The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1897-09-09

museum of natural history, is in search
OF evidence that the American Indian
came originally from Asia and was o.
Monaghan stock. lie has gone to Brit
ish Columbia and Alaska, where the In
dian blood that is left is purest, and
where, presumably, the Monaghan con
nection is most apparent in the natural
condition of the primitive tribes, il it Is
so to be found at all. The passage OF the
red men across the Behring straits from
northwestern Asia, and so down into the
great continent OF America, has always
been rather favorite notion in the scien
titic mind, and while there is sometimes
a striking facial resemblance between in
| dividuals of the Pacific coast tribes and
individuals OF the Chinese and Tartar
nations, there seems little real evidence
to sustain the scientific hypothesis be-
yond the admitted fact that passage be-
tween the continents Of Asia and North
America across the straits would be easy
by even the most primitive means of wa
ter travel. Then, the Chinese have been
navigators since they were first known
to the people Of Europe, and might well
have crossed the Pacific at its narrowest
point, or even stray junks might have
been carried across by stress of weather
in prehistoric, as they have been known
to be carried in historic times But the
Chinese-the Mongolians-are of race
which does not readily lose racial char
acteristics. These people have construct.
i've and intricate language, whereas the
tongues OF the Indians are of the most
primitive kind, and if they are really
| Mongolians, they present the strange
spectacle of a race which has not only
lost its original speech aud its original
customs and traditions, but each little
group of which, forming a.separate tribe
| has built for itself new speech made OF
sounds in imitation OF the cries OF AMI
mails, to which arbitrary meanings have
been attached, each tribe creating for il.
self new customs and new traditions
growing out OF its own immediate en-.
vironments.
The American Indian certainly had nc
more tradition of MoDgolian origin than
OF origin in the lost continent OF Atlantis
the hills and rivers aud lax es immedi-
ately surrounding him making his world,
and the stories handed down in particu-
lar tribes of migration from land to the
westward might mean that the tribes
came from places 10 miles or 49, 900 miles
IN that direction. Some Of the tribes,
notably the Natchez, had traditions OF
| both east and'westward movements, and
although little is known of this particu-
lar tribe, exterminated very early in the
history OF white occupation Of the CONT
nent, 1t is known that it differed in lam
guage, appearance and habits from the
tribes surrounding it. Again, the In
dams dwelling on the islands in the
Santa Barbara channel, also perishing
early, are known to have been superior
race to that on the mainland from which
they were separated by less than thirty
miles OF water; stronger Of lighter color,
more intelligent and less sulen.
This strong and strange distinction be-
tween tribes dwelling side by side on the
American continent Was not at all un-
usual, seeming to indicate rather the pro-
gressIve development OF race sui ge-
nerls than the varying decline OF race
fallen from another and different cviIiz-
alton. The Iroquois and the Creeks
achieved confederacy and civil govern
ment while Indians all about them were
savage, and the Aztecs and the Peruvi.
ans were as civilized along different lines
as the Europeans OF their day. 1t s not
Indeed, an extravagant supposltion that
II the discovery Of America had been
delayed 500 years Americans would have
discovered Europe-although there is
against it the action of that great law
which seems to impel race movement
toward the west. The same law runs.
also, against the theory that the Indians
were Mongolians moving eastward 10
search of new homes. The limitation of
the scientist lies in this, that, because
Asia was the cradle of our own race, we
conceive it to have been the cradle of
every other. Is race peculiar to Amer
lea an impossible conception?