Reesa Jorin, Age 11, of Winnipeg, Man., Canada, for her question:
When exactly did the Indians reach America?
Columbus sailed across the uncharted ocean. Yet, when he arrived, he found people here to greet him. The bold mariner was not surprised, for he thought he had sailed westward as far as Asia. He called the aborigines Indians. Our scholars call them Amerindians, and we are still trying to trace the fascinating comings and goings of their past history.
After Columbus, wave after wave of settlers arrived from the Old World. They carne at different times from marry lands, from different races with many languages. But this is recent and recorded history. These settlers found the land already populated far and wide. The story of the Amerindians, the original Americans, dates back through the unrecorded years of pre history.
Geologists and anthropologists, linguists and other experts assure us that the original Americans came from Asia, across the Bering Strait. They, too, arrived in wave after wave. Tribe followed tribe, perhaps unknown to each other, through thousands of years. They, too, came with different languages from different races.
They were wanderers, and through the ages various tribes explored the New World from the Arctic to the tip of South America. Some tribes settled in the eastern forests and others adapted to hunting on the plains. Some tribes built splendid cities in the rainy tropics, and others coped with life in the arid deserts.
There are no written records of these comings and goings. But experts find clues in Amerindian myths and customs, skills and languages. Many ancient items can be dated by radioactive substances. A bone with a buried arrowhead proved that Amerindians were hunting here 10,000 years ago.
One of the many pre columbian cities in Mexico covered 2000 acres. Terraced palaces lined its paved streets, and lofty pyramids cast pointed shadows across its sunny plazas. When Columbus arrived, it was a deserted ruin, but in 650 A.D., this American city teemed with life.
Dried bones and weapons, scraps of pottery and shreds of cloth all have their secrets to tell the experts. As we learn more, the arrival date of the first Americans steps farther and farther back into the past. Some experts now suggest that they arrived 100,000 years ago, but we shall never be certain of the exact date.
The first Amerindians reached the new World before the start of the last ice Age. Others followed from time to time through thousands of years. Then, about 25,000 years ago, the route was closed by massive glaciers. Later, the ice receded and the way for immigrants was open again. The Eskimos are late comers, perhaps the last of the original Americans to arrive from Asia. They came between 2000 and 3000 years ago and made a happy way of life for themse1ves in the frozen north.