147
votes
Accepted
Why were Navajo code talkers used during WW2?
In WW2 we didn't have digital computers. We didn't even have transistors. Even vacuum tubes were state-of-the-art. If you wanted to do cryptography on the battlefield, you used something like this ...
- 56k
54
votes
Has there ever been a major migration from the New World to the Old World? If not, why?
As DevSolar mentioned in his comment, this really depends on how you define 'major', but here are several case of migrants moving from the New to the Old World.
From the Caribbean to Europe
...
- 108k
54
votes
Accepted
How did Native Americans refer to themselves in the 19th century?
I'll answer with the aid of Osage, since that's the language I know (my father's people are Osage) and have good resources for. Osage is a Western Siouxan language, closely related to the Lakota ...
- 122k
49
votes
Has there ever been a major migration from the New World to the Old World? If not, why?
Yes, there has been.
As this infographic shows, there has been a back-migration of the DNA haplogroups C1a and A2a from North America (well, Beringia...) back into Asia.
The infographic is sourced ...
- 14.2k
47
votes
Why were Navajo code talkers used during WW2?
"The Code Book" of Simon Singh mentions several points why code talkers where so useful.
Speed: One of the colonels in charge tried exactly that: code machine against Navajo code. The Navajo was able ...
- 5,126
47
votes
Accepted
Why did Native Americans originally migrate to the Americas?
However, considering there was little to no knowledge of the new world I wonder why would the tribes risk to travel to far . . . it seems unreasonable [humans would] risk it to migrate towards the ...
- 97.6k
47
votes
Accepted
Did active frontiersmen really eat 20,000 calories a day? How does this compare to other highly-active people in recorded history?
The 10,000 calorie figure - or perhaps slightly lower - is about right as a ceiling for maintaining muscle mass over months of hard work with downtime only to sleep. Across the centuries, workers with ...
- 14.1k
36
votes
Accepted
Where are the Native American primary source documents?
The basic problem here is that scientific study of cultures (Sociology, Anthropology, etc.) is a relatively new discipline. There are indigenous social scientists today of course (my little sister is ...
- 122k
35
votes
Accepted
What describes the average pre-colonial NA Native American lifestyle (across several tribes)?
The problem here is that there was no more an average lifestyle in North America than there was in Eurasia. Some peoples were hunter-gatherers, while others lived in densely populated agricultural ...
- 122k
34
votes
Accepted
Is this a photo of a historical reinactment of an 1868 treaty signing?
No, the pictures cannot be taken in 1868. In the second one you can see a person wearing a leather jacket with a zipper. The earliest zippers were available and practicable for clothing (beside shoes) ...
- 7,125
31
votes
Is this a photo of a historical reinactment of an 1868 treaty signing?
Beneath both photographs is a description:
This item was produced or created on January 24, 1955.
The creator compiled or maintained the parent series, Photographs of Navajo Life in the Southwestern ...
- 411
30
votes
Accepted
Did pre-Columbian Americans know the spherical shape of the Earth?
Firstly, it is important to be aware that our understanding of the civilisations and culture of Pre-Columbian America is far from complete. Secondly, I don't propose to attempt to cover every ...
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28
votes
What are the occurences of total war in the Native Americans?
SHORT ANSWER
"Total War" is a bit grandiose and ambitious, but as far as I know very few Native American or American Indian groups in the USA had any sort of rules against harming noncombatants in ...
- 19.4k
26
votes
Accepted
What were the indigenous populations of California before American settlement began to peak?
The government has some good resources for research like this site for the Yokut tribe. This map from Berkeley, not only outlines each culture but puts them into a super class based on language.
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25
votes
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Who was Chief Poking Fire?
Chief Poking Fire's main claims to fame are probably owning and running an Indian museum, and founding and running a tourist village. He also apparently presented Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie ...
- 108k
25
votes
Was there ever an attempt to give Native Americans their own country?
Yes, but not a fully independent country.
By the end of the 18th century, after the US War of Independence, Europeans began to expand further west and this brought renewed conflict between indigenous ...
- 1,360
24
votes
Has there ever been a major migration from the New World to the Old World? If not, why?
In addition to Lars Bosteen's answer about modern migration, several hundred thousand South American people have migrated to Spain in the last decades, and Brazilians have became the largest group of ...
- 3,801
21
votes
Accepted
What evidence exists for the historical name of Kuwohi Mountain (formerly Clingmans Dome)?
The written source material we can access is from an ethnology done by James Mooney in 1891, The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees, Volume 7. The Cherokee names of four mountains in the area are ...
- 41.5k
20
votes
Why is the name "Tecumseh" used for US Navy ships?
While Tecumseh was an enemy of the US while alive, his name was well known. The first ship named after him was a Canonicus-class monitor during the Civil War, some 50 years after Tecumseh's death. The ...
- 2,684
20
votes
What did indigenous North Americans trade amongst themselves before Europeans arrived?
Flint points, obsidian, buffalo hides, salt, pearls, shells and (as mentioned by T.E.D.) copper were among item traded by Native Americans before Europeans arrived. That said, trade in North America ...
- 108k
19
votes
Why were Navajo code talkers used during WW2?
Code talking in an obscure language puts two layers of encryption on the message. The first layer is that it's a language. The second is that it's a code. The code part is usually pretty simple ...
- 290
18
votes
Accepted
Are there any hypotheses on how the Dorset people disappeared?
There are several theories of disappearance of the Dorset people. Two are discussed in the article "Disappearance of Dorset Culture" published on the webpage of the Canadian Museum of History:
...
- 6,245
17
votes
Is there a genetic link between North America and Vikings?
I am going to say Yes, to the title question, and No to the question in the body.
Is there a link...
There is a genetic link, but not in the direction you were expecting. An article published on ...
- 41.5k
17
votes
Was there ever an attempt to give Native Americans their own country?
The approximately 325 federal Indian reservations are formally and legally called "domestic dependent nations". So, you might consider this "their own countries".
25 USC (2020):
...
- 1,340
14
votes
What was the first instance of Native Americans using gunpowder weapons in battle and did they ever make their own powder?
Chichimec war 1550/1600
According to the book American Indian Quarterly published by University of Nebraska Press, gunpowder weapons were first used by native americans during the Chichimec war which ...
- 3,142
14
votes
How did the US Thanksgiving holiday become associated with the Plymouth harvest festival of 1621?
It was a gradual process spanning many decades. A connection existed in at least some New Englander's minds as early at the 1840s, but you are correct that the idea was not well-entrenched nationally ...
- 23.1k
13
votes
What describes the average pre-colonial NA Native American lifestyle (across several tribes)?
One very good book on this topic is 1491 by Charles Mann. The book gives an overview on what life in the Americas was like directly before and during the arrival of the first Europeans. It's written ...
- 623
11
votes
Pre-columbus, what tools did Native Americans use to shave their heads and faces?
Like the modern Chinese, most Native Americans did not grow much facial hair to begin with. What sparse facial hair did grow was typically plucked out as soon as it appeared, according to accounts ...
- 1,248
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