2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 94 



INTRODUCTION 



Speculation as to the origin of the American Indians dates from 

 almost the moment of their discovery. It dates more particularly from 

 the voyages of Vespucci, Balboa, and Magellan, which showed that 

 America was a new world with new people. These people, as is well 

 known, were taken by Columbus for the inhabitants of " the Indies ", 

 whence their collective name of " Indians ". When this notion was 

 shown to have been erroneous, there was a general effort to find their 

 derivation ; and as there were neither traditions nor any other data 

 on the subject, a mass of opinions gradually accumulated. 



The derivation of the American natives came to be attributed by 

 different writers, in the course of time, to one or another of practically 

 all the peoples of the Old World who knew navigation. Gradually, 

 however, most of the initial theories came to be dropped, leaving a 

 small but tenacious residue. Three main hypotheses remained. The 

 first was that the Indians were the descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes 

 of Israel. Lord Kingsborough, as late as the earlier half of the last 

 century, bankrupted himself trying to prove this contention ; and 

 there are some who incline to believe thus to this moment. The second 

 opinion, fathered by many, was that America had been reached and 

 populated by various Old World peoples, of different racial origins, 

 such as the Carthaginians, the Norsemen, other Europeans, and the 

 Asiatics. This view gradually changed, on supposed cultural, mor- 

 phological, and especially linguistic grounds, to a form which will be 

 discussed later. The third hypothesis, upheld as early as 1635 by 

 Brerewood, was that the Indians as a whole were of Asiatic ancestry 

 and related to the Tartars and Mongolians. 



It is the second theory, or that of multiple origins, in its present 

 aspects which is to be discussed more especially in this paper. It 

 postulates that more than one race contributed to the original peopling 

 of the American continent, and while conceding the main element 

 to have been northern Asiatic, would bring here contingents of ab- 

 original man from as far as Polynesia, Melanesia, and Australia. The 

 principal exponent of this thesis at the present time is Rivet, the 

 well-known and able French Americanist. 



A brief historical review of the field will be useful. 



EARLIER SPECULATIONS 



A remarkably sensible opinion on the subject of the origin of the 

 American Indians is met with as early as 1590 in the book of Padre 



