Peopling Of The Americas

Hello fellow Internet surfer, and welcome to a gem of a site dedicated to illuminating the onyx-like parallels unearthed from an otherwise beclouded and boring American and world historical perspective.This view of history transforms and liberates the many rainbow hues, flavors, as the light passes through prisim, its spectrum takes up the energy of the untold stories, fascinating yarns and journeys not quite attached or put together as are the usual success stories formulated, enshrined, and entombed ideology by triumphalist churches, and the powerful, vested corporate interests and neo-liberal/conservative politicos and their befogging rationalizing intellectualizers.
        We bring many years of personal living experiences, study, and research that shape this unique historical perspective and finally, our complimentary and individual talents melded into this magnificent collaboration.
    Connie, who is the mother of three grown children, is a published historian, journalist, poet, diarist, archivist, genealogist, and editoriaial and website activist; an indoor gardener, acquarist, and critter lover. Her roots are in the Central Oregon Coast, though not exclusively so. Twelve years ago, as a welcomed transplant to Racine, Wisconsin she now calls Lake Michigan her new inland sea. She brings a definite Western flavor of big heartedness and the survival skills of a divorced woman plus the Italian humor necessary to a pioneering spirit. The first American citizens of a democratic alliance of Six Nations, was the key stone to Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson's subscribing to the open "freedom"and "liberty"pursued by the Native Americans through representative Councils never seen before.but in the French Revolution about that time.
        Marilyn, her co-author and partner of nine years is more centered, though not exclusively so on personal and spiritual exploration, the cultural roots and archeological anthropology of the ancients, and related histories and sciences like, for example, evolution, cosmology, .quantum physics.and mechanics, mythology; and dendrology, etc. She is a gentle Scandinavian and German in birthname only. Her upbringing particularly was designed to "break her," said her father. And so she needed affirmaion through being nice and helpful to everyone to be "liked," a formula for several burn outs she suffered. Sne is a generalist about many things, but not the expert specialist, except for theology/philosophy of religion.
    As a traditionally trained ex-Lutheran minister with a Master of Divinity professional degree, Marilyn found out how her short three years of service as a totally committed single christian woman with a mission and calling could so easily and be painfully discounted, and marginalized without one official charge or public scrutiny. A letter to the Milwaukee bishop that there was conflict in the church,
by some church council bullies. The bishop had his appointed secretary established a hearing of;inflamatory and untrue rumors and unsubstantiated or corroberated derogatory and defaming kangaroo court, non-pastoral, and committed neo-liberal bishop of trhe pleasures of fundraising via golfing. Her gifts would be their loss. This most distressing and painful divorce from traditional Christianity serves as a benchmark that reinvigorates the most broad search to know her own faith truths-values, and questions. apart from and now freely doable apart from the politics of establishment church.and their historical charter business ventures with the church fathers and the land grabber europeans.
    It was time to spread her wings now strong through her youth by a strong belief in never being forsaken or alone from god/dess, and how by the AA or Al-Anon model of a co-dependency (CoDa) suppport group in Milwaukee, Wisconsin could bring exemplary honesty, and release from fears, and real service and friendship to one another. However, such transcendent unity of the Higher/Greater Power was always threatened by the religious cult zealots who missionized the clean and sober truth-seaking neophites into chaos with its devicive christian beliefs. This gave her the clearist and broadest systemastic (twelve step) process necessary to forgive everyone, including yourself, by acknowledging the really-real faults and defects, then making (and or receiving) amends, as a relief and model of forgiveness and healing of all the old littered past; toward greater peace, happiness, and joy! Why so much christian reliance on the "cheap grace"of an outside-the-body diety, and no remembrance of these knits and gnats strewn for miles along the path. How can christians know that they, and not god/dess, are respons-able to do their homework to survey and make amends thoughtfully in fearful honestly. This forgiving process of recognition and need for amends goes on daily, renewing and upliftiing our spirits into times of joy.
