The Myths of the North American IndiansSpence, Lewis
History
The Myths of the North American Indians
Spence, Lewis
Indian mythology -- North America; Indians of North America -- Folklore
It is now admitted that the presence of man in the Old World dates from
an epoch so far distant as to be calculated only by reference to
geological periods of which we know the succession but not the
duration, and research has proved that the same holds good of the
Western Hemisphere. Although man undoubtedly found his way from the
Old World to the {6} New, the period at which he did so is so remote
that for all practical purposes he may be said to have peopled both
hemispheres simultaneously. Indeed, "his relative antiquity in each
has no bearing on the history of his advancement."
It is known that the American continent offers no example of the highly
organized primates--for example, the larger apes--in which the Old
World abounds, save man himself, and this circumstance is sufficient to
prove that the human species must have reached America as strangers.
Had man been native to the New World there would have been found side
by side with him either existing or fossil representatives of the
greater apes and other anthropoid animals which illustrate his pedigree
in the Old World.
The Great Miocene Bridge
Again, many careful observers have noticed the striking resemblance
between the natives of America and Northern Asia. At Bering Strait the
Old World and the New are separated by a narrow sea-passage only, and
an elevation of the sea-bed of less than two hundred feet would provide
a 'land-bridge' at least thirty miles in breadth between the two
continents. It is a geological fact that Bering Strait has been formed
since the Tertiary period, and that such a 'land-bridge' once existed,
to which American geologists have given the name of 'the Miocene
bridge.' By this 'bridge,' it is believed, man crossed from Asia to
America, and its subsequent disappearance confined him to the Western
Hemisphere.
American Man in Glacial Times
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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