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Christopher Columbus probably comes to mind. But what about the indigenous people and Leif Erikson? Learn how people originally came to the Americas.
Transcript
Transcript
Tzeela: Hi I'm Tzeela and I'm 16
Rina: Hi I'm Rina and I'm 14
Dalia: Hey, I'm Dalia and I'm 10
Together: And this is Things You Thought You Knew About History!
Tzeela: Where we tell you the real story behind historical misconceptions.
Dalia: Christopher Columbus was the first to discover America.
Rina: Um, it’s not that simple.
Dalia: What do you mean?
Rina: Well he wasn’t the first person to find it. Yeah, he showed some people it’s there but others found it before him.
Dalia: Like who?
Tzeela: Well for one the Indigenous People of the Americas, or Native Americans, have lived here long before anyone did any "discovering."
Rina: How long?
Dalia: Well it isn’t so clear but here's what we do know:
Tzeela: The Indigenous Peoples have definitely been in America for 15,000 years. We know this from the firepits, bones, and spears that scientists have found that have been dated back to then.
Rina: And there is also some pretty solid evidence that there have been people in the Americas for 20,000 years.
Dalia: If they were widespread by 20,000 that shows that some must have come over before that.
Tzeela: It’s possible there may have even been people in America as early as 40,000 years ago!
Rina: Wow, that's a long time!
Dalia: The problem is we don’t have much evidence at all about that early.
Tzeela: Okay that makes sense, but how did they get here?
Rina: There are a bunch of theories about that.
Dalia: You may have heard about the Bering Land Bridge. It’s a bridge of land that connected northwestern Alaska to eastern Russia 12,000 years ago.
Tzeela: A very old long-standing theory is that they just walked across because it seems simple. Emphasis on seems. The weather in that area is harsh, icy, and cold so it is not easy to travel on.
Rina: Why isn’t the land connected anymore?
Dalia: The sea level rose after the Ice Age when ice sheets melted.
Tzeela: Cool! What are the other theories?
Rina: Many people probably crossed the pacific on boats, from Asia to the west coast of America
Dalia: Another idea is that Palaeolithic Europeans or Europeans from the Early Stone Age crossed the Atlantic
Rina: Scientists have found Clovis weapons which are a distinct type of tool in the Americas. This style has many similarities to the tools in Europe so it is likely these people may have been originally from Europe that means they came across the Atlantic.
Tzeela: It was long believed that the Colivis were the first to come here but now it is suspected that other people came before that.
Rina: Many of the Indigenous Peoples reject the idea that their ancestors migrated from elsewhere.
Tzeela: So what do they think happened?
Dalia: Yeah the Navajo, or Dine’, believe that their ancestors came up from the ground.
Rina: Even though scientists think that the Indigenous Peoples migrated from somewhere else they are still indigenous to the land since they were first.
Dalia: So basically different groups of people came here at different times and in different ways.
Rina: Pretty much.
Tzeela: Okay but when you say discover people don’t usually think of the Indigenous Peoples. So Christopher Columbus was the first to discover it for the Europeans, right?
Dalia: Well there was actually someone else by the name of Leif Erikson.
Rina: Who is he?
Tzeela: Before we tell his story you should know that this information is from two Norse sagas or legends that were written centuries after Leif Erikson’s lifetime but are probably mostly reliable because the context makes sense and both sagas tell the story the same way, more or less.
Rina (in dramatic voice): The tale begins in Jaren, Norway with a Norse man named Thorvald. After killing someone, Thorvald runs away to Iceland with his family. In around 970 His son Erik the Red marries Thjodhild, and they have 4 children on a farm in west Iceland. One of these children was Leif Erikson. Erik the Red follows in his father's path and he too is banished for murder. Having heard rumors of land to the west, Erik the Red heads out to find it. That land is Greenland.
Dalia: Sorry to interrupt this epic tale but if we stop here we already have the first European to discover America.
Rina: But he just discovered Greenland?
