Archaeologists theorize that as early as 40,000 BC, Native Americans migrated to North America from Asia, Tibet and Indonesia in search of food. Their gateway was the Bering Land Bridge , a narrow strip between Siberia and Alaska that was formed as glaciers shifted and eventually raised the sea floor.

 By 10.000 BC, early Native American cultures were percolating. The next 2,000 years are known as the Paleo-Indian Period, the dawn of the Indian. They hunted big game such as mastodon the size of elephants, giant sloths, even camels. The Ice Age came to a close, and as the glaciers drifted, the climate and the terrain changed dramatically. With the onset of the Archaic Period (8,000 to 1,000 BC) everyone basically settled in and developed skills according to their geographical location.

 By the time the first Europeans arrived, there were an estimated 2 1/2 million Native Americans organized into 600 tribes that spoke half a dozen major languages.

My theory is that no matter where we fall in the color/culture spectrum, as people of color we are all intrinsically connected to each other in ways that we may not recognize in our personal lives but that, through research/exchange of information, we can understand our collective past and hopefully each other a little better. There are 9 distinct cultural areas in North America: The Arctic, The Subarctic, The Northwest Coast, California, The Great Basin,The Southwest, The Plains and Prairies, The Northeast and The Southeast. I intend to explore each region: how they evolved, how Native Americans and Africans are interrelated, and what our mutual legacy is as colored folk.

 Next on the agenda: Black Indians.
 

--QE