Washington State History

Group Discussion Norms• *Full participation is required when working in

groups and when deliberating with others. A group leader will be chosen to keep the group on task, but everyone in the group is responsible for their position.

1. One person speaks at a time

2. Debate the issue, not the person

3. Listen carefully to what others say

4. Listen and look for reasons and evidence in what is said

5. Base your comments in the text

1. ORAL HISTORY

Data Set #1:

• Native American groups assert that they have inhabited North America from the time that the world was created. They do not believe in the scientific work that is being done on their ancestors and consider the truth about the past is only revealed through the oral history that is passed down to each generation. Maurice Eben of the National Congress of American Indians states, “It’s never enough for scientists. They turn over a rock, and then another rock and then another rock. Why don’t they ask us? We can tell you what it was like 10,000 years ago.”

2. CON TIKI

Data Set #2:

• People came to North America from Asia, by way of boats. Using winds and currents Thor Heyerdahl made a voyage in a balsa-wood raft, Con-Tiki, covering 4,300 miles in 101 days from Callao in Peru to the Tuamotu Islands. In addition, he made other voyages in traditional Egyptian boats made out of reeds similar to the ones made by those in the earliest known civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and the Mediterranean. He and his crew crossed the Atlantic Ocean in his vessel, Ra II, a trip from Safi in Morocco to Barbados in 57 days.

• People came to North America from Europe by way of boat. Some artifacts in the East (some near Pittsburgh) of North America are said to date back 13,000 years. These people crossed the North Atlantic following a northern ice pack.

• Clovis points that were found at different sites throughout the Americas are evidence of the people who lived in the different regions. These Clovis points are chipped and shattered bones of bison and mammoths and are the first proof that people had arrived in time to see, and kill, the last great beasts of the Ice

Age.

Ocean Currents

Clovis Points

3. BERINGIA

Data Set #3:

• Humans crossed into North America on a land mass in the location of today’s Bering Strait. This area, called Beringia, separated Alaska and northeast Siberia. During the last ice age the water level dropped around 300 feet allowing people to cross the “bridge”. Humans came from Asia as they followed big game during hunts. From this point, they traveled down the coast of the North and South America.

• As illustrated in data set #2, Clovis points are one of the many artifacts found in areas inhabited by the first people. They have been found under the water in the Bering Strait, as well as down the coast of the Americas, reaching the tip of South America.

BERINGIA

FINAL HYPOTHESIS

What do you believe?

Why?

Ocean Currents