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----------------------------- 2384 - INDIANA - home of the Earliest Americans
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- In addition to being German, and my Mom English, my Dad always claimed to be part Indian. If that were true then I am related to Asians. The DNA studies of American Indians suggest the native Americans were closely related to each other and their nearest relations outside of America are the native peoples of northeast Asia.
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- The story I learned when I was in school was that 13,500 years ago peoples from Siberia crossed a land bridge that emerged when sea levels plunged during the last ice age. The land bridge was 1,000 miles wide. There was an inland corridor between the two huge ice sheets. Within a thousand years their descendants had spread throughout North and South America.
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- Recent studies and DNA evidence is challenging this theory. Genetic diversity of today’s American peoples would have taken 20,000 years to develop, longer than the 13,500 years for the bridge crossing.
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- Also, there are sites deep in South America and on the east coast of the U.S. that date back more than 13,500 years. In 1997 Monte Verde in Chile was determined to have existed 14,500 years ago. Since then, several sites in North and South America have been dated at more than 20,000 years old.
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- Recent studies in Russia have suggested that Siberia was populated 30,000 years ago. This in turn suggests that early Americans may have come here by boat. Early pioneers may have paddled alongside glaciers skirting the shoreline all the way to Monte Verde, Chili. Evidence is hard to find because the shoreline was 300 feet deeper than today’s shoreline.
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- The Vikings took boats to Canada’s northeastern coast in the year 1000, 500 years before Columbus arrived in North America. Columbus got all the Glory but Leif Eriksson was here first from Europe.
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- In 1075 a Danish king told German historian that a place west of Greenland existed where wild grapes and wheat abound. There were 2 sagas written in the early 1200’s that gave an accurate portrait of “Vinland“.
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- After discovering Helluland and Markland the Norse found a warm, green place to the south where they set up camps. More than 100 men and 15 women came to live in Vinland collecting grapes, fur, and lumber for export to Greenland. The sagas record the birth of a boy named Snorri and tell of hostile encounters with the native Indians. Historians believe Helluland was Baffin Island and Markland was southern Labrador.
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- In 1960 historians found the sod foundations of Norse longhouses in Newfoundland. Evacuations found Viking artifacts dating to the year 1000. Evidence of iron-working and a forge were found as well as a soapstone spindle whorl suggesting women weavers.
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- Many historians believe that this Newfoundland site was the gateway to Vinland than expended to the St. Lawrence River, New Brunswick and even Maine. Iceland records have a ship laden with timber from Markland made berth there in 1347.
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- Columbus gets all the credit for discovering America in 1492. Spain thrives in its conquering of the “New World“. Five years later in 1497 John Cabot planted the English flag claiming the northeast coast of North America for King Henry VII. John Cabot made a second expedition but never returned.
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- Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian, guides a Portuguese expedition to South America. He went down the Brazilian coast and was convinced he had discovered a new continent. Map makers began calling it America in his honor.
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- Juan Ponce de Leon lands in Florida in 1513 searching for the fountain of youth in St. Augustine. Now there are a lot of retired people living there and still searching for the fountain. My brother keeps a home there just in case it turns up.
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- Hernando Cortes, a Spanish conquistador lands in Mexico in 1519 and ravages the Aztec Empire. His superior guns and horses won the battles. And, the smallpox epidemic he left behind continued to kill the Aztecs.
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- Giovanni da Verrazano got the French in the act in 1524 landing on the Carolina coast and sailing north to New York harbor. France then made its first claim on North America. Verranzano was captured and reportedly eaten by cannibals. Apparently the natives like a French cuisine.
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- Spain landed 400 explorers in Tampa Bay, Florida in 1528. Some got to Texas by raft. In 1536 the survivors meet up with fellow Spaniards in Mexico.
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- France had Jacques Cartier exploring eastern Canada sailing up the St. Lawrence River in 1534. He climbs a hill and names it Mont Real, which later became Montreal and the French still lay claim to Canada.
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- Hernando de Soto, after conquering the Incas in Peru , leads a Spanish expedition to Florida. Landing in Tampa Bay they explore as far west as Texas and as far north as Arkansas. De Soto dies during the expedition and they sink his body in the Mississippi River.
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- Francisco Vasques de Coronado leads an expedition into the south west and claims “New Spain” in 1540. Cononado finds Native American towns in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Kansas, all in the search for gold.
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- Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo sails from Mexico and becomes the first European to navigate the California coast in 1542, just 50 years after Columbus discovers America. He dies of a broken leg when gangrene sets in.
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- Pedro Medendez de Aviles establishes the oldest permanent European settlement in the United States in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565. St. Augustine will serve as a key Spanish outpost in North America for the next 200 years.
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- In 1607 a small party landed in Virginia and founded Jamestown, the first English settlement in America to survive and thrive. We are celebrating Jamestown’s 400 year anniversary this week.
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- My home state, Indiana, is named after the “land of the Indians”. From 1787 to 1789 it was part of the Northwest Territory. Then it became the Indiana Territory from 1800 to 1816. Indiana joined the United States in 1816 as the 19th state. I joined Indiana, the town of Auburn in 1941.
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- May 30, 2019 778
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--------------------- May 30, 2019 ---------------------
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