A PRE-HISTORIC EUROPEAN CONTACT ON MAINLAND
NORTH AMERICA
AN ASSERTION;
-- based on archaic literature and concurrent scientific discoveries.
To disciples of Science, Discovery, and History, greeting:
Accredited archeologists,
over a
decade ago, discovered and reported in a respected scholastic journal a factor both
newsworthy and perplexing - unaccountable anomalies in certain American Aborigine cemetery
exhumations. At a site on North America's east coast, the findings reported atypical
manifestations on skeletons, occurrences of which can be understood as immunology
adaptation or as an acquired genetic trait. The attribute, appearing among a limited human
population of about 1660AD, is one that can be developed genetically only by evolution of
defense processes in reaction to a public and personal toxin (a mycobacterium pathogen)
over a markedly extended interval of a scale of many centuries, or even eons. The factor
of indication has been a subject of interest and remark among scholars and medical
investigators for centuries and at this writing I am not aware of its presence anywhere
else upon either American continent.
The attribute as reported is both prevalent and proportionate within the group sufficient
to indicate that it was a constituent of the population. Geographic considerations and
known demographics indicate that it was not a chance occurrence or mutation within a
single individual or family. Invisible in life, undetectable except by statistical result
or laboratory examination, the trait must have been transmitted in the period of
interment by social cohesion.
Nexus' for the assertion:
Note: In preparing and editing for the new book, "Rediscovering Vinland, Evidence of Viking Presence in America", it became somewhat of of a challenge to describe this anomaly in easily understood terms. In brief it concerns the science of human genetic immunities which is an advancement of the usually understood factor of bacterial/antibody conflicts. The latter are of more immediate importance to individuals contracting disease of any sort. But genetic immunity is more of a factor of inheritance and more of note for survival of a populace. Many confuse this issue and it is this factor of evolution where more "vital" individuals survive and transmit perhaps complex defense mechanisms to their offspring. Individuals survive in terms of weeks or months whereas genetic immunities become permanently ingrained within a population over time. It is this time differential that constitutes the factor that we present as proof of European visitation at Pettaquamscutt and environs as discovered in archeological site RI1000. The Native Americans in this district were demonstrably at absolute genetic variance in this particular. They were distinct from all other groups all across the country and into Polynesia. The distinction - the ability to resist tuberculosis if contracted - could neither evolve nor develop in the span of time from AD1492 to AD1660.
When any
species population is afflicted with a toxin, bacterial or material,
given survival of some and enough time, the population will, for survival, adapt
physiological defenses to the toxin. When these defenses are successfully established
within individuals of a population, those individuals then are successful in transmitting
these defenses to their progeny, regardless of how simple or complex the defense
mechanisms may be. Once this occurs, those defenses become factors of heredity specific to
a group, abiding thereafter fixed in laws of genetics.
Such a toxin to humankind is tuberculosis, which is dependably believed to be a transmutation of a
bovine form of TB. Hence, Eastern Hemisphere populations commenced evolving their defenses
at some antediluvian period of cattle domestication, while Western Hemisphere population,
isolated, and not practicing domestication, did not do so. Consequently, when the two
populations came into contact in 1492, American Indigenes demonstrated a marked
susceptibility to tuberculosis, as well as extreme sensitivity to other European diseases.
Combined, the onslaughts of diseases to which they had had limited or no previous exposure devastated
individuals speedily and populations monstrously - epidemically. This differentiation in
personal and public syndromes, remarked from earliest recordings, is categorically
established in medical and colonial literature.
Old World tuberculosis pathology is typified by generally endemic conditions, lengthy survival and
appearance of secondary symptoms in certain hardy victims who, genetically
"sophisticated", withstand a normally fatal lung affliction long enough to
inhibit the disease, whereupon it attacks other parts of the body. Attachment of TB
lesions upon hard tissue (ribs, spine, pelvis) is one such diversion; a syndrome
unrecorded for any Western Hemisphere Indigene until this reporting of the newsworthy
occurrence in archeological site RI 1000 in southern New England. Presence of lesions on
bones, by appearance alone, indicate a measure of survival and, therefore, manifests
extended histories of exposure and endurance resulting from genetic evolution, the
explanation for which must be sought in that science. Since the ocean barrier had been as
impermeable to a genetic trait as to bacteria, it must have been carried into the area by
the only genetic entity possible - humans themselves.
The population among whom the "resistance" trait was detected, first described
in 1524, numbered at earliest recordings at least 15,000 persons bearing similar physical
and anthropological characteristics. Such a populous group could not have been transported
or expanded without notice or nascently evolved in 168 years from 1492 to 1660. Therefore,
the transportation of the gene and the entity so carrying must have occurred prior to 1492
and the populace corporeal, genetically integral, throughout an unknown interval. Since it
is difficult to imagine such a sizable populace to have crossed the Atlantic even earlier,
the presumption follows that a small group reached this area long ago, probably
intermarried with natives, and then burgeoned to reported levels, most carrying genes of a
previously evolved - elsewhere - relative immunity to TB.
