The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-11-11
An rsrronrAn.r yrnnzr.

our informaflon IS that the Bureau of Ethnology will shortly publish the first volume of a work which will be of vast interest to scholars and stu- dents everywhere. and especially in the United States. It is . work upon which various qualified authors have been en- gagged for something like . quarter of a century In short, tt is to be in the nature of an extensive hand book of in- formation and history about the Amer ican Indians.
 The question of the origin of our In- dians Is one upon which a vast deal
 of time and study has been spent. and
 the Bureau acknowledges that 1t will not undertake to give anything like an
 authoritative reply or opinion about it.
 We know that more than one eminent
 scholar has insisted that the Ameri- can Indians did not comg from any
 where, so far as having come over to America in the nature of immfgrants.
 We know that writers have brought forward what they consider strong ev-
 idence to show that there is a strong affinity Tn language and customs be- tween the Indians of America and some of the Old World peoples. Some have claimed that they descended from the lost tribes of Israel. while others have found resemblances between them and some of the inhabitants of Northern Europe OF of Asia, but it may be set down as fact that there has never yet been produced any indisputable tie connecting them with any of the inc habitants of the old World.
 To quote the language of a ccntem- porary, if we take the admission of the lingual experts of the Bureau. there is practically nothing in the languages of the Indians to indicate any relationship In origin to any other race known in the world, The Bu- reau of Ethnology rejects the notion that study of language roots indi- cates that any of the Indian tribes originally were Africans. or Siberians, or Mongols. or Aryans. Not only this. but some recent Investigations among the natives Of the Kamschatkan penin- sula indicate very clearly that there was not a migration from Siberia to Alaska. Instead, 1t is found that the present Kamschstkan natives emigrat- ed. according to the evidence. from Alaska"
 That last sentence opens up series of complications It Is weil known that the ancient inhabitants of the Central American country. the Aztecs. Toltecs and kindred races, were quite different from the Indians of what is now the United States, and these again were different from the EsIkimos and other tribes of the extreme North, Now, were these Central Americans the orig inaI stock. and did they migrate Nerth- ward gaining size, strength and vi- vility in the temperate regions? Then, did the migration continue Northward and the people degenerate when they got Into the fFigid and Arctic regions?
 This might have been possible but for one thing. Those inhabitants of Central America had a civilization far in advance of the more Northern In- dians. old buildings, ruins and other evidences found in that region show that as architects, artisans, builders and engineers they were almost im- meRsnFably in advance of the natives found in this region when first discov- cred. If the migration was Northwafd, why did the people advance physically aAd retrograde mentally and scientific ally as they proceeded northward? But if. as some claim, contrary to the opln- Ion advanced above, the immigrants Behring's Straits. we may argue that as they went Southward they improved in every respect with the single excep- ton that as they neared the torrid zone they lost something in size and physical strength while they gained a great deal in intellect and ingenuity,
 These and various other questions rec lating to the original inhabitants of North America win be discussed in the forthcoming publications of the Bu- reau of Ethnology, and though, as in- timated, no attempt will be made to give q positive or definite explanation ofs the origin of our predecessors on this continent, it is certain that much light will be thrown on problems that have been worrying the scientists and for generations. Not the least of these is in relation to the great va- riety and differences of languages and dialects spoken among the original North Americans. Anything approach ing an explanation of that problem will be interesting.