It
is generally accepted that mankind arrived in America from Asia approximately
15,000 years ago, maybe even earlier. Coming by way of landbridge
accross what is now the Berling Strait. And it´s also generally
agreed - from archaeolgy findings in Mongolia, Siberia and North America
and studies in physical anthropology, linguistic and other disciplines
- that they came from eastern Asia in one or more migrations.
They were primitive hunters of Mongolian descent, searching for food
and following the big herds of grass-eating animals who were crossing
the landbridge that from time to time during the ice age connected
Siberia with Alaska. They got settled down in this new country and
for thousands of years new waves of imigrants followed on behind.
Under hand the older immigrants got pushed away further to the South
and West, untill they finaly had been spread out over the whole North
and South of America, and gradually both continent got populated.
Some of the immigrants kept on further South over the panama isthmus,
others kept on east to the Atlantic coast or further into the big
wooded regions, while some tribes settled down on the wide spread
prairie. And so were the foundation stone of a numbered of different
civilazitions and cultures settled, developing differently depending
on the georaphicly and climatic conditions.
Even
though this is a strong theory it is rejected by many Native tribes
who hold on to the traditional beliefs. The old quotations from the
elders say that their ancestors have always been in America. Many
of the Natives or "The First People" as the call them selves,
find the migration theory quite offensive. There are two opposing
theories, the theory that speaks of migration was started by white
men of european descent, the First Peoples theory was started by the
ancient stories of the American Indian tribes.
When the first whites sailed over the Atlantic the number of Indians
in North America were about 1 milllion, they were divided in more
than 600 nations, which were divided in hundreds of tribes, seven
Indian areas with and marked different culture. These areas were;
The Eastern wooded region, Southwest wooded region, the prairies,
Tableland, the Southwest, California, and the Northwest coast. All
Indians lived in villages, every tribe had it´s own traditions,
legends and individual difference in costumes, ceremonies and religious
custom practice. But among the prairie Indians the conditions of life
and the way of living were much the same.
The Indians existence in the villages were municipally established.
Every man, woman and children had it´s own special function,
every family had it´s occupation and duty towards the village,
and every village had it´s duty towards the tribe.The family
and tribe loyalty were very strong, every Indian felt like an big
heir to a big and very old tradition, which was his duty and honor
to maintain.
-The Discovery Of America - Who was first? -
Even if most people today knows that Christopher Columbus wasn´t
the first white man to discover America the Americans still celebrate
the Columbus day at 12th of October every year. It was that day the
lost sailor found the island south of North America and thought he
had come to India.
Christopher Columbus had waited many years to make this journey and
in 1492 the queen Isabella had given him the finances which made it
possible. Columbus sailed out from a little harbor called Palos in
Spain with three ships - Santa Maria, La Pinta and La Niña.
On Oct 12th after some difficulties they sighted land. Columbus named
this island San Salvador which means, "blessed saviour"
in Spanish. It wasen´t North America that Columbus found as
many think it was. It was one of the islands we call the West Indies.
In four voyages made between 1492 and 1504 he discovered and explored
the northeast coast of Cuba and the northern coast of Hispaniola.
Charted most of the caribbean islands. Sighted the northeast coast
of South America.
Columbus returned to Spain with many new products that Europeans never
had seen before. Things like tobacco, cacao, sweet corn, coconuts
and potatoes. He also brought with him tales of dark-skinned native
people whom he called "Indians" because he assumed that
he had been sailing in the Indian Ocean. But it was an Italian by
the name of John Cabot voyaging for England´s Henry VII who
in 1497 after seven weeks of sailing came ashore at the North American
coast. He arrived in New Foundland or possibly in Nova Scotias coast
in Canada.
But they were far from being the first Europeans in America. In the
year 1000 A.D Scandinavian Vikings explored the American coastline.
This was 500 years before Columbus. It was a man called Leif Erikson
son of Erik the Red who had heard of an Icelander by the name of Bjarne
Herjolfson. He had drifted by the wind way out of course and spotted
a flat wooded coastline far westward. Trying to follow Bjarnes tracks,
Leif Erikson led his Vikings over the Atlantic Ocean to the new land.
Probably they came ashore in today´s New England coast and they
named their discovery Vinland after the wild grapes that grew there.
Scholars can´t decide though if it was in New England or New
Foundland that the Vikings arrived in. Evidence does exists of a landing
in New Foundland where they established a colony and from that base
they sailed along the coast of North America. They observed the flora,
fauna and the native people that they called "skrälingar".
After a few years the colony in Vinland were abandoned. Probably after
a hostile attack by the native people.
Another source tells us about an Irishman, Saint Brendan who sailed
to find a "Land promised to the Saints". He set out in the
year 540 A.D. In a manuscript from the 600th century Navigatio Sancti
Brendani tells a story which is full of marvelous achievements and
devout thinking that it for years was considered just to be a collection
of tales. The story tells us that angels disguised as birds guided
Brendan. He was also helped by whales to find his way on the Ocean.
Many scholars think that the voyages actually did take place. It is
supposed that Brendan set sail from Kerry on Ireland. They took a
northerly course and eventually they came across an iceberg, which
shows that they passed Greenland into Davis Strait. They also passed
through an area of dense mist, which can be New Foundland banks where
the warm Gulfstream meets the Artic current. Later Brendan and his
men landed on a flat tropical island covered with exotic vegetation
and surrounded by crystal-clear water. Beautiful birds and naked dark-skinned
pygmies inhabited it. Perhaps Brendan had sailed down the coast of
North America out of sight of land and arrived in the islands of Bahamas.
The pygmy people could have been the Arawaks the original inhabitants
of the islands. It is possible that Brendan and his men discovered
what today is Florida. The whole story is however hard to believe
and not have been written down until several centuries after the events
is described, it is possible that it was considerably embellished.
However the ancient sagas of the Norsmen or Vikings admit that the
Irish was the first. The Viking voyages to North America are now established
as historical fact. The intrepid Norsman land-hopped via Iceland and
Greenland and under Leif Erikson reached the coast of North America
in the year 1000 A.D. The stories of their voyages to this land beyond
the sea - referred to as Markland, Helluland and Vinlad - are told
in the Norse sagas written in Iceland between 1320 and 1350. Not much
attention was paid to these sagas until as recently as 1837, when
they were re-examined and it was found that their descriptions of
Vinland´s climate geography and native life fitted that of the
coast of New England.
We can never be sure who discovered America as the first ones because
one people divided into different tribes already explored the continent.
They would be the first one...
bravenet.com