A conceivable alternative that has been examined is the possibility of a prehistoric
individual or group coincidentally or accidentally acquiring the immunity by chance
mutation without contact with the disease. The prospect is infinitesimally small in
accepted genetic doctrine and is further negated by the fact of this population having
many other traits in common. Further, it is more than likely that the relative immunity is
quite complex, not relying on a single gene but upon interdependent combinations, much
more improbable than an already tenuous single mutation.
This self evident trace, subtle yet unambiguous, advocates a credible inference: that
progenitors of this North American group must assuredly have, at some phase of their
history, resided where the toxin, or a population already exposed, had existed; had been
endemic; in the Eastern Hemisphere. Justifiable prospects are thus implemented that
ancestors of these people must have previously resided in, or visited, the Old World and
then migrated to the New World, carrying and retaining, in congruence with genetic laws,
these defenses - in reserve, so to speak - that must have evolved from an even more remote
epoch of their history. Their era of transportation must have elapsed sufficiently to
permit expansion and assimilation of a presumed small group of invaders into a large and
dynamic mixed population of some 15,000/30,000 at time of a census of about 1670AD. By
1660AD, the trait necessarily had commenced its incremental development among this
demarcated society many centuries prior, a circumstance coercing an inescapable conclusion
of certain pre-Columbian physical transportation of a human genetic factor - and its
bearers. How, then, did this ephemeral yet sovereign vestige cross an ocean to appear in
this extraordinary population within an area but 15 miles square?
It had long been thought that tuberculosis had been absent from the Americas prior to
1492, and that this was the cause of the remarkable disparity in patterns of pathology. A
single mummified individual, (see below for additional information) deceased at pre-Columbian dating in the altiplano of Peru,
was recently reported to have suffered a lesion of a strain of TB similar to the European
type in a lung - a typical "naive" response but thereby proving its presence in
the New World. This is relevant to this discussion by reason of supporting it, for it
enjoins us to immediately differentiate between toxic effects and responses to them. Were
we speaking of the contagion, then the known rapidity of transmission and population
debilitation would provide us with but meaningless guidelines. Contagions could and did
spread with such speed as to seriously reduce or even annihilate a multitude shortly after
a first contact with explorers. Even at immediate settlement a few years later by
newcomers, a pattern of depopulation was noted tragically repeated time and time again all
the way into Pacific Archipelagoes throughout the so-called "age of discovery".
But the discussion concerns not the contagion but biological reactions to it, dynamics of
which, in timing, are very different perspectives than simple disease immunology. The
defenses to TB require centuries of endemic/epidemic cycles to become fixed within a
population and, once fixed, are transmissible only so quickly as a host can reproduce. We
now see in this Peruvian individual that, since the response had been typical
"naive" pathology, the victim had not possessed the defensive trait in either
hard or soft tissue, and, so far as is known, neither has any other American Aborigine
displayed it even to our own time (to the best of my knowledge). It seems probable that the
TB encysted in this mummy must have been more or less restricted to Peru and not endemic
even so near as Mexico, for shortly after the invasion by Cortez, those huge populations
there "crashed" as well.
Whether the TB had been present post-Columbus or pre-Columbus, the pronounced variance in
genetic development of acquired immunities between the natives and the colonists remains
evident. It had been thought impossible in all American Aborigines, with this sole
exception on the American Continents among this singular and extraordinary group whose
ancient cemetery was accidentally uncovered and exhumed as site RI1OOO, doubtless not
relying on single genes but complex co-relations. The scholars of record not only did not
address the possibility of pre-Columbian interchange, they refused the idea when suggested
by a respondent.
The portent being absolute as science permits, its consequences obligating public
discourse, this studied premise that interchange before 1492 is advanced.
Difficulty of transoceanic transit merits addressing proximity as being a prime factor of
consideration:
The nearest known populations ever of archaic Old World residents to the subject group
were Scandinavian/Gael colonists and settlers of Iceland and Greenland. Were the
transportation from Asia, the trait must certainly have appeared at other places between
the Pacific Ocean and North America's east coast. More abstruse lines of reasoning place
onus' on speculations of distances and population diffusions from increasingly
questionable purviews.
As critical a factor for consideration is nautical capability:
Seamen of Iceland and Greenland certainly did have sufficiently advanced and amply
demonstrated nautical proficiencies for at least a millennium (before present) sufficient
to reach the district under study. Perhaps were the only people of Atlantic environs until
about 1350 with deliberate, as opposed to accidental, capability. Pan-oceanic pioneering
by their early maritime culture is amply reported from about 800AD. Burdens of debate
delegate demonstration of sufficient seafaring capability to other populations.
