saponi, Sappony, Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, Waccamaw-Siouan, Meherrin, and Coharie. They are now greatly outnumbered by the descendants of the European colonists, but their strong presence honors their distant ancestors—those earliest of American explorers. Grade 8: America’s Indian Removal Policies:Tales and Trails of Betrayal. North Carolina Civic Education Consortium. http://civics.sites.unc.edu/files/2012/04/IndianRemoval.pdf
In just 20 years, 80 percent of California’s Native Americans were wiped out. And though some died because of the seizure of their land or diseases caught from new settlers, between 9,000 and 16,000 were murdered in cold blood—the victims of a policy of genocide sponsored by the state of California and gleefully assisted by its newest citizens.
“Whites are becoming impressed with the belief that it will be absolutely necessary to exterminate the savages before they can labor much longer in the mines with security,” wrote the Daily Alta California in 1849, reflecting the prejudices of the

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