Indians of North America -- Colorado; Mesa Verde National Park (Colo.)
Men first came into being somewhere in the Old World. From this point of
beginning they spread slowly over the face of the earth. In all
directions the ancient men traveled, always on foot, always without a
goal. After a time Europe, Africa and Asia were populated, but the
Americas remained without men. Surrounded by vast areas of water, except
at one point, the Americas were the last great land bodies to be
discovered.
Finally, the day of discovery arrived. For countless centuries groups of
men had been drifting over the great continent of Asia. Farther and
farther they traveled until at last a group, perhaps forced on by
stronger groups behind, stood on the utmost tip of northeastern Asia,
the tip of Siberia now known as the East Cape.
Standing on the ocean shore those men shaded their eyes and looked out
across the water. There, only fifty-six miles away, lay another land.
Curiosity, or perhaps the force of “enemy pressure”, urged them on. A
means of crossing those fifty-six tantalizing miles was found. At last
the first human foot touched American soil.
At first glance it may seem that the crossing would be impossible for
men who were without boats. Such was not the case. In winter the Bering
Sea often freezes over completely. Present-day Eskimos cross on the ice
and only a few years ago a white man made the crossing with a dog team.
Thus, primitive man needed only the winter ice in order to satisfy his
curiosity about the land across the water. The journey was made even
less hazardous by two islands, the Diomedes, that raised their heads in
the center of the Bering Sea, cutting the crossing into two shorter
jumps.
It is even possible that when those men reached that tip of Asia no
water separated them from America. A strip of land may have connected
the two continents. It is known very definitely that at some not far
distant date the two continents were connected by land, for some of our
well-known animals have crossed from one to the other. The horse and the
camel developed in America and walked off to Asia. The mammoth and the
bison reversed the direction and crossed from Asia to America. In order
for those beasts to make the crossing, a land bridge was necessary.
When the land bridge disappeared is not known. When the first men came
is not known. Certain it is, however, that if the land bridge was in
existence when the first men came to America, it afforded them an easy
approach. If, on the other hand, it had disappeared beneath the waves of
the Bering Sea, the men must have crossed on the ice. No one can as yet
be positive as to the exact manner of the crossing. The important point
is that the crossing was made and America was discovered and populated.
Primitive man, after hundreds of thousands of years of wandering over
the Old World, had at last found the one point at which he could enter a
new land.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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