Show FIRST AMERICAN AMERICANS pork park ruins unfold fascinating story oi of prehistoric indians features more than one hundred centuries ago the fir first t lm immigrants m ts set foot on the shores of north america these ea early rl y people e archeologists believe crossed the narrow strait which divides asia from alaska and from bering sea they traveled eastward and southward from time to time in the centuries which followed new bands of people crossed from asia and the earlier settlers were compelled to push onward to more remote sec eions of the continent it is possible that some of these people migrated down along the pacific 0 coastline but the greater mass of them it Is thought crossed the mountains and continued the south ward trek along the east side of the long before the time of colum bus the copper colored inhabitants of the western hemisphere whom we call indians had fanned out and occupied all of north america mexico central america south america and the islands of the west indies under the administration of na lional park service are many maw areas connected with the life of the an c ent indians mesa verde tiati national onal parks N national a t I 1 0 n I 1 twelfth park and 14 national mon in a series have been lishem to pro hect significant ruins rums in the states of utah colorado arizona an and d new mexico there are also M mound aund city group national monument in ohio ocmulgee national monument in georgia and old kasaan hasaan national monument in alaska in addition many other national parks and mon 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 wan demings and the story ot of their cultural and political progress gradually is being put together by archeologists from the tangi ble bie remains the campfires the dust heaps and the ruins these people left behind the story as it unfolds is fascinating the record of achievement Is im originally nomadic hunters the first arst americans learned to culli vate the soil to indian farmers we owe suc such h staples in our diet as corn irish potatoes yams and co coa the indians also developed to bacco and taught us the use of k EVOLUTION ocmulgee national monument in georgia con bains outstanding remains of in dian than mounds and prehistoric towns representative of the cul tural evolution of the southern mound builder civil civilization izat I 1 on this council chamber mound has been restored by national park ice quinine they learned to make 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 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 N M here peculiar grooved stone spear points were discovered in association with the fossil bones of animals which have been ex for thousands of years the skeletons of the men who used these weapons have not yet been found but similar r 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 i long gap in our knowledge of ancient americans but in central america the mayas who had vented a reliable calendar were carving dates on stone ston e monuments as early as 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 in deans 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 that from 1276 A D to 1299 A D there was a con sinuous drouth tor for 24 consecutive years and it also is known that about the year A D sunset crater a volcano near flagstaff w CONTRAST prehistoric in dian than 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 nation al monument in arizona white house ruins are shown in this picture ariz erupted and covered the coun with lava and ashes the system of dating indian ruins in the southwest is simple and ingenious and Is done by using a tree ring calendar by starting with living trees and patiently matching pieces of wood from older and older houses the annular ring patterns in the southwest have been established for a period of more ahan an a thousand years ONE OF THE MOST impressive ruined towns of the ancient andl ans Is pueblo bonito in chaco can yon national monument new mex ico this town built like a hu huge ge five story apartment house con bained in the bilth century more than rooms and housed at least 1200 1 people A part of the pueblo was constructed es as early as A D other ruined pueblos which the vis aitor will find fascinating are those built in niches in the vertical cliffs of canyon de chelly and canyon del muerto huerto in canyon de chelly nation al monument in northwestern art ari zona the beauty of these wild can will live long in the memory of all who see them near flagstaff ariz are the stone pueblo of wu hatki and the cliff dwellings in wal nut canyon in central arizona are tonto 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 ller lier national monuments are in new mexico IN THE OHIO valley and in south eastern united states the indians frequently built large earth mounds very often these mounds were con strutted ted in the form of truncated pyramids and were used as plat forms tor for temple structures or houses one of these mound sites has been established as a national monument near chillicothe Chilli ohio at this site known as mound city group national monument are a jarge number of mounds at ma con ga ocmulgee national bonu ment also contains a number of in te resting mounds one of which was constructed over a subterranean council chamber 0 FOR information relating to the national monuments write to the director national park ice department of the interior washington 25 D C |