At first I tried to be a christian apologist incorporating a text revisionist philosophy theology and that just changes the genders here and there, but this tolerated tokenism didn't get anywhere but a vague affirmative action goal. For me, when the main force behind any dialog was the question about god(s) as to which type of god the person unconditionally loves and worships and in whom is unconditionally loved and known; I knew I had been given the courage to ask the really big life questions.of meaning and identity: If I am no longer a pastor with a formal call, what will this. changing of the gods look like? Paradigms pop up, I research them living within oneself and those ones who dwell apart and above human in evil ways without! revolutlionary vision needed to build ones own and all will be okay! Then I became more radical into liberation and feminist-lesbian theology, mixed with latest quest for the historical jesus, to use existing and pre-christian and apochraphyl scriptures which every indiginous tribe, nation state. rely upon sacred stories and rituals culture. Each has their own mythological and sacred stories to tell, truths philosophical historical understanding of faith and her questions of the world-church professional christian training, vision and cultural paradigms, relying upon her common sense and also the expertise and critique of those historically disinherited, disenfranchised, and despised.
     Neither of us is professionally enamored by historicism in the classical sense, or any particular intellectual chains, other than the challenge to loosen the usual grip of history by white privilege: european hetero-masculine-sex-ist, rac-ist, and rape-ist! And yes, we believe in the struggle of people who gave up their lives in the good and non-violent fight for justice, civil and human rights, and for peace. I own, in this era of double-speak war of words like protecting the family, "family values," and special rights to unpack ideolgical slogans, including the epithet of being politically correct, and proud of it. We name the names speaking truth to power!)
We are students and practitioners of folk and cultural story and history. and are expanding our understanding of story, wishing to share some of those unheard and exciting findings and perspectives. We plan to update this site regularly with the little known gems and connections to "the rest of the story" usually relegated to brief footnotes, and more interesting than the story .itself. We have uncovered from the current draft of our mammoth, interconnected, well documented history saga,: A Liberating History of Oregon and Its Coast. We welcome and appreciate the time it takes to write your comments, questions, links and suggestions, corrections, or other resources. We hope that you'll stick around long enough to get to know just a little bit more about what these two cyber-historians have to offer.

     Before the Oregon Trail, paths, millions of miles from four-legged creatures ambling through the woods and prairies, to streams, rivers and lakes provided the best routes to water and food. Not far behind were the two- legged indigenous hunters and traders and nomadic peoples marking pathways, trails, and maps, before the classical era and the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. These mud and rock ways became the roads and railroad beds, the wagon trails, turnpikes, canals, military plank roads, and interstate predecessors of today's polluting mass transportation system.
     Going back even further, seers say that for two thousand million years this world out of fiery mist has whirled about the sun in molten metal and viscous crusted ball. That crust congealed and separated the solids from the liquids, rose and fell in bulging ridges above the boiling sea. Five times the mass of land called Africa emerged and disappeared beneath the oceans. At last, at least a thousand million years ago, a mass of rigid rock lifted its crystal back above the waters and remained.
     About three hundred million years ago, Primal Africa was connected with South America, India, and Australia. As the ocean basins dropped, the eastern half of Africa slowly raised into a broad, flat arch.
     The eastern side of this arch gave way, forming the Indian Ocean; and the roof of the arch fell in where the great Rift Valley appeared. This enormous crack extends six thousand miles...all the great East African lakes lie in the main rift, and doubtless the Red Sea and the Sea of Galilee.
     Whither does humanity first show itself on the earth's crust, on what continent are the oldest hominid fossils? In Africa. But Africa wasn't always just Africa; it formed along with South America and Asia an ancient united continent, or Gondwanaland.

     We may remember our junior high school history emphasizing one historical date and discoverers of America; the sanitized and romanticized 1492 voyage of Columbus as the unique, virginal, founder of the North American continent and West Indies.
     Do you know our American written and recorded histories actually begin with those who lived with or even predated and founded some of the earliest Amerindian cultures? Who were these people? When, how and why did they make contact with the Americas? How do we know? To entertain or even ask these particular questions about the burgeoning "diffusion" theory of actual ancient trans-oceanic traders and migrations to the Americas brings hysteria and charges of professional suicide from conservative, traditional, or government employed faculty or staff ethnologists, archeologists, or anthropologists, historians, etc. It is they who have determined what "official history" exists to teach.