Recently published study of certain environs of the genetic discovery and the most likely
site of invasion within the target population's rather constrained and surprisingly
densely populated territory brings to light disclosure of an alien infusion into the
locality by an "advanced" culture. This is dated as having taken place
"about a thousand years ago"' imparting latterly unearthed and objectively
reported anthropological revelations.
Study of these Indigenes, Narragansetts of Rhode Island, finds recorded by earliest
colonial (English) settlers a compendium of genetic, anthropological, social, and
linguistic anomalies unique and at variance to even immediate neighbors. So striking were
these observations that at least two educated and observant colonial Governors, one
English and one Dutch, both in intimate contact with the group earlier than 1643,
speculated that forebears of the heretofore presumed aboriginal society had originated not
only in Europe, but in a specific country - Iceland!
Study of literature of Iceland and (medieval) Scandinavian Greenland finds respectable
documentation of four distinct expeditions and emigrations by over two hundred persons,
male and female, from Iceland and Greenland to a district they called Vinland. This land
of legend has been chronicled as matching geography, range, topography, climate, daylight
duration, flora and fauna, that district wherein the population bearing the trait resided,
and that these expeditions took place between about AD 986 and 1030, coincidentally just
about a thousand years ago.
More compelling in its own sciences than a material artifact in archeology, this signal
verity of genetic affiliation with a specific congruent European pathology is here
supplemented for this course of inquiry by these concrete literary and analytical
discoveries. The aggregated argument seems persuasive enough to impel cognitive and
critical thinkers alike towards an irrefutable deduction: that the aboriginal population
of the district and populations of Iceland and Scandinavian Greenland are related; that
they share coincidental ancestry; that 18 to 24 generations of commingling in 660 years
seems sufficient for practicable integration; thus, that the New World mixed population
bearing this demonstrable genetic trait are descended in part from those Iceland and
Greenland explorers and emigrants whom we might refer to as the Vinland Voyagers.
Does not this discrete and certain congruity with European genetic morphology substantiate
corporeal transportation to this American site? If this be tractable, might we not now
more plausibly accept contemporary appraisals of Narragansett white skin, atypical
muscular and skeletal structure, aberrant hair distinctions, unique social mores as
facilitating our comprehension? Is it not now possible to reconsider colonial consonance
of anthropological, social, linguistic anomalies previously unexplained? Of numerous nigh
artifacts and legends recounted from olden days? To disregard altogether earlier
analytical scholarship by many also theorizing, with good reason, the elusive destination
in the environs? Is there any need to further consign to mere myth responsibly preserved
classical histories of Iceland which document and minutely detail Vinland settlement?
Merciless, relentless and ravaging scourge that tuberculosis has been to humanity through
the ages, the iniquitous disease is here perceived contravened by a benevolence - a
balance - a salvation of species provided by nature in such a way as to edify we who
celebrate the unfolding of the cosmos. Illuminated, we are endowed with richened and
redeemed Icelandic literature, resolution of a majestic and mystical epic, and sharpened
insights into the drama, adventure, and perpetuating biography of man! At long last,
Vinland is recovered.
Frederick N. Brown 3rd. (c) copyright, Summer, 1997, Revised, 1998, Revised
1999; addendum, 2004
Follows is the
pertinent bibliography supporting this assertion:.
This document, the culminating dissertation resulting from a twenty year site/subject
program of inquiry, supplements prior published deliberations wherein more comprehensive
bibliographies were presented. The site is at Pettaquamscutt, an obscure, hilly, and
difficult parcel of oceanside terrain in the towns of South Kingstown and Narragansett in
Rhode Island. The incidence of a signal relative immunity is in, "THE
EVOLUTION OF MYCOBACTERIAL DISEASE IN HUMAN POPULATIONS" by George A. Clark, Mark A. Kelley, John
M. Grange, M. Cassandra Hill. "CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY", February 1987. The paper
documents findings of lesions on bones resulting from this dread disease. The authors
offered no explanations and peer reviewers strained unsuccessfully to explain the anomaly.
One attributed it possibly to the effects of "reservation environment", not
addressing this very early date well before reservations or the concept of such existed.
Anthropological indicators of a thousand year old incursion are drawn from, "AN
ARCHEOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE PETTAQUAMSCUT RIVER BASIN" by Deborah Cox Peter F.
Thorbahn, Alan Leveillee, published by The Public Archeology Laboratory, Pawtucket, RI.
The Voyage of Wave Cleaver's otherwise extensive research uncovered additional, heretofore
unresolved material in support of the site, the TB subversion and the Scandinavian
determinant - also finding initial colonial contact testimony that Narragansetts appear to
have had a measure of immunity to small pox as well. The essential cultural "shift"
occurring "about a thousand years before present" which
indicated the incursion was a radical change in lifestyle to a waterside and nautical
culture that was the most notable characteristic of Narragansetts when next they were
observed in 1524. According to the scholars of record, this is unknown elsewhere
in New England.
