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Show 'FIRST AMERICANS' Park Ruins Unfold Fascinniiro Story of PfsMstonc Indians More than one hundred centuries ago the first immigrants set foot on the shores of North America. These early people, archeologists believe, crossed the narrow strait which divides Asia from Alaska, and from Bering sCa they traveled eastward and southward. From time to time in the centuries which followed fol-lowed new bands of people crossed from Asia and the earlier settlers were compelled to push onward to more remote sections sec-tions nf the continent. It is DOssible that some of these Deode i! . America the Mayas, who had in- vented a reliable calendar, were carving dates on stone monuments as early as 600 years before the beginning of the Christian Era. IN MESA VERDE National park and in the southwestern national monuments one may obtain a fairly clear picture of the life of the Indians In-dians through a period extending back nearly two thousand years. Here, although the Indians had no calendar and carved no dates on monuments, it has been possible to assign fairly exact dates to events which ,. transpired long before the coming of the white man. For example, it is known hat from 1276 1 A. D. to 1299 A. D. there was a con-, con-, tinuous drouth for 24 consecutive years, and it also is known that about the ear 900 A. D., Sunset Crater, a volcano near Flagstaff, migrated down along the Pacific coastline, but the greater mass of them, it is thought, crossed the mountains and continued the southward south-ward trek along the east side of the Rockies. Long biore the time of Columbus, Colum-bus, the copper-colored inhabitants of the Western hemisphere, whom ' we call "Indians," had fanned out ! and occupied all of North America, I Mexico, Central America, South I America and the islands of the West I Indies. I Under the administration of Na-, Na-, tional Park service are many areas : connected with the life of the an- , cient Indians. Mesa Verde National Parks National Twplfth park and 14 I we I Tin national mon- ln a Series uments have been established estab-lished to protect pro-tect significant ruins in the states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. There are also Mound City group national monument in Ohio, Ocmulgee national monument in Georgia and Old Kasaan national monument in Alaska. In addition, many other national parks and monuments, mon-uments, created primarily as scenic or scientific reserves, also contain evidence of Indian occupation. Unfortunately, the Indians, during the long pre-Columbian period had no written history, but the records of their wanderings wan-derings and the story of their cultural and political progress gradually is being put together , by archeologists from the tangible tangi-ble remains the campfires, the dustheaps, and the ruins these people left behind. The story as it unfolds is fascinating, the record of achievement is impressive. im-pressive. Originally nomadic hunters, the first Americans, learned to cultivate culti-vate the soil. To Indian farmers we owe such staples in our diet as corn, Irieh potatoes, yams and cocoa. co-coa. The Indians also developed tobacco to-bacco and taught us the use of M i -fir . IZ r 'j 1 CONTRAST . . . Prehistoric Indian In-dian ruins built at the base of sheer red cliffs or in caves In canyon walls share the limelight with modern Navajo homes and farms in Canyon de Chelly national nation-al monument in Arizona. White House ruins are shown in this picture. I i Ariz., erupted and covered the coun- ' tryside with lava and ashes. 4 The system of dating Indian! ruins in the Southwest is simple and j ingenious and is done by using a -j tree ring calendar. By starting with living trees j and patiently matching pieces j of wood from older and older i houses, the annular ring patterns pat-terns in the Southwest have been established for a period of more than a thousand years. ONE OF THE MOST impressive ruined towns of the ancient Indians Indi-ans is Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon Can-yon national monument, New Mexico. Mex-ico. This town, built like a huge five-story apartment house, contained con-tained in the 11th century more than 800 rooms and housed at least 1,200 people. A part of the pueblo was constructed as early as 919 A. D. Other ruined pueblos, which the visitor vis-itor will find fascinating, are those built in niches in the vertical cliffs of Canyon de Chelly and Canyon del Muerto in Canyon de Chelly national nation-al monument in northwestern Ari zona. The beauty of these wild canyons can-yons will live long in the memory of all who see them. Near Flagstaff, Ariz., are the stone pueblo of Wu-patki Wu-patki and the cliff dwellings in Walnut Wal-nut canyon. In central Arizona are Tonto, Tur.igoot and Montezuma Castle national monuments, and in the northern part of the state near the Utah border is Navajo national monument. Aztec ruins and Bende-lier Bende-lier national monuments are in New Mexico. . IN THE OHIO valley and in south-, eastern United States the Indiana frequently built large earth mounds. Very often these mounds were constructed con-structed in the form of truncated pyramids and were used as platforms plat-forms for temple structures or houses. One of these mound sites has been established as a national monument near Chillicothe, Ohio. At this site, known as Mound City group national monument are a large number of mounds. At Macon, Ma-con, Ga., Ocmulgee national monument monu-ment also contains a number of interesting in-teresting mounds, one of which was constructed over a subterranean council chamber. FOR INFORMATION relating to the national monuments, write to the Director, National Park Service. Serv-ice. Department of the Interior, Washington 25, D. C. EVOLUTION . . . Ocmulgee national na-tional monument in Georgia contains con-tains outstanding remains of Indian In-dian mounds and prehistoric towns, representative of the cultural cul-tural evolution of the southern mound-builder civilization. This Council Chamber mound has been restored by National Park service. serv-ice. quinine. They learned to make pottery, pot-tery, woven textiles and delicate jewelry from gold and silver. They built fortresses, temples and cities, and in Central America Mayan mathematicians invented the use of "zero" before it was known to scholars schol-ars of Europe and Asia. EARLIEST EVIDENCE of man in the New World was discovered a few years ago at a site near Fol-som, Fol-som, N. M. Here peculiar grooved stone spear points were discovered in association with the fossil bones of animals which have been extinct ex-tinct for thousands of years. The skeletons of the men who used these weapons have not yet been found, but similar grooved points have been discovered in many places as far east as Virginia. This earliest American has been given the name of "Folsom Man' and he lived at a time when mastodons and sabre toothed tigers roamed the forests and plains of the United States. After the "Folsom Man" there is a long gap in our knowledge of ancient Americans, but in Central |