“GREAT EVENTS SELDOM OCCUR IN TRUTH.
THE
ONLY KNOWN ABSOLUTE
IS THAT HISTORY IS NEITHER STATIC NOR ACCURATE.
GENEALOGY RECORDS THE PLAYERS IN HISTORY.
TO BE IGNORANT OF WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE YOU WERE BORN IS TO BE EVER
A CHILD" …Cicero
My Objective
This is an attempt to understand my family heritage of Garneau in support of my
quest for a genealogical history from the first generation into Canada, to
present times. My ancestors are primarily Metis, American Indian and European.
The Blackfoot and other Nations of the People
have an oral tradition that the Red Man immigrated to Europe and that they
assumed the returning white men are their long lost brothers. Red Paint peoples
at port Au Choix, or as some peoples call them Norinbaga, Maritime Archaic,
contained one hundred burial sites including fire making kits of flint stone and
pyrite. This is an early indication that the rightful property of the deceased
is interned with him, as in life, but does not imply a belief that they are
needed in the after life. This so-called advanced culture existed in Labrador
and Newfoundland between 3,000 B.C. and 500 A.D. They are known to be a sea
going peoples who traveled 1,500 miles up and down the east coast of America and
Greenland. Some speculate they are the ancestors of the European Pict, who
later, the Romans named, the paint people, who painted themselves during tribal
wars. If this proves true in support of Native tradition then it would imply a
return trip to Europe. The Viking exploration of the Prairies could be the basis
of this tradition in an attempt to better understand their existence.
SOME
INTERESTING FACTS
80,000 B.C.
Twenty-five bone fragments believed altered by man are discovered in Old Crow.
Many scientists are skeptical. Early man is however learning to cope with
northern climates by producing fire at will, fabricating tents and winter
clothing. He is hunting and following large animals such as the mammoth. During
the next 70,000 years, deer, modern bear, beaver, reindeer and caribou migrated
from Asia to America. Cows, horses, antelope and camels moved from America to
Asia and Europe. This general migration must surely have included early man
40,000 B.C.
Richard Morlan discovered worked bone fragments that are radio carbon dated to
this period and that suggests man is living near the Old Crow basin. The Old
Crow Basin in the Canadian Yukon Territory is an important fossils and artifact
deposit of early Peoples of the Americas. Processed animal bones suggest People
are present in this area until 25,000 B.C. The bones include the extinct
mammoth, giant beavers, ground sloth, camels, several kinds of horses, giant
bison, short-faced bears, American lions, short faced skunk and many more.
Others continue to contend this evidence is still not conclusive because it was
not found in-place. It is also noteworthy that the accuracy of radiocarbon
dating becomes less reliable by this date.
36,000 B.C.
One famous Projectile-Point site is Lewisville, Texas where early human remains
have been found estimated to be 38,000 years old. It is assumed that earlier man
is a pre-projectile point technology. This is a poor assumption because stone
tools are difficult to date. The style of points manufactured suggest the
technology is developed in America and not from Asia. Some dispute this carbon
dating as within the hearths are choppers and a Clovis point suggesting a much
later date unless the Clovis point is a later addition.
30,000 B.C.
South America, Monte Verde, Chile is inhabited based upon carbon 14 dating
however they didn't use BI-facial stone points or delicately fashioned tools.
Alaska, Yukon and Mexico areas indicated use of simple tools made of stone and
animal bone including projectile points, cleavers and scrapers. A child's skull
is discovered in 1961 near Taber, Alberta, is carbon dated to 30,000 years and
is believed one of the oldest found in North America. Some suggest it is closer
to 60,000 B.C. while others suggest 18,000 B.C. Still others, who ten years
later, tested the skull, placed the dating of the Taber skull as 3,500 to 10,000
years old. The geological context suggested about 25,000 B.C. however comparable
strata nearby dated 30,000 to 47,000 B.C.
28,000 B.C.
This is the height of the warming trend called an interglacial period but the
last ice age has not completed its process of forming Canada including the Great
Lakes. Eurasia peoples are believed still immigrating into Canada. Artwork
carbon dated 26,000 to 22,000 B.C. is discovered at Piaui, Brazil and skin
scrapers are discovered in the Yukon carbon dated to 25,000 B.C. Later dating
would place the Yukon find at year one B.C. The People's artifacts are
discovered in the Crowsnest Pass, Alberta dated 23,000 B.C. There are
indications that the Yucatan culture in Mexico began from 30,000 B.C.
The New Mexico climate changed from being wet
and cold to warm and dry similar to present day conditions
The Sandia culture in the Sandia Mountains of
New Mexico is believed by some to have existed from this date to about 10,000
B.C. The Sandia used lanceolate points, two to four inches long, having rounded
bases on one side, others used Clovis points.
It is believed the Algonquian and Athabascan
speaking Peoples occupy the Columbia and Fraser rivers Plateau about this time
before being driven south to Northwest California by the advancing ice about
22,000 B.C.
24,000 B.C.
Some speculate that the European culture called
25,000 B.C.
Conservative archaeology places this as the most likely earliest possible
appearance of man in America. Old Crow River, Yukon provided some material dated
to this period. A bone scraper is found very similar to one used today. Old Crow
Basin is an 8,300 square kilometer area located 160 kilometers from the Arctic
Circle. Ice conditions from this date to about 15,000 B.C. makes it highly
unlikely that land migration could have taken place from Asia.
13,000 B.C.
Canadian historical evidence of the people is scant prior to this time due to
the scouring of the ice age but many believe Canada is being repopulated about
this time.
The last great glaciers have begun their
withdrawal from southern Canada. Lake Agassiz (Manitoba and North Dakota), Lake
Chicago (Lake Michigan) and Lake Maumee (Lake Erie) all drained into the
Mississippi. This created a natural waterway that early man surely traveled to
commence the re-population of Canada.
Dental studies of Native American teeth suggest
a very distant relationship to the Caucasoid of Europe and suggest a separation
about this time from the Northern Asian populations. This likely represents a
second or third wave of immigrants from Asia.
2,637 B.C.
Emperor Huungti of China minted a coin and in 1882 James Dean, an American
Naturalist, discovered thirty of these coins in De Foe (Deorse?) Creek, Cassiar
District of British Columbia about twenty-five feet below the compacted surface
If you want to find out even
more incredible facts please visit:
Metis
Nation of the North West www.telusplanet.net/public/dgarneau/metis.htm