[Entered to this web in March of 2004] The discussion is advanced with publication of: "Prehistoric Tuberculosis in America: Adding Comments to a Literature Review": Jordi Gomes i Prat, Sheila MF Mendonca de Souza; Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Vol.98 (Suppl.1); 151-159, 2003.
The paper states outright that TB was a prehistoric presence in the Americas and develops the theme in 133 specific case studies apparently most developed since the discovery of RI1000. It aids immeasurably in this discussion by reason of developing the information from what seems probably a too narrow a base to a more comprehensive one. The new is, in all likelihood, as complete a historical source as can be made with dating of research from 1940 to 1995.
Readers are reminded that the single Peruvian pre-Columbian mummy in which our commentary had been based to demonstrate this and might recall that this is not the basis of our presentation of proof. The skeletal remains in RI1000 are all post-Columbian and it is our contention that the demonstrable immunity is our key rather than the TB itself. The critical factor is the resistance to TB that is demonstrated in the skeletal lesions must be pre-Columbian because as a genetic factor the time of development in the population must necessarily have been considerable more than the 168 years from 1492, the 136 years from 1524 (G.Verazanno, initial contact); or the twenty some years from Roger Williams who remarked that "the plague did not seem to be among them.".
First, the paper identifies all the South American incidences as clustered in the deserts and highlands of Peru, Chili, and a single case midway along the coastline of Venezuela (noted as "case no [sic] confirmed"). It is, however, remarkable that there are so few incidences of skeletal deformation or lesions in the entire continent of South America from the Mexican/United States border. One paper does list 37 cases at one site (Estuquina) with bone lesions on ribs only. It is worthy of note that all of the cases are located relatively near coastlines. This is immensely significant when the area and timeline of investigation and recent interest are considered. The Authors offer as explanation the incidences as perhaps being the result of domestication of llama, in which area all the victims had succumbed. We have already suggested this and also point to McHugh's work where he states that TB is so ancient a disease that it might predate emergence of life from the sea. It might be added that there are numerous legends of possible "prehistoric" Chinese visits to America's west coast.
Eighteen papers on the subject have been published since 1954 (most since 1980) listing cases in North America and most of these are detected by skeletal deformations, which, of course, removes the exclusive claim we make that RI1000 is unique. However, the papers seem to infer that osseous indications may not be of lesions but simply deformation. Still, this is sufficient that some survival traits did exist at a few places in the United States and Canada. RI1000 remains, in my estimation, still unique and significant with its numbers and specifics.
The Authors show great foresight and integrity in utilizing historic literature, for within their discussion they state that many of the incidences (all the North American incidences) of TB post-date the arrival of the Vinland voyages and that it is possible that the disease itself might have arrived on the undiscovered continent with either the humans or their cattle - which they also duly remark - even to the record of trading of milk with the natives. The map indicating distribution of the cases cited has a strange peculiarity that might confirm this. The western incidences occur in an almost perfect arc of some 2000 miles from a point roughly located near Cape Cod. These are very few; 5 in number and span from Arizona to Saskatchewan. In appearance, it is as if travelers from a locus had reached that limit, but the argument against this is that one would suppose many occurrences at places in between and these, while present, are sparse.
The main and of major interest to us are two incidences located in Ontario, Canada. At this writing I have been unable to locate the original papers and simply rely on the notations of the two Brazilians. One incidence is a site called Glen Williams (Ont.) and the other Uxbridge (Ont.). The former lists "15 to 20" cases dated AD1300 and the latter 18 and dated "AD1490" (error rate plus or minus 80 years,i.e.AD1410/AD1570 - possible early historic contact.) It is not clear if these are certain or if they constitute lesions as at RI1000 or just bone deformation but they do become factors in the argument presented herein.
The possibility of the Vinland Voyagers to have brought the disease itself with them along with their inherited immunology is advanced, is possible, and constitutes a separate argument confirming the first. The general outdoor lifestyle of Amerinds might have restrained the disease from epidemic proportions until some other factor came into play with the later invasions. (This author's suggestion concerning the existence and anomaly of both the disease and its resistance co-existing in a geographically significant mode is that perhaps the Indian lifestyle tended to isolation of groups from war, geography [as remarked by McNeil], social and linguistic differences limiting interchange and intimate contact. Arrival of the European invaders brought a new social condition which broke these barriers - missions and trading posts in Spanish/French areas and trading posts and nascent towns frequently visited in the English colonies. These were the sources of TB, it is certain, but the social consequences of them being open to all might have wrought the condition of epidemic "conflagration". The arrival of the invaders was the "trigger", not by original introduction, but by an accidental new social order - foundation of central "hot spots" sporadically visited by varied groups.)
