THE FIRST AMERICAN

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1783, 17 July 1926, Page 2

THE FIRST AMERICAN

SUPPOSED ASIATIC ORIGIN. A search for the first American immigrant—the oldest inhabitant and the ancestor of the Indians found by Columbus —has been started by the Smithsonian Institute of Washington, D.C., U.S.A. Dr. Ales (H'erdlicka, the National Museum anthropologist, has already started for Alaska to search along the rivers, coasts, and the tundra for a few bits of pottery and bone, to prove scientifically the belief that the first American came from Asia. ■ln the Yukon country legends still are told, among the Eskimols of battles between Asians and the Eskimos terrible struggles for the right of way past the fishing grounds that furnished livelihood to primitive men. Dr. Hrdlicka thinks that ancestors of the first American crossed the Behring Straits, 50 miles wide at ids narrowest point, and worked his way down the coastal plainsl into the temperate zones, where the warm climate caused various immigrants to develop the many tribes of "Amerindianso." Bits of pottery have been found in Alaska. But the Eskimos who now make up the total native population do not make pottery. Through discovery and study of other specimens of pottery, bonds and primitive implements. Dr. Hrdlicka thinks he can find a clue to the first visitors who probably crossed 1 just after the glaciers receded.