The American Aborigines are a hypothetical group of people, originally from Pacific Ocean and arrived in South America long before the ancestors of today's American Indian peoples came there. The American Aborigines are claimed to have overspread much of South America before being nearly exterminated by the invaders coming from the north.
The first hint of an American Aborigine settlement of South America came from Brazil. The paintings, which predated the supposed date of settlement of the area, depict rituals never before seen in native American art. Somewhat later paintings from the same area depict war and violence, and then the paintings cease.
The rites shown in the paintings, involving elaborate costumes, are still performed by Australian Aborigines today. Similar rites existed in the traditions of the natives of Tierra del Fuego until the Fuegians almost ceased to exist as a people in the 20th century. The Fuegians are believed to be the product of intermarriage between American Aborigines and American Indians - the last surviving descendants of the Aboriginal settlers. Physiological evidence of Aborigines has also been found.
More solid evidence was found in the 1970s by anthropologist Anette Laming-Emperaire. In limestonecaves of Lagoa Santa region in central Brazil, she unearthed the skeleton of a 20-year old, 1.50 m tall woman; but she passed away before she had a chance to study it. Some 20 years later, Walter Neves found the skull in the Quinta da Boa Vista National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, and found that its measurements were quite different from those of the later Mongoloid Indians, and more similar to those of Australian Aborigines, Africans, and Negritos. This find, dated between 10,500 and 9,500 BC, was greeeted with much skepticism by the anthropological community. However, the find was eventually confirmed by remains of over 70 individuals with similar characteristics were found in that same region.
Another boost to the theory came when anthropologist Rolando González-José demoonstrated that the Pericu Indians — a tribe that lived in Southern Baja California until the 16th century, and whose "anomalous" anatomy had already been observed — were quantitatively more similar to the Lagoa Santa finds than to any other group tested, and both were closer to the Australian Aborigenes and Africans than to the Siberians.
External links
The Lagoa Santa group (http://www.andaman.org/book/chapter53/luzia/luzia.htm), from an Andaman site by George Weber.
The Pericu group (http://www.andaman.org/book/chapter53/pericu/pericu.htm), ibid.
Luzia, the first Brazilian (http://www.hystoria.hpg.ig.com.br/luzia.html) from Portuguese).
11000 ans sur une carte (http://www.sciencepresse.qc.ca/archives/2004/cap0504042.html) at Science Presse (in French).
Native Americans in the United States (also Indians, American Indians, First Americans, Indigenous Peoples, Aboriginal Peoples, AboriginalAmericans, Amerindians, Amerinds, or Original Americans) are those indigenous peoples within the territory which is now encompassed by the continental United States, and their descendants in modern times.
Native Americans were stunned to learn that when the British made peace with the Americans in the Treaty of Paris (1783), the British had ceded a vast amount of American Indian territory to the United States without even informing their Indian allies.
In the American Southwest, especially New Mexico, a syncretism between the Catholicism brought by Spanish missionaries and the native religion is common; the religious drums, chants, and dances of the Pueblo people are regularly part of Masses at Santa Fe's Saint Francis Cathedral.
Native Americans (also Aboriginal Peoples, AboriginalAmericans, American Indians, Amerindians, Amerind, Indians, First Nations, First Peoples, Alaskan Natives, Native Canadians, or Indigenous Peoples of America) are those people who were in North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean Islands when the Europeans first came there.
Many of the American Indians died after the Europeans came to their countries, from diseases that came with the Europeans that were new to the Indians, in wars with the Europeans, or because the Europeans made them work as slaves.
Most of the American Indians also died due to guile on the part of settlers who used tricks such as trading them infected blankets and also by introducing foreign addicting substances such as alcohol which studies have proven are more addictive due to some biological functioning within American Indians.
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