It is my observation that scholars, when presenting papers, remain focused upon the subject at hand, which is, of course, the purpose of their work. In these many readings concerning mycobacterium tuberculosis the discussions resolve around the bacterium itself and little, if any, consideration is given to the relationship or interrelationship with the other half of the equation - the victim animals or humans. Thus, in one paper, the scholars attribute TB bacterium to at least six specific strains without presenting the idea that the six different "effects" might result from variations in victims, which happens to be the theme of this program. I find it difficult to believe that such a simple single cell organism can be so refined as to affect victims in such varied and subtle ways. It seems more plausible to me that the higher and more complex form of life would have the better and more effective resources and ability to react in varied ways, and that these abilities would vary with experience and interplay with the bacterium over time. This explains what we see in varied susceptibilities in varied populations. It might be noted that something is owed in this regard to the American Statesman, Inventor and Scholar Benjamin Franklin who first noted certain variations in a report on a smallpox epidemic in Boston in 1753/1754. Dr. Franklin noted mortality differences between blacks and whites at a time when the population of Boston was, perhaps, 12,000 souls. He says that of those 5039 "whites" who contracted it in the "common way" (naturally, by contagion), 485 died (9 percent). Of 452 blacks who contracted it in the "common way" 62 died(13 percent). 1974 "whites" received it by "inoculation" (scabrous matter or pus on fresh wound) and 23 died (1 percent), while 139 blacks received the treatment and 7 (5 percent) died.
(It might be noted concerning the above is that we are looking at early modern medical research, such as it was. The Boston inoculations were of the original type using live smallpox microbes, hoping for a less severe response. The Jenner/Cowpox type, which was relatively harmless was yet years in the future. Smallpox has a severe and visible effect on individuals, but which in populations are less apparent. For the individual deep scaring results from pustules all over the body and observing this takes some "getting used to" by moderns although, perhaps, might have been more accepted by being more common in the past. Along with this is a demeanor by the victims as of shame - they seem very much aware of the effect they have on others. Males most commonly, if not always, become sterile and this affects a population in many ways as in many moral cultures a wife will remain with her victim husband with the result of no further issue. The disease will take many and survivors decline in numbers.)
Permit me to discuss this a bit. I have the "whites" in quotation marks as there were certainly a mix of backgrounds in Boston, presumably all Europeans, while the blacks, of course were all Africans and likely near pure blood. It might also be noted that the practice of "inoculation" of those days seems to have been an African innovation recently adopted by, but still controversial within, European medical circles. Now, we can assume most probably that this disease at that year was the same throughout - one single strain of smallpox which affected the two populations in slightly varied ways with measurably different percentages of both contagion and responses to inoculation. Dr. Franklin did not list Indians who were formerly populous in the Boston area because it is probable that there were no Indians at all there in 1753. While it might be assumed that they had been driven off, this is not likely the case. There was then and remained to the present day some intercourse between the Indian and the Europeans, if only in trade, but where they co-exist at all and are not in a hostile mode, there were reciprocal visits at least occasionally for food, furs, medicine, clothing, supplies, etc. Indian absence from Boston was more likely to have been the result as it had been near Plymouth - disease to the degree of annihilation. So Franklin was actually gauging three populations instead of two, with whites enjoying a clear superiority in immunity, "blacks" next, and the Indians devastated by the same disease. One might seek an explanation also as to why the unfortunate blacks did not benefit from the inoculations to the same degree as whites. These facts would seem to suggest, if not prove, that varied susceptibilities by populations to disease is a result of response by victim populations rather than complex strategies or forms of simple causative organisms.
The matter of population variation in resistance is neither a new nor esoteric observation. In times gone by it was a subject of intense interest by intelligent authorities, being probably the first question asked of arriving ships, caravans and freight trains from foreign climes. Recent interests resulting from powerful microscopes and DNA and world-wide travel analysis tends to obscure the subject, yet it remains as real as ever.
RI1000 still stands, by reason of the extensive pathology on bones as well as age of victims, as the most concentrated and developed incidence of all those discovered in what is now an active academic interest. Both Ontario's "Uxbridge Ossuary" and "Glen Williams" sites are some few miles north of Lake Ontario shores, not very far distant from each other (thirty miles), and well within the range of unobstructed seafaring from the Atlantic Ocean. The strong probability of Icelanders/Greenlanders traveling to nearer lands than Europe for timber and furs from AD1000 on is suggested. Indeed, shortly before his death, the late Thor Heyerdahl published an opinion that Norse had been more frequent and longer lasting visitors to America than is commonly believed.
RI1000 remains clearly the most concentrated and specific incidence in these findings, and significant in that knowledge of the history, our dating of arrival of the people, our own findings from 1853 indicate that it was a factor of the culture and a higher caste of social strata - precisely the situation one might expect from residue of a peaceable, or at least successful, invasion.
