There are many answers to the question ‘Where did the Native Americans come from?’ in my personal opinion, the predominate scientific theory seems the most likely out of the three theories I present in this article. None of these answers to this question can be deemed technically ‘correct’ because none of these answers have been proven beyond a doubt, and as such they remain theories. One main type of theories is the theories which are stories passed orally from generation to generation in Native American culture. There is the story of the Coyote, in which the coyote is the ‘creator’ of the Native American peoples, and then there is the Skagit theory, in which a human was the ‘creator’ of the Native American peoples. Lastly there are the scientific theories. The main scientific theory about the origin of the Native Americans is of course the land bridge theory, which is purely scientific, and very logical.
One widely accepted scientific theory is that Native Americans came to the Americas by crossing over a land bridge that was present during the ice age. About 12,000 years ago, Siberia and Alaska were linked by a great land bridge. It is thought that around this time Asian peoples migrated from Asia across the land bridge and into the Americas. These people would have then settled in the Americas and become the Native Americans. Although scientific theories, such as the land bridge theory, seem more logical to most, tribal origin stories are theories as well. Just like religions like Christianity believe Adam and Eve to be created by god, and all of humanity’s origin, the Indian tribes have their own religious theories as well.
Although these Native American theories may seem far-fetched to most, other religious theories of creation, such as Christianity’s for example, seem far-fetched to Indian tribes. The Skagit Indians have their own theory of how the Native Americans had come to be in the Americas. The Skagit Native Americans believed that there was once an enormous flood that wiped out all people, except for five, and a child from those five was deemed the ‘new creator’ thus he created new people out of the remains of the old people, and placed them all around the northwest. This however, is just one of the Tribal Indian creation theories, there is one theory that is even more prominent throughout the northwest.
One of the more prominent Native American theories, is embodied in the story of the coyote, this theory was spread orally around the northwest by many Native American cultures. This theory states that there was once a great beaver monster called Wishpoosh, whom terrorized all of the animals. Wishpoosh lived in the Cle Elum Lake, and never let any of the other animals have any fish to eat. One day, Coyote decided to try and defeat Wishpoosh, and after much of a struggle, Coyote defeated Wishpoosh. Coyote then took Wishpoosh’s carcass and made different human tribes out of each part, and depending witch part the tribe was made out of, it had a special skill. Again, this does seem far fetched, but it is what the native Americans believed, and even to this day, some still do believe this. This story is just one of many theories of the origin of the Native American people.
Although there are countless other Creation theories from other Native American tribes, I opt for the scientific theory. I, not being Native American or religious in any fashion, think that the scientific land bridge theory makes the most logical sense out of the three theories presented in this article. The Skagit theory’s flood element bears a striking resemblance to the story in the bible about Noah, and the great flood. The final theory presented in this article About Coyote and Wishpoosh is a very interesting story to read, and clearly resembles what is called a ‘creation myth’. Although many of the theories of the origin of Native Americans are deemed ‘creation myths’, for the Native American people who believed in them, and the Native Americans who still do today, these theories aren’t any myth. Just like God’s creation of Adam and Eve is not a creation myth to those who believe in the bible. There is no right answer the question of the origin of the Native American peoples; your answer to this question has to do with what your culture is and what your beliefs are.
