Indigenous / First Nations - WET 219 - Applied Water Law - Indigenous Rights

12,000 Years of Blissful Isolation

Analysis of indigenous peoples' DNA from the various independent studies indicated indigenous people have lived in the Americas for a minimum of 13,000 years. New evidence is emerging from the archeology community that is pushing the dates of the peopling of North America back substantially further in time.

For thousands of years, indigenous people have populated the continents of the Western Hemisphere. Some scholars have estimated 60 million people lived in the Western Hemisphere before European arrival; others have estimated both far smaller and far larger populations. The real truth is no one knows what the official population of the Western or Eastern Hemispheres was in 1491 any more than we knew the population of most European countries.

During the Pre-Columbian period, hundreds of First Nations existed, each with its own language, culture, and government. They had developed art, agriculture, and technology, engaged in warfare with other First Nations, made peace treaties (many cemented by the intermarriage between their peoples) and established their traditional territorial lands' physical boundaries and ownership.

The one thing we do know with certainty is that the original inhabitants witnessed the catastrophic change of their world after "first contact" had occurred with permanent European settlers in 1492. Initial contact resulted in the estimated death of 56 million or 90 percent of the pre-Columbian Indigenous population by the 1600s, primarily from disease. This number that represents around 10% of the global population at that time.

Unfortunately, this was just the beginning of four centuries of death, cultural-genocide, and abuse, at the hands of European settlers and their governments.

The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere by Paulette F. C. Steeves
Call Number: E-Book
ISBN: 9781496202178
Publication Date: 2021-07-01
The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere is a reclaimed history of the deep past of Indigenous people in North and South America during the Paleolithic. Paulette F. C. Steeves mines evidence from archaeology sites and Paleolithic environments, landscapes, and mammalian and human migrations to make the case that people have been in the Western Hemisphere not only just prior to Clovis sites (10,200 years ago) but for more than 60,000 years, and likely more than 100,000 years. Steeves discusses the political history of American anthropology to focus on why pre-Clovis sites have been dismissed by the field for nearly a century. She explores supporting evidence from genetics and linguistic anthropology regarding First Peoples and time frames of early migrations. Additionally, she highlights the work and struggles faced by a small yet vibrant group of American and European archaeologists who have excavated and reported on numerous pre-Clovis archaeology sites. In this first book on Paleolithic archaeology of the Americas written from an Indigenous perspective, The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere includes Indigenous oral traditions, archaeological evidence, and a critical and decolonizing discussion of the development of archaeology in the Americas.

Recommended Viewing - 1491: The Untold Story of the Americas Before Columbus
1491: The Untold Story of the Americas before Columbus is based on the book “1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus” by Charles C. Mann (Knopf, 2005). It brings to life the complexity, diversity and interconnectedness of Indigenous peoples in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus.
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