Tiange Zou
English 100
Dr.Backman
May 14, 2012
The Origin of Native Americans When the famous Spanish explorer, Christopher Columbus, first landed on the continent of America in 1492, he thought he had just arrived in East India , therefore, he called the indigenous people living there “Indians”. Columbus never knew that he had discovered the continent of America, later known as the “New World.” Later explorers continued to adventure America and got interested in the Indians. These explorers were curious about Indian’s culture, religion and its origin. Unfortunately, Indians lived in isolated lives and did not want to expose themselves to outsiders. Indians gradually became a mystery to other people. Nowadays, Indians prefer other people to refer to them as Native Americans. The reason is that they claim to be the original inhabitants ofAmerica; according to their tribe’s legends, they did not travel from other parts of the world to reside in America. On the contrary, many scientists and scholars have agreed on the Bering Land Bridge theory that the majority of Native Americans migrated to America from Asia via a land bridge between Alaska and Eastern Siberia around 20,000 years ago. There have been other theories involving the origins of the Native Americans. One theory suggests they were the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel while another says that they were an ancient Chinese people who migrated to America a long time ago. After comparing and contrasting these various theories, it becomes clear that the Native Americans most likely came from China via the Bering Land Bridge. These days, the most widely accepted theory among people about the origin of the Native America is the Bering Land Bridge theory. This theory was first hypothesized by the well-known Spanish naturalist named Jose de Acosta in the late sixteen