The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished RacesAllen, Emory Adams
History
The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished Races
Allen, Emory Adams
Archaeology; Indians; Prehistoric peoples
Now it might be said that these rude forms were fashioned by
Indians when in a rude state of culture, and, as they became more
advanced, they learned the superior qualities of flint, and so
dropped the use of argillite. But it so happens that we have
found several places where were veritable manufactories of Indian
implements. It is very significant that we never find one where
the workman used both flint and argillite. He always used flint
alone. Every thing seems to point to the fact, that the tribes
who fashioned the argillite implements were different from the
Indian tribes who made the flint implements. It is Dr. Abbott’s
conclusions that the former, the descendants of the Paleolithic
tribes, were the Eskimos, who, according to these views, must
have inhabited the eastern portion of the United States to
comparatively recent times.
In further support of these views, we think we have grounds for
asserting that we have veritable historical accounts of the
Eskimo people slowly retiring before the aggressions of their
Indian foes. It is no longer doubted but that Norsemen, as early
as the year 1000, made voyages of discovery along the coast of
North America, as far south as Rhode Island: they called the
country Vineland. It is true that the Icelandic accounts of these
expeditions contain some foolish and improbable statements; but
so do the writings of Cotton Mather, made many years later.
These accounts refer but very briefly to the inhabitants they
saw, but enough is given to show that the people were not
Indians, but Eskimos. The language used is: “The men were small
of stature and fierce, having a bushy head of hair, and very
great eyes, and wide cheeks.”71 Their small size is frequently
referred to, which would surely not be the case if they were
describing the Algonkins that the English colonists found in the
same section of country many years later. To the same effect is
the assertion that the Eskimos did not reach Greenland until the
middle of the fourteenth century.72 The traditions of the
Tuscarawas Indians that place their arrival on the Atlantic coast
in the year 1300, also refer to a tribe of people that were at
least much like the Eskimos.73
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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