0EIG1N OF AMERICAN INDIAN HKDLICKA 485 



groups of humanity, such as the whites, the Asiatic yellow-browns, 

 and others, there appears the possibility of only one conclusion, 

 which is that the Indians throughout the American continent repre- 

 sent but one strain of humanity, one main race; and that the varia- 

 tions observable in the great group are intraracial fluctuations and 

 developments, of more or less remote, frequently perhaps of pre- 

 American, origin. These variations in some instances may constitute 

 types or subraces, but they go no further, for even in such more 

 specialized strains the majority of the physical as well as the physi- 

 ological characteristics remain still intimately connected with those 

 of the remainder of the Indians. 



Having thus reached the important conclusion of the fundamental 

 unity of the American race, we may now approach the second great 

 question regarding the American aborigines; namely, the antiquity 

 of the race on this continent. 



The solution of this part of the problem may be approached in 

 two ways: (a) By critical reasoning; and (6) through material 

 evidence. 



(a) Can the Indian possibly be regarded as a true autocthon of 

 America? In other words, could he have evolved from lower forms 

 on this continent? There have been those (and they included men 

 of science such as Morton and, more recently, Ameghino) who were 

 inclined to adopt or who actually proclaimed this view. But in the 

 present state of our knowledge it is easy enough to dispose of this 

 hypothesis. The anthropologist of to-day knows definitely that man 

 evolved from the nearer Primates; there is abundant material evi- 

 dence to that effect, regardless of other considerations. These Pri- 

 mates must naturally have approached man in all important respects, 

 a condition that could be realized only by the most advanced anthro- 

 poid apes ; but the existence of such forms in America is very doubt- 

 ful. There were on this continent Eocene and Oligocene lemurs 

 and other primitive forms, and ultimately the ordinary American 

 monkeys, but nothing so far as known of any advanced type that 

 could possibly be included in the more proximate ancestry of man, 

 unless it was the recently described (Osborn, Gregory 3 ) Hesperopi- 

 thecus, which, however, is still represented by an imperfect and badly 

 worn tooth, with another specimen in still worse condition, the 

 identification of which as teeth of a higher anthropoid it is difficult 

 to accept as conclusive. These facts alone suffice to render an Ameri- 

 can origin of the Indian extremely improbable. 



•■ Osborn (II. F.) Hesperopitheeus, etc. Am. Mus. Novitates, No. 37, 1922. 

 Gregory (Wm. K.) and Milo Hellman. Notes on the molars of Hesperopithecus and 

 of Pithecanthropus. Bull. Am. Nat. Hist., 1923, XLVIII, Art. 13. 



