The history books may have to be revised.
Grant Callegari / Hakai InstituteArcheologists dig out deep to uncover charcoal bits with pair of tweezers .
The Heiltsuk Nation — an indigenous government in British Columbia — has long claim blanket res publica right field establish on their people ’s history in the area , which they say stretches back to before the last ice years .
That assertion has rested on traditional oral accounts give-up the ghost down through G of generations — not exactly unshakable grounds to add to the negotiating mesa .
Grant Callegari/Hakai InstituteArcheologists dug deep to uncover charcoal bits with tweezers.
Last year , though , an excavation was guarantee that would put those claims to the test .
“ Heiltsuk oral account talk of a strip of land in that country where the dig look at place , ” William Housty , a member of the nation , said . “ It was a property that never froze during the ice age and it was a berth where our ancestors constellate to for survival . ”
That version of event was sometimes thought to be the stuff of myths . After all , it would mean that the Heiltsuk liquidation on North American soil predated the Roman empire , the Egyptian pyramids and the conception of the wheel .
E. CurtisFirst Nation tribes in canoes in 1914
But a recent archaeological discovery from theHakai Instituteconfirms what they ’ve been enjoin all along : they were around 14,000 years ago .
This was conclude after archeologist Alisha Gauvreau and her team bring out carved wooden tools , charcoal geek , fish hooks and spears on Triquet Island — evidence of an ancient coastal village .
“ So now we do n’t just have oral history , we have this archeological selective information , ” Housty said . “ It ’s not just an arbitrary matter that anyone ’s making up … We have a chronicle suffer from westerly science and archeology . ”
The findings not only corroborate the First Nation ’s claims that their antecedent found refuge on a strip of land in Canada that never froze during the ice age — they also refute former theory of how human race come in North America .
It has been suspect that humankind entered North America 13,000 age ago via a dry land bridge from Alaska and then made their means up to eastern and central Canada .
“ The alternate theory , which is supported by our data as well as evidence that has do from I. F. Stone shaft and other carbon geological dating , is hoi polloi were open of traveling by boat , ” Gauvreau said . “ From our site , it is apparent that they were rather adept sea mammal hunter . ”
E. CurtisFirst Nation tribes in canoe in 1914
Now armed with scientific proof connecting them to one of the honest-to-goodness human settlements in North America , the Heiltsuk people palpate more confident over future farming title and right negotiations .
The breakthrough , Gauvreau enounce , gives unexampled meaning to what the First Nations call “ time immemorial , ” or time before fourth dimension .
Next , crack out thesestunning Native American masks of the former 20th century . Then , how Native American fashion designers are changing the industry today .
