Archive for the ‘amerindians’ tag
Poop Casts Doubt on ‘first Americans’ #
I tried my best to write an absurd headline for this. In any case, this should probably be filed as “strange but true.” It turns out recently analyzed fossilized feces
…push back the date when humanity arrived in the Americas. Traditionalists have long believed that the first Americans belonged to what is known as the Clovis culture, after a style of arrowhead found first at Clovis, New Mexico, but which has turned up at several other locations. Clovis sites are 13,000 years old at most.
…Their data support the idea that there were people in America before Clovis. They also suggest that at least some of those people were the ancestors of modern Amerindians. That is because the Oregonian coprolites contain DNA that has characteristics which match that of living Amerindians.
Visiting the Navajo #
Though Friday’s entry was a tangential meditation on Los Angeles, last week’s Correspondent’s Diary at The Economist is rather good. Two quotes from visiting the Navajo, one of the few casino-less tribes. From Tuesday, on their relationship to the United States:
Just because Navajos are exceptionally good at negotiating between cultural worlds does not mean they do not make mistakes. A few weeks ago the Navajo Times carried a story about a move to create a Diné medal of honour for those who have served in the armed forces. The speaker of the Navajo legislature apparently thought this would be a good idea. Navajo veterans did not. Explaining that only Congress can award military medals, they crushed the plan by a vote of 34-0. Three of the intended recipients responded that they would rather have a sheep.
And from Thursday, on gambling in America:
Indian casinos exist because of what psychologists call cognitive dissonance and everyone else knows as hypocrisy. Americans wish to gamble. Yet they cannot bring themselves to liberalise gambling, which is, after all, a sin. So it is necessary to allow a few exceptions to the general rule. These include Nevada, riverboats (which are often little more than casinos surrounded by moats) and Indian tribes.