The argument is not so convolute as it may at first appear, but it does require some
further testimony in support. The following publications were instrumental in establishing
this line of thought:
A work which stimulates intellect for this purpose is "PLAGUES AND PEOPLES"
(1976) by William H. McNeill. This book is an analysis of varied responses of human
populations to epidemics that have occurred, tracing many from ancient Chinese documents
through European tragedies. It is found through these analysis' that epidemiology may
trace progression of evolution of diseases over periods of time where at first occurrence
a
disease will strike with tremendous and traumatic effects on populations and
individuals, cycle through
endemic/epidemic periods in which the disease progressively weakens or the subject human
population strengthens to the point where it progresses to a relatively harmless childhood
disease; eventually reaching a point where accommodation occurs and formerly antagonistic organisms
mutually co-exist. Measles is a good example of what had once been a deadly disease among
Caucasians which has progressed to a relatively harmless childhood episode. It is also a
disease that indicates variances in populations such as Native Americans to whom it is
still deadly.
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Ann F. Romanofsky, "DEATH BY DISEASE" in "ANTHROPOLOGY" Magazine
Mar/April 1992. "A decline in village sites points to the spread of fatal
epidemics". Demonstrates the severity of effects at contact as much greater that
almost imaginable. Certainly more deadly than the military operations against them.
She records a diminuation of populated villages in a particular area from
95 to 5 in 30 years time
Related to this is a good reference for the site area; "THE NEW LAND" by Phillip
Viereck (pub. John Day,Co.) for fine verbatim transcript of report of William Bradford and
Edward Winslow (English Colonial authorities) reporting on the Plymouth Colony to one
George Morton in London, c.1620. Noted is the absence of nearby natives and
numerous abandoned villages. Indeed, the new colonists survived by digging
up food storage pits of these Indian towns. This epidemic is known and
recorded as occurring in 1615. A sole survivor happened to be away when
this happened and he lived but a mere few years after.
The American Journal of Human Genetics, V. 66, Nm. 2, February, 2000. "Individual Estimates or European Genetic Admixture Associated with Lower Body-Mass Index, Plasma Glucose, and Prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes in Pima Indians." Robert C. Williams, Jeffrey C. Long, Robert L. Hanson, Maurice L Sievers, and William C. Knowler. (Pima, a peaceable group, are a central Arizona tribe closely association with the major metropolis of Phoenix.)
This study contributes to the theme by similarity of Human immunology responses to an introduced toxin. While the causative toxin for diabetes may not be bacterial, species responses to it must be similar to the mycobacterium toxin of tuberculosis. The lengthy article, in its summary and conclusions, defines the genetic admixture, which was the result of the study, constitutes an evolutionary mechanism of combinations of two once disparate groups uniting to form a new, "admixed" group distinct from either of the parent groups. The Authors have been able to identify "allele frequency distribution at a locus" and state that this is the modern genetic definition of evolution.
This is what is demonstrable in the peculiar presence of TB lesions on bones in Narragansetts. So far as I have been able to determine, there are no other Indian groups or individuals that demonstrate this peculiarity. Therefore they must be a combinent group whose evolution by AD1660 must have consisted, in part, of a European history.
Records of the early contacts Giovanni Verrazano (1524) and Roger Williams
(1635) testify
to the advancements and vitality of Narragansetts and Wampanoags who dwelt on opposite
sides of Narragansett Bay. Williams is a key figure in Narragansett "Indian"
fortunes, the present State of Rhode Island, and American separation of Church and State.
This was partially as a result of presence, power, and friendship of the tribe itself.
Massachusetts and Connecticut colonial policies were to humanize - minimally - only Indians who
converted to Christianity. Williams was instrumental in permitting freedom of religion
both to the natives and also splinter sects such as Quakers not tolerated elsewhere.
Williams dwelt among and also traveled freely with Narragansetts and recorded their language and
other invaluable material concerning them. He shared a belief with an unnamed Dutch
colonial governor of New Amsterdam (New York) that Narragansett origins had been in Iceland.
"TELLTALE BONES", article in "ARCHEOLOGY MAGAZINE" BY John V. Fowles
of Critique d'Orthopedie Saint-Urban, Montreal, Canada. Article and resultant
correspondence evaluating excavations of over 500 skeletons of Guale Indians of Amalie
Islands of Florida. Tuberculosis was specifically sought and found absent in a population
of similar lifestyle and colonial contact a century earlier than RI1000 (1660). This tends
to counter the belief that if TB were present in the New World prior to 1492, it does not
seem likely that it could have been endemic or even present so distant from Peru.
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"YANKEE SURGEON, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF USHER PARSONS, 1788-1868" by Seebert J.
Goldowsky, MD. Parsons, sole surgeon of the American Fleet at the battle of Lake Erie in
1813, later settled in Rhode Island and took exceptional interest in the Narragansett
Tribe. He excavated numerous Indian graves for examination and in one it was accidentally
discovered (1858) that in the remains of a known Narragansett "Princess" was
hair of tubercular structure. The Rhode Island historian who reported it expressed extreme
astonishment at the discovery (saying he "ran, literally ran" to the museum
re-observe it). It would seem to have been the sole occurrence of a
"sophisticated" pathology prior to RI1000, distant from which is about ten miles
from a center of the population to near an edge.