Tzeela: Well, Greenland is geographically part of North America so that works, Erik the Red discovered America.
Rina: Fine, I guess it TECHNICALLY it is in the Americas but we really mean the mainland.
Tzeela: Even Columbus didn’t land on the mainland. He landed on an island too, one in the Caribbean.
Dalia: That's cool but we’re not done. Leif Erikson will end up in America, we're just not up to that yet.
Rina: Okay so let’s continue
Tzeela: Erik the Red invited his family and a small group of people to join him in the wilderness of Greenland. Young Leif was ready to go out on a voyage of his own. On his way to visit Norway, his ship was thrown off and ends up in Hebridesnear Scotland. Due to bad weather and sailing conditions he stays there for a whole summer. When he at last gets to Norway, he swears loyalty to King Olaf Tryggvason and volunteers to spread Christianity to Greenland.
Rina: Hold up, hold up. Is that really true?
Dalia: Chances are, nope! By the time Erik the Red found Greenland, Christianity seems to have already been widespread. All evidence of the first people in Greenland shows that too. The oldest grave there, which belongs to Leif’s mother, is dated back to before Leif Erikson went to Norway but appears Christian.
Tzeela: Oh, so maybe he didn’t spread Christianity. What happened next?
Rina: On his journey back to Greenland had sailed too far west. Or according to one saga, a man named Bjarni saw it and told Leif who then sailed there. Either way, behold it was America! He got to glacier-covered land, and then to tree-covered land but he kept going. Soon he came to rolling meadows where he set up a settlement called either Leifsbúðir or Straumfjǫrðr and named this mysterious land Vinland.
Dalia: Vinland? Why Vinland?
Tzeela: For a long time everyone thought it was because he had seen a vineyard of grapes growing when he landed but really he only saw the vineyards later.
Rina: How do we know?
Dalia: He landed too far north, so grapes don’t grow there, so he couldn't’ have seen vineyard. We know this because remains of a Norse settlement were found in L'Anse aux Meadows on the north tip of Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula, in Canada.
Tzeela: How do we know it wasn’t remains from someone else?
Rina: This was almost definitely the settlement Leif set up because Greenland wasn’t big enough to have two settlements in Vinland. Also, it looks like someone as important as Leif Erikson lived in this settlement in L'Anse aux Meadows.
Dalia: Okay that all makes sense but then why did he name it Vinland?
Tzeela: Because he traveled farther down south and there were vineyards there.
Rina: What happened to Leif Erikson and the Norse settlement?
Dalia: After Erik the Red died, Leif Erikson, now nicknamed Leif the Lucky became the leader in Greenland and stopped going to Vinland but then sent others instead.
Tzeela: Eventually the Greenlanders decided that it was not worth it to continue having a settlement in Vinland they came back to Greenland
Dalia: Why?
Rina: Maybe partly because of not so friendly run-ins with indigenous people. It seems the Norse traded with them at first but the good relationships didn’t last.
Dalia: They may have left because it was too far to keep going back and forth
Tzeela: The Norse settlements were not significant to other countries so that led the way for Columbus to find it for Europe
Rina: Now for some trivia
Tzeela: We will ask a question, count down from ten, and then we’ll tell you the correct answer
Dalia: Now let's see how well you know your American geography.
Rina: What is the Biggest city in South America?
10..9..8..7..6...5...4...3...2..1
Sao Paulo Brazil
Tzeela: What’s the smallest country in South America
10..9..8..7..6...5...4...3...2..1
Suriname
Dalia: What’s the biggest desert in North America?
10..9..8..7..6...5...4...3...2..1
The Great Basin Desert
Rina: What’s the highest mountain in South America?
10..9..8..7..6...5...4...3...2..1
Aconcagua
Tzeela: What’s the longest river in North America?
10..9..8..7..6...5...4...3...2..1
Mississippi
Rina: Thanks for listening!
Tzeela: We hope you enjoyed!
Dalia: We’ll upload another episode in a month you can subscribe to get a notification when that's out!
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