     The final filtering process known as the passive "bank deposited information" of standardized facts, dates, etc. (versus minimal thinking and evaluating) remains the preview of what school boards and hopefully, progressive parents, want our children to learn!

     It was 45,000 years ago when Black people called the Grimaldi discovered the continent now known as Europe. In an unbroken stream over many centuries they marched north from the Cape of South Africa. On their way, some stopped to settle and develop tribes and nations. Most moved on to settle in Chad, the sub-Sahara and North Africa.
     At the time there was no Straits of Gibraltar and so they walked on dry land into Spain and France. Others walked on land from Africa into Italy, moving northward into Lombardy.
     Along the thousands of miles to Europe, the Grimaldi left evidence of their culture such as pendants for ornaments, stone implements for working in the environment and symbols of communication. They also left musical instruments and the first bow and arrow. After they reached Europe, they dispersed into Bulgaria, Switzerland, Illyria and Southern Europe on the Adriatic Sea and into Brittany. The last, Brittany, is today's England, Wales and Scotland.
     How did these Black Grimaldi look? Their noses were very large and flat at the base. Their facial and head characteristics resembled the Koramus people of South Africa and the Bushmen who were to come many thousands of years later. They have been compared in appearance to modern Blacks. Some wore their hair in styles that resembled today's cornrows, that is plaits arranged in parallel lines across the head. Others wore a style similar to today's peppercorns, where the hair is put into little black rolls or heads. In another style, they fastened their hair into short, close-growing clusters.
     These Blacks were accomplished and cultured, bringing with them arts and survival skills that gave new life to the stale and stagnant Neanderthal period of Europe. During the later Paleolithic period, the Grimaldi were the most powerful and influential force on the continent.
     The Grimaldi contributed greatly to the early or first arts of Europe. Their statuettes uncovered by archaeologists reveal extraordinary workmanship. They are definitely the oldest sculpture created by man. The statue of the "Maid of Willendorf" found in Austria, has been called by Graham Clarke, writing in the Dawn of Civilization, "the first signs of art on earth." These meaningful discoveries also show the extent of their migration. Pieces of Grimaldi sculpture have been found in southern Siberia and Russia.
     However, touring exhibits of "Ice Age Art" from Europe do not make any mention of the art of the Grimaldi. No explanation for this has been offered.
     The Grimaldi disappeared! Where did they go? The authorities on prehistoric Europe and prehistoric peoples have no sound answers. It may be that some historians vigorously tried to promote he non-Black, Cro-Magnon over the Grimaldi; even though the Cro-Magnons came much later and could be descendants of the Grimaldi.
     The Grimaldi disappeared around 12,000 BCE. There are several theories as to why this occurred. One claims that the Cro-Magnons exterminated them. Another suggests intermarriage, or race mixing causing the Grimaldi to lose their Black color. Still another infers that the Grimaldi moved to other parts of the world, mixed with other peoples, and became other nations.
     nevertheless, diggings on the European continent are evidence the Grimaldi were its earliest inhabitants. The opening of Grimaldi graves and other excavations have revealed skeletons and artifacts in layers below those of the Cro-Magnons.
     The Grimaldi left the bow and arrow and other useful tools. These artifacts enabled thousands of generations of barbaric people of Europe to survive through prehistory until until the coming of the Romans. (Mark Hyman, Blacks Before America, Africa World Press Inc., Trenton, NJ, 1994, pp. 108, 109)

     During recent history Blacks have identified only with Africa. The knowledge that Blacks made extensive migrations to far away parts of the world for many centuries have been hidden, de-emphasized or diverted. Actually there is evidence even before written history that Blacks were world travelers. Scholars in this century have been able to find concrete and abundant evidence for numerous Black colonies outside Africa. There were Blacks on the Australian continent when it was first sighted by the Spanish in 1604. Australia is 8,000 miles from Africa! American WWII servicemen were greeted by Blacks on the Solomon Islands off New Guinea, again thousands of miles from Africa. The Nakis, a colony of Blacks, were discovered in 1923 in southern China by Dr. Joseph Rock, a representative of the US Department of Agriculture. On the Adamese Islands, a part of the Republic of India, descendants of Negrito people have been found. Though few are aware of it, Blacks have inhabited the Philippines for hundreds of years.
