Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-05-11
THE ORIGIN OF OUR INDIANS.
A Scientific Opinion to the Effect That
1t Was Purely American.


1t Was Purely American.
From the Literary Digest.
America is not rich in the relics Of an
tiquity. Travellers tell us we are too new
and too fresh to be interesting. Even when
we point to the mound-builders and cliff
jewellers we are met with the theory that
they were not Indigenous, but were an I'M
pcrtation from Carthage, or Atlantis, or
China, or some other far-away land. At
lest, however, we are coming to our rights,
and may be allowed soon to indulge the
| proud sense of undisputed proprietorship
over a prehistoric civilization, such as it
was. The Indian is really our own, totems.
war dances and all, and it is only neces-
| sary now to extend the Monroe doctrine
and call hands off to all outsiders who are
striving to deprive us of the credit due us.
Such are the reflections aroused by an
criticize written by the German traveller, DIR.
Edward Seller, in the Prussische Jahrbucher
of Berlin. He expresses his views as fol-
lows:
During the sixteenth century, at a time
when 1t was much more difficult to deter
mine the size and shape of the American
continent the idea prevailed that the an
ISstors of the Indians reached the CONT
nent in vessels from long distance. Later
it was common to picture the ancient
Americans as crossing the Boring sea in
large masses. The proofs offered In de-
Tense of these theories are not very con-
vincng. The old story told by Aristotle
that ships from Carthage sailed west from
the Pillars of Hercules, until, after many
days, they discovered great uninhabited
islands with large rivers will hardly be
accepted as a pre-Columbian discovery of
America, and the Platonic fairy tales about
Atlantis just as unreliable. Ancient
Chinese annals speak of the land Fu-San,
1900 Ii east of China. and this has been
thought to refer to Mexico. But Fu-San
was q country well known to the Chinese,
and the descriptions given of its rulers and
the customs of it's people describe it
altogether Asiatc. Fu-San was probably
one of the islands north of Japan, but GER
tainly not Mexico. The attempts to deduce
the beginnings of American civilization
from foreign sources are all the more
curious nobody tries to prove that Chi
nese civilization began in Egypt or Indian
civilization in Chaldea. The Mexicans re-
late that their ancestors lived as hunters in
fathers lived on an island in the sea. 1t is
very probable that some of the Mexican
tribes only regarded the north as their
ancient home because the north appeared
to them strange and impenetrable The
tale that the A2tecS came from over the
water may be explained by the fact that
they settled on an island in a salt water
lake.
Mexican civilization shows that 1t be-
lcnged strictly to the soil where it de-
veloped. and it influenced the whole of the
continent. Only a small portion of the
North American tribes lived exclusively as
hunters and fishermen. Even the wild
prairie Indians. the Dakotas. Cheyennes
and Mandans knew something of agricUl-
tue. In languages. religion, customs and
tribal constitution all Indians show Won
derful similarity to the Mexicans and to
each other, which leads to the assumption
that all came from common stock"
The writ az thinks that cross-shaped orna-
ments and hieroslyphics cannot well be
taken as proofs of the prehistoric visits of
Christian missionaries, nor do Chinese signs
prove the presence of Buddhistic monks.
Inventions
countries at the same period and do not
prove that communication between the in
ventors has taken place. Close examina-
ton Of the ancient my thology of the In
dams shows that additions were made to
please the Spauiards Before the arrival of
the latter there was hoy legend pointing to
European origin of the ancient legends
CT the gods whose deedss,they describe. On
this point DR.. Seller SAYS,
In truth. the traditions of South America
contain nothing that can be construed into
proof of an introduction of old world
civilization. The story that an entire peo-
pie reached Lambayeque on RATS and
founded dynasty there, well as the
tale that a foreign race landed on the coast
of Ecuador and established a new dynasty
in the capital of that country, must be re-
gaTded as referring to sea voyages of a
somewhat local character. The
Monroe doctrine. with its motto. America
for Americans must certainly be accepted
with regard to the study of old American
civilization. American sGien tiiic researches
Will be. conducted much. better when the
fruItless attempts to prove imaginary con-
nections cease.
THAT tie curious mounds in the region
of the Mississippi and the articles found
therein arc not the work of a strange ma
ton of mound-builders may be regarded as
certain. The latest American researches
prove that these mounds are the work of
the ancestors of the Indians. "That the
civilization of the cliff-dwellers and the
former inhabitants of the pueblos of New
Mexico and Arizona is very similar to that
of tribes still found in these regions is clear
to all who have had chance for COMPARE
son.