Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by moo 3447 days ago
Taino Indians got to Cuba from the Yucatan, which is a 135 mile sea voyage. The Galapagos Islands have pre-Incan pottery, and they are 563 miles west of South America. The Falkland Islands are around 200 miles from Isla de los Estados Island (reached by Fuegian Indians). So the Falklands (Malvinas) were very reachable. Very early Native American migrants were sea faring people who moved down along the North American and South American west coast then back up along the east coast. Haplogroup d4h3a found in bones at Prince of Wales Island on the Alaska panhandle, are 10,000 years old. Chumash who settled Channel Islands off southern California have haplogroup d4h3a, the Fuegians, who probably made it to the Falkland Islands, have haplogroup d4h3a. The Ainu people of Japan also built "lashed-canoes" -like the Chono and the Chumash (as well as dugouts), and they may have a link with the Amerindians. Like you say, oceanic transport is not trivial but Amerindians were doing it for distances over 100 miles for millennia.