     Movements of Blacks in prehistory provides new insights into their contributions to the Old World and the New World.
     It is well known that Blacks were the first homo sapiens on earth and it is possible that during their migrations throughout the unknown world, they helped lay the framework of civilization. In the Western Hemisphere, Indians, or Native Americans , followed Black Asians across the Bering Straits. They found the Blacks prospering in a society more viable than their own. As happened in the other hemisphere and on other prehistoric continents, there were killings, warfare and intermarriage for thousands of years until Blacks were finally extinct. Skeletal remains of Blacks unearthed in Central America, South America and in Arizona predate the Zuni Indians.

               The first North Americans were Blacks from Australia and not Mongolians, Asians, or Melanesia migrating over the Bering Strait, traditionally seen as the descendants of Native Americans according to a new BBC documentary to be shown September 1, 2000. The first humans left Africa about 100,000 years ago. Wherever Native Americans originated, cave art in northeast Brazil, stone tools and charcoal from the Serra Da Capivara show evidence of human inhabitation as long ago as 50,000 years. However, those Negroid shaped skulls changed to exclusively Mongoloid shaped possibly after a war between 9,000 and 7,000 years ago. ("Ancient Voices: The Hunt for the First Americans," BBC Two, September 1, 2000)
     The African earth has surrendered to archaeologists and anthropologists the earliest remains of man and his ancestors. Man originated in Africa. Scholars have dug up skeletons as old as 175,000 years, while states in Europe including Italy, England, Russia, and Scandinavia have yielded bones no more than 20,000 years old.
     Proof of Black habitation has been uncovered in Western Asia. Discoveries dating back 6,000 years before Christ show Black settlers called Natufians in Palestine. Gerald Massey, a French anthropologist, claims that "the sole race that can be traced among the Aborigines all over the earth, or below it, is the Dark Race of Negrito type." Prehistoric Indian was occupied by Blacks who were followed by the pre-Daravidians and later the Dravidians (ancient dark-skinned people of southern India). Blacks were indigenous peoples of prehistoric China, Japan, Australia and the islands of the pacific 50,000 years ago. The fossil remains, artifacts uncovered, and the art left to scholars, strongly suggests that prehistoric Black families perfected the first foundations of civilization.
     There is no question today about Black involvement in prehistoric and ancient Egypt, first known as Kermit meaning "land of the Blacks." The Blacks in Cush (Ethiopia) and Egypt developed and planted and nurtured the seeds of the world's greatest civilization.
     Babylon was founded and maintained by Blacks. The ancient people of Sumeria have been referred to as Assyric-Babylonian and have been described as people with shaven heads and Black faces.
     Ancient Chinese texts suggest that Blacks laid the foundation of civilization there. J. A. Rogers in his Sex and Race, said "Blacks penetrated into the far north of China and showed themselves in the face of Tarter." Black civilizations were found in India, in the valleys of the Indus River and the Ganges River. The Ganges River was named after an Ethiopian general who carried his conquest to that point.
     Irish folklore mentions small Black people, called the Firbolg. Gerald Massey, Gedfrey Higgins, and David MacRitchie, all British writers, have written about ancient Blacks in England and Ireland. Ancient Welsh folk tales also mention Black people. England and Spain were included in the migrations of Blacks. After these thousands of years of surviving and being extinguished, of creating and inventing, Blacks came into the dawn of history with more to offer than any other group on earth. (Mark Hyman, Blacks Before America, Africa World Press Inc., Trenton, NJ, 1994, pp. 41-43)