Origins of first peoples revisited

Page 20

Bones

Discovering the First Americans

By Elaine Dewar

Random House Canada

628 pages (hc)

$39.95

Maybe there is no consensus on the origins of Native Americans or about the length of time they predate other civilizations in the Americas, but there is evidence. An exciting new book on the topic shows, however, that much of the evidence has been misplaced, misused, ignored or repressed.

A theory promulgated for many years is that the Americas' Aboriginal people descend from Mongoloid migrants who walked across the Bering Strait at the end of the last ice age. It is a theory still widely believed, but debunked by new science and old Aboriginal creation stories.

It is also a theory debunked by the bones of the ancestors themselves, as award-winning journalist Elaine Dewar's book, Bones-Discovering the First Americans, may persuade you.

A parasite may provide one clue.

In Brazil, the author interviewed two paleoparasitologists, Luiz Ferreira and Adauto Araujo, on the forefront of research that shows "early people must have come to Brazil direct from some other tropical area, because they brought hookworm with them," said Dewar. She learned that the hookworm, which must spend part of its life cycle in the ground, can not survive the winter temperatures of Canada, Siberia and most of Alaska.

Everything from radiocarbon dating to DNA to linguistics comes under Dewar's scrutiny. Early in the book she takes on the business and politics of research.

Dewar met Dr. William Finlayson, former director of the London Museum of Archeology in Ontario. From that meeting, she learned "the practice of archaeology in Ontario has become a disgrace," but that the laws and rules governing it there were not unlike those in the rest of North America.

"All archaeology has to be done under license, and is supposed to be documented in reports to preserve the knowledge of the past for the future, but the whole system is a sham. Very little archaeology is published in peer-reviewed journals," Dewar asserts. "Most of it is done by contract archeologists who 'salvage' sites about to be destroyed by development, which means they dig them, remove what they find and write up their findings."

Dewar says their reports go to provincial archives where they are not even available to people such as Finlayson unless the authors give their permission. Permission is often withheld. Artifacts go missing. Proper documentation and conservation of the findings is hit-and-miss or not done at all. So one is left wondering, as Dewar no doubt did, why archaeologists insist "science rules in archaeology."

Bones takes a juridical look at scientific, anthropological and archeological practices through a lens that reveals authorities with the "right" credentials sometimes sacrifice academic integrity to their own self-interest, the flow of grant money, and political expediency. This in itself is hardly shocking in our jaded age, but the idea that more than a few supposedly competent researchers don't, won't, can't identify and challenge flawed or incomplete research is. From Chile to Alaska, Dewar found conclusions about Indian origins were "steeped in the bitter tea of racism." It appears that all races were part of the brew.

Excavating and studying human remains and cultural artifacts has always been the domain of qualified academics. The rest of society typically neither knows nor cares what they do until some great "discovery" is announced. Probably most just assume if such activities are regulated, regulations will be followed. Native Americans, meanwhile, have complained that not only does white man's law not protect what is important in their culture, but that they never gave other governments the authority to pass laws affecting them.

Few heard.

Until recently, the assumed right to retrieve information from the graves of other people's relatives has outweighed ethical concerns and moral and jurisdictional rights.

Now people with a conscience are chalenging that view.

Riding the shifting paradigm, Dewar makes you question everything you thought you knew about the origins of man and possibly the planet. After you zip through her engaging 600-page read you'll never be afraid to challenge the so-called "experts" again.

This rational and thoroughly researched book will enthrall you. Dewar untwists a distorted pre-history of the Americas created over the reputations of the intelligentsia as well as Indian activists and politicians who fight each other for control of old bones. Court challenges and less benign measures to deal with enemies add more than a touch of mystery, danger and political intrigue, with no boring parts to skip over.

Take the situation of American archaeologist Jim Chatters, who initially was asked to look at the bones of the now-famous Kennewick Man. Chatters, a supporter of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), felt he had a good relationship with several tribes and was studying some remains for the Colville tribe when an article about his findings regarding Kennewick Man appeared in the New York Times and changed all that.

Chatters told Dewar his tests on the Colville ancestors involved destruction of bone and the tribe didn't object. After the story about Chatters' alleged views on Kennewick Man appeared, however, the tribe "now insists that all studies of human remains are a desecration," Dewar reported. It seems Chatters referred to the Kennewick skull as one similar to western Eurasian people, "the ones referred to as Caucasoids."

The Colvilles suddenly demanded their skeletons back for reburial. Chatters showed Dewar a letter that persuaded her they tried to interfere in his other contract work too.

Following that, the Nez Perce turned against him. Journalists who tried to write about Chatters' views of Kennewick Man had this information pulled from their stories. Chatters believed this was "suppression of anything negative about Native Americans. It as all a result of political correctness."

Dewar devotes two chapters to the ongoing politics and court battles surrounding Kennewick Man, a book within a book, almost.

Although she has been astute in providing her own documentation, Dewar does not bog her revelations down in minutiae. Endnotes, along with an impressive bibliography, are in the back of the book for those who want to examine her analyses up close.

The book goes into deep waters, or under the ice if you prefer, when it examines the hostile, competitive world of bucks to be made from bones. It should be required reading for all senior history classes.