Human Origins and Evolutionary Evidence

Human Origins

• All non-African humans are descended from an individual who lived in East Africa approximately 60,000 years ago.
• The three main genetic groups are Africans, Eurasians (Europeans, Middle Easterners, and Southwest Asians), and East Asians (Asians, Japanese, Southeast Asians, Americans, and Oceanians).
• Humans reached the Middle East around 100,000 years ago, Southern Asia by 50,000 years ago, and Australia by 40,000 years ago.
• Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), passed through the female line, suggests:
  • A single-source ancestral population in Beringia, isolated for 5,000 to 15,000 years.
  • A small founding population with only four major haplotype mtDNAs.
  • Rapid population of the entire Americas, including South America.
  • Back migration from North America to Siberia.

Evolutionary Evidence

• Teeth are a key source of evolutionary information because they are well-preserved and change more slowly over time than other anatomical features.

Early American Language Classification

• Christy Turner classified Aboriginal languages of North America into 58 stocks (later revised to 51).
  • Turner's classification lacked information about certain languages and assumed a unified stage of evolutionary development.
  • The purpose of the classification was to place tribes on reservations, disregarding the degree of relationship between languages.
• Edward Sapir reduced the number of stocks to six.
  • Sapir used a broader historical perspective and was willing to go beyond hard evidence.
  • Sapir classified Beothuk, an extinct language from Newfoundland, as Algonquian due to its connection to neighboring Indian languages.
  • Sapir linked the Na-Dene phylum to Sino­Tibetan.
  • Sapir suggested that Hokan­Siouan was the basic North American Indian language, hypothesizing about reconstructing an ancestral proto­language.

Early American Settlements

• Buttermilk Creek Complex in Central Texas, dating back to 14,800 years before present, has revealed a portable toolkit from which Clovis techniques may have naturally evolved.
• Paisley Caves in Central Oregon, with human coprolites and tools from the Western Stemmed Tradition, evidence two distinct cultures at the time.

Kennewick Man

• Kennewick Man, a 9,300-year-old skeleton found in Washington, has sparked debate about the origins of early Americans.
• Some archaeologists believe that Kennewick Man's features are not typically "Amerindian."
• The discovery has led to a reexamination of early American skulls, which show features similar to Kennewick Man, but differ from living Amerindians, suggesting a more complex history.

First Nations and European Colonization

• The English Royal Proclamation of 1763 protected Indigenous lands through crown negotiation.
• Indian nations were on both sides of the American Revolutionary War and fought against each other in alliances with European nations.
• European trade with Indigenous communities increased, extending westward along established fur trade routes and reaching the Pacific Northwest.
• Russia established trading posts and missions in Alaska.

Assimilation Policies

- In the late 1870s, Canadian policies shifted from assimilation of communities to assimilation of individuals,  seeking to integrate Indigenous individuals into non-Native society through reserves located near non-Native communities.

• The “Indian Act” of 1876 removed control over Indigenous land, membership, money, and leadership, granting the federal government exclusive authority.
• The enfranchisement policy, aimed at individual assimilation, was largely ignored by Indigenous populations.

Maintaining Community Integrity

• Indigenous nations prioritized community integrity in the face of European contact.
• The admission of Manitoba as a province was a major point of conflict, with an attempt to preserve Metis community structures.
• The failure of these provisions, along with pressure to alienate Indigenous lands, contributed to the 1885 Rebellion.
• Formal treaties, such as the Robinson Huron and Robinson Superior treaties of 1850, were negotiated to address land alienation.