Debate is getting more contentious than ever about how the Americas were populated by humans. Of course, the long-held belief is that humans crossed over from Asia across the Bering Strait during the last Ice Age. But evidence, including the Clovis Culture and other archeological findings, dispute this claim. Did all modern-day Native Americans come across the Bering Strait? Do Native American creation stories match up with scientific data? Were Native Americans somehow created separately from other humans? How did humans populate the Americas? When you think about how the Americas or Turtle Island became populated, where do you start? Do you start with scientific or conventional wisdom that says all humans originated from Africa? Or, do you prefer to start with your own tribal creation story? The reason I bring this up is because there is definitely contrast about how the Americas were populated, and very seldom in the scientific world, as well as the archeological world, are Native genesis stories taken into consideration. Do we have any evidence to back up these creation stories? Do tribal creation stories actually have some observational methods? Can we get out from under the scientific notion that creationism is mythical, or that it’s some kind of folk science? How do we reconcile the enormous gap between the scientific evidence of humankind’s progress that’s been presented to us so far, and our deep-held indigenous beliefs that we come from here?Get the Story:
Harlan McKosato: Humanity’s origins: It’s complicated (The Santa Fe New Mexican 10/27)
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