HOW OLD IS THE AMERICAN INDIAN?
by
Virginia Sutton

One of the most interesting and at the same time one of the most mooted questions today in American archeology is that of the antiquity of man in America. Although since Henry Fairfield Osborn's ill-fated Hesperopithecus' no authority has seriously advanced the view that any species of Palaeanthropus, or primitive man comparable to the Neanderthal type, inhabited this continent, it is far from being settled today just how old Neanthropus Americanus, or modern man in America, is. Since the determination of this point will require consideration of a great many different elements, and a synthesis of geological, paleontological, and archeological evidence, it is unlikely that any hypothesis, in the present state of our knowledge, can be completely satisfactory.

The most obvious evidence to be considered is that derived from a study of finds made on those continents indicating the presence of early man. This at first glance would seem to prove the existence of Pleistocene man in America, for objects of human manufacture have been discovered in association with animals believed to have been extinct by the beginning of the post-glacial age, and apparently in strata of glacial origins. Among the most important of those discoveries have been those at Folsom, New Mexico, Clovis, Now Mexico, and Bishop's Cap, New Mexico, of chipped projectile points in association with remains of an extinct species of bison; the find at Frederick, Oklahoma, and at a number of other sites, of man-made artifacts with remains of the mammoth; the Gypsum cave site, showing man contemporaneous with the ground sloth; the discovery in the Trenton, New Jersey, gravels of immediately post-glacial age, of chipped agrillite tools; the "Minnesota man"; and most recently, the excavation of a camp-site of the so-called Folsom culture at the Lindenmeier site, near Fort Collins, Colorado. New finds of this sort are being made every year, and from this angle it would seem to be almost proven that man lived here before the beginning of the "recent" period.

But there are question marks which must be noted. First, it is known pretty certainly that so-called Pleistocene mammals might have survived beyond the retreat of the last glaciation, and it will be necessary to weigh this point quite heavily in the face of further evidence. Second, many of the finds of this apparently glacial man do not give an absolutely clear story from a geological or archeological point of view, a great many of them being surface finds, and many of the rest being in strata whose age cannot be definitely and conclusively assigned to the glacial period. Third, if man was here in glacial times, how and when did he get here? We must choose between two alternatives: either he came during the third interglacial period, which is dubious for many reasons, and which few anthropologists would suggest; or he migrated from Asia during the glaciation, which seems unlikely because at that time the low temperatures which must have prevailed in northern Asia would almost certainly discourage his wandering as far north as would be necessary to take the Bering Straits or Aleutian Islands route to this continent. F.H.F. Roberts, after discussing some of the more important of the finds suggesting Pleistocene man,

"Whether all of this evidence from the various places mentioned actually dates man in the closing days of the Pleistocene, indicates his presence at the beginning of the post-glacial period, or demonstrates a later survival of ice-age animals is a phase of the problem which the geologist and paleontologist must solve. Some insist that the evidence unequivocally proves that man was here in the Pleistocene, others that he came during the transition between the glacial and recent periods, but was not actually here in the ice age. All agree that more data are essential."¹

1. F.H.H. Roberts — A Folsom Complex. Smithsonian Miscellaneous collections, Vol. 94, no. 4, p. 7.

To help clear this up we might next look to the old world for evidence, but we are faced with a disappointing lack of knowledge regarding the crucial areas, i.e. central and northeastern Asia. Both archeologically and geologically, these regions are almost terra incognita, in spite of the fact that most anthropologists would tentatively place the origin of the human race somewhere in this continent. We know nothing of the origin and early movements of the Mongoloid race, which is the dominant strain in the American Indian, and almost nothing of the early history of the Negroid and Caucasoid races, which may have contributed something to the type of the first inhabitants of this continent. In Europe modern man appeared, at the earliest, during the transition from the last glacial period to the post-glacial or recent, but of course this proves little or nothing for Asia and America, for the development might have been earlier or later, and movement slower or faster.

If we consider the cultural evidence, it is again not very conclusive, because although some of the artifacts found suggest the use of Paleolithic techniques, the same techniques are being employed today by primitive people in various parts of the world, or have been employed within comparatively recent times. We can say that man started to come to America well before the Neolithic period developed, because he did not bring with him Neolithic cultural elements such as the wheel, pottery, domesticated animals and plants; but this again is not conclusive, because while we knew the approximate age of the Neolithic in Europe and the Near East, we cannot date it for Asia, and especially northeastern Asia, which is what counts. It may possibly have been earlier, and may even have been later, a question which will depend for its settlement on whether the Near East is accepted as the earliest center in the development of the Neolithic and later cultures, or whether an Asiatic center can be found which flowered earlier.¹

1. Paleolithic — The old stone age, a period characterized by the use of chipping as the only means of manufacturing stone implements. Neolithic — The new stone age, a period characterized by the presence of the bow and pottery, and in the full Neolithic, by the use of grinding and polishing in the manufacture of stone implements, and by the domestication of animals and plants.

Indirect evidence might next be adduced, but this, while helpful and interesting, is not definite enough to throw much real light on the date of earliest man in America. The time of the first migration must not be too distant to be consistent with the fact that the American Indian is essentially one race, very closely related physically, and shows very little real differentiation from one end of the continent to the other; and yet it must be distant enough to provide for the settling of both continents, and to account for the linguistic diversity and cultural development of the Indian. On all these things, however, we can do little more than estimate, which is of no practical use in attempting to solve a problem in chronology.

Finally, we might refer to the opinions of authorities in their respective fields, as secondary evidence on this point; but as is to be expected, there is much disagreement. The geologists and paleontologists are faced by almost contradictory indications, one the nature and stratigraphy of the finds, suggesting Pleistocene occupation, and two, the barrier of the glaciers in the north, raising an imposing question mark. Further, even if these men will commit themselves on the question of whether man is glacial, transitional, or entirely post-glacial, they hesitate to give a specific date because of the fact that geology must of necessity deal in very large spans of years, and the difference between ten and twenty thousand years ago, very important and significant in the history of the American Indian, means almost nothing in the history of the earth and its changes. At present, most men would put the date of man's earliest entrance into America sometime between five thousand and twenty-five thousand years ago, but that is about as far as they will agree.

And so, about the only thing that is safe to conclude, is that any dogmatic answers to this question are dangerous and unwarranted. There is undoubtedly much material still in the earth that would help us to be more specific, and it probably will not be long before some of it will be discovered; but in the present state of our knowledge it is safest to be vague, and avoid a very definite date.

European Prehistory¹

1. Adapted from table in A.L. Kroeber — Anthropology, p. 156