"THE BIG BANG OF ANIMAL EVOLUTION", Jeffrey S. Levinton in "SCIENTIFIC
AMERICAN MAGAZINE", November 1992. Study of adaptation of a simple organism exposed
to cadmium poisoning in a single bay off the Hudson River. This demonstrates adaptation by
an organism - any and all surviving organisms - to an introduced toxin.
The worm, "Limnodrilus Hoffmeisteri", in a local population adapted successfully
to introduction of toxic cadmium wastes some few years ago. A factory dumping
chemical effluent
into a particular small bay off the Hudson River effectively poisoned most of the aquatic
life there, but a survivor in numbers was this worm. Now these worms in this bay are
indistinguishable from all others to the naked eye, but Dr. Levinton performed experiments by introducing
Limnodrilus Hoffmeisteri from other areas to the specific bay where they immediately
showed extreme distress and usually died, while their native companions continued to
thrive in identical conditions. The native worms were essentially immune to the traces of
cadmium still in the mud of the bottom of this single bay.
How this happened was this; when cadmium was first introduced into the water it
immediately killed most worms and sickened the others. But among the survivors were some
few - likely very few - who still had vitality to continue to reproduce themselves.
Something in their genetic makeup either existed or adapted to the poison allowing them to
survive. Their progeny, in turn, were more and more successful in reproduction, eventually
bringing the population of the bay to previous numbers of worms which looked and acted
precisely as any other worms with the exception of this acquired immunity. They might also
be mixed after time with, according to laws of hereditary, transmission of the trait to
both populations
Supposing now, we might transport some of these immune worms to another bay and then at
some later time, build another factory, ignore environmental laws and again introduce
toxic cadmium to the mixed but indistinguishable populations of worms. The expected result
- it would seem to be obvious - would be that the immune worms would survive and the
others with no immunity would fail.
This must be a comparable situation with the Narragansetts, for, it being impossible or at
least exceedingly improbable that they could develop an immunity to TB in absence of the
causative factor, they must have developed the immunity at some other time at some other
place of their history.
The protracted history of tuberculosis in the dynamic Europe, that hotbed of
war, trade, population movement, had systematic effects of
reducing susceptible individuals, leaving hardier folk to reproduce. This had the effect
of eventually producing whole races of individuals with ability to sustain attacks of TB in a
sophisticated manner, surviving a lung affliction long enough to sustain secondary
symptoms such as indicators on hard tissues such as hair and bones. There are other
sophisticated symptoms such as weeping neck glands but all effects in "soft
tissues" disappear post mortem.
--------- <Attribute text to: Voyage of Wave Cleaver, Inc.
Frederick N. Brown > ---------
"CULTURES IN CONTACT"; The impact of European contacts on Native-American cultural
institutions, A.D. 1000-1800" (1985) By Dr. William W. Fitzhugh. A surprising chapter devoted to RI1000 fully demonstrating sharp anthropological
diversions of Narragansetts from others. Most of Dr. Fitzhugh's work concerns effects
further north, RI1000 being apparently the only study south of Labrador so treated.
Analysis' of the excavations and extractions of the 59 graves where "nearly all"
of the burials had bodies placed in fetal positions on right side, comparing with certain
graves of Vikings in Iceland and Sweden whose bodies were also placed in that manner.. The cemetery layout was neat,
geometric and orderly, but
was unique in that it was long and narrow with bodies four abreast. It was not
Christian, neither was it in imitation of Christian cemeteries. Other local
Indians did not seem to formulate cemeteries at all, more commonly
interred singly or in mounds which occasionally took on serpentine forms. All
bodies in RI1000, as the
cemetery itself, were oriented towards S/W. (The SW quadrant had ritual
significance within the cultures of both Narragansetts and Vikings.) Grave goods show unexpected intimate contact
with English and Dutch colonials. (Narragansetts were exceedingly nautical and traveled
widely. R. Williams said (1643) that they possessed numerous muskets obtained from French sources
never closer then 200 miles.)
