THE FIRST AMERICAN

Shannon News, 9 July 1926, Page 2

THE FIRST AMERICAN

SUPPOSED ASIATIC ORIGIN. A POTTERY CLUE.

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 Institution of Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

Dr Ales Hrdlicka, the National Museum anthropologist, has already started for Alaska to search along the rivers, coasts, and the tundra Tor a few bits of pottery and bone, to prove scientifically the belief that the first American came from Asia.

In the Yukon country legends still are told among the Eskimos 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 its narrowest \point, and worked his way down the coastal plains 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, bones and primitive implements, Dr. Hrdlicka thinks he can find a clue to the first visitors who probably crossed just after the glaciers receded.