The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1901-08-07
OUR REDMEN ASIATICS.
SUCH THE VERDICT OF SMlTHSO-
MAN INSTITUTION SCIENTISTS.

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Slope Settles Long Disputed Question
/ finds Traces OF Twenty Aboriginal
Nations Scattered Over the Golden State.
"Unquestionably of Asiatic origin"
is the verdict as to the California
Indians rendered by special com
mission sent to that part of the coun.
try by the Smithsonian Institution.
Prof. w. II. Holmes, anthropologist
in-chief of the National Museum.
voices the opinion, which practically
settles long disputed question, in n
bulletin that is about to be published.
He says that the aborigines now found
in the Golden state came long ago
from the far north, from Behring Sea
and beyond, having crossed over from
Asia by way Of the "frigid arch which
affords a land passage interrupted
only by narrow water barrier few
miles in breadth.
Prof. Otis T. Mason, OF the Smith
sonian Institution, calls attention to
the fact tha the shortest line between
the Straits of Malacca and the conti-
nent OF North America Is a great cir
Gle passing northwari along the east
coast of Asia, across Behring Striat,
and southwark to the Columbia River,
in Oregon. This was the route fol-
lowed by the first comers to America.
Not only was It the shortest. but it
may be said that food grew in pro-
fusion all along it by the wayside.
Early man was obliged to travel in
those tracks which were marked out
by nature and provisioned for his
journeys. Water furnished the great
est quantity and variety of food for
the least effort, anI the same element
afforded easiest transportation.
Travel was mainly in boats. of
course. It is easy to imagine a com
pany of the remots ancestors of Cali
forgia Indians setting out, thousands
of years ago, from the Indian Ocean
in an open boat for a voyage of 10000
miles 20 the Columbia river. The route
was nearly all the way by sea--an in
side passage through landlocked seas
and sounds 1t led through the Injo-
Malayan archipelago. the South China
AMI Malay seas, and East China and
Yellow seas. the japanese and Tar
tary seas, the Okhotsk sea. and Beh-
ring sea and its bays. the Alaskan sea
nnd inlets. the Tlingetr rHaida sea,
Vancouver sea and the Columbia ba-
sin.
All OF these marine enclosures
swarmed with animal life suitable for
human food. The East China ami
Japan seas furnished inexhaustible
supplies of fish. water fowl. crabs.
oysters, etc. In Behring sea there
was no limit to subsistence. No soon
er was a latitude approached where
the rigors OF the climate deman led
extra clothing and fuel for the body
than marine mammals and land NAM
mails were superabundant. These
early travellers would naturally avoid
the deep ocean, which is desert to
the voyager, offering no food supply.
In the shadows the landmarks were
their lighthouses AMI the inlets were
their harbors innumerable.
In California at the present time.
says Prof. Holmes. are found rem.
nants of 90 distinct nations. speaking
as many languages. These varied
ethnic elements, embraced within a
region only 500 miles in length by 800
miles in width, seem to have been
attracted one after another to the
lowland and coastal valleys by the
bait of an unfailing food supply. So
formidable are the barriers of noun
tain ranges on the east and so for
bidding the deserts on the south that
would ever take the trouble to seek
homes elsewhere. 1t would appear
that the peoples were caught like fish
es in a trap-the way in was easy,
but the way out was hard.
The Indians, or rather their remote
ancestors. came from Asia by way of
Behring Strait, because that was the
easiest as well as the shortest route.
On an ordinary map 1t does not look
the shortest, but 1t is such, neverthe-
less. and that this is true may easily
be ascerained by brief examination
of any geographical globe. 1t Is con-
sidered reasonably certain by many
scientists that the earliest beings
properly called human dwelt not far
from the Straits OF Malacca, and that
from there their descendants spread
over the world.
One can conceive of a stream of
canoes flowing for many centuries
from the Indian Ocean and peopling
America steadily from Asia by way of
its eastern shores and seas. For
5000 years or more this continent
was receiving In this way continuously
a population. A great highway was
opened through which the stream Of
boats kept floating. In every favor
able place along the route colonies
were dropped. and the nations thus
started assumed proprietorship over
parts of the highway. At length they
shut off the stream of migration by
declaring that 1t should no longer
pass through their premises. and the
flow of immigration to America being
thus cut off. the ancestors of the
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