Added articles of interest on 9/19/2000 from The American Journal of Human Genetics, Vol. 67, Nbr 2, August 2000 "Genetic Predisposition to Clinical Tuberculosis: Bridging the Gap between Simple and Complex Inheritance" Laurent Abel and Jean-Laurent Casanova (France. Invited editorial not peer reviewed): also "Linkage of Tuberculosis to Chromosome 2q35 Loci, Including NRAMP1, in a Large Aboriginal Canadian Family" Celia M.T. Greenwood, T. Mary Fujiwara, Lucy J. Boothroyd, Mark A. Miller Danielle Frappier, E.Anne Fanning, Erwin Schurr, and Kenneth Morgan (Canada. Peer reviewed). Both these articles remark on the genetic influence on resistance to TB. While neither goes so far as to elaborate on how this occurred, they are specific in identifying the genetic codes of at least one type of defense and where it occurs on the genetic strand of a chromosome. Quote from the first, " The involvement of human genes in tuberculosis has been suggested by numerous epidemiological observations. Several studies have shown that a person's resistance level to M. tuberculosis correlates with the region of his or her ancestry and that the ancestors of more-susceptible persons tend to come from areas once free of tuberculosis (Stead 1992)." Just so - this refines the issue in question to the scientist. The second article notes that the resistance trait is a dominant one, which might be expected, given the development of the relationship between hosts. The study is specific that "There were no cased of miliary or other forms of extrapulmonary tuberculosis." I read this as lung affliction only with absence of lesions on bones or elsewhere in the body, thus comparing with the large sampling of Guale excavation noted above. This study was a result of an epidemic of TB within a Canadian tribe c.1987-89 and deaths were few because of immediate treatment and inoculations. It was a conclusion that exposure to TB in this group had been rare prior to 1880, which makes them a "naive" sampling, indeed. Quote, "Twin studies (Kallman and Reisner 1943) and a segregation analysis (Shaw et al.1997) support a role for a genetic basis of susceptibility."
"INBREEDING EFFECTS ON FERTILITY IN HUMANS: EVIDENCE FOR REPRODUCTIVE
COMPENSATION" by Carole Ober, Terry Hyslop, and Walter W. Hauck in V64, N1, Jan.1999
"THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN GENETICS". This paper answers the question of
whether a small group entering conditions favorable to them might possibly increase in numbers from
a small group to some 15,000/30,000 in 600 years or so. In examination of a religious
group called "Hutterites" the study finds their origins in the Tyrolean Alps in
the 1500's and who were attracted to promise of religious freedom in Russia in 1770. While
there, their population grew from ~120 to >1000 and in 1870 religious freedom was
withdrawn with the effect that ~900 emigrated to the United States in South Dakota.
Roughly half settled on communal farms and the other half on individual, single family
holdings. This was near 130 years ago. The population of Hutterites now is 35,000 of whom
it is said that all extant Hutterites can be traced genetically to <90 ancestors who
lived during the early 1700's to early 1800's. Their situation is not too dissimilar to
that of the Vinland Voyagers, many of whom would find it as difficult to return north as
Hutterites to Russia. The increase in 130 years speaks for itself.
This paper, we know, is a rather difficult read. Since it is our formal disclosure, we have tried to keep it within formal guidelines which may not be as clear as one might wish and not fully differentiating the shift from immunology issues which would not impress as very powerful - although they are - to the genetic issues where the argument is exceedingly difficult to refute. Consider:
Suppose we might compare the populations of Niceragua and Nebraska. Visitors to these places would immediately observe many genetic variances between the two peoples. But something which would not be observed is the invisible existence of sophisticated resistance to the dread disease Yellow Fever. The illness - now under control - is "endemic" in Nicaragua and non-existent in Nebraska. Consequently, if we could test the entire population of Nicaragua we would find specific "anti-bodies" in the blood of nearly everyone there. If the anti-body is not there, the individual will certainly at some time, fall victim to the disease.
Now, suppose we could test the entire population of Nebraska. The antibody for Yellow Fever is, or should be, non-existent. If it were to be found in individuals, immunologists would immediately assume that at some time in the past, that individual, or maternal ancestors (since antibodies are transmitted through colostrums in mother's milk) had visited the area where Yellow Fever was endemic. The disease is area specific and antibodies to it cannot be formulated by any individual without some contact with the causative microbe - the antibodies are formed within an individuals body as a defense against the disease. Inoculations are effective sometimes by introducing an antibody or by injecting a benign form of the disease to stimulate the manufacture of antibodies in the bloodstream. Once the antibodies are present, that individual is thereafter immune to the disease. He/She might have contracted it and survived, or simply contracted it and was successful in resisting it. A female will transmit the resistant antibodies in her mothers milk of her first three days of nursing.
It is obvious that the people of Nebraska cannot develop immunities to Yellow Fever without either traveling at risk into the endemic area or be inoculated to it. Nebraskans simply do not and can not possess immunities to this disease since it is not present in their area. It simply cannot happen.
In dealing with TB, however, while the issue is a bit more complicated, the principle we are trying to review is the same. The introduction of tuberculosis to the Americas was in a decidedly different time frame than in Europe. Regardless of whether the time differential was precisely at AD1492, or some earlier date, syndromes to the disease between the two populaces of the New and the Old Worlds were so diverse after 1492 that it is fundamental that for a considerable period, the two hemispheres were disease specific regarding TB. The New World had not had contact and consequently did not have adequate, or even comparable, personal defenses when they ultimately did become exposed. There doubtless are antibodies to TB transmissible in colostrums to progeny, but we might surmise that the total defense mechanism is considerably more complicated than that.
Copyright 1999 Frederick N. Brown
For a more readable discourse on the matter, please hyperlink
to:
Plain talk on